BELGRADE, March 24 (Hina) - Serbia on Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the start of NATO's military intervention with wreath-laying ceremonies and memorial services.
BELGRADE, March 24 (Hina) - Serbia on Wednesday marked the fifth
anniversary of the start of NATO's military intervention with
wreath-laying ceremonies and memorial services.#L#
Between 1,200 and 2,500 people are estimated to have been killed
during the alliance's air campaign which lasted 78 days. The country's
infrastructure was badly damaged. The then regime of Slobodan
Milosevic claimed that the damage totalled some 100 billion dollars,
while economists of the G17 group put this figure at 29.6 billion.
The air strikes against targets in Yugoslavia began on 24 March 1999
on the orders of the then NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, and
ended on 10 June with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution
1244 on Kosovo. On 9 June, representatives of the Yugoslav Army and of
NATO met in the Macedonian town of Kumanovo and signed a
military-technical agreement under which the then Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic withdrew Yugoslav troops from Kosovo and NATO
deployed its units in the province.
(Hina) ms