Ivana Zigon. A screenshot from Belarus One’s video
MINSK, 30 March (BelTA) – The visit of Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko to Yugoslavia in 1999 was a significant event. The Serb theater and movie actress, director, laureate of the Belarus president’s special prize Ivana Zigon made the statement on the air of the TV channel Belarus One, BelTA has learned.
NATO launched a military operation against Yugoslavia on 24 March 1999. Promises were made that the attacks will target military infrastructure but civilian facilities were also hit. A railway bridge across the Juzna Morava River in the Grdelica gorge was hit. A passenger train was travelling across the bridge at that time. “I cannot help but mention that bridge as I recall those dreadful days. Your president’s arrival was so significant for us,” Ivana Zigon said.
Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko visited Yugoslavia on 14 April 1999. Reporters described it as “a visit under NATO bombs”. NATO did not guarantee safe passage to the Belarusian president’s aircraft. “It was quite an event. As if we had won,” Ivana Zigon stressed.
Aleksandr Lukashenko visited injured people in hospitals. He talked to residents of Belgrade and walked down the streets, which had been hit by air raids. “My father was a prisoner of the Dachau camp. He was a young man and stayed for three years there. He fell in love with Russia there. He watched people die. They died in different ways. He admired Soviet soldiers because he saw that every Soviet soldier died for the Motherland without fear,” Ivana Zigon added. “And my father saw the moment when your president visited an army hospital. There was a child there. A teenager. Your president’s voice was shaking. And my father cried.”
