April 21, 1999
IN BELGRADE
NATO Missiles Strike a Center of State-Linked TV and Radio
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By STEVEN ERLANGER
ELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- NATO conducted its first airstrikes
against Yugoslav television and radio stations early Wednesday
morning, firing three cruise missiles at a 20-story office building
and putting three channels off the air.
The building was burning on the top and bottom floors,
indicating that at least two of the missiles hit their target.
Lights continued to shine, eerily, on the middle floors.
At least three private channels, TV Pink, TV Kosava and BK TV,
went dead in Belgrade, though Yugoslav state television remained on
the air.
The building, which in the communist era housed the former
headquarters of the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist
Party, contained offices of two political parties: the Socialist
Party of Serbia, the party of President Slobodan Milosevic, and the
Yugoslav Left party, the party of his wife, Mirjana Markovic.
The transmitters for radio and TV Kosava ("Radio Wind"), owned
by their daughter, Marija, were also on the building, one of the
highest in Novi Belgrade, across the river from downtown. BK TV, a
station owned by Braca Karic, whose brother, Bogoljub, is a
minister in the Serbian government, had its transmitter on the roof
and was knocked off the air. The brothers are considered close to
the Milosevic family.
The three channels of state television, Serbian Radio and
Television, stayed on the air, showing an opera. Studio B, owned by
the city of Belgrade, which is governed by the more democratic
Serbian Renewal Movement, also kept operating.
State television reported that NATO attacked the Zezbljev
bridge, the last one remaining over the Danube in Novi Sad, but it
was not immediately clear whether it was destroyed. On April 1 and
3, NATO destroyed the other two Danube bridges, blocking traffic up
and down the river. NATO says the bridges are a military target
because they could allow the resupply of the Yugoslav army in
Kosovo from the rich northern Serbian province of Vojvodina.
The Pentagon and NATO had issued strong warnings that state
television's central office and transmission tower would be struck,
and Western television journalists had been ordered by their head
offices, for the second night in a row, to stay away from the
building. CNN, which had moved into offices in the state television
building, evacuated them on Tuesday.
The building hit Wednesday morning also contained private
offices, including those of a business owned by the Serbian
Socialist Party; the party's information offices, and the offices
for the New Communist Movement of Yugoslavia, a part of the
Yugoslav Left party. TV Pink is owned by Zeljko Mitrovic, a
prominent member of that party.
The modern building stands relatively isolated in a
nonresidential area, and there were no immediate indications of
casualties as the emergency workers arrived. But Belgrade's Studio
B television said some people were thought to be working in the
building on a night shift.
The building is 400 yards from the Hyatt Hotel, where many
foreign journalists are staying.
