Kosovo War
Part of Yugoslav wars
Clockwise from top: Yugoslav Army Headquarters building destroyed, a car covered in rubble, grave of killed KLA militants, a USAF F-15 takes off
Date 1996–June 11, 1999 Location Kosovo (then a part of FR Yugoslavia) Result NATO victory (Yugoslav troops pulled out, KFOR peacekeepers entered Kosovo) Territorial changes Yugoslav borders according to UNSCR Resolution 1244, Kosovo a de-facto state up to 2007 under UN administration, declared independence in 2008, now de facto sovereign state (de jure still part of Serbia)
Belligerents
NATO+ Active participation:  Belgium  Canada  Denmark  France  Germany  Italy  Netherlands  Norway  Portugal  Spain  Turkey  United Kingdom  United States Kosovo Liberation Army, including foreign fighters	FR Yugoslavia Yugoslav Army Serbian police Serb paramilitary forces, including foreign fighters
Commanders
Wesley Clark-(SACEUR) Javier Solana-(Secretary General) Adem Jashari-(1996-1998) KLA Chief Commander Suleiman Selimi-(KLA Chief of Staff, until May 1999) Agim Çeku-(KLA Chief of Staff, from May 1999)	Slobodan Milošević (Supreme Commander, Army of Yugoslavia) Dragoljub Ojdanić (Chief of the General Staff) Svetozar Marjanović (Deputy Chief of Staff), Nebojša Pavković (Commander, FRY 3rd Army)
Strength
NATO: 1,031+ aircraft[1] KLA: 12,000-20,000 men[2]	Kosovo total: 50,000 (10,000 regulars, 30,000 police, 10,000 irregulars)[1]
Casualties and losses
NATO: 2 non-combat deaths*[3] KLA: Unavailable	(March 24 to June 11, 1999) 576 servicemen killed[1]
between 7,449 and 13,627 Albanian killed by Serb forces**[4] ~600 Serb civilians killed by ethnic Albanian forces[5] ~500 Yugoslav civilians killed by NATO (mainly Serbs)[6]
(*) Military losses according to each side's official figures (**) As of 2001, 3,525 people were remaining missing from the conflict - the vast majority of them ethnic Serbs (but also a small number of other nationalities including Albanians) (+)[4]

The term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is often used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts in Kosovo:

1. 1996–1999: War between Serbian and Yugoslav security forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an ethnic Albanian guerilla group seeking secession from the former Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav Wars were a series of violent conflicts in the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY that took place between 1991 and Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Савезна Република Југославија / Savezna Republika Jugoslavija) or FRY was a federal state The Kosovo Force ( KFOR) is a NATO -led international force responsible for establishing a safe and secure environment in Kosovo, the self-proclaimed independent United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 authorised an international civil and military presence in Kosovo, then part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country The North Atlantic Treaty The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA ( Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) was a Kosovar Albanian guerilla group which sought The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Савезна Република Југославија / Savezna Republika Jugoslavija) or FRY was a federal state The Yugoslav Army ( Serbian: Војска Југославије - ВЈ Vojska Jugoslavije - VJ) was the name of the armed forces of the Federal Republic A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military force but which are not regarded as having the same status Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe ( SHAPE) is the central command of NATO Military forces The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ( NATO) is the chair of the North Atlantic Council, the supreme decision-making organisation of the Adem Jashari ( November 28, 1955 – March 7, 1998) was born in Pristina, Kosovo. Agim Çeku ( Serbo-Croat: Agim Čeku) (born 29 October 1960 in the village of Ćuška near Pejë/Peć, in Kosovo Dragoljub Ojdanić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Драгољуб Ојданић (born June 1, 1941 in Ravni near Užice Kingdom of Yugoslavia was former Nebojša Pavković ( Serbian Cyrillic: Небојша Павковић born in the village of Senjski Rudnik near Ćuprija on April 10, 1946 Police are agents or agencies usually of the executive, empowered to enforce the law and to effect public and social order through the legitimatized use of force Serbs ( Serbian: Срби Srbi) are a South Slavic people living in the Balkans and Central Europe, mainly in Serbia, Serbs ( Serbian: Срби Srbi) are a South Slavic people living in the Balkans and Central Europe, mainly in Serbia, See also Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia ( Serbo-Croatian The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA ( Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) was a Kosovar Albanian guerilla group which sought } Albanians (Shqiptarët are an Ethnic group and a Nation, in the sense of sharing a common Albanian culture speaking the Albanian language
2. 1999: 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between March 24 and June 10, 1999,^[7] during which NATO attacked Yugoslav targets, Albanian guerrillas continued battles with Yugoslav forces, amidst a massive displacement of population in Kosovo. The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (code-named Operation Allied Force) was NATO 's military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that Events 1401 - Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus. 1603 - James VI of Scotland Events 1190 - Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the Sally River while leading an army to Jerusalem Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) ^[8]

