Monument to the children killed during the NATO bombing in 1999 at Tasmajdan Park in Belgrade, Serbia


Milica Rakic (9 January 1996 - 17 April 1999) was a three-year-old Serbian girl who was killed by a cluster munition during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Rakic was one of 89 children killed during the NATO air campaign, according to Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic. Rakic's death was widely covered in the Serbian media. Her death was not reported by most major Western news outlets. The final NATO report on the bombing of Yugoslavia made no mention of Rakic's death, even under the category of "special incidents". Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigators visited the site of her death on 7 August 1999, inspected the damage and interviewed eyewitnesses. According to HRW, a cluster munition exploded next to the apartment in which Rakic was living. The incident marked the first NATO use of cluster munitions in Serbia-proper; all prior instances of their use by NATO had been recorded in Kosovo. The Yugoslav Ministry of Health provided HRW with photographic documentation of the incident, which was also included in the White Book of NATO Crimes in Yugoslavia, published by the Government of Yugoslavia.


Size: 5760px × 3840px
Location: Tasmajdan Park, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, Europe
Photo credit: © DE ROCKER / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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