YUGOSLAVIA: BELGRADE'S AVIATION MUSEUM DISPLAYS PARTS OF SHOT DOWN U.S. PLANES ONE YEAR AFTER NATO BEGAN ITS AIR STRIKES AGAINST SERBIA

Record ID: 584230

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA: BELGRADE'S AVIATION MUSEUM DISPLAYS PARTS OF SHOT DOWN U.S. PLANES ONE YEAR AFTER NATO BEGAN ITS AIR STRIKES AGAINST SERBIA
  • Date: 16th March 2000
  • Summary: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (FILE - APRIL 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: DIRECT IMPACT ON THE SOCIALIST PARTY HEADQUARTERS, THICK SMOKE RISING (NIGHT SHOT) 0.10 2. GV: SOCIALIST PARTY BUILDING BURNING (NIGHT SHOT) 0.16 BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 16, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 3. WS OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY BUILDING 0.24 4. CU ON THE BURNED OUT PART OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY BUILDING 0.28 5. MV: TECHNICIANS WORKING ON THE ANTENNA PLACED ON THE ROOF OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY BUILDING 0.34 BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (FILE MAY 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 6. TRAVELLING SHOT: DEBRIS FROM THE CHINESE EMBASSY ON THE ROAD (SHOT FROM A CAR AT NIGHT ) 0.46 7. TRAVELLING SHOT: FIRE AND AMBULANCE VEHICLES PARKED IN FRONT OF THE CHINESE EMBASSY (NIGHT SHOT) 1.00 8. LV: CHINESE EMBASSY EXTERIOR (NIGHT SHOT) 1.04 9. SLV: FIREMEN TRYING TO EXTINGUISH THE BLAZE (NIGHTSHOT) 1.09 10. SCU: A CHINESE MAN LOOKING AT THE EMBASSY (NIGHTSHOTS) 1.13 11. SCU: CHINESE FLAG AT NIGHT 1.18 BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 16, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 12. WIDE EXTERIOR OF THE CHINESE EMBASSY 1.24 13. VARIOUS OF THE CHINESE EMBASSY, PART OF EMBASSY DESTROYED BY BOMBING (2 SHOTS) 1.38 BUDJANOVCI, YUGOSLAVIA (FILE MARCH 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 14. SV: CITIZENS OF BUDJANOVCI WITH WING OF THE F-117 PLANE DOWNED DURING NATO AIR STRIKES 1.46 15. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE AROUND THE F-117 WING (2 SHOTS) 1.56 BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 16, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 16. PAN DOWN SHOT OF THE AVIATION MUSEUM 2.05 17. CU: MODEL OF THE F-117 PLANE EXPOSED IN THE AVIATION MUSEUM 2.09 18. SV: EJECTION SEAT AND PILOT'S HELMET FROM THE F-117 PLANE DOWNED IN BUDJANOVCI, DURING NATO AIR STRIKES ON YUGOSLAVIA 2.16 19. SCU: SOUNDBITE (English) DRASKO KOSTIC, MUSEUM CURATOR, SAYING: "Our intention was to display in our museum part of collection which was collected during and after the aggression on our country, so we have here parts of weapons and other things that were used against us." 2.35 20. MV: PEOPLE VISITING THE MUSEUM 2.40 21. PAN SHOT OF THE WING OF THE F-16 PLANE DOWNED IN NAKUCANI, DURING NATO AIR STRIKES ON YUGOSLAVIA 2.48 22. W/S OF THE EXHIBITION WITH THE F-16 PLANE'S WING IN THE FRONT 2.53 NAKUCANI, YUGOSLAVIA (FILE MAY 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 23. PAN SHOT FROM THE SMALLER PARTS OF THE DOWNED F-16 PLANE TO IT'S WING LAYING IN THE WOODS 3.04 24. CU: UNEXPLODED MISSILE ON THE GROUND 3.09 25. C/U ON THE BURNED PLANE'S COCKPIT 3.15 26. SCU: PLANE'S WHEEL IN NEARBY WOODS 3.21 BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (MARCH 17,2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 27. SV: MIROSLAV LAZANSKI, MILITARY ANALYST, TALKING TO JOURNALIST 3.25 28. SCU: SOUNDBITE (Serbian) MIROSLAV LAZANSKI, MILITARY ANALYST, SAYING: "Looking at NATO military intervention on Yugoslavia a year after, I could say that it is obvious that the intervention was dictated by NATO internal reasons. So, it was a sophisticated message to Russia and China, but most of all it was a way of disciplining nineteen countries which are members of NATO and a tendency of NATO to spread to the East. Actually, NATO did everything to justify the reason for its further existence. Looking at all pseudo reasons for NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia we can conclude that NATO did not manage to realize its goals: multiethnicity in Kosovo has been endangered, humanitarian disaster did not exist as much as NATO claimed, but violence, anarchy, corruption, immorality, disorder and everything else that used to be a characteristic of Kosovo before, has been greatly intensified ever since NATO deployed there. Finally, the biggest problem for NATO is that they had a strategy to get into Kosovo - air strikes. But I am afraid that at the moment, NATO generals and NATO politicians, have great difficulties finding the strategy to get out of Kosovo." 4.29 29. CU: MIROSLAV LAZANSKI'S HANDS 4.33 30. SV: MIROSLAV LAZANSKI TALKING TO JOURNALIST 4.37 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BELGRADE, NAKUCANI, BUDJANOVCI, YUGOSLAVIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVABO6D4PQUCPBBSPXOQ6YMK734V
  • Story Text: Even though NATO war tools have been carefully
    exhibited in the Aviation museum, citizens of Belgrade do not
    have to go there to be reminded of the air strikes which took
    place a year ago.The burned out Chinese embassy and the
    former headquarters of the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia,
    serve as a stark reminder.

