On 24 March 1999, NATO planes took off on a bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. For 78 days, bombs and missiles rained from the skies all over the territory of this sovereign state. The intervention had not been approved by the U.N.’s Security Council , and was illegal under international law.

The Alliance claimed to target military installations, but buses, homes and healthcare facilities were also hit. The civilian victims of this war were called ‘collateral damage’, that is, regrettable mistakes but ‘no more than that’, in the words of NATO spokesman, Jamie Shea.

NATO’s official war aim was the withdrawal of Serb troops from the Serbian Republic region of Kosovo, in order to end the violence between the ethnic Serb and Albanian populations. It achieved its goal, but at the price of changing the ethnic composition of the territory.

For those who lived through the bombings, memories are still raw, and nothing has been resolved.

This is a short version of our ‘ЗАШТО? (WHY?) Revisiting NATO atrocities in Yugoslavia after 15 yrs’ film. Watch the full documentary here - https://youtu.be/w_f4uLTKalE.

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