· Written by Konstantin Kacalin
· Translation from Serbian to English by Den Galna Serben
I yelled in pain, my leg was practically severed, it was only hanging to the remnants of the skin. Then I fell along with the bridge that fell and lost consciousness. When I came to it seemed to me that my friends are alive. I was covered in blood, but I saw that Sanja lost consciousness. At that time the aircraft launched two more missiles. The bridge was already destroyed, but NATO pilots decided to finish us off. No witnesses, no crime. The pilots killed my friend Sanja Milenkovic and another 17 people who were rushing to help us.
Did the military intervention reach those goals for which it all began? Has Kosovo ceased to be a region of instability? Did it stop the terror against the Serbian population of the province?
It is true however that one goal is reached, Hashim Thaci and his terrorist commanders have become masters in Kosovo and turned in to respectable politicians. Today in Europe and the U.S. politicians are avoiding to talk about the Operation “Angel of Mercy”. European and overseas politicians don`t like to be reminded of those who were killed or maimed in these tragic days in the spring of 1999.
I want to tell the readers of Voice of Russia about a wonderful beautiful girl Marina Jovanovic, who was only 15 years old in then in May of 1999. I learned about Marina from my friends in Belgrade who helped me to find her. We met in one of Belgrade's coffee-bars and Marina told me how NATO pilots killed people at large on the Orthodox holiday - Day of the Holy Trinity.
When they started the bombings, we could not believe that something like that might happen at the end of the 20th century . In the Balkans there were many wars in the nineties - in Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina. But here in Serbia it was peaceful . Two months I was in Belgrade , 24 March to 23 May. During the missile and air strikes on our capital, we were hiding in shelters. There were a lot of problems - often the electricity goes out, urban traffic was not functioning and there were awful waiting lines to buy gasoline. But our family managed to survive that period without loss. In the small town of Varvarin my parents were born , where they had a small house. My grandparents were living there and I decided to go to them in a quiet province. NATO aviation has been seen there, but no bomb was thrown. So I decided to go to Varvarin so that I could get away a little bit from the NATO nightmares.
An other reason I went to Varvarin was because there was my best friend Sanja Milenkovic, the best mathematician of Yugoslavia. She won multiple victories in the International Mathematical Olympics. Sanja called me almost every day and asked me to come to Varvarin, where its been quiet and peaceful. On May 23 I went there. The whole week we spent happily, As if I was in an other country, where there are no infernal planes, no howling air alert, tomahawks, or several tons of heavy bombs.
May 30 was a Sunday. Big Christian Orthodox holiday - Day of the Holy Trinity. For Varvarin it was a major holiday. That day everyone goes out on the streets, walking around, going to church. Together with Sanja and one more girl at 10 am we went to church, which is located on the opposite bank of the river. We turned back around 1 pm, and we are in the middle of the bridge. At this point above us flew a plane, we ran. Pilots released the missile. They saw there were children on the bridge however that did not seem to bother them, so they released the missile. The explosion threw me up in the air, it seemed as everything around me was on fire, an inferno of living hell.
I yelled in pain, my leg was practically severed, it was only hanging to the remnants of the skin. Then I fell along with the bridge that fell and lost consciousness. When I came to it seemed to me that my friends are alive. I was covered in blood, but I saw that Sanja lost consciousness. At that time the aircraft launched two more missiles. The bridge was already destroyed, but NATO pilots decided to finish us off. No witnesses, no crime. The pilots killed my friend Sanja Milenkovic and another 17 people who were rushing to help us.
If the pilot did not perform the second attack , all would be alive. To me, still today its unclear why they targeted that bridge. It had no strategic importance, it does NOT connect major cities and military installations. It is a small rural bridge. Why was that a NATO target? Even more so it was a Sunday, a holiday, a day that gathered the civilians. If the bridge was so important for them, why did they not destroy it during the night?
I was quickly transported to the hospital of the city of Krusevac, which is closest to Varvarin. I stayed there for 20 days, then the war ended. I was transported to Belgrade, where I was treated for almost a year. During that time they did several operations. It took a very long time before I could walk again.
Now I don`t feel good, I have several pieces of shrapnel from rockets in the stomach. They could not remove it because it is life threatening. Every morning I have a terrible pain that can only be eased by drugs. It's been a long time, but every day is still a struggle.
Константин Качалин (Konstantin Kacalin)
Source: Глас Русије / Srbijanskiglas
Related: Bombing of Yugoslavia / Kosovo Occupation / Germans Killing Serbs AGAIN! / Sanjas Last Day