Humanitarian Bombing

Humanitarian bombing is a phrase referring to the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (24 March – 10 June 1999) during the Kosovo War used by its opponents as an ironic oxymoron in response to the stated goal of NATO to protect Kosovo Albanians, and later about other military interventions stressing human rights reasons. The closely related phrase humanitarian war appeared at the same time.

The phrase is often ascribed to Václav Havel, then President of the Czech Republic, strong proponent of the intervention and critic of Slobodan Milošević's regime. Havel however forcefully refuted his connection to the phrase as such in May 2004, going as far as to call MEP candidate Richard Falbr who criticised him for coining it a liar: "Of course not only I haven't invented the obscure term "humanitarian bombing", but also never even used it and could not have used it, since I have – I dare say – good taste."

It is generally pointed (as Falbr did in response) to Havel's interview for the French newspaper Le Monde published on April 29, 1999 where he used the two parts of the phrase in looser connection:

• French: Dans l'intervention de l'OTAN au Kosovo, je pense qu'il y a un élément que nul ne peut contester: les raids, les bombes, ne sont pas provoqués par un intérêt matériel. Leur caractère est exclusivement humanitaire: ce qui est en jeu ici, ce sont les principes, les droits de l'homme auxquels est accordée une priorité qui passe même avant la souveraineté des Etats. Voilà ce qui rend légitime d'attaquer la Fédération yougoslave, même sans le mandat des Nations unies.
• English: I believe that during intervention of NATO in Kosovo there is an element nobody can question: the air attacks, the bombs, are not caused by a material interest. Their character is exclusively humanitarian: What is at stake here are the principles, human rights which are accorded priority that surpasses even state sovereignty. This makes attacking the Yugoslav Federation legitimate, even without the United Nations mandate.
• Czech: Domnívám se, že během zásahu NATO na Kosovu existuje jeden činitel, o kterém nikdo nemůže pochybovat: nálety, bomby, nejsou vyvolány hmotným zájmem. Jejich povaha je výlučně humanitární: to, co je zde ve hře, jsou principy, lidská práva, jimž je dána taková priorita, která překračuje i státní suverenitu. A to poskytuje útoku na Jugoslávskou federaci legitimitu i bez mandátu Spojených národů.

The phrases "humanitarian bombing" and "humanitarian war" quickly found their way into media. Opponents of the war criticised them as a war propaganda or employed them as an irony. In an ironic sense they are used also about later war campaigns.