Yugoslav Army General Staff knew the RTS building would be bombed

The Humanitarian Law Center, the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Center for Cultural Decontamination, Women in Black, and Youth Initiative for Human Rights have sent a letter to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Serbia, Dušan Petrović, asking him to make public the transcript of an intercepted communication of NATO pilots with their base.

The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia has the transcript of the communication of the NATO plane crew with their base, moments before the RTS TV station building was bombed, as well as official notes of authorized personnel of the military security service with respect to this communication, which is an undeniable proof that the General Staff in Belgrade knew of the imminent bombing of the RTS building.

In the Legal Administration Department of the Ministry of Justice these documents are filed under the following number: pov.br. 406-2, dated August 10, 2001, and in the Secretariat of the Ministry of Justice they are filed under the following number: pov.br. 1114-2, dated August 2, 2001.

Regardless of numerous proofs about the existence of such documents and in spite of efforts of the victims’ families and the commitment of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, Mr. Rodoljub Šabić, to make these documents public, officials of the Ministry of Justice continue denying their existence.

The organizations signing this letter would like to remind the Minister of Justice that it is the responsibility of each state institution to enable free access to information of public importance to its citizens. Making the transcript of intercepted communications of NATO pilots with their base public would restore dignity to the victims and give the public an opportunity to have a better understanding of what occurred on the night the RTS building was bombed.