Child victims of the bombing — innocence killed from the sky

In the cold statistics of war, children are merely a number. But every child killed in the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 had a name, had a face, had parents who loved it, had a future that was taken away. At least 89 children were killed during the 78 days of aggression — 89 lives cut short before they had truly begun.

Milica Rakić — a name Serbia will never forget

Milica Rakić was three years old when she was killed on 17 April 1999 in the family home in Batajnica, a suburb of Belgrade. A NATO bomb hit the residential neighborhood in which the Rakić family lived. Milica was sitting on her potty in the bathroom — her parents had put her there because they thought it was the safest place in the house.

She was killed by shrapnel that pierced the wall of the house. She was three years old, had blue eyes and a smile that could melt even the coldest heart. Her photograph — a little girl with braids and a teddy bear — became a symbol of the suffering of Serbian children in the NATO aggression.

Milica Rakić was not a military target. She was not „collateral damage.“ She was a three-year-old child who was sitting on her potty while bombs were falling on her home.

The children of Murgeš

On 14 April 1999, a NATO aircraft bombed the village of Merdare in Kosovo. Among the victims were children from the Milić family. This tragedy, like many others, remained less known than the case of Milica Rakić, but it is equally terrible. The children were playing in the yard when the bombs began to fall.

Children from the refugee column

Especially tragic was the incident of 14 April 1999, when NATO bombed a column of Albanian refugees between Đakovica and Prizren in Kosovo. Among the dozens of killed civilians were also children — refugees who were fleeing the war and, instead of safety, found death from the same aircraft that were supposedly flying to protect them.

Children from Surdulica

In the village of Surdulica near Vranje, NATO hit residential buildings on 27 May 1999. Among the victims were entire families, including children. In total about 20 civilians were killed in this attack — women, elderly people, children who were hiding in their homes thinking they were safe.

Children from Aleksinac

In Aleksinac, a small town in central Serbia, NATO bombs fell on a civilian neighborhood on 5 April 1999. Among the victims were also children from the neighborhood who were playing outside. Aleksinac was far from any military target — a clean, peaceful little town that was bombed „by mistake,“ as NATO explained.

Numbers that hide faces

According to data collected from Serbian authorities, health institutions and non-governmental organizations, at least 89 children were killed during the NATO bombing. Several hundred were wounded. Many children who survived bear permanent physical consequences — amputated limbs, scars, hearing and sight damaged by the explosions.

But the physical wounds are only part of the story. The generation of children who survived the bombing carries psychological traumas — fear of the sound of aircraft, nightmares, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder. Children who spent 78 nights in shelters, listening to explosions and the crying of their parents, never fully recovered.

Children's rights in war

The Convention on the Rights of the Child of the United Nations, which has been ratified by almost all the states of the world (including all NATO members), clearly states that children in armed conflicts have special protection. Article 38 requires states to „take all feasible measures to ensure the protection and care of children affected by an armed conflict.“

The NATO members signed this convention. And then they bombed the houses in which children slept, the schools in which they studied, the hospitals in which they were treated. In words they protected children — with bombs they killed them.

Names, not numbers

Each of the 89 killed children had a name:

• Milica Rakić, 3 years old, Batajnica
• Bojana Tošović, 11 years old, Murgeš
• Marija Simeunović, 2 years old, Niš
• Dušan Milenković, 15 years old, Aleksinac

And 85 more names, 85 faces, 85 lives cut short. Each of them deserves to be remembered. Not as a statistic, not as „collateral damage,“ not as an „error in targeting“ — but as a child. As someone's child.

The question that remains

More than a quarter of a century after the bombing, no one has been criminally held accountable for the death of 89 children. Not a single NATO general, not a single politician, not a single pilot stood before a court to answer for the death of Milica Rakić and her peers. The Hague Tribunal, so zealous when it came to putting Serbs on trial, did not find it appropriate to examine responsibility for the death of children in the NATO bombing.

But justice is not only a legal concept. Justice is also memory. And as long as the names of the killed children are remembered, as long as their photographs stand in homes, as long as their stories are told — justice, in a way, lives on. It is not enough. It will never be enough. But it is the only thing we have.

Eighty-nine children. Eighty-nine lives cut short. Eighty-nine questions to which we will never receive an answer — what would Milica Rakić have become had she been destined to grow up? Lest we forget.