THREE DECADES SINCE NATO BOMBING OF BRIDGES ON THE DRINA AND BISTRICA

FOČA, SEPTEMBER 5 /SRNA/ – NATO airstrikes in the municipality of Foča, in which bridges on the Drina and Bistrica rivers were destroyed, leaving two Serb soldiers and one civilian dead and causing material damage that at the time exceeded 50 million German marks, began on this day 30 years ago.

From September 5 to 10, 1995, NATO aircraft demolished both bridges over the Drina in Foča – the one in the town center and the one in Donje Polje – as well as the bridge on the Bistrica. The bridge at Brod na Drini was struck multiple times, but the strikes missed, hitting instead a residential building which, fortunately, had been evacuated before the attack. Enormous material damage was inflicted on buildings both in the town itself and in Brod na Drini. The bridge over the Drina in Osanica, on the border with the municipality of Goražde, was also destroyed. NATO bombed the relay system on Mount Kmur near Foča, relay stations in Osanica and elsewhere, army barracks in Ustikolina and Kosova, as well as positions of the Republika Srpska Army. The village of Tulovići, near the barracks in Ustikolina, was razed, with five houses destroyed and ten damaged. The victims were soldiers Vojo Krunić and Nenad Lučić, as well as civilian Radoman Starovlah, who was the head of the relay station on Stražica. The NATO aggression against Republika Srpska, code-named "Deliberate Force," began on August 30 and ended on September 14, 1995, when an agreement was reached for the Republika Srpska Army to withdraw heavy weaponry from the so-called security zone, which was done on September 17. The southern Bridge of Freedom over the Drina, at the entrance to Foča, was rebuilt in 2001, and in 2018 the iron bridge "May 9th" in Donje Polje, which had long awaited reconstruction, was also restored. In Republika Srpska, September 9 is marked as the Day of Remembrance for the victims of NATO bombing carried out by Alliance forces from August 30 to September 14, 1995, on the territory of BiH, without authorization from the UN Security Council. During NATO's "Deliberate Force" operation, 46 members of the Republika Srpska Army were killed, at least 98 were wounded, along with five persons under labor obligation, according to data from the Republic Center for Research of War, War Crimes and Missing Persons. At least seven civilians were killed and at least 21 civilians wounded in the NATO bombing of Republika Srpska. NATO forces dropped a total of 1,026 bombs on Republika Srpska, including 13 Tomahawk cruise missiles, with the total weight of explosives amounting to about 10,000 tons. The official reason for bombing Republika Srpska was the shelling of the Sarajevo marketplace Markale on August 28, 1995, when UNPROFOR, without evidence, immediately blamed the Republika Srpska Army. The initiative to mark the Day of Remembrance for the victims of NATO bombing was launched in Andrićgrad on August 26, 2018, at the proposal of the News Agency of Republika Srpska – SRNA.