Amnesty: NATO bombing of Serbian TV 'war crime'
Amnesty International demanded Thursday that NATO be held accountable for civilian casualties in the bombing of Serbia's state television headquarters in 1999, calling the attack a "war crime."
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, April 24, 2009
Sixteen civilians were killed and 16 others injured during the attack on April 23, 1999, on the headquarters and studios of Radio Television Serbia in central Belgrade.
The bombing was part of the 1999 NATO bombing aimed at helping the Kosovo Albanian separatists fight Belgrade troops in Kosovo.
Amnesty International called on NATO and its member states to ensure independent investigations, full accountability and redress for victims and their families.
At the time of the bombing, NATO officials said the TV headquarters was a legitimate target, calling it a "propaganda tool".
"The bombing of the headquarters of Serbian state radio and television was a deliberate attack on a civilian object and as such constitutes a war crime," Sian Jones, Amnesty International's Balkans expert, said in a statement.
"Even if NATO genuinely believed RTS was a legitimate target, the attack was disproportionate and hence a war crime," Jones said.
Amnesty International said in the statement that NATO officials confirmed that no specific warning of the attack was given, even though they knew many civilians would be in the RTS building.
