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Novi Sad aerial bombardment by NATO

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Razed building of TVNS in Wikipedia:Mišeluk

During the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO, the second largest Yugoslav city of Novi Sad was one of the cities that bore the brunt of the bombing. According to NATO press releases, [1] the bombing targeted oil refineries, roads, bridges, and telecommunications relay stations, facilities which had military uses. The bombing of the city caused great damage to local civilians, including severe pollution and widespread ecological damage, consequences for the physical health of the people which will remain for years as well as permanent consequences for psychological health caused by almost 3 months of trauma and fear.

As in the 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars, Depleted uranium (DU) shells, rounds, and reputedly, bombs were used in Kosovo.[2][3][4][5] Dozens of Italian UN troops have died of exposure to uranium dust since the conflict. The Uranium-238 in DU, like all uranium, is soft but very dense, so shells made of it have high mass and therefore high penetration of heavy armor. DU becomes pyrophoric on impact.[6] When fired at high velocity, DU shells not only push through armor in the way of all projectiles, but also disintegrate into DU dust, which then also burns and explodes through the armor, creating radioactive, toxic DU uranium oxides dust and gases.[2][7]


Chronology of the bombing[edit]

  • March 24: NATO bombed a storehouse of the police center in the industrial zone, as well as the "Motins" factory.
  • April 1: The old Varadin Bridge on the Wikipedia:Danube was destroyed by NATO bombs.
  • April 3: Liberty Bridge on the Danube was destroyed by NATO bombs. Seven civilians were injured. After the bridge was destroyed, the institute for cardio-vascular diseases in Wikipedia:Sremska Kamenica lost its water supply.
  • April 7: NATO bombed the oil refinery as well as the residential civilian quarter Wikipedia:Vidovdansko Naselje where four civilians were injured and several houses damaged.
  • April 13: NATO bombed the oil refinery.
  • April 15: NATO bombed the oil refinery and the military object "Majevica" in Jugovićevo.
  • April 18: NATO bombed the oil refinery which triggered a large fire and much smoke, which caused serious ecological damage. The building of the Government of the Autonomous Province of Wikipedia:Vojvodina in the city centre was also hit by NATO bombs.
  • April 21: NATO bombed the oil refinery and Žeželj Bridge, as well as a bridge near Wikipedia:BeÅ¡ka.
  • April 22: NATO bombed Žeželj Bridge on the Danube.
  • April 23: NATO bombed a TV transmitter in wider area of Novi Sad.
  • April 26: NATO finally managed to destroy Žeželj Bridge, the last bridge on the Danube that the city had.
  • April 27: NATO bombed the oil refinery and FruÅ¡ka Gora.
  • April 29: NATO bombed the oil refinery and FruÅ¡ka Gora.
  • May 1: NATO bombed the oil refinery causing large amounts of smoke that covered the city for several days. FruÅ¡ka Gora was also bombed.
  • May 2: NATO bombed the northern suburbs of Novi Sad causing the city to lose its water supply and electricity.
  • May 3: NATO bombed the buildings of Novi Sad Television in Wikipedia:MiÅ¡eluk as well as the northern suburbs of the city.
  • May 6: NATO bombed the military object "Majevica" in Jugovićevo as well as the civilian residential quarter Wikipedia:Detelinara damaging residential buildings and the elementary school "Svetozar Marković Toza".
  • May 8: NATO bombed the military object "Majevica" in Jugovićevo and FruÅ¡ka Gora.
  • May 13: NATO bombed the buildings of Novi Sad Television in MiÅ¡eluk. Its buildings were heavily damaged as well as neighbouring civilian residential houses. FruÅ¡ka Gora was also bombed, as well as electric installations in Wikipedia:Rimski Å ančevi causing the city to lose electricity again.
  • May 15: NATO bombed Brankovac on FruÅ¡ka Gora.
  • May 18: NATO bombed FruÅ¡ka Gora.
  • May 20: NATO bombed FruÅ¡ka Gora.
  • May 22: NATO bombed FruÅ¡ka Gora including a TV tower on IriÅ¡ki Venac.
  • May 23: NATO bombed FruÅ¡ka Gora and electric installations in Rimski Å ančevi.
  • May 24: NATO bombed the oil refinery causing smoke that again covered part of the city. FruÅ¡ka Gora was also bombed.
  • May 26: NATO bombed buildings of the Novi Sad Television in MiÅ¡eluk, as well as Dunavski Kej (Danube Quay) near the city centre. Wikipedia:Paragovo, IriÅ¡ki Venac on FruÅ¡ka Gora and small barrack in Wikipedia:Bukovac were also bombed.
  • May 29: NATO bombed buildings of the Novi Sad Television as well as the civilian residential quarter Wikipedia:Ribnjak where two civilians were badly injured.
  • May 30: NATO bombed the civilian residential area in Wikipedia:Sremska Kamenica near an ambulance where one child was badly injured and two civilian houses were destroyed. The civilian residential area Ribnjak was also bombed as well as buildings of the Novi Sad Television, a tunnel near the previously destroyed Liberty Bridge, a road near the entrance to Sremska Kamenica, part of FruÅ¡ka Gora between Paragovo and Wikipedia:KruÅ¡edol, and the northern vicinity of Novi Sad.
  • May 31: NATO bombed electric installations in Rimski Å ančevi causing the city to lose its water supply and electricity. FruÅ¡ka Gora was also bombed.
  • June 2: NATO bombed FruÅ¡ka Gora.
  • June 8 and June 9: NATO bombed the oil refinery, one civilian was killed, while two civilians and one child were badly injured. The civilian residential quarter Wikipedia:Å angaj was also bombed where one civilian, Milan Bajić (42 years old), was killed and several more civilians were injured, while several civilian houses were destroyed. Although, this was the bloodiest day of the bombing, it was also the last.

