| NIS, Yugoslavia, May 7 (AFP) - Despair and rage overwhelmed Serbia's second largest city Nis on
Friday after a hospital and a marketplace were hit in daytime NATO air raids which left at
least 15 dead and 70 injured.
Nine people were killed when cluster bombs fell on a street leading to the market in the
center of Nis, while three died in a raid on the hospital area, several blocks away,
hospital officials told reporters.
Three more people died of their wounds after being hospitalised, doctor Ceda Kutlesic,
head of the Nis medical center, said.
Jovan Zlatic, head of the local alert center, said that 50 of the 70 wounded were
seriously injured.
Petar Bosnjakovic, deputy director of the Nis hospital, told reporters that "two
explosions were heard 12 minutes after noon... as smoke was seen above the lot."
A dozen burnt out cars were still smouldering in the hospital parking lot, where witnesses
said most of the bombs had exploded. All the building's windows were smashed.
Debris and broken glass could be seen in the hospital entrance hall, with the smell of
burning pervading the area five hours after the reported blasts.
The road leading to the hospital complex was full of potholes, apparently caused by bomb
fragments, with one corner house half destroyed.
A pair of slippers, with traces of blood, lay on the pavement near a burnt car in Ljube
Nenadovica street.
The body of an old man, said to be 84-year old Gerasim Jovanovic, still lay in a yard near
the hospital. Reporters were warned by rescue workers to walk in the middle of the street,
since there were many unexploded cluster bombs around.
A yellow bomb, with the inscription CP FRAG BLU 97/AB, was visible in another yard, while
two more lay in front of houses in the street.
Near the market, in the center of Nis, people stood in shock, crying or just silently
watching as rescue workers combed the area.
"It is obvious who killed these people; the NATO
alliance," Nis mayor Zoran Zivkovic told reporters near the city market.
Three dead civilians, one of them a woman, could be seen lying on the ground several
meters (yards) from the market.
The body of an old man in a gray suit lay in front of an egg shop, while, on the other
side of the street, the body of a woman was seen next to a plastic bag full of carrots.
A Few meters further on, towards the market, another body was covered with a white sheet.
Smilja Djuric, 73, said she had survived the NATO attack because she "hid in a
room" in her house, in front of which two victims were killed.
"If I had been in the street, I would be dead. I survived World War II, but I haven't
seen anything like this," Djuric said, sobbing.
Witnesses said that a waitress at a nearby restaurant was also killed.
Bomb shrapnel marks could be seen on the walls of the
houses, while fragments of cluster bombs were strewn across two streets near the market.
In Sumatovacka street a house and the car in front of it were partially burnt, while the
windows of all nearby buildings whose windows were smashed.
The raid was the third on the town, located 220 kms (130 miles) south of Belgrade, on
Friday.
Around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT), an industrial area to the northwest of the city, already
targetted 13 times since the start of NATO bombing campaign on March 24, was also
attacked.
But several missiles fell on the Nis suburb of Medosevac, where most of the houses along
one street were destroyed.
Dejan Ciric said that four of his neighbours were injured in the raid,adding that more
than 20 bombs had fallen in the area.
Some thirty houses were almost completely destroyed, while a two-meter (six-foot) deep,
seven-meter (20-foot) wide crater could be seen in the middle of the street.
Radmila Mitrovic, 59, dressed in black, was sitting in front of what was left of her
house.
"I can not even hang my clothes out. What have they done to us?" she said, still
shaking.
Medosevac suburb is situated some 150 meters (yards) from Nis airport, the apparent target
of NATO air raids.
NATO said Friday it was investigating the reports of civilian deaths. |
 Nis: Market hit.
"quick, to the hospital!" "Yes please, I don't want to miss the next
bombing!" (From "Il Manifesto, May 7, 1999")
Source: Serbia Info News.
Using cluster bombs, NATO aggressor hits in broad daylight downtown of Nis where there are
no military or police facilities, killing at least 11 people and wounding several dozens.
Aggressor's atrocious crime
Nis, May 7, 1999 (Tanjug) -
Aggressor's NATO aviation and its commanders committed today an atrocious crime over the
civilian population in Nis, by bombarding it's center with cluster bombs. This weapon has
been forbidden by the international conventions. Moreover, in the Nis downtown there are
neither military nor police facilities.
According to the information received so far, at least 11 persons were killed and several
dozens wounded. It is feared that the casualty toll is not final and that the number of
killed persons in this bloody genocide feast of the aggressor in Nis is even higher. The
damage is enormous
The citizens of targeted central Nis are constantly being warned not to leave their
shelters and apartments for the danger of small bombs left behind from the cluster bombs.
The rough estimations show that there are several hundred of small cluster bombs scattered
all over the town.
The part of the town hit most roughly is the part around Velika Pijaca (Big Market) where
the density of people is the highest during the day. There is a Vice-chancellor's Office,
a Health Care Center "12 Februar" and a Bus Station there.
The news that the enemy used cluster bombs in bombing the health care center, at first
shocked the citizens of Nis. Unfortunately, the news was confirmed and the casualty toll
is rising every hour.It was the 14th attack on the town, and the third in the last ten
hours and the first one in the broad daylight.
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= [in Italian]