Contents 1 Pre-NATO Intervention 1.1 Kosovo in Tito's Yugoslavia (1945–1986) 1.2 Kosovo and the rise of Slobodan Milošević (1986–1990) 1.3 Kosovo under direct Serbian rule (1990–1996) 1.4 The slide to war (1996–1998) 1.5 Račak massacre 1.6 The Rambouillet Conference (January–March 1999) 2 The NATO bombing campaign 3 Yugoslav withdrawal and entry of KFOR 4 Reaction to the war 4.1 Targets of the NATO bombing campaign 5 Criticism of the case for war 6 Casualties 6.1 Civilians killed by NATO airstrikes 6.2 Civilians killed by Yugoslav ground forces 6.3 Civilians killed by the KLA 6.4 NATO losses 6.5 Yugoslav military losses 6.6 KLA losses 6.7 Aftermath 7 War crimes 8 Military and political consequences 9 Military decorations 10 Gallery 11 References 12 See also 13 External links

Pre-NATO Intervention

Kosovo in Tito's Yugoslavia (1945–1986)

Tensions between the two communities had been simmering throughout the 20th century and had occasionally erupted into major violence, particularly during the First Balkan War, World War I and World War II. The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 pitted the Balkan League ( Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Socialist government of Josip Broz Tito systematically repressed nationalist manifestations throughout Yugoslavia, seeking to ensure that no Yugoslav republic or nationality gained dominance over the others. Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution In particular, the power of Serbia—the largest and most populous republic—was diluted by the establishment of autonomous governments in the province of Vojvodina in the north of Serbia and Kosovo in the south. The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина or Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina; Hungarian: Vajdaság Kosovo's borders did not precisely match the areas of ethnic Albanian settlement in Yugoslavia (significant numbers of Albanians were left in the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia, while the far north of Kosovo remained largely ethnic Serbian). Albanians ( Albanian: Shqiptarë, Macedonian: Албанци Albanci) are the largest ethnic minority in the Republic Albanians in Montenegro constitute 503% of the county's total population. Albanians are the majority in Serbian muncipalities of Preševo and Bujanovac and a significant minority in Medvedja. Nonetheless, the majority of its inhabitants since at least the 1921 census were Albanian.

Kosovo's formal autonomy, established under the 1945 Yugoslav constitution, initially meant relatively little in practice. Tito's secret police cracked down hard on nationalists. UDBA or Uprava državne bezbednosti/sigurnosti/varnosti ( Serbian Cyrillic: УДБА Управа државне безбедности ("State Security In 1956, a number of [Albanians] were put on trial in Kosovo on charges of espionage and subversion. The threat of separatism was in fact minimal, as the few underground groups aiming for union with Albania were politically insignificant. This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. Their long-term impact was substantial, though, as some—particularly the Revolutionary Movement for Albanian Unity, founded by Adem Demaci—were much later to form the political core of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Adem Demaçi ( Serbo-Croat: Адем Демаћи or Adem Demaći) (Born February 26, 1936 in Priština, in the The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA ( Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) was a Kosovar Albanian guerilla group which sought Demaci himself was imprisoned in 1964 along with many of his followers.