Consequences[edit]

Impact on civilians[edit]

The civilians of Novi Sad were greatly affected by the bombing of their city. Residential areas were cluster bombed several times while the city's oil refinery was bombarded daily, causing severe pollution and widespread ecological damage.

Direct impact[edit]

The bombing caused civilian deaths and injuries. Those who were not directly physically harmed suffer from consequences for their physical health caused by ecological damage as well as permanent consequences for psychological health caused by almost 3 months of trauma and fear.

Due to the NATO attacks, many in Novi Sad were left jobless, comprising a percent of an estimated 500,000 people unemployed throughout Yugoslavia. [8] Citizens experienced daily hardships such as loss of electricity, food shortages, and trauma.

Notably, NATO failed to give "effective advance warning" of attacks which may affect civilians, as required by Protocol I.[9] One such attack was the bombing of the Ministry of Education in Novi Sad, premises which administered social welfare programmes.[8]

Impact on infrastructure[edit]

The NATO bombing left the city without all of its three Danube bridges, communications, water, and electricity, which severely impaired the day to day living of the residents of Novi Sad. All bridges were not rebuilt before 2005 and one of the rebuilt bridges is only a temporary solution. Some residential areas were damaged by cluster bombs.

Water supplies (including drinking water) for parts of the city were cut off as a result of the bombing. One attack cut off water supplies to 40,000 people in Petrovaradin, and severely disrupted water supplies to 300,000 people in Novi Sad.[8] Services were restored only after two years, partially due to funding from Britain, one of the countries which sent planes to bomb the city in 1999. [10]

Impact on environment[edit]

The bombing of Novi Sad had implications for the environment. A United Nations study (the BTF ‘Industrial Sites’ and ‘Danube’ missions) found that there were serious environmental issues, "requiring immediate action", some of which resulted from the bombing. [11] The bombing of Novi Sad's refinery caused fires which burned 50,000 tons of crude oil, sending toxins and Wikipedia:carcinogens into the air and contaminating groundwater. The BTF study was complicated by the heavy pollution that existed before the bombing, with the group noting that "the enforced shutdown of the refinery may even have led to local improvements in the aquatic environment, due to a possible reduction in chronic pollution".[11]

Once all the samples for Novi Sad (Danube Mission) were collated, "based on field observation and results from sample analysis, the BTF concluded that there was no evidence of significant adverse impacts on the Danube aquatic environment as a result of air strikes on Novi Sad refinery. It is thought that most of the oils and oil products released were burned and that no significant volume entered the river".[11]

The BTF study also found that prior to the air strikes, local technicians helped minimise the potential harmful effects of air strikes by "removing oil products that could be harmful to human health if spilt or burnt, such as transformer oil containing PCBs. Production was also accelerated to use up as much as possible of the crude oil, intermediate products and additives, and the final products were shipped to other locations. The remaining oil was mixed with gasoline, so that the tanks would ignite if hit, rather than leak into the soil and groundwater".[11]

