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Disinfo: Bombings of Yugoslavia killed between 1200 and 2500 civilians

Summary

The bombing of Yugoslavia was NATO’s first combat mission without the approval of the UN Security Council. According to various estimates, between 1200 and 2500 people were killed, including 89 children. 12,500 civilians were injured. 148 houses and 62 bridges were destroyed. About 300 schools, hospitals and state institutions, as well as 176 cultural monuments, were damaged.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the number of civilian casualties of NATO bombing, debunked by Polygraph, and war in former Yugoslavia, aiming to portray NATO's bombing in Yugoslavia as more devastating and to demonise NATO's actions during the Yugoslav war.

The Sputnik article presents no source of the quoted number of killed civilians. According to the Humanitarian Law Center, in Serbia (excluding Kosovo) and Montenegro, 275 persons lost their lives in the NATO bombings: 180 civilians, 90 members of the Yugoslav Armed Forces and five members of the Ministry of Interior of Serbia. In Kosovo, 484 people were killed: 267 civilians (209 Albanian and 58 non-Albanian), 171 members of the YA, 20 members of the Serbian MUP and 26 members of the KLA (19 of whom died in the NATO bombing of the Dubrava prison, near Istok).

Human Rights Watch concludes that as few as 489 and as many as 528 Yugoslav civilians were killed in the ninety separate incidents in Operation Allied Force.

The primary purpose of the campaign was to end violence and repression and force Milošević to withdraw his military, police and para-military forces from Kosovo (see NATO statement from 1999).

Read similar disinformation about the war in former Yugoslavia alleging that around 2500 people were killed in NATO’s bombing campaign and the returning claim that around 2,000 people were killed in NATO’s bombings in [former] Yugoslavia.

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publication/media

Sputnik Germany (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 174
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 31/10/2019
  • Language/target audience: German
  • Country: Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Serbia
  • Keywords: Western Balkans, War crimes, International Law, NATO

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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