Yugoslavia underwent a period of economic and political crisis in 1969, as a massive government program of economic reform widened the gap between the rich north and poor south of the country. Student demonstrations and riots in Belgrade in June 1968 spread to Kosovo in November the same year, but were put down by the Yugoslav security forces. Belgrade (Београд Beograd is the Capital and largest city of Serbia. However, some of the students' demands—particularly for real representative powers for Albanians on both Serbian and Yugoslav state bodies, and better recognition of the Albanian language—were conceded by Tito. Albanian (sq ''Gjuha shqipe'' ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ is an Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million peoplewhile others claim that it derives from Daco - University of Priština was established as an independent institution in 1970, ending a long period when the institution had been run as an outpost of Belgrade University. The University of Prishtina as well as the University of Pristina (Universiteti i Prishtinës Serbian: Универзитет у Приштини Univerzitet The University of Belgrade ( Serbian: sr Универзитет у Београду is the oldest and most important institution of higher Education in all of The Albanianisation of education in Kosovo was hampered by the lack of Albanian-language educational materials in Yugoslavia, so an agreement was struck with Albania itself to supply textbooks.

In 1974, Kosovo's political status was improved still further when a new Yugoslav constitution granted an expanded set of political rights. Along with Vojvodina, it was declared a province and gained many of the powers of a fully-fledged republic: a seat on the federal presidency and its own assembly, police force and national bank. Power was still exercised by the Communist Party, but it was now devolved mainly to ethnic Albanian communists.

Tito's death on May 4, 1980 ushered in a long period of political instability, worsened by growing economic crisis and nationalist unrest. Events 1256 - The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) The first major outbreak occurred in Kosovo's main city, Pristina, in March 1981 when Albanian students rioted over long queues in their university canteen. This seemingly trivial dispute rapidly spread throughout Kosovo and took on the character of a national revolt, with massive popular demonstrations in many Kosovo towns. The protesters demanded that Kosovo should become the seventh republic of Yugoslavia. However, this was politically unacceptable to Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia. The Republic of Macedonia (Република Some Serbs (and possibly some Albanian nationalists as well) saw the demands as being a prelude to a "Greater Albania" which could encompass parts of Montenegro, the Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo itself. The term Greater Albania or Great Albania refers to land which is outside the borders of the Republic of Albania that Albanian nationalists claim as their own because Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! The Republic of Macedonia (Република The Communist Yugoslav presidency quelled the disturbances by sending in riot police and the army and proclaiming a state of emergency, although it did not repeal the province's autonomy as some Serbian Communists demanded. The Yugoslav press reported that about 11 people had been killed (although others claimed a death toll as high as 1,000) and another 4,200 were imprisoned.

Kosovo's Communist Party also suffered purges, with several key figures (including its president) expelled. Hardliners instituted a fierce crackdown on nationalism of all kinds, Albanian and Serbian alike. Kosovo endured a heavy secret police presence throughout most of the 1980s that ruthlessly suppressed any unauthorised nationalist manifestations, both Albanian and Serbian. According to a report quoted by Mark Thompson, as many as 580,000 inhabitants of Kosovo were arrested, interrogated, interned or reprimanded. Mark Thompson (born July 31 1957) is Director-General of the BBC, a post he has held since 2004 and a former chief executive of Thousands of these lost their jobs or were expelled from their educational establishments.

During this time, tension between the Albanian and Serbian communities continued to escalate. In 1969, the Serbian Orthodox Church had ordered its clergy to compile data on the ongoing problems of Serbs in Kosovo, seeking to pressure the government in Belgrade to do more to protect the Serbian faithful. The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to The Eastern Orthodox Church: the Eastern Christian churches of Byzantine In February 1982, a group of priests from Serbia proper petitioned their bishops to ask "why the Serbian Church is silent" and why it did not campaign against "the destruction, arson and sacrilege of the holy shrines of Kosovo". Such concerns did attract interest in Belgrade. Stories appeared from time to time in the Belgrade media claiming that Serbs and Montenegrins were being persecuted. There was a genuine perception among Serbian nationalists in particular that Serbs were being driven out of Kosovo. A significant fact contributing to fear and instability was large-scale drug trafficking by mafias of Kosovar Albanians.

