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DISINFO: NATO: We will bring Serbia back to the stone age

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NATO War crimes

DISINFO: NATO: We will bring Serbia back to the stone age

SUMMARY

NATO’s generals have unequivocally announced that they will bring “Belgrade, and all of Serbia, back to the Stone Age.” NATO’s strikes and its armed attacks have killed more than 140,000 people.

Does anyone today believe NATO’s allegations that Russia intends to attack it?

RESPONSE

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about the war in former Yugoslavia, and the claim that the “Russian threat” is a false idea.

The NATO operation for Kosovo followed over a year of intense efforts by the UN and the Contact Group, of which Russia was a member, to bring about a peaceful solution.

This idea, according to the findings, was first used by Former President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic during his trial opening statement at the Hague Tribunal, where he said: "...this is why it had to be broken up and turned into a Third World country and, even worse, sent right back to the Stone Age."

The number of casualties is also a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative, debunked by Polygraph. According to the Humanitarian Law Center, in Serbia (excluding Kosovo) and Montenegro, 275 persons lost their lives in the NATO bombings: 180 civilians, 90 members of the Yugoslav Armed Forces and five members of the Ministry of Interior of Serbia. In Kosovo, 484 people were killed: 267 civilians (209 Albanian and 58 non-Albanian), 171 members of the YA, 20 members of the Serbian MUP and 26 members of the KLA (19 of whom died in the NATO bombing of the Dubrava prison, near Istok).

Human Rights Watch concludes that as few as 489 and as many as 528 Yugoslav civilians were killed in the ninety separate incidents in Operation Allied Force.

Read more about disinformation related to the war in former Yugoslavia here and here.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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