NATO Bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade

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On May 12, the flag at the United States Consulate General in Hong Kong was lowered in respect and sorrow for the Chinese people for a day as the plane carrying the bodies of victims of the embassy bombing came home to Beijing. Simliar gestures were done in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang, along with the US embassy in Beijing. ^[1]

On May 7, 1999 in Operation Allied Force, NATO bombs hit the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, killing three Chinese journalists and outraging Chinese public opinion. At the time of the bombing, the embassy was located in Novi Beograd – later, a new site was designated for the embassy in Dedinje. The United States and NATO later apologized for the bombing, saying that it occurred because of an outdated map provided by the CIA. This was challenged by a joint report from The Observer (UK) and Politiken (Denmark) newspapers [1], which claimed that NATO intentionally bombed the embassy because it was being used as a relay station for Yugoslav army radio signals. The bombing strained relations between China and NATO countries and provoked angry demonstrations outside Western embassies in Beijing.

By the end of 1999, relations began to gradually improve. In October 1999, the two sides reached agreement on humanitarian payments for families of those who died and those who were injured as well as payments for damages to respective diplomatic properties in Belgrade and China.

In 2005, the Centre for Research on Globalization reported that the attack was deliberate and was "based on intelligence that then Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević was to have been in the Embassy at the time of the attack". [2] However, the report does not provide sources or independent confirmation.

The three killed in the attack were: Shao Yunhuan (邵云环), Xu Xinghu (许杏虎) and his wife, Zhu Ying (朱颖).

[edit] CIA explanation

Headquarters of the Yugoslav Federal Directorate for Supply and Procurement (FDSP) was the intended target but the process to locate the target was severely flawed. The technique to locate the coordinates of the FDSP headquarters from the street address should not have been used for aerial targeting because the method only provides an approximate location. The true location of the FDSP headquarters was about 300 meters away from calculated coordinates (the Chinese embassy). This flaw in the address location process went undetected. A secondary process to determine whether any diplomatic or other facilities off-limits to targeting were nearby was also flawed. Multiple databases within the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense all reflected the Embassy in its pre-1996 location in Belgrade. If the databases had accurately located the Chinese Embassy, the misidentification of the FDSP building would have been recognized and corrected. Three days before the bombing, an intelligence officer realized the FDSP building was a block away from the identified location but this information failed to stop the bombing because of miscommunication.^[2]

[edit] References

1. ^ Consulate General of the United States Hong Kong & Macau (1999-08-02). Statements on NATO Bombing of China's Embassy in Belgrade (english) (HTML). U.S. Department of State. Retrieved on 2006-10-04.
2. ^ Tenet, George (1999-07-22). DCI Statement on the Belgrade Chinese Embassy Bombing House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Open Hearing (english) (HTML). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved on 2006-10-04.

[edit] External links

• CIA takes rap for embassy attack by Martin Kettle, The Guardian, April 10, 2000
• Nato bombed Chinese deliberately by John Sweeney and Jens Holsoe in Copenhagen and Ed Vulliamy in Washington, October 17, 1999
• US Air Strike on China's Embassy in Belgrade in 1999 was Deliberate Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, December 29, 2005