BELGRADE

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia, located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers. I visited Belgrade just a few years after the Kosovo War in 1999, during which a NATO bombing campaign targeted several buildings in the city. Among the sites bombed were various ministry buildings, the RTS building, hospitals, Hotel Jugoslavija, the Central Committee building, Avala Tower, and the Chinese embassy. Between 500 and 2,000 civilians were killed in Serbia and Montenegro as a result of the NATO bombings, with 47 of those casualties occurring in Belgrade.

During my visit, I walked around the city with my local friend Militsa. Despite the rapid development and reconstruction underway, there was still a palpable sense of the gray and heavy atmosphere left by the war. Many bombed buildings had been left as they were, serving as solemn memorials to the bombings. Belgrade is a beautiful capital, rich in architecture, history, and culture, yet it is still shrouded in a veil of fear from a war that should never have happened.