    March 24 is the first anniversary of the NATO air
    strikes.In Yugoslavia people prefer to remember the day the
    famous invisible F117A stealth fighter was downed in the
    village of Budjanovci only a few days after the bombing
    campaign began.

    That event returned smiles to the faces of Yugoslav
    citizens as jubilant Serbs danced on wreckage of the stealth
    fighter-bomber jet after it crashed 40 km (25 miles) northwest
    of Belgrade during the air strikes.

    An eyewitness on that Sunday March 28, 1999, who watched
    as fellow villagers revelled in the novelty of a downed NATO
    aircraft, said the pride of the American air force ended in
    the mud of Serbia.

    There have been official and unofficial claims from
    Yugoslavia of up to a dozen NATO jets shot down.NATO has
    denied all the claims but is investigating the cause of the
    stealth fighter-bomber's crash.

    Parts of the plane are on display at Belgrade's air
    museum.Russian officials are reported to have quietly removed
    other pieces of wreckage.

    Badges reading, "Sorry, I didn't know it was invisible,"
    sell well in Belgrade's city centre.

    An F-16 downed on May 2, 1999 also features at the air
    museum which recently opened a new exhibition showing various
    parts of weapons and NATO war tools used in the air campaign
    against Yugoslavia.

    When the headquarters of Yugoslav President Slobodan
    Milosevic's Socialist Party were targeted, witnesses said at
    least 15 civilians were trapped in the building.

    Two missiles were fired at the same time and missed, and
    the third came within 10 seconds, hitting the building, one
    witness said.

    Another witness said two missiles must have hit their
    target because the roof and the first three floors of the
    22-floor building were on fire but nothing was burning in
    between.

    The USCE Business Centre also housed the Kosava radio and
    television station, run by Milosevic's daughter Marija, and
    another television station Pink, run by Zeljko Mitrovic, a
    prominent member of the United Left Party led by Milosevic's
    wife Mira Markovic.

    No one ever confirmed or denied reports on possible
    casualties in the USCE business center.
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