(ANSA-AFP) - BELGRADE, MAY 18 - Czech President Milos Zeman
apologised on Tuesday for NATO's bombing of former Yugoslavia in
1999, which his country took part in while he was prime
minister. The three-month bombardment was designed to halt
Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic's deadly crackdown on
separatist ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a southern province that
later declared independence. The US-led campaign in effect ended
a conflict that had begun in 1998 and had killed more than
13,000 people, the final chapter of Yugoslavia's bloody
collapse. Zeman, who served as prime minister between 1998 and
2002 before taking over as president in 2013, said his country
was "the last" within NATO to consent to the campaign. "I would
like to use this opportunity to apologise for the bombing of
former Yugoslavia," Zeman said during an official visit to
Prague by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. The 76-year-old
Zeman, who has faced protests at home for his closeness to
Russia, added that his country "desperately" sought partners
within the alliance to object to the campaign, but ultimately
failed. "It was lack of courage," he said. "With this plea of
forgiveness, I resolved my long-standing trauma, because remorse
is liberating. "I said this and saved my soul." (ANSA-AFP).
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