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NATO bombing of FRY was violation of international law

Belgrade/New York, 25 March 2024

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic said late today in New York that Serbia is disappointed because today the truth about the NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in 1999 was prevented from being heard in the United Nations Security Council.

Speaking at a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Dacic said that this topic is extremely important for the international legal order and that today, just as the bombing of Serbia was carried out as a precedent, a precedent took place at a procedural vote in the UN Security Council.

The First Deputy Prime Minister thanked Russia, the People's Republic of China and Algeria for supporting the initiative to discuss the NATO bombing of the FRY in the Security Council.

He also thanked the countries that did not vote to discuss the topic, saying that many countries abstained because they did not want to discuss a topic where there are clearly double standards.

Commenting on the fact that the NATO bombing was carried out for alleged humanitarian reasons, Dacic asked what humanitarian reasons were these, given that almost complete ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija was carried out.

Is there a need for humanitarian intervention against Pristina now when crimes are being committed against the Serbian people, when 14 percent of Serbs have been expelled in the last few months, when Pristina does not want to form the Community of Serb Municipalities, but is rather rewarded with membership in various international organisations, Dacic said.

The First Deputy Prime Minister said that NATO and its members did not have grounds based on international law for aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 25 years ago and added that it is cynical that today Serbia could not even speak about it in the Security Council.

He stated that the use of force in international relations is illegal and represents a violation of the fundamental principles and rules of international law.

That is what NATO members themselves said, qualifying that action as an illegal but legitimate use of force in order to stop the alleged humanitarian disaster, he pointed out.

Dacic added that it is cynical that today Serbia could not speak about it in the Security Council, and 25 years ago they did not even ask the Security Council if they should bomb Serbia.

The First Deputy Prime Minister noted that the arbitrary use of armed force is not allowed and is only possible under strictly defined conditions stipulated by the Charter of the UN.

NATO and its members had no grounds based on international law for aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Because all these years and decades an illegal struggle for the secession of Kosovo from Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been taking place, said the First Deputy Prime Minister.

He pointed out that everyone has witnessed that in the Security Council, everyone talks about territorial integrity, but nobody talks about the territorial integrity of Serbia.

For several centuries, there has been a struggle for the secession of Kosovo from Serbia and the destruction of our territorial integrity, he highlighted.