The German poet Peter Handke has proposed that March 24 be set aside as a special day of shame to mark the beginning of NATO’s aggression against Serbia on that day in 1999. Handke has won widespread praise for his recent collection of poems entitled “Die Morawische Nacht”, which will soon be published in an English translation under the title of “Samara”.
Writing in the Rheinischer Merkur, Handke said that the commencement of the war should be remembered annually as “the new European national day” with a strongly-worded condemnation of NATO’s aggressive violation of Serbia’s sovereignty and targeting of civilians. “March 24, 1999, when NATO launched its illegal war against Yugoslavia,” wrote Handke, “will be remembered by righteous minds . . . as a relapse of the hereditary German sin, not under the banner of National Socialism, but something just as hellish.”
NATO deliberately targeted civilians during its 1999 war against Serbia, which was unilaterally launched without UN approval and without sufficient grounds under international law. The 1999 war has been criticised as a deliberate attack on the sovereignty of nations and as a precursor to the ongoing Anglo-American war in Iraq.