Milica Rakić

Milica Rakić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милица Ракић; 9 January 1996 – 17 April 1999) was a three-year-old Serbian girl who was killed by a cluster munition during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

Milica Rakić
Photo of Milica Rakić
Born(1996-01-09)9 January 1996
Belgrade, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Died17 April 1999(1999-04-17) (aged 3)
Belgrade, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
CitizenshipYugoslav
Known forChild killed in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

Biography

Milica Rakić was born in Belgrade on 9 January 1996.[1] Her parents were Žarko and Dušica Rakić. She had an older brother named Aleksa.[2]

Between 9:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on 17 April 1999, three-year-old Rakić was struck by shrapnel while situated in the bathroom of her second-floor apartment at 8 Dimitrije Lazareva-Rase Street, in the Belgrade suburb of Batajnica.[3] Her home was located 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from the Batajnica Air Base. Batajnica was repeatedly targeted by NATO during its air campaign against Yugoslavia, which lasted between March and June 1999.[4] Rakić was killed instantly. At the time of her death, she was sitting on a training potty.[5] Five civilians were wounded in the attack.[6]

Rakić's funeral took place on 19 April.[2] The same day, Yugoslavia's Ministry of Information released a statement attributing her death to "NATO cowards".[7]

Legacy
A monument to the children killed in the NATO bombing located in Tašmajdan Park, featuring a bronze sculpture of Rakić

Rakić was one of 89 children killed during the NATO air campaign.[8] Rakić's death was widely covered in the Serbian media.[9] Her death was not reported by most major Western news outlets.[10] The final NATO report on the bombing of Yugoslavia made no mention of Rakić's death, even under the category of "special incidents".[11] Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigators visited the site of her death on 7 August 1999, inspected the damage and interviewed eyewitnesses. According to HRW, a cluster munition exploded next to the apartment in which Rakić was living.[3] The incident marked the first NATO use of cluster munitions in Serbia-proper; all prior instances of their use by NATO had been recorded in Kosovo.[4] The Yugoslav Ministry of Health provided HRW with photographic documentation of the incident, which was also included in the book White Book of NATO Crimes in Yugoslavia, published by the Government of Yugoslavia.[3]

Following her death, some sectors of the Serbian public called for Rakić to be canonized as a saint by the Serbian Orthodox Church.[12] In 2000, a monument dedicated to the children killed in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was unveiled in Belgrade's Tašmajdan Park. It featured a bronze sculpture of Rakić in front of a marble block inscribed with the words "we were just children" written in Serbian and English. The monument was commissioned by the newspaper Večernje novosti and financed by donations that it had received from its readers. The sculpture was stolen twice, once in 2000 and again in 2001, after which it was never recovered.[13]

Fresco of neomartyr Milica Rakić in the medieval Tresije monastery, Kosmaj

In 2004, the Tvrdoš Monastery near the town of Trebinje, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, unveiled a fresco of Rakić which contained an inscription describing her as a neomartyr. At the time, the Serbian Orthodox Church announced that it would only consider canonizing Rakić if her cult gained a widespread following.[14] In 2014, a commemorative fountain was dedicated in Rakić's memory in Batajnica.[15] The following year, a new sculpture of Rakić was unveiled in Tašmajdan Park to replace the one that had previously been stolen.[13] The Little Milica Rakić Park in Batajnica was also established in her memory. The park was subjected to extensive renovations in 2017, financed by Serbia's Ministry of Defence.[16]

See also

References
  1. "List of killed, missing and disappeared 1998–2000". Humanitarian Law Center. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  2. Ilic, Srdjan (19 April 1999). "Kosovo Crisis: The Conflict". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  3. Human Rights Watch (February 2000). "Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign". Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  4. Hudson, Robert C. (2007). "Lessons from Kosovo: Cluster Bombs and Their Impact Upon Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Rehabilitation". In Ferrándiz, Francisco; Robben, Antonius C.G.M. (eds.). Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Peace and Conflict Research: A View from Europe. Bilbao, Spain: University of Deusto. p. 235.
  5. Peric Zimonjic, Vesna (14 May 1999). "Yugoslavia: NATO Cluster Bombs Spray Death". Inter Press Service. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  6. Krieger, Heike (2001). The Kosovo Conflict and International Law: An Analytical Documentation 1974–1999. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 502. ISBN 978-0-521800-716-.
  7. Norwegian People's Aid South Eastern Europe (2007). Yellow Killers: The Impact of Cluster Munitions in Serbia and Montenegro. Oslo, Norway: Norwegian People's Aid. p. 67. OCLC 350363422.
  8. "Serbia marks bombing anniversary". BBC News. 24 March 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  9. Atanasovski, Srđan (2016). "Recycled Music for Banal Nation: The Case of Serbia 1999–2010". In Mazierska, Ewa; Gregory, Georgina (eds.). Relocating Popular Music: Pop Music, Culture and Identity. New York City: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 101, note 2. ISBN 978-1-13746-338-8.
  10. Sremac, Danielle (1999). War of Words: Washington Tackles the Yugoslav Conflict. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing. ISBN 978-0-27596-609-6.
  11. Satjukow, Elisa (2017). ""These Days, When a Belgrader Asked, 'How are You Doing?', the Answer is, 'I'm Waiting': Everyday Life During the 1999 NATO Bombing". In Roth, Klaus; Kartarı, Asker (eds.). Crises Related to Natural Disasters, to Spaces and Places, and to Identities. Cultures of Crisis in Southeast Europe. Münster, Germany: LIT Verlag. p. 338. ISBN 978-3-64390-791-2.
  12. Tolvaisis, Leonas (2013). "Historical Memories of Kosovo Serbs in the Post-War Period and Conflicting Serbian National Narratives About Kosovo" (PDF). Kaunas, Lithuania: Vytautas Magnus University: 215, note 13. ISSN 1392-0588. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. "Po treći put otkriven spomenik Milici Rakić". Radio Television of Serbia (in Serbian). 24 September 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  14. Pašić, P. (1 December 2004). "Mala Milica Rakić novi srpski svetac". Glas javnosti (in Serbian). Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  15. Čalija, Jelena (5 September 2014). "Spomen-česma za večno sećanje na Milicu Rakić". Politika (in Serbian). Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  16. "The Military Preserves the Memory of Milica Rakić". Ministry of Defence. 29 July 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
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