Zeman: Bombing of FR Yugoslavia one of NATO's two fundamental mistakes

PRAGUE - Former Czech President Milos Zeman has reiterated the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) as well as the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the surrender of power to the Taliban were NATO's two fundamental mistakes.

In an interview with the Czech paper Pravo that marked the 25th anniversary of the Czech Republic's joining of NATO, Zeman said he had supported the country's membership in the Western military alliance at the time as well as the bombing of the FRY a week later, but noted that he believed NATO member states had been deceived, having been told that only military targets would be hit.

"We were deceived, and I have said that publicly. Because NATO had told us the bombing would be about military targets only. But, in fact, as you know well, it was also about civilian buildings and, that being the case, it also resulted in civilian casualties," the Czech internet news portal Novinky quoted Zeman as saying in the interview.

He said the Czech Republic had been under great pressure to agree to the bombing and that, ultimately, it had become the last country to do so.

"The majority - myself included, I admit - was in favour of it. Until the last moment, we hoped at least Greece would be against but, strangely enough, they, too, were for it," he said.

He said NATO's main flaw was that it sometimes attempted to play the role of global police, and noted that this had been particularly evident during the attack on Yugoslavia.

"Its flaw is that sometimes it does not really act bravely. Look at the already mentioned departure from Afghanistan. Another flaw is that information from intelligence agencies is not always of good quality. Look at the CIA information about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, for instance. But NATO is still the only thing we can consider our security guarantee," Zeman said.