– They (NATO) wanted to destroy our homeland, destroy Serbia and dismember it - but they failed, President Aleksandar Vučić declared at a memorial ceremony commemorating the NATO bombing 25 years ago and honoring its victims.
– 25 years have passed and we are and will remain unbroken... We will never accept the division of Serbia! Kosovo and Metohija will never be taken from us voluntarily, he continued.
On the annual day of remembrance for the victims of NATO's bombing of the former Yugoslavia, a large crowd gathered as usual in Prokuplje, 26 miles south of Belgrade, to pay tribute to those killed.
In 2008, Kosovo declared independence and broke away from Serbia - a declaration of independence that Serbia rejects and continues to consider Kosovo a Serbian province.
The event began with a memorial service led by Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who later emphasized in his speech that the bombing revealed "the depth of human cruelty when one chooses to give up one's humanity".
"Defending our freedom"
After the national anthem and a minute of silence, Andjelka Tosovic, whose house was hit by a projectile during the NATO bombing that killed her 11-month-old sister and her father, said that "time will not heal".
Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska (one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's two entities), also condemned the NATO bombing, the killing of civilians, and violations of international law.
– We are and will remain a dignified people defending our freedom, he said, stressing the importance of continuing to pay close attention to the Day of Remembrance.
Thousands killed
In 1999, US-led NATO carried out an extensive bombing campaign in the former Yugoslavia for less than three months. As a result, at least 8,000 people were killed and more than a million were forced to flee their homes.
The bombing included the use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium bombs - weapons banned by international conventions. Other targets included the Chinese Embassy and Serbian state television and radio stations.
It was also recently reported that agents of the CIA are in close proximity to President Vučić.
– He (Vucic) is the one who will decide whether we will ever tell the whole truth and what we will do in this matter. There are people in President Vucic's government circle who are not working in the interest of this country, but against it, former intelligence chief Aleksandar Vulin said in an interview last week.
