The commemoration of the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) workers who died in the NATO bombing of the RTS building in Aberdareva Street in Belgrade on April 23, 1999, was held this morning at 2.06:XNUMX a.m. next to the "Why" monument in Tašmajdan Park.
Family members, management and colleagues from RTS and representatives of journalist associations gave letters to the victims, it was announced on the website of the public service.
In commemoration of the martyred workers of RTS, a parachute jump was performed with a flag bearing the figures of those killed.
The RTS building was bombed during the news broadcast at 2.06:XNUMX a.m., and for the first time a media house that was previously declared a legitimate military target was hit.
On behalf of the families of the 16 victims, Miroslav Medić, the brother of the victim Siniša Medić, addressed those gathered at the "Why" monument and said that the pain is no less after all these years.
"We have gathered here again in front of the 'Why' monument to ask the same question that has not been answered for 24 years - the question of why. Why did someone decide to kill innocent people for no reason, people who were just doing their daily work, who did not didn't endanger anyone, who had nothing to do with the editorial policy of RTS at the time," said Medić.
He added that NATO planes "without any clear warning, without any remorse, fired rockets at the RTS building from a safe distance, even though they knew very well that there were between 150 and 160 people there every night".
He pointed out that international journalistic organizations and agencies declared after the bombing that RTS "could not have been a legitimate military target and that it was a classic war crime".
"Despite all that, the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg declared itself incompetent in this case. This remains a crime without punishment," Medić pointed out.
He asked the authorities to turn the RTS building into a memorial center and added that the conceptual solution has existed for a long time.
"Let's do something for everyone who died in the bombing in 1999," said Medić.
Dragoljub Milanović, who was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2002 for disobeying the order of the Federal Government, according to which employees and equipment were to be moved from the building in Aberdareva Street, was responsible for the death of RTS workers.
The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS), the Professional Union of Radio and Television of Serbia and the Union of Journalists of Serbia (SINOS), on the eve of marking 24 years since the murder of 16 media workers in the NATO bombing of RTS, assessed that this military organization committed a war crime and introduced the practice attacks on the media in international conflicts, and despite this, no one from the NATO structures responded.
The following people lost their lives: Jelica Munitlak, Ksenija Banković, Darko Stoimenovski, Nebojša Stojanović, Dragorad Dragojević, Dragan Tasić, Aleksandar Deletić, Slaviša Stevanović, Siniša Medić, Ivan Stukalo, Dejan Marković, Milan Joksimovi, Branislav Jovanović, Slobodan Jontić, Milovan Janković and Tomislav Mitrovic.
Bonus video:
