Djurdjevic Stamenkovski lays wreath at memorial to children killed in NATO aggression

BELGRADE - On behalf of the Government of Serbia, Minister of Labour, Employment and Veteran and Social Affairs Milica Djurdjevic Stamenkovski on Tuesday laid a wreath at a Belgrade memorial to children killed in the 1999 NATO aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which Serbia was a part of at the time.

"In a time of global turmoil, Serbia is the one that has been calling for peace the most, because it knows the price of losing it," Djurdjevic Stamankovski said.

The state ceremony in the Tasmajdan Park in central Belgrade was also attended city officials, foreign diplomats, veteran associations and parents of the killed children.

"Serbia will never forget any of the victims of the 1999 criminal aggression on our country," she said.

In 1999, Serbia was attacked by the biggest force known to the world at the time, Djurdjevic Stamankovski said.

"In a joint enterprise they referred to as 'Noble Anvil', they were destroying our hospitals, our maternity hospitals, our bridges, our buildings, homes, streets and railway lines. They tried to erase our right to biological survival and, above all, our right to dignity, integrity, the identity of a nation," the minister said.

She said the ultimatum issued to the FRY in 1999 had been blackmail no sovereign and independent state would accept.

"It was worded so that no nation can accept it, as its authors themselves admitted later," she added.

"The 21st century should be a century in which the lives of all our children and our families, as well as our youth and our future, will be safeguarded," Djurdjevic Stamankovski said.