An additional factor was the worsening state of Kosovo's economy, which made the province a poor choice for Serbs seeking work. Albanians, as well as Serbs tended to favour their compatriots when employing new recruits, but the number of jobs was in any case too few for the population. To that end, it is believed that a large number of those declaring Albanian ethnicity are in fact from the Roma community who happen to be of Islamic faith. Kosovo was the poorest part of Yugoslavia: in 1979 the average per capita income was $795, compared with the national average of $2,635 (and $5,315 in Slovenia). Per capita income means how much each individual receives in monetary terms of the yearly income generated in the country . .

Kosovo and the rise of Slobodan Milošević (1986–1990)

History of Kosovo
Early history (before 850)
Prehistoric Balkans
Moesia (AD 6 to 850)
Middle Ages (850 to 1455)
First Bulgarian Empire (850 to 1180)
Medieval Serbia
Battle of Kosovo
Ottoman Kosovo (1455 to 1912)
Eyalet of Rumelia
Vilayet of Kosovo
Albanian nationalism
20th century
First Balkan War
Kosovo in the Kingdoms of Serbia and SHS/Yugoslavia
AP Kosovo and Metohija (1946 to 1974)
SAP Kosovo (1974 to 1990)
Kosovo War (1996 to 1999)
UN administration (since 1999)
Kosovo (since February 17, 2008)
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In Kosovo growing Albanian nationalism and separatism in response to persecution led to growing ethnic tensions between Serbs and Albanians. The Kosovo region in the Balkans in antiquity was known as Dardania, and from the 1st century AD formed part of the Roman province of Moesia Prehistoric Balkans is the period of human presence (including early hominins) before the appearance of Indo-European people, which extended Moesia (Μοισία Moisía; Мизия Miziya; Moesia Мезија Mezija) was an ancient region and Roman province situated in the See also History of Kosovo Great migrations and interregnums Slavs came to the territories that form modern Kosovo in the seventh-century The First Bulgarian Empire (Първo Българско царство Părvo Bălgarsko Tsarstvo) was a Medieval Bulgarian state founded in AD 632 Тhe medieval history of Serbia begins in the 5th century AD with the arrival of the Slavs in the Balkans and ends with the occupation of Serbia by the Ottoman Empire in 1459 This page is about the Battle of Kosovo of 1389; for other battles see Battle of Kosovo (disambiguation. Kosovo was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1455 to 1912, at first as part of the Eyalet of Rumelia, and from 1864 as a separate Rumelia or Rumeli ( Turkish: Rumeli ("Land of the Romans" from Rum: "Greek" "Roman" and El The Province of Kosovo (Vilayet of Kosovo (Vilajeti i Kosovës Macedonian: Покраина на Косово Pokraina na Kosovo; Serbian: Косовски The rise of Albanian nationalism See also Rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire The 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War dealt a decisive blow to Ottoman 20th century history of Kosovo is filled with wars both civil and world wars and how they have constructed and deconstructed the county in the last one hundred years The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 pitted the Balkan League ( Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria The Kingdom of Serbia ( Serbian Cyrillic: Краљевина Србија Serbian Latinica Kraljevina Srbija) was created when Prince Milan Obrenović ruler The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croato-Slovene ie Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene: Kraljevina Jugoslavija The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija was an autonomous province of Serbia, within the larger federation of Yugoslavia from 1946 to 1974 when it Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo ( Serbo-Croatian: Социјалистичка Аутономна Покрајина Косово Socijalistička Autonomna The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo or UNMIK is the interim civilian administration in Kosovo, under the authority of the United An increasingly poisonous atmosphere led to wild rumours being traded and otherwise trivial incidents being blown out of proportion.

It was against this tense background that the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU, from its Serbian initials, САНУ) conducted a survey under Serbs who had left Kosovo in 1985/1986. The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( Serbian: Српска академија наука и уметности / Srpska Akademija Nauka i Umetnosti; САНУ ^[9] The report concluded that a considerable part of those who had left had been under pressure by Albanians to do so.

Sixteen prominent members of the SANU began work in June 1985 on a draft document that was leaked to the public in September 1986. The SANU Memorandum, as it has become known, was hugely controversial. The Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts was a draft document produced by a committee of the Serbian Academy from 1985 to 1986 It focused on the political difficulties facing Serbs in Yugoslavia, pointing to Tito's deliberate hobbling of Serbia's power and the difficulties faced by Serbs outside Serbia proper.

