President addresses gathering on anniversary of NATO attacks

March 24 was day in 1999 when NATO started its bombing of Serbia, that lasted 78 days.

aAcco
"Serbia that was not killed, and never will be and that is their greatest curse, and our mission, and our future," Vucic said at the central state ceremony to mark the 19th anniversary of the NATO bombing.

Vucic said that no one would be able to attack Serbia again, as Serbia's economy and military were growing, and it was becoming strong enough to protect itself and its people.

Vucic also said that friendship was what Serbia wanted with the North Atlantic Alliance.

"Yes, we want to build a partnership with you, too, to become friends, even though we were enemies once, just do not make us forget and blame our country," Vucic said.

The president said that Kosovo was a pressing issue again, and that compromise was the only way to solve it. He also said that Serbia was looking to the future, and that anything else would push the country to a dead end, Beta said.

According to the Serbian government, Vucic said that the day marked 19 years since the most difficult time for our country, since the symbol of injustice was inflicted to a people that did not even think that something like that could happen.

They called the air-strike campaign "Merciful Angel", as if that could be defined as anything human. How is that crime called? What can we say today after they killed 2,500 of our people in exactly the same amount of attacks? One man per attack. What can I say here in Aleksinac which was bombed several times? Was someone promoted in military ranks for shedding our blood?" Vucic asked.

He pointed out that throughout Serbia, people with history, wishes, dreams and hopes were killed.

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