24.03.2016.

Central state ceremony to mark the Remembrance Day in Varvarin

Central state ceremony on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the NATO aggression against Serbia was held today in Varvarin. The highest state delegation of the Republic of Serbia was led by the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and the Speaker of the National Assembly Maja Gojkovic. The commemoration was attended by delegates of the Serbian President, President of the Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik, government ministers, representatives of the Ministry of Defence, the Serbian Armed Forces.

Commemorative ceremony began at noon at the monument to the victims of NATO aggression, and the national commemorative ceremony in Varvarin was announced by the air-raid sirens and church bells.

Wreaths at the memorial in Varvarin were laid by Aleksandar Vucic, Milorad Dodik, and family members of the victims of aggression.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic recalled that the first bombs fell on the Republic of Serbia on 24 March and that in the next 78 days the bombs continued to fall, killing the population.

- The night on 24 March will be engraved in the Serbian history forever as one of the most difficult nights for our people, which continued for the next 78 days and nights. Today, 17 years later, standing up and proud, sadly and quietly, but clearly, we can say to all: you were killing us, you were killing our children, but you did not kill Serbia because nobody can kill Serbia – the Prime Minister emphasized.

Vucic said that the aggression against a small and helpless country was senseless and needless, as one of those campaigns that

demolish everything, never solving anything.

-For the blood they will have to say that it was blood, not a coincidence and collateral damage. And that those were children, not the fight for democracy and freedom. God might forgive them. We did, but we have not forgotten, the Prime Minister said and pointed out that it is our responsibility to remember it well and never to repeat every mistake we made in the past, every war we had, being convinced that it is the only thing we know how to do.

- Each collateral of ours produced by pipe dreams, every death we celebrated believing that it is the one that liberates us. This is our warning, said Vucic.

- And despite what happened 17 years ago, we will stand shoulder to shoulder with our partners when they are under attack of a group of hatred and terror and none of us can better understand them, because it is in the interest of Serbia, the interest of our people, the interest of the future. We will save old friends and make new, even those with whom we have clashed in the past, because that is what big nations do. And the Serbian nation is a great nation that respects its past and that can look to the future, Prime Minister Vucic said.

NATO air forces bombed the bridge on the Velika Morava River in Varvarin, on Sunday, 30 May 1999, with four missiles. The bridge was full of people as it was a market day and the holiday of Holy Trinity. The attack killed 10 civilians, and 14 were seriously injured.