The Memorandum paid special attention to Kosovo, arguing that the province's Serbs were being subjected to "physical, political, legal and cultural genocide" in an "open and total war" that had been ongoing since the spring of 1981. It claimed that Kosovo's status in 1986 was a worse historical defeat for the Serbs than any event since liberation from the Ottomans in 1804, thus ranking it above such catastrophes as the Nazi occupation or the First World War occupation of Serbia by the Austro-Hungarians. The Memorandum's authors claimed that 200,000 Serbs had moved out of the province over the previous twenty years and warned that there would soon be none left "unless things change radically. " The remedy, according to the Memorandum, was for "genuine security and unambiguous equality for all peoples living in Kosovo and Metohija [to be] established" and "objective and permanent conditions for the return of the expelled [Serbian] nation [to be] created. " It concluded that "Serbia must not be passive and wait and see what the others will say, as it has done so often in the past. "

The SANU Memorandum met with many different reactions. The Albanians saw it as a call for Serbian supremacism at a local level. They claimed that all Serb emigrants had left Kosovo for economic reasons. Other Yugoslav nationalities—notably the Slovenes and Croats—saw a threat in the call for a more assertive Serbia. Serbs themselves were divided: many welcomed it, while the Communist old guard strongly attacked its message. One of those who denounced it was a Serbian Communist Party official named Slobodan Milošević.

In November 1988, Kosovo's head of the provincial committee was arrested. In March 1989, Milošević announced an "anti-bureaucratic revolution" in Kosovo and Vojvodina, curtailing their autonomy and imposing a curfew and a state of emergency in Kosovo due to violent demonstrations, resulting in 24 deaths (including two policemen). The term " Anti-bureaucratic revolution " refers to a series of mass Protests against governments of Yugoslavian republics and autonomous provinces during Milošević and his government claimed that the constitutional changes were necessary to protect Kosovo's remaining Serbs against harassment from the Albanian majority.

Kosovo under direct Serbian rule (1990–1996)

Slobodan Milošević took the process of retrenchment a stage further in 1990 when he revoked the autonomy of Kosovo and Vojvodina and replaced locally chosen leaders with his sympathizers. Crucially, as both provinces had a vote in the eight member Yugoslav Presidency, this gave Milosevic an automatic four votes when combined with Serbia and Montenegro (which was closely allied to Serbia). Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia thus had to maintain an uneasy alliance to prevent Milošević from driving through constitutional changes. Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Republika Slovenija) is a Country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan The Republic of Macedonia (Република Serbia's political changes were ratified in a 5 July 1990 referendum across the entire republic of Serbia, including Kosovo. Events 1295 - Scotland and France form an alliance the beginnings of the Auld Alliance, against England. Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) A referendum (plural referendums or referenda) ballot question, or plebiscite (from Latin plebiscita As a result of these measures more than 80,000 Kosovo Albanians were expelled from their state jobs in Kosovo. A new Serb curriculum was imposed in all higher education in Kosovo-- a move which was rejected by Albanians who responded by creating their parallel education system.

The impact on Kosovo was drastic. The reduction of its autonomy was accompanied by the abolition of its political institutions (including the League of Communists of Kosovo), with its assembly and government being formally disbanded. The League of Communists of Kosovo was the Kosovo branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990 As most of Kosovo's industry was state-owned, the changes brought a wholesale change of corporate cadres. Technically, few were sacked outright: their companies required them to sign loyalty pledges, which most Albanians would not sign, although a few did and remained employed in Serbian state companies right up to 1999.

