Grdelica train bombing

Infobox military attack
title=Grdelica train bombing


caption=Footage from the TV-guided missile
location=Near Grdelica, Serbia
target=Bridge
date=Start date|1999|04|12
time=
timezone=
type=Missile attack
fatalities=14
injuries=16
instigator=NATO
conflict=Kosovo WarThe Grdelica train bombing occurred on April 12, 1999 (it was the second day of Easter holidays that year, according to the Serbian Orthodox Church), when two missiles fired by NATO warplanes hit a train while it was passing across a railway bridge over the Južna Morava river at Grdelica gorge, some 300 kilometres (180 miles) south of Belgrade in Serbia. As a result, 14 civilians were killed and another 16 wounded.

The bombing occurred during Operation Allied Force, a NATO operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) aimed at forcing the FRY government to remove its security forces from the disputed province of Kosovo. The campaign had begun by focusing on attacking military targets, but by mid-April the focus had switched to strategic and economic targets such as transport links, particularly key bridges.

Events

The bombing took place at about 11.40 hrs local time. A AGM-130 missile precision-guided munition released by a NATO F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft struck the centre of the bridge at the exact moment that the No. 393 passenger train, en route from Belgrade to Ristovac, was crossing the bridge. The missile struck the train, causing major damage, but did not destroy the bridge. [Elmer Schmähling, "More or Less Exposed Non-combatants and Civilian Objects under the conditions of 'Modern Warfare'", in "Mathematics and War" (ed. Jens Høyrup, Bernhelm Booss), p. 287. Birkhäuser, 2003. ISBN 3764316349]

According to General Wesley Clark, who was the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) at the time, train had been traveling too fast and the bomb was too close to the target for it to divert in time. The first missile had been fired from a significant distance from the target, and the pilot was not able to visually recognize the train. Realizing that the train had been hit but believing that he could still complete the mission by striking the end of the bridge where the train had already passed, the pilot then made another pass and fired a second missile. This too hit the train. Clark described the second hit as an "uncanny accident" in which the train had continued moving into the target area, obscured by dust and smoke from the first strike [ [http://www.nato.int/kosovo/press/p990413a.htm Press Conference by Jamie Shea and General Wesley Clark] , 13 April 1999.] , stating that the pilot had had less than one second to react.cite news| title=Film NATO iz Grdeličke klisure ubrzan skoro pet puta| url=http://arhiva.glas-javnosti.co.yu/arhiva/2000/01/20/srpski/P00011902.shtm| work=Glas javnosti| date=2000-01-19] A gun camera video was released by NATO to support its version of events.

Controversy

The incident caused an immediate controversy in Serbia and abroad. The Yugoslav state news agency Tanjug released an editorial that accused NATO of carrying out the attack with the aim of "inflicting suffering on and destroying the Serbian people".cite news|title = Children's choir leads Serb TV offensive | publisher = BBC News | date = 1999-04-13 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/318331.stm | accessdate = 2007-07-04 ] In a press conference held the day after the attack, General Clark stated that "it was an unfortunate incident which he, and the crew, and all of us very much regret" and "it is one of those regrettable things that happen in a campaign like this and we are all very sorry for it, but we are doing the absolute best we can do to avoid collateral damage." The U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, John Hamre, told the United States Congress a few months later that "We never wanted to destroy that train or kill its occupants. We did want to destroy the bridge and we regret this accident." [ [http://www.dod.mil/dodgc/olc/docs/test99-7-22hamre.rtf Statement of the Honorable John J. Hamre, Deputy Secretary of Defense] . Before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. July 22, 1999]

The German "Frankfurter Rundschau" prompted a further controversy in January 2000, when it reported that the NATO video had been shown at three times its real speed, giving a misleading impression of the train's speed. [cite news|title = NATO used speeded-up film to excuse civilian deaths in Kosovo: newspaper | publisher = Agence France Presse | date = 2000-01-06 ] The Pentagon and NATO stated that the error had been the result of the video being speeded up for bomb damage assessment purposes, but not being slowed down again for the press conference. [" [http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=830 DefenseLink News Transcript: DoD News Briefing - Mr. Crowley, PDASD PA and RADM Quigley, DASD PA] , 6 January 2000.] [cite news|title = Nato missile video 'no distortion' | publisher = BBC News | date = 2000-01-07 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/594800.stm | accessdate = 2007-07-05 ] Later investigation by Frankfurter Rundschau asserted that the video was sped up 4.7 times.

Legal issues

The Yugoslav government and some Western groups characterised the attack as a "crime". Other human rights organisations criticised the way that the attack had been continued after the train had been struck in the first strike. Amnesty International argued that the attack should have been stopped when the train had been struck, and that the second bombing run had violated the principle of proportionality. In a post-war report, Amnesty stated that the incident

:"appears to have violated Article 57 of Protocol I which requires an attack to 'be cancelled or suspended if it becomes clear that the objective is a not a military one ... or that the attack may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life...which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.' " [Amnesty International, " [http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/kosovo/docs/nato_all.pdf NATO/Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: "Collateral damage" or unlawful killings] ", 7 May 2000]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) established a committee in May 1999 to determine whether offences against international law had been committed during the NATO campaign. In its final report to the tribunal's Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, the committee took the view that the attack had been proportionate:

:"It is the opinion of the committee that the bridge was a legitimate military objective. The passenger train was not deliberately targeted. The person controlling the bombs, pilot or WSO, targeted the bridge and, over a very short period of time, failed to recognize the arrival of the train while the first bomb was in flight. The train was on the bridge when the bridge was targeted a second time and the bridge length has been estimated at 50 meters ... It is the opinion of the committee that the information in relation to the attack with the first bomb does not provide a sufficient basis to initiate an investigation."" [http://www.un.org/icty/pressreal/nato061300.htm Final Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee Established to Review the NATO Bombing Campaign Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia] , International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, 13 June 2000]

The committee found itself divided over the question of whether the aircrew had behaved recklessly. It nonetheless recommended "that the attack on the train at Grdelica Gorge should not be investigated by the [Prosecutor] ." A.P.V. Rogers comments that the committee "must have considered the first missile strike to be a legitimate action against a military objective, the inference being that any civilian casualties of that strike were not disproportionate, and that the firing of the second missile was an error of judgment in the heat of the moment." [A.P.V. Rogers, "What is a legitimate military target?", in "International Conflict and Security Law: Essays in Memory of Hilaire Mccoubrey", p. 167. Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0521845319]

Aftermath

The damaged bridge was reopened in September 1999. ["Reconstruction of rail bridge in Grdelica Gorge", "Borba" English daily, 15 September 1999] . On 12 April 2007 a ceremony was held at the site to mark the eighth anniversary of the bombing. [ [http://www.serbianrailways.com/system/en/home/newsplus/viewsingle/_params/newsplus_news_id/10722.html SERBIAN RAILWAYS - View Single News ] ] .

External links

[http://youtube.com/watch?v=t6zKEUGsPCo First strike on the bridge] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou57RuvWtFg Second strike on the bridge]

References