He died in his dad's tight embrace: 2-year-old Marko is NATO's youngest victim, he was killed on this day

Marko Simic; Photo: Private archive

On this day, NATO bombs hit a multi-storey residential building in Novi Pazar, southwestern Serbia. The aggressor's missile took 11 lives, and among them were 30-year-old Vladan Simic and his 2-year-old son Marko. the youngest victim of the crime carried out against our country in 1999.

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The boy died in his father's tight embrace, writes nsuzivo.rs.

"After taking a walk, Vladan and Marko stopped by the store in that building, then the attack began. At the moment the bomb hit, Vladan was holding Marko in his arms, trying to protect him, but they died together," family members said later.

The toddler, who had celebrated his second birthday only 13 days earlier, was found under the debris in his father's embrace. The missile came from the direction of Rogozna and blew up half of the building located across the street from an elementary school and a kindergarten, in the central part of Novi Pazar.

"It was a horrific blast, the dust rose up, a cloud of dust, it smelled like plastic. There were screams, people crying, and then everything went silent. We started digging through the debris, looking for survivors. Unfortunately, 11 civilians were killed, among them a 2-year-old child who was held by his father when the half-ton missile hit the entrance to the building," said Milutin Dragutinovic, a local who was among the first to rush to the scene to help the victims.

Marko's mother was pregnant at the time

Marko's mother Olivera, who was nine months pregnant at the time of the tragedy, later spoke about how it all unfolded.

"I was in the family house, and the two of them went to our store to get something. My husband was mobilized, he would be in the barracks overnight, and in the morning he would come for a few hours to be with us. When I heard the bombs (explode) around half past two, I tried to reach my husband on his cell phone, but there was no reply. Guided by some instinct, nine months pregnant, I set off on foot towards that store. Halfway there, I came across my brother-in-law who told me to go back home, but didn't want to say anything more to me, so I thought that ours were alright," said Olivera.

She came back home, where many family members were waiting for her.

"There were tears in their eyes, but no one was telling me anything. I kept asking where Marko and Vladan were until my father-in-law told me what happened. I remember that my gynecologist came over and from that moment until I gave birth on June 17, I was medicated. After giving birth, I realized that I had to live for my daughter. She was born from a great love and since then I have dedicated my life to her," Olivera told her story through tears.

The boy's uncle Dejan Simic says that Marko, along with Milica Rakic -a toddler killed in her home in a Belgrade suburb - is the youngest victim of NATO's 1999 aggression against Serbia.

When NATO bombs hit the building and an auto parts store that Vladan and his brother Dejan ran together, Dejan was in a warehouse on the other side of the town.

"As soon as the first bomb fell, I told a worker, 'Let's go help people', not knowing that it was our store that was hit and that Vladan and Marko were inside. In front of the store, I saw Vladan's car and a child's bicycle in the back of the car," recalls Dejan Simic.

He entered the building and began searching through the rubble.

"Firefighters also arrived. They removed the stalls and found no one. They asked where to look next, so I directed them to the office, which was on the other side of the store. The bomb hit from that side and took away three walls of the building where Vladan was hiding with Marko," Dejan said.

He cannot not remember who took him outside, from where he watched the rescuers pull out the victims.

"They didn't let me in the hospital, but a friend told me that one of Vladan's arms was torn off, and that he was holding Marko tightly with the other. From that day on, our parents no longer truly lived, they were merely breathing. They never even turned on the TV once for the rest of my father's life, and he died in 2013," Dejan recalled, his voice trembling.

On May 31, 1999, a NATO bomb dropped on Novi Pazar killed Marko Simic (2), Vladan Simic (30), Dejan Milosevic (27), Djordje Pantovic (24), Dragan Simovic (46), Dragomirka Biorac (39), Radun Vranic (47), Zvezdan Jajic (32), Marko Rogljic (16), Golub Ratkovic (32), Miodrag Nikic (29).

(Telegraf.rs)