Albanian cultural autonomy was also drastically reduced. The only Albanian-language newspaper, Ridilin, was banned and TV and radio broadcasts in Albanian ceased. Albanian was no longer an official language of the province. University of Prishtina, seen as a hotbed of Albanian nationalism, was purged: 800 lecturers at Pristina University were sacked and 22,500 of the 23,000 students expelled. The University of Prishtina as well as the University of Pristina (Universiteti i Prishtinës Serbian: Универзитет у Приштини Univerzitet Some 40,000 Yugoslav troops and police replaced the original Albanian-run security forces. A punitive regime was imposed that was harshly condemned as a "police state". The term police state describes a State in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social economic and political Poverty and unemployment reached catastrophic levels, with about 80% of Kosovo's population becoming unemployed. As many as a third of adult male Albanians chose to go abroad (particularly to Germany and Switzerland) to find work. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation

With Kosovo's Communist Party effectively broken up by Milošević's crackdown, the dominant Albanian political party position passed to the Democratic League of Kosovo, led by the writer Ibrahim Rugova. The Democratic League of Kosovo ( Albanian: Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës, LDK is the 2nd largest Political party in Prof Dr Ibrahim Rugova ( December 2, 1944 – January 21, 2006) was a politician of Albanian descent who was the first It responded to the abolition of Kosovo's autonomy by pursuing a policy of peaceful resistance. Rugova took the very practical line that armed resistance would be futile given Serbia's military strength and would lead only to a bloodbath in the province. He called on the Albanian populace to boycott the Yugoslav and Serbian states by not participating in any elections, by ignoring the military draft (compulsory in Yugoslavia) and most important by not paying any taxes or duties to the State. Conscription (also known as the draft, the call-up or national service) is a general term for involuntary labor demanded by some established authority He also called for the creation of parallel Albanian schools, clinics and hospitals. In September 1991, the shadow Kosovo Assembly organized a referendum on independence for Kosovo. A referendum (plural referendums or referenda) ballot question, or plebiscite (from Latin plebiscita Despite widespread harassment and violence by Serbian security forces, the referendum achieved a reported 90% turnout among the province's Albanians, and a 98% vote—nearly a million votes in all—which approved the creation of an independent "Republic of Kosovo". In May 1992, a second referendum elected Rugova as President of Kosovo. The Serbian government declared that both referendums were illegal and their results null and void.

The slide to war (1996–1998)

The Kosovo War
Prior to the NATO intervention
Kosovo Liberation Army insurgency Račak killings
NATO intervention
NATO intervention Civilian casualties
Other articles
Legitimacy Humanitarian bombing Other: Images This box: view • talk • edit

Rugova's policy of passive resistance succeeded in keeping Kosovo quiet during the war with Slovenia, and the wars in Croatia and Bosnia during the early 1990s. The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA ( Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) was a Kosovar Albanian guerilla group which sought The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (code-named Operation Allied Force) was NATO 's military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that Civilian casualties as a result of Operation Allied Force were significant The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia took place during the Kosovo War. Humanitarian bombing is a Phrase referring to the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ( 24 March – 10 June 1999 Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Republika Slovenija) is a Country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan However, as evidenced by the emergence of the KLA, this came at the cost of increasing frustration among the Albanian population of Kosovo. In the mid-1990s, Rugova pleaded for a United Nations peacekeeping force for Kosovo. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security In 1997, Milošević was promoted to the presidency of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (comprising Serbia and Montenegro since its inception in April 1992). The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Савезна Република Југославија / Savezna Republika Jugoslavija) or FRY was a federal state

Continuing Serbian repression had radicalized many Albanians, some of whom decided that only armed resistance would effect a change in the situation. On April 22, 1996, four attacks on Serbian security personnel were carried out virtually simultaneously in several parts of Kosovo. Events 1500 - Portuguese Navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral becomes the first European to sight Brazil. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) A hitherto unknown organization calling itself the "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA) subsequently claimed responsibility. The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA ( Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) was a Kosovar Albanian guerilla group which sought The nature of the KLA was at first highly mysterious. In fact, it was initially a small, mainly clan-based but not very well organised group of radicalised Albanians, many of whom came from the Drenica region of western Kosovo. The KLA at this stage consisted mainly of local farmers and displaced and unemployed workers.

