Ambassadors of Quint, Norway on 25th Anniversary of NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia

COMMEMORATION OF VICTIMS OF NATO BOMBING

In a statement released on March 23 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, six Western states said that they “remember today and mourn the loss of innocent lives” but they also “think about their shared future with Serbia and Kosovo in the European family of nations.”

“We support the search for a settlement to the dispute between Kosovo and Serbia, which is an urgent European security issue, and we are convinced that the full implementation of the Ohrid agreement concluded under the auspices of the EU is the best way forward toward peace and stability for the benefit of the peoples living in Serbia and in Kosovo,” the ambassadors of France, Italy, Germany, Norway, the United States and the Great Britain said in the joint statement.

“The Army of Serbia continues to cooperate ever more closely with NATO and with European partners through participation in the Common Security and Defence Policy’s missions. It is through partnership that we can build a peaceful and stable future together that our peoples deserve,” the diplomats said.

The ambassadors of the Quint and Norway recalled in the document that March 24, 1999 was “the start of a military campaign no one wanted,” adding that “Operation Allied Force was designed to force Slobodan Milosevic, then President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to stop the abuses against the civilian population in Kosovo, to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and to allow the return of refugees and displaced persons and for humanitarian organizations to gain access Kosovo.”