We Were Just Children

Milica Rakić was only three years old when she was killed during a NATO bombing. On April 17, 1999, the second-floor apartment where Milica lived with her family was hit by shrapnel, she was struck by this while in the bathroom and died instantly. Her home was only one kilometer from Batajnica Air Base, which was frequently targeted by NATO during its air campaign. 

She was one of 89 children killed during the NATO air campaign, and though her death was widely covered in the Serbian media, it was not reported by many major Western news outlets. The NATO report on the bombing of Yugoslavia made no mention of her death. 

In 2000, a monument dedicated to all the children killed during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was unveiled in Tašmajdan Park. A bronze sculpture of Milica stands in front of a block of marble inscribed in both Serbian and English with the words “We were just children.”

The monument was commissioned by the newspaper Večernje novosti and financed by donations from readers.