It is widely believed that the KLA received financial and material support from the Kosovo Albanian diaspora, ^[10] and from Albanian drug lords established elsewhere in Europe. ^[11] In early 1997, Albania collapsed into chaos following the fall of President Sali Berisha. This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. (born October 15, 1944) is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania. Military stockpiles were looted with impunity by criminal gangs, with much of the hardware ending up in western Kosovo and so boosting the growing KLA arsenal. Bujar Bukoshi, shadow Prime Minister in exile (in Zürich, Switzerland), created a group called FARK (Armed Forces of the Republic of Kosova) which was reported to have been disbanded and absorbed by the KLA in 1998. Bujar Bukoshi (born 1947) is a former Kosovar Albanian politician who served as Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosova from 1991 Zürich (, Zürich German: Züri, Zurich, Zurigo; in English generally Zurich) is the largest city in Switzerland and capital of the Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation The Armed Forces of the Republic of Kosova ( Forcat e Armatosura të Republikës së Kosovës; FARK or AFRK) was a guerilla group in Kosovo

Most Albanians saw the KLA as legitimate "freedom fighters" whilst the Yugoslav government labelled them as "terrorists" attacking police and civilians. Freedom fighter is a term to describe those that engage in a struggle to achieve freedom for themselves or to free others in some matter

In 1998, the U. S. State Department listed the KLA as a terrorist organization, ^[11], and 1999 the Republican Policy Committee of the U.S. Senate has expressed its troubles with the alliance of the Clinton administration with the KLA due to numerous reports from reputable unofficial sources that the KLA is closely involved with "the extensive Albanian crime network" and with "terrorist organizations motivated by the ideology of radical Islam, including assets of Iran and of the notorious Osama Bin Laden". The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives Osama bin Laden, with some spelling variations is the name used in English to refer to (أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن born 10 March ^[12] On 2000, a BBC article stated that Nato at War shows how the United States, which had described the KLA as "terrorist", now sought to form a relationship with it. ^[13]

The U. S. envoy Robert Gelbard referred to the KLA as terrorists. ^[14] Respoding to criticism, he later clarified to the House Committee on International Relations that "while it has committed 'terrorist acts,' it has 'not been classified legally by the U. S. Government as a terrorist organization. '" ^[12]. On June 2008, he held talks with two men who claim they are political leaders. ^[14]

It should also be noted that neither the United States nor the other influential powers made any serious effort to stop money or weapons being channeled into Kosovo.

Meanwhile, the U. S. held an "outer wall of sanctions" on Yugoslavia which had been tied to a series of issues, Kosovo being one of them. These were maintained despite the agreement at Dayton to end all sanctions. The Clinton administration claimed that Dayton bound Yugoslavia to hold discussions with Rugova over Kosovo.

The crisis escalated in December 1997 at the Peace Implementation Council meeting in Bonn, where the International Community (as defined in the Dayton Agreement) agreed to give the High Representative in Bosnia sweeping powers, including the right to dismiss elected leaders. The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol At the same time, Western diplomats insisted that Kosovo be discussed, and that Serbia and Yugoslavia be responsive to Albanian demands there. The delegation from Serbia stormed out of the meetings in protest.

This was followed by the return of the Contact Group that oversaw the last phases of the Bosnian conflict and declarations from European powers demanding that Serbia solve the problem in Kosovo.

KLA attacks had suddenly intensified, centered on the Drenica valley area, with the compound of one Adem Jashari being a particular focal point. Drenica (Drenica or Drenicë; Serbian: Дреница also known as the Drenica Valley is a hilly region in central Kosovo, covering 1200 square Adem Jashari ( November 28, 1955 – March 7, 1998) was born in Pristina, Kosovo. Days after Robert Gelbard described the KLA as a terrorist group, Serbian police responded to the KLA attacks in the Likosane area, and pursued some of the KLA to Cirez, resulting in the deaths of 30 Albanian civilians and four Serbian policemen. ^[15] The first serious action of the war had begun.

Despite some accusations of summary executions and killings of civilians, condemnations from Western capitals were not as voluble as they would become later. Serb police began to pursue Jashari and his followers in the village of Donje Prekaz. A massive firefight at the Jashari compound led to the killing of a further 60 Albanians, of which eighteen were women and ten were under the age of sixteen. ^[16] This March 5 event provoked massive condemnation from the western capitals. Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a Madeleine Albright stated that "this crisis is not an internal affair of the FRY". Madeleine Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová on May 15, 1937) was the first woman to become United States Secretary of State.

