From Voice of Russia
West countries had their interests in bombing Yugoslavia – expert
April 16, 2014
by
Photo: RIA Novosti
On April 16, 1944, British and US allied forces carried out air attacks in the capital of Yugoslavia, Belgrade. That day the country was celebrating the Orthodox Easter. The bombing was carried out by 600 aircraft and lasted for three days. More than 1,000 civilians died as a result of the attack. One of the unexploded bombs was said to have the inscription, “Happy Easter”. The Voice of Russia talked to Boris Malagursky, a Serbian-Canadian film director, producer and screenwriter.
The situation was repeated on Easter in 1999 when US-led NATO forces carried out another bombing on several civilian targets. NATO ignored the Pope’s request to not bomb Belgrade during this holy day.
How did the allied US and UK forces explain their bombing of Belgrade in 1944?
It is an interesting fact, you talked about how many times Belgrade was bombed, and interesting fact is that Belgrade was destroyed over 40 times in the history, and whatever the Nazis bombed in 1940s, there was Yugoslavia ally in 1944 because they were fighting Germans that had occupied Belgrade and Yugoslavia. And it is interesting that in 1941 it was April 6th when Nazis bombed Belgrade and then again in 1944 it was bombed by the west who wanted to liberate it. It ended up destroying most of the city.
Why, do you think, the international community turned a blind eye on the death of 1,160 civilians as a result of those attacks?
It is really interesting that you mentioned Easter holiday. There is one photo of a bomb that didn’t explode that was dropped by NATO that had a writing “Happy Easter”. First you have to define what the international community is. You look at the western world and you think of them as an international community, and whatever they think is right, they basically propagate it to international community. In a sense not everybody agrees with NATO bombing. Western countries think this is a price for future intervention.
Now it is interesting that suddenly when a part of Ukraine declared independence and decided to join Russia, in case of Crimea, suddenly the so-called international community is in shock, how can somebody do that. Other countries started talking about international law, and I thought to myself where those talks about international law were before. It is no wonder that they turned the blind eye. They had their interests in bombing Yugoslavia. In case of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine they are not very happy about what is going on. So, they talk about international law. It is a game of double standards that has been going on for a while now.
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