THREE-YEAR-OLD MILICA RAKIĆ KILLED 26 YEARS AGO

BELGRADE, APRIL 17 /SRNA/ - It has been 26 years since NATO bombers, using cluster munitions, killed three-year-old Milica Rakić in the Belgrade suburb of Batajnica.

She has since become a symbol of all the children who perished during the NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The little girl was killed by bomb fragments while she was in the bathroom on the second floor of her family home, located about a kilometer from what was then the Batajnica airport. The three-year-old was killed while she was sitting on a potty, and five other civilians were injured in the same attack. Her father, Žarko, originally from Bosanski Petrovac, testified that the scene of the strike was horrific, and that the bathroom from which he carried out his bloody daughter in his arms was filled with shrapnel. An initiative was previously submitted to the Serbian Orthodox Church to canonize little Milica. According to official data, 79 children were killed during the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, though it is believed that at least 130 lost their lives. The youngest victim, Bojana Tošović, was only 11 months old when she was killed in her father's arms. The NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began on March 24, 1999, and during the 78 days of bombing, 2,500 people were killed, including at least 79 children. The use of banned depleted uranium munitions caused severe health consequences for the population, and the entire country suffered devastating destruction.