21.05.2019.
Red Star footballers visit ‘Defence 78’ exhibition
Football players and professional staff of Red Star club have visited today the exhibition of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces ‘Defence 78’ organised at the Museum of the City of Belgrade to mark the 20th anniversary of defence of the fatherland against the NATO aggression.
At the time when the people and infrastructure of the FR of Yugoslavia perished in the NATO bombing in 1999, most of the current Red Star football players were children, only several years old. Nevertheless, sounds of sirens announcing an air threat, going to shelters and destroying cities from which they originate, remained forever carved into their memory.
Nemanja Milunović, a Red Star football player, was under the age of 10, but he remembers the bombing of his home town of Čačak.- I remember the sound of sirens, running into the cellar with parents, friends and neighbours. I was born in Čačak and I lived near the ‘Sloboda’ factory. They bombarded all the factories, especially the military facilities, my neighbourhood, so that we were well aware of the bombing, Milunović recalls.
For him, the most memorable room at the exhibition is devoted to children victims and “the tree of life and death” with photographs of the perished kids, who had nothing to be blamed for and whose life has just began.
All the time during the NATO aggression, the assistant head of the professional staff of Red Star, Vladimir Janković, shared the fate of the inhabitants of Belgrade and all of Serbia. At a distance of 20 years, NATO assesses aggression as a major injustice.
- I regard this as one of the great injustices and the legacies of unfortunate circumstances, which are being followed by our people through a large number of wars. I think that as a nation, as a result of such a number of wars in short time intervals, we practically become accustomed to this, have created some of our mentality from all that, from the injustice that has been inflicted on us for centuries - Janković said.The exhibition ‘Defence 78’ is interactive with original exhibits, sounds, light and installation in the service of the setting, very vividly recalls the memory of those who survived the NATO aggression. The exception is not even Vladimir Janković.
- As you pass through all the rooms, you can feel with great attention the spirit of that time and the tragedy through which passed all those who lived here at that time - Janković said, pointing out that the strongest impression on him was left by the text of the transcript of the conversation between the former presidents of Russia and the USA, Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton, respectively, from which it can be seen that at that time, as he says: “as a nation we were left on a windward side”.
The multimedia and interactive exhibition ‘Defence 78’ by Dušan Jovović, demonstrates in a unique way the heroic defence of the country during the 78 days of NATO aggression and is dedicated to the perished military and police personnel and civilians, including many children.
The exhibition is divided into eight units, and the presented exhibits, including parts of the downed US stealth F-117A and F-16 aircraft, personal items and photographs of soldiers and policemen who fought for freedom of their homeland are original.
The visitors can see the exhibition “Defence 78” at the Museum of the City of Belgrade every day, except Monday, from 10 am to 7 pm.
