When people think of the Balkans, stability and harmonious ethnic relations aren’t the first things that come to mind. A typical example of this was the conflict between the Serbs of Yugoslavia and the ethnically Albanian population of Kosovo which ignited into war in the late 1990s. This war would be different though when NATO forces stepped in to wield its aerial superiority against the accused war crimes of Slobodan Milosevic’s Yugoslav regime.
Today on A Day in History, we’re going to look at the NATO bombings in Yugoslavia, how those bombs ended up falling on trains, apartments, and embassies, and the questions it raised about the moral position of NATO in a post-Cold War world.
But before we do that, be sure to leave a like if you enjoy and subscribe to our channel for more videos like this one.
Context
Yugoslavia was a post-WW2 Communist state in the Balkans. Its original incarnation broke up in 1992 leaving Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Vojvodina to form the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This new nation was dominated by Serbia and led by a Serbian Communist Slobodan Milosevic.
This being the Balkans, ethnic tensions were high. The previous century and a half had been filled with reciprocal violence and massacres between Serbs and Albanians that made victims and perpetrators out of both sides. Serbs considered Kosovo to be an ancestral piece of their homeland, while the Kosovar Albanians favored independence.
Milosevic’s government enacted discriminatory and repressive policies against Albanians in Kosovo hoping to undermine any independence movement and drive them out of the region. In response, a Kosovar separatist militia called the Kosovo Liberation Army emerged in the mid-90s and by 1998 was in open conflict with Yugoslav government forces. This fighting escalated to include massacres, mass deportations, and burning of entire villages by the Yugoslav government.
The rest of the world watched on in horror, especially NATO who were seeing an ethnic cleansing unfolding before their eyes on the very doorstep of some of its member states. Political and popular pressure for them to intervene was mounting. NATO spearheaded talks in late 1998 and early 1999 to try to get Milosevic to pull back, but Milosevic merely used the talks as a delaying tactic as his forces continued their brutal campaign.
By late March though, it was obvious that diplomacy had failed. On March 23rd, NATO forces in Europe were given the go ahead to begin military operations to stop Milosevic’s attacks and halt the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo.
Operation Allied Force Begins
Operation Allied Force was launched on March 24th using NATO forces based mostly out of Italy. A wave of cruise missiles opened the attack, targeting major airfields and knocking out the power grid for Kosovo’s capital of Pristina. Planes began their attacks the following day hitting a number of specific military targets across Serbia and Kosovo. Serbian defenses struggled to eliminate any NATO attackers while NATO aircraft successfully shot down several Serbian fighters who attempted to engage them.
NATO was confident in its own technological superiority. The Serbian air force and surface-to-air defenses were decades out of date and badly outnumbered – an estimated 238 Serbian combat aircraft were up against over 1,000 NATO aircraft involved over the operation, which included the formidable F-117 Nighthawk stealth bombers and the new B2 Spirit bombers which would see their first combat use in the skies over Serbia.
#nato #yugoslavia #history
Sources:
Alastair Finlan, The Collapse of Yugoslavia, (2004)
Benjamin S. Lambeth, NATO’s Air War for Kosovo: A Strategic and Operational Assessment, (2001)
Final Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee Established to Review the NATO Bombing Campaign Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, United Nations International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia, (2000)
Michael Parenti, To Kill A Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia, (2001)
Stephen Hosmer, The Conflict Over Kosovo: Why Milosevic Decided to Settle When He Did, (2001)
‘Convoys of Kosovo Albanians bomber; 85 dead’, CNN, 14th April 1999, http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9904/14/refugees.02/index.html#:~:text=CNN%20%2D%20Convoys%20of%20Kosovo%20Albanians,85%20dead%20%2D%20April%2014%2C%201999
Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved.
DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com
