Ten years since Nato bombed RTS

In Serbian.
RTS 090422
- Nato bombing RTS 'war crime' - Amnesty International

Sećanje na stradale u NATO napadu na RTS
- http://snipurl.com/ghkrt
- http://youtube.com/watch?v=YQR7o-UiHD8

Radio Television Serbia (RTS) was the largest radio and TV company in the Balkans, with 7000 employees and state-of-the-art infrastructure which was made available to hundreds of foreign correspondents. It was well known that journalists and technical and support staff were always present inside, due to 24 hour broadcasting schedules.

In mid-April, Nato Air Commander David Wilby, announced that Nato was sick of the Serb propaganda televised to every household and warned that unless Serbian Television broadcast three hours of US programming in the daytime and another three hours in the evening, the TV station would be blown-up. Even pro-war TV reporters phrased the announcement as an outlandish question. The idea didnt go over. When Belgrade offered to accept the six hours in exchange for six minutes of Yugoslav news on Western networks, Nato backtracked, saying it had only meant it would bomb transmitters also used for military communications. Nato also explicitly assured the International Federation of Journalists it would not target media workers. Even so, against the wishes of other Nato leaders, General Wesley Clark gave orders to bomb.

In the early morning hours of April 23, as RTS was airing a taped American interview with President Milosevic and former Pentagon official turned KHOU-TV defense analysts, Ron Hatchett, there was a thunderous explosion as cruise missiles slammed into the building causing a mile-high cloud of dust. What had been the four story headquarters of Serbian TV was turned into a 15 foot pile of cement, plastic, iron, and the dead and wounded. Among the dead were two men hanging upside-down from the wreckage. A young woman technician was burned alive in the make-up room. A young man could only be extracted from the tons of wreckage by amputating both of his legs. Thirteen other technicians and secretaries working the night shift were killed in their studios and taping rooms, or died in the hospital. At dawn a group of several hundred Yugoslav citizens stood silently bearing witness in front of the smoldering wreckage, at a loss for words.

Six hours later US Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short, said RTS was a 'legitimate target' a 'propaganda machine' and 'causing untold suffering to the people of Kosovo'. In England Tony Blair said the attack was 'entirely justified', and went on to assert that television is part of the apparatus which keeps a political leader in power, so camera operators, make-up ladies and janitors are therefore legitimate targets.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ChoiceJJ
• Yugoslavia
• Nato
• RTS
• warcrimes
• regime-change
• jjvanka

[kenfo0]

@think I am.  Everything is fine. Go back to dining out 7 days a week, "raising" your children by pawning them off on daycare, buying them stuff and never teaching them right from wrong and that the world does not revolve around their whims. When your parents get old, do NOT take care of them. Pawn them off on daycare, then complain about the care when you visit for 1hr a week. Cheating on your wife/husband is not wrong...it's their fault. Vote for whomever of two I put in front of you.

[thinkladythink]

I live in USA I never heard of this until recently.. I can't unerstand video but " Thank you" for putting information in English writing. I see this as a Crime against innocent People.Why would Nato try to force their TV to air USA TV ? strange.our Tv is more enterainment than news. I saw other videos of other civilians dying during that attack.Us citizens & military have been dying labeled suicide since the mid 2000's.people loosing their homes & jobs also,Whos running the World?