- BELGRADE - Further to our initial report about NATO's bombing of the Serb
TV headquarters early this morning Belgrade time (see Day 30, Update 1,
Item 3, Apr. 22), we received the following dramatic eyewitness account
from a TiM source in Belgrade:
-
- "I live 100 meters (about 110 yards)
away from the Serb TV headquarters. At 2:06AM, we were sitting in our room,
talking. Then we heard awful sounds of a plane. It was so loud that we
all hid under the bed, thinking that it'll hit our building and kill us
all.
-
- Then we heard strong detonations. Our
windows started rattling. The lights went out. We heard several more explosions.
My neighbor, who is only 10 years old, fell down the stairs while trying
to reach the shelter.
-
- We were all panic-stricken because we
heard strong detonations, and we thought that our building will fall apart.
After that, we heard that the Serb TV was hit. After some time, we went
there to see what happened. I can actually can see the park (in front
of the Serb TV building) from my window, but the building itself is behind
some trees.
-
- We saw smoke, fire... then we reached
the building. Firemen, police, civil defense people... were all already
there trying to help the survivors.
-
- We saw a woman shouting from the ruins:
"Please, I am here, help me!!" Some men tried her to get her
out. She was walking around like a lunatic, shouting: "Where is Jelena?
Jelena, she is still in the building!!"
-
- Then we saw somebody falling from the
second floor. We saw a man who was hanging upside down from the first,
or second floor, I dunno. His head was all covered in blood. His legs were
literary crushed by the concrete block. Everybody tried to help him. He
is (or was) around 20-25 years old.
-
- People were running around dripping with
blood. Fire and smoke all over the place. Blood could be seen everywhere.
A real massacre.
-
- Then a friend of mine shouted "This
man is dead!!" I didn't turn my head to see him because I thought
I was about to faint. My friends went a bit further, and saw the corps
lying without a head. We also saw a pair of (woman's) legs lying crushed
by another concrete block. I think that she was already dead, even though
people tried to pull her out.
-
- It was terrible. I don't know if I described
it well enough. I am still shaking and I'm unable to think. People were
lying wounded all over the place. I can still smell the mixture of blood
and smoke.
-
- I hope you understand. All (Serb TV)
buildings around were destroyed. I won't have any further comments on this.
I'll need some more time to recover. That's all for now.
-
- I also heard a reporter who was in the
building saying: "The plane went really low, and then made a strike
right at the entrance of the building."
-
- This was not a crime against media, nor
anything else NATO was claming to save or prevent. This is a direct crime
against humanity, and people world-over should know that. Thanks, Bob."
-
- Marija Mitrovic, downtown Belgrade ______
-
- TiM Ed.: It tragically fitting that NATO,
formed as a defensive organization 50 years ago to the day, should mark
its anniversary with an attack on freedom of speech as well as innocent
civilians in Belgrade. Now that all masks of civility have fallen, everybody
can see the new NATO for what it is - a mass murdering New World Order
juggernaut, or a North Atlantic Terrorist Organization, as some Belgrade
protest posters have depicted it.
-
- _____________
-
- 2. Journalists Group Protests Bombing
of Serb TV
-
- BRUSSELS, Apr. 23 - The International
Federation of Journalists, a group of journalism unions which represents
about 450,000 journalists around the world, expressed deep concern today
over NATO's attack against Serbia's state television center in Belgrade,
saying the alliance had violated its pledge to hit military targets only,
the Associated Press reported today.
-
- "This bomb attack seems to make
a very clear statement that civilian and particularly media targets are
legitimate," IFJ General-Secretary, Aidan White, told a news conference.
He said the attack meant that Serbian journalists who are working for a
free media are now more than ever in danger of being persecuted."
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