Bombing of Serbia's National Television by NATO in 1999

In 1999, this building, which housed the Serbian national television broadcaster RTS, was bombed by NATO units. Sixteen employees of RTS were killed when a single missile hit the building.

The Yugoslav government said the building served no military purpose and only accommodated facilities of the civilian television network. It was, therefore, not a legitimate military target.

NATO Headquarters justified the bombing with two arguments; firstly, that it was necessary "to disrupt and degrade the command, control and communications network" of the Yugoslav Armed Forces, and secondly, that the RTS headquarters was a dual-use object which "was making an important contribution to the propaganda war which orchestrated the campaign against the population of Kosovo".

A report by Amnesty International into NATO's bombing in Yugoslavia said that NATO had violated international law by targeting areas where civilians were certain to be killed. In particular, the Amnesty report said the bombing of the RTS building by NATO "was a deliberate attack on a civilian object and as such constitutes a war crime".

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