Serbia sues NATO for war crimes and radioactive bombing of civilians.

Original news article (in spanish): https://mpr21.info/serbia-demanda-a-la-otan-por-crimenes-de-guerra-y-bombardeos-radiactivos-contra-la-poblacion-civil/

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR, on the way to Russia, NATO planted itself in Kosovo. The bombing of Yugoslavia, officially called “Angel of Mercy,” was anything but merciful. NATO military operations against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo war began on March 24, 1999 and ended on June 10, 1999.

NATO pilots flew 38,000 sorties, including 10,000 air strikes, during an operation that lasted 78 days. They fired some 3,000 cruise missiles and dropped 80,000 tons of various bombs, including cluster munitions and radioactive uranium missiles. Petrochemical plants and refineries were bombed, contaminating the country’s rivers and soils with toxic chemicals.

Serbia estimates that the attacks killed between 3,500 and 4,000 people and injured some 10,000, two-thirds of whom were civilians. The exact number of dead and wounded is not known, and the damage caused to Serbia is estimated at $100 billion. NATO aircraft dropped between 10 and 15 tons of radioactive uranium on Serbian territory. As a result, there have been almost 5,500 cases of cancer per million inhabitants.

Serbia is now the leading country in Europe in terms of cancer deaths. The long-term toxic effects are manifesting themselves in the form of a veritable cancer epidemic, the proportions of which are steadily increasing. In Serbia, the reality in terms of cancer pathologies is terrible. Some 33,000 people have fallen ill, but every day a new child falls ill with cancer. Southern Serbia and Kosovo are particularly affected and the population continues to suffer from the consequences of the use of uranium ammunition.

An international team of lawyers has filed a lawsuit against NATO on behalf of the victims of the 1999 bombings. After gathering sufficient evidence, a first action was filed in Belgrade on January 20, 2021, to be followed by others at the end of the month. Further trials will follow in courts in Vranje, Nis, Kragujevac and Novi Sad.

The trial will take place 22 years after the fact, but there is no statute of limitations on war crimes, so it is never too late to prosecute those responsible for a catastrophe that has led to an epidemic of malignant diseases and deformities.

This is the first time that NATO is being sued in Serbia on behalf of civilian victims, individuals, soldiers, policemen and regular army reservists who died and became ill in 1999 in Kosovo, Metohija or southern Serbia. The lawsuit previously filed by the Serbian state was suspended due to the change of government.

The lawsuit will prove that the cases of illness and death affecting the population in Kosovo and Metohija are a consequence of the use of radioactive weapons and are in fact identical to those observed in Italian soldiers, who won their own lawsuit. Compensation of at least 100,000 euros is envisaged for each claim of the Serbian victims. The amount of compensation awarded to Italian soldiers was several times higher.

The Italian lawyer Angelo Fiore Tartaglia demonstrated before the Italian courts the causal link between the presence of depleted uranium and the pathologies developed by the soldiers present in Kosovo within the framework of the imperialist aggression. On this basis he obtained compensation. Tartaglia has 181 judicial decisions that have already entered into force in Europe. More than 3,000 pages of documents, including judgments, expert opinions and documents of a special commission of the Italian government, have been submitted to the Supreme Court in Belgrade. Sufficient evidence has been gathered to secure a decision by the Serbian courts in favor of the victims.

After receiving the lawsuit on January 20 this year, the Belgrade Supreme Court is expected to send a formal notification through diplomatic channels to NATO Headquarters in Brussels within six months, to which NATO has 30 days to respond. However, the NATO Secretary General has already responded by saying, “Science is on our side.”

Damn that “science” which always sides with murderers and criminals!

• Translated News Articles