Local scientists also studied the impact of the bombing. “NATO didn’t use chemical weapons during the bombing”, said Dr. Zorka Vukmirović, a leading environmental physicist, “But indirectly it caused the effects of chemical weapons use. If you release so many hazardous substances, major air pollutants and carcinogens in the vicinity of big cities like Belgrade and Niš, it is obviously a deliberate action against the civilian population”. [12]

Not until 2003, the Danube river was declared clear again. It took four years of work by the Wikipedia:Danube Commission to remove the debris of bombed bridges and ordnances. [13] The clearing of the debris was not only important for Novi Sad, but for European states (Hungary & Romania) who were economically impacted by the blockade of river traffic to the Black sea caused by the bombing.

The views of the respective parties[edit]

Main article: Legitimacy of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

Additional Wikipedia:Protocol I of the Geneva Convention of 1977 prohibits targeting of infrastructure such as electric plants; military operations should be "directed only against military objectives"[14] The targetting of Novi Sad bridges is viewed by analyst Wikipedia:Pavel Felgenhauer as a war crime.[15]

Novi Sad residents point out that during the time of the bombing, the city was ruled by the local Democratic Opposition, which was opposed to the regime in Wikipedia:Belgrade, yet Novi Sad was heavily targeted by NATO. The citizens of Novi Sad were not able to understand why they had to pay so large price for the events in Wikipedia:Kosovo, which were not caused by them.

A press release one year on from the bombing by then NATO Secretary General Robertson, claims that NATO encountered complications from Yugoslav military use of civilian buildings and human shields.

NATO deeply regrets any civilian casualties it caused, but these losses must be viewed in perspective against what NATO was seeking to prevent, and the actions of the Belgrade regime.[16]

NATO claims that the bombing of targets such as bridges was aimed at impairing the Yugoslav army's Wikipedia:command and control structure.[16] However, the efficacy of the campaign and choice of targets was brought into question by human rights groups, after bridges of no conceivable strategic relevance to the military situation in Kosovo were bombed, including a bridge which led to Hungary, a NATO country. It was argued by MAICL[17] that despite the NATO claims that their attacks were justified because military objects were present, "the civilian deaths caused are clearly disproportionate to the military benefits". [8]

References[edit]

  • Nezavisni, vojvoÄ‘anski graÄ‘anski list, jun/jul 1999.
  • UNEP Balkan Task Force Report "The Kosovo Conflict - Consequences for the environment & Human Settlements", pp 44-49 (pp46-51 in the pdf file).[11]
  • Movement for the Advancement of International Criminal Law
  • NATO Daily Press Briefings during Operation Allied Force, referencing Novi Sad

See also[edit]

This article contains content from Wikipedia. Current versions of the GNU FDL article 1999 NATO bombing of Novi Sad on WP may contain information useful to the improvement of this article WP

List of Military Interventions of the United States


External links[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ↑ #References: NATO.int
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Depleted Uranium Haunts Kosovo and Iraq globalresearch.ca Scott Peterson
  3. ↑ First progress report on the implementation of the poverty reduction strategy in Serbia International Monetary Fund] page 53
  4. ↑ To kill a nation: The attack on Yugoslavia Michael Parenti
  5. ↑ Serbia still scarred by NATO strikes, a decade on | ABS-CBN News Online Beta. Abs-cbnnews.com. 24th Mar 1999
  6. ↑ Depleted uranium: properties, uses, and health consequences Alexandra C. Miller, page 244
  7. ↑ War In Iraq And New World Order Ashok Kumar Jha
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Bombing of Yugoslavia 1999
  9. ↑ The Kosovo Conflict: Nato on trial Le Monde diplomatique
  10. ↑ Water restored to Novi Sad BBC News, 8 May, 2001
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 The Kosovo Conflict: Consequences for the environment and human settlements
  12. ↑ Depleted Uranium, Just The Tip of the Iceberg in Serbia Jeremy Scahill, Common Dreams, January 31, 2001
  13. ↑ Danube's war clean-up finishes BBC News
  14. ↑ Encyclopedia of war crimes and genocide, Leslie Alan Horvitz, Christopher Catherwood, page 392. Page 270 for the Kosovo war specifically
  15. ↑ Degraded capability: the media and the Kosovo crisis Phil Hammond, Edward S. Herman
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 The conduct of the air campaign NATO.int
  17. ↑ Movement for the Advancement of International Criminal Law
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