<nettime> Friday Bloody Friday

[Slobodan Markovic <twiddle@EUnet.yu>]

    "I can't believe the news today
     I can't close my eyes and make it go away"

                         -- U2, Sunday Bloody Sunday


    The city of Nish (south-eastern from Belgrade) was attacked Friday
    morning. NATO officials said that they targeted a military airstrip,
    but hit civilian targets by mistake. A BLOODY LIE! The very center of
    Nish, which is situated AT LEAST 7 kms from the airport, was bombed in
    the middle of the day, using cluster bombs.

    Bombs hit only civilian targets - city market and hospital. At least
    20 people were killed on the spot, more than 50 injured. Hospital
    building is ruined, medics are injured, many unexploded cluster bombs
    are still scattered across the city... I spoke to my good friend from
    Nish some 40 minutes after the strike and he was so shocked he could
    not speak more than 5 minutes... He said that bombs were falling some
    200 meters from his house... "I don't know what to say - it was simply
    terrible! I don't have words to explain that. I never thought I will
    experience such a massacre in my city", he said.

    ...And NATO spokesman, Jamie Shea, said that "one bomb went astray".

    So, Nish aftermath goes like this: 20 dead for now, more than 50
    wounded, more than 20 cars burned, more than 300 apartments destroyed,
    hospital and city market badly damaged, many unexploded bombs still
    scattered across the city...

    Want some pictures from Nish?
    http://www.alert.org.yu/mirrors/beograd.com/damage/nis7Maj/index.html

    After the massacre in Nish, NATO turned to Belgrade. Around 22 hrs the
    attack started. First target was the building of Chinese embassy. It
    suffered two direct hits. More than 30 Chinese citizens were in the
    building at the moment of explosion. Rescue teams are still searching
    the ruins and so far, it is confirmed that one Chinese citizen was
    killed in that attack and 26 are wounded. Half hour later, Russian
    embassy was evacuated...

    After the strike on the embassy, NATO hit another pure civilian target,
    Hotel "Yugoslavia". Left part of the hotel is totally devastated. Hotel
    kitchen is destroyed and right part of the hotel (with guest rooms)
    suffered minor damage. According to first reports, in that attack
    nobody was hurt.

    There are no military targets in a circle of at least 5 kms around
    the buildings of Chinese embassy and Hotel "Yugoslavia". I heard
    that a reporter of MSNBC said that Chinese embassy is situated near
    the "legitimate military targets in the center of Belgrade" (and he
    showed that on a city map). He obviously doesn't know that Chinese
    embassy was moved from the Belgrade's center some 8 years ago, to a
    new location, at least 6 kms far away...

    The only military target hit in Belgrade last night was Army HQ. It
    was the same building already hit last week. It is obvious that the
    building was completely empty and out of order...

    I just wonder how will NATO explain this barbaric acts of bombing
    civilian targets in Belgrade? It was surely not a mistake, since the
    hits on embassy and hotel were precise and done with at least two
    rockets...

    As NATO officials would put it - it is most probable that: "he dropped
    the bombs in good faith, like you would expect from a trained pilot of
    a democratic country".

    Greetings,

            Slobodan Markovic   | http://solair.eunet.yu/~twiddle
            Internodium Project | http://www.internodium.org.yu


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