Dear Europeans,

Ten years have passed since the NATO air forces bombed my beloved country and city. I'm now 18 years old, but still I remember those days like it was yesterday. Here I give you my memories in hope that nothing like this will happen' again to anyone.

It was March 24rd, 1999

I lived in the oldest part of Belgrade, called Dorćol (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dor%C4%87ol) in small flat with my parents, my brother and my sister. On that day, I was alone with my sister, mom was at work while my dad was checking new flat that he got as a good worker from company in the part of Belgrade, called New Belgrade (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novi_Beograd). It was later that day (about 18:47) when my sister and I heard strange noise coming from the outside. It was so loud, I didn't knew what was it. I've never heard it before. As I was in the kitchen eating some eggs that my sister made me, I ran to the room to ask her what is that noise and there I saw her talking on the phone and crying. Instinctively I started to cry too, I just felt that something is wrong. When she hang up, she told that the bombing has began. That info she got from her friend who's father works in the Army, so it was no joke. First thing that went through my 7 years old mind was how will my mom, dad and brother come home if the bombs are falling? I was familiar with WWI, WWII and carpet bombing, so I thought it will be like on some Holywood film, bombing, destruction, fire, death, pain, foreign soldiers in my city, etc. We turned on TV and the local TV station Studio B (see http://www.studio-b.co.yu/) and we heard info's about what to do when air raid sirens are on. "The man in the box" (speaker) was trying to be calm and to effect it's listeners to be calm and not to panic.

Then we heard the door bell. Like a stampede we ran to see who was it, and some sort of relief went through my body when I saw my brother with his girlfriend. They were students, so they were better informed about the bombing, and they where calming me, even thou I couldn't calm myself until I see mom and dad. Brother had a PC in his room (one of those earliest "cave man" with Windows '98) and a dial-up connection, so he jumped on the net to see if the siren warnings were true. He got confirmation on every news site, the bombing began, and I was afraid for my family.

Almost an hour had passed since the warning siren screamed when the second door bell dinged and again I ran like Usain Bolt towards the door. When I opened it, my mom went in and hugged us all. Than she told us that she was at Republic Square (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_Square_(Belgrade) when she heard sirens, so she jumped into the first trolley with some other women who started to cry.  The other passengers were wathing in disbelief when that woman said the bombing began, 'cause they didn't heard anything but the old engine roar of trolley.

My body was shaking, I didn't knew why, and I couldn't stop it. Mom was holding me, but it didn't helped much. As you know, my dad was in New Belgrade area, and since the mobile phones weren't used that days like they are now, and since that the building where the new flat was had no phone, we couldn't reach dad to see how was he. Also we heard on TV that the bridges are one of the main targets of NATO and USA air forces, so the panic ideas went through our minds. How can he get home if they bomb the bridges?

Night has fallen, and still there was no sign of my dad. My mom put me to sleep, and TV was on, when the door bell ringed again. The sound of it was like the sound of freedom. Again the stampede ran to the door, and my dad went in. I stood there, wearing my pyjama, when my dad hugged me and finnaly I was calmed down.

For the next 77 days, my family and I, along with all our fellow citizens lived in constant fear that maybe we will not survive to see the next day. Most of the bombing was during the night. That fear made us closer with our neighbors and relatives, we were more binded to each other and we were determined to survive all that. Some days passed without water, some days without electricity, schools were closed, hospitals were full of injured peoples, and even hospitals were bombed.

The worst days of my life happened 10 years ago. Even today I can hear that siren yelling, and even today my body shakes when I am reminding on those days.

I shared this story with you in hope that there are reasonable people that will stop some other kid to experience something like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8hW81mtt6s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhmG_pHsYH0

Peace to the world, let there never be another sound like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n58kUN-TJJY

Best regards to all of you,

Sajmon