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Amnesty urges NATO to probe deadly Serb TV bombing
Belgrade (AFP) April 23, 2009 NATO on Thursday rejected a call by human rights watchdog Amnesty International for a war crimes probe into its 1999 airstrike on a Serbian television building. Amnesty International called on NATO to launch a war crimes investigation into the attacks, in which 16 media workers were killed, to ensure full accountability and redress for victims and their families. But NATO rejected the call, saying the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had already investigated the matter. Amnesty's statement said: "Ten years on, no-one has been held to account for the NATO attack on the Serbian state radio and television building that left 16 civilians dead." The victims, mostly technicians, were killed early on April 23, 1999 when the building of the broadcaster RTS in downtown Belgrade was hit during NATO's 11-week bombing campaign on Serbian forces over a violent crackdown in Kosovo. NATO had deemed RTS a legitimate target because of its "propaganda function" but gave "no specific warning of this particular attack" despite knowing civilians were inside, Amnesty said citing NATO officials from the time. "The bombing of the headquarters of Serbian state radio and television was a deliberate attack on a civilian object and as such constitutes a war crime," the statement quoted Amnesty's Sian Jones as saying. "Ten years on, no public investigation has ever been conducted by NATO or its member states into these incidents," said Jones. Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) said it would "welcome a full and transparent investigation by NATO." SEEMO "urges NATO to admit it was mistaken to target a media outlet, in order to ensure that justice is administered and to finally bring some peace to the families and colleagues of the victims," it said in a statement. But in Brussels, a NATO spokeswoman said: "The International Tribunal for former Yugoslavia has looked into this. "The ICTY did not accept Amnesty's argument, and said that NATO has no case to answer," she added. "The incident had been investigated thoroughly," she said. The ICTY prosecutor had found that while NATO had made some mistakes, the investigator was "satisfied that there was not deliberate targeting of civilians or unlawful military targets" during the 11-week campaign, she added. At 2:06 am (0006 GMT) on Thursday, family and colleagues of those killed in the bombing laid flowers and lit candles in a sombre ceremony marking the exact moment the missile hit the RTS building, which still stands in ruins. In 2002, a Serbian court sentenced former RTS general manager Dragoljub Milanovic to 10 years in prison for failing to protect the lives of the 16 victims. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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