Archive for the month of April 1999

Media war

NATO v. Serbia

Apart from the military campaign, there was the media war. The Yugoslavs learned from their war in Bosnia and were doing relatively well in showing the world images of the terror caused by the "criminals" of NATO. No opportunity was lost to show victims of air strikes and damage to civilian houses. Sometimes NATO seemed to be embarrassed by the unavoidable collateral — yet relatively minor — damage caused during the many hundreds of sorties flown daily. In the third week of the campaign, over four hundred sorties a day were flown and later in the campaign this number reached well over six hundred. See also the statistics.

International attitudes

This document summarizes some of the reactions of some countries during and directly after operation Allied Force. Key dates during the operation are in boldface, other dates are in italics.

Attitude New NATO Members

(Alphabetical order)

The Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary joined NATO on March 12, 1999.

Czech Republic

Of the Czech population, only 35% of the population was in favor of the air campaign against Yugoslavia (April 1999). Prime Minister Milos Zeman told his people that his country could not really do anything about the attacks, since the decision was taken before the Czech Republic joined the alliance. This attitude angered NATO Secretary-General Janvier Solana, who reprimanded the Czech ambassador Karoe Kavanda in Brussels.