Dejan Dikic

I was born in Nis in July 1966. I am a professor at a secondary school. I teach business related to technologies. I am a software engineer. During the NATO bombing I was at home. It was the afternoon, around 15:00, planes were all around. I remember it was a sunny day. It was May 1999.

I could not see the planes. They were flying high because the Serbian artillery was just outside Nis, but I could clearly hear the sound. Everyone was running, and then some bomblets started exploding. At the time I didn’t know that they were cluster munitions. The explosions lasted about 50 minutes. It was a very long time. My eight-year-old son was very distressed and didn’t understand what was going on. We all entered the house, and a moment later I saw a parachute just outside. It was a matter of seconds. I jumped to protect my son. The bomblet exploded at some 50 meters from the house. I got injured, but all the other members of my family were safe. More than 40 shrapnel were found in my house. The facade was destroyed; the signs of the bombing are still visible. One shrapnel entered my knee from one side to the other.