No one in the Yugoslav capital could have slept through the explosions when three cruise missiles crashed into the 24-storey Palace of Federation in Lenin Boulevard at 3:15 a.m. yesterday. The ugly, monolithic high-rise was a landmark visible from all of Belgrade, and its destruction was eminently symbolic.
It housed the his-and-hers political parties of the Yugoslav President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, and his wife, Mrs Mira Markovic, as well as television and radio stations belonging to her and the couple's daughter, Marija. The title of an American movie - the kind of adventure film that Mrs Markovic's television station, Pink, used to broadcast - came to mind: The Towering Inferno.
Police and firemen would not allow journalists to approach the 1960s structure yesterday for fear it would collapse.
Isolated in a large public park next to the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers, the building housed the headquarters of Mr Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), as well as offices of Mrs Markovic's neo-communist Yugoslav Left party, known by its acronym JUL.
After the blast, someone in JUL's 18th-floor offices defiantly hung two red flags from the windows. The giant roof-top television and radio transmitter was used by Pink, Kosava radio and television, where Ms Marija Milosevic is an editor, and by two other stations.
In her open letter to the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, on April 18th, Mrs Markovic had stated that her daughter was still working at Kosava and that she continues to go to her own party headquarters every day.
The Serbs had expected Mr Cook to reply to the letter, but not via cruise missile.
In war, the Palace of Federation fulfilled the nickname used by Mr Milosevic's passive and silent political opponents, who privately rejoiced in its destruction; it became, literally, "the black building".
Huge sections of its chrome, green and glass facade were blackened, and the base of the giant roof-top television transmitter was splotched with burn marks.
Smoke still poured out of the upper floors late yesterday. But like the Serb leadership itself, the building seemed to defy the laws of nature by remaining standing.
The British Defence Secretary, Mr George Robertson, described the building as "one of the nerve centres that runs the machine that is doing the killing in Kosovo", adding that NATO was striking at the very heart of Mr Milosevic's blood-stained regime. We put the question to Mr Goran Matic, a Yugoslav government minister without portfolio and a close associate of Mrs Markovic.
Wearing a three-piece navy blue suit and well-polished black shoes, Mr Matic twisted a piece of paper nervously and looked up at the still-burning building where he had kept his office.
"This is ridiculous. This is stupid," he said, preferring not to comment on the "blood-stained" bit. "This state is not based upon this building," he continued.
Even if the government wanted to compromise in the war with NATO, he said, it could not: "the people" would not let it.
By launching cruise missiles at Mr Milosevic's party headquarters, NATO clearly indicated that his political apparatus, as well as Yugoslavia's military, is now a target.
But in his remarks to the press, Mr Matic preferred not to mention the presence of political parties and focused entirely on the business offices and four television and radio stations that were shut down by the explosions. "They were not in politics," he asserted.
"They broadcast sports, culture, music. Eighty per cent of Pink's programming was American films. Most of Kosava's music was US and west European."
A third channel, SOS, was the only sports station in the Balkans. "Vlade Divac [a Yugoslav NBA basketball player] used to come here to say hello to the people of Belgrade every time he came home," Mr Matic said.
The directors of SOS and BK, the fourth station that transmitted from the building, were there to support Mr Matic's contention that its destruction constituted an attack on the privately-owned, "independent" press. It is true that neither Pink nor Kosova broadcast news before the war started.
Under the management of Mr Zeljko Mitrovic, one of Mrs Markovic's proteges, Pink created what it called Turbo Folk, a mix of rock, rap and Serbian folk music featuring scantily-clad female singers and dancers.
Turbo Folk and Pink's US films were immensely popular with teenagers, and the station made a fortune advertising imported chewing gum and feminine hygiene products.
For its part, BK is owned by the Karic brothers, a nouveau riche family who are politically and financially allied with the Milosevics.
NATO also destroyed the last bridge over the Danube at Novi Sad early yesterday, ending all rail traffic between Belgrade and Budapest.
Mr Matic accused NATO of establishing "a system of civilian targets that all together amount to a genocide".
Setting aside the minister's hyperbole, Serbs are growing alarmed at the methodical destruction of their country's infrastructure, which will take many years and billions of dollars to repair.
At least 20 loud explosions were heard in Belgrade early, four minutes after air raid sirens warned of a possible attack. Aircraft were also heard amid heavy anti-aircraft fire.