On the 24th of March, Serbian forces surrounded the village of Glodjane, in the Dukagjin operational zone, and attacked a rebel compound there. The Yugoslav Army ( Serbian: Војска Југославије - ВЈ Vojska Jugoslavije - VJ) was the name of the armed forces of the Federal Republic The T-54 and T-55 tank were a series of Main battle tanks designed by the Soviet Union. ^[17] Despite their superior firepower, the Serbian forces failed to destroy the KLA unit which had been their objective. Although there were deaths and severe injuries on the Albanian side, the insurgency in Glodjane was far from stamped out. It was in fact to become one of the strongest centers of resistance in the upcoming war.

Another centre of KLA activity was a part of northern Albania near the border, centered in the town of Tropoje. The District of Tropojë (Rrethi i Tropojës is one of the thirty-six Districts of Albania. Following the 1997 Albanian civil conflict, parts of Albania ended up beyond the reach of national authorities. Moreover, the Albanian army's armories were looted. Many of these looted weapons ended up in the hands of the KLA whilst the KLA took over the border area. This was a staging ground for attacks and for shipping weapons to the Drenica stronghold. The path between these areas crossed Djakovica, the plains of Metohija, and to the Klina opstina, and were those areas hardest hit by KLA activity in the beginning.

The KLA's first goal was thus to merge its Drenica stronghold with their stronghold in Albania proper, and this would shape the first few months of the fighting. It also appealed for support from the Western and Islamic worlds, including from mujahedin. A Mujahid (Arabic ar مجاهد, literally "struggler" is a Muslim involved in a Jihad, id est fighting in a war or

The Serbs also continued their efforts at diplomacy, attempting to arrange talks with Ibrahim Rugova's staff (talks which Rugova and his staff refused to attend). After several failed meetings, Ratko Marković, chairman of the Serbian delegation to the meetings, invited representatives of Kosovo minority groups to attend and maintained his invitation to the Albanians. Serbian President Milan Milutinović attended one of the meetings, though Rugova did not. Milan Milutinović ( Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Милутиновић born 19 December, 1942 in Belgrade, is a former President of Serbia He and his staff insisted on talking to Yugoslav officials, not Serbian ones, and only to discuss the modalities of Kosovo independence.

A new Serbian government was also formed at this time, led by the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Serbian Radical Party. The Socialist Party of Serbia (Социјалистичка партија Србије Socijalistička partija Srbije) is a Political party in Serbia. The Serbian Radical Party (Српска радикална странка or Srpska radikalna stranka, SRS is a Nationalist right-wing Political party Ultra-nationalist Radical Party chairman Vojislav Šešelj became a deputy prime minister. Vojislav Šešelj ( Serbian Cyrillic: Војислав Шешељ ˈvɔjislav ˈʃɛʃɛʎ (b This increased the dissatisfaction with Serbia's position among Western diplomats and spokespersons.

In early April, Serbia arranged for a referendum on the issue of foreign interference in Kosovo. Serbian voters decisively rejected foreign interference in this internal affair. Meanwhile, the KLA claimed much of the area in and around Decani and ran a territory based in the village of Glodjane, encompassing its surroundings. The side of a church choir occupied by the Dean In English churches this is typically the Choir stalls on the south side of the Chancel, although there are some notable exceptions So, on May 31, 1998, the Yugoslav army and the Serb Ministry of the Interior police began an operation to clear the border of the KLA. Events 1279 BC - Rameses II (The Great (19th dynasty becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) This lasted several days and led to bomb threats from the western capitals, including reports which claimed summary executions and killings of civilians. NATO's response to this offensive was mid-June's Operation Determined Falcon, an air show over the Yugoslav borders.

During this time, the Yugoslav President Milošević reached an arrangement with Boris Yeltsin of Russia to stop offensive operations and prepare for talks with the Albanians, who, through this whole crisis, refused to talk to the Serbian side, but not the Yugoslav. In fact, the only meeting between Milošević and Ibrahim Rugova took place on 15 May, in Belgrade, two days after Richard Holbrooke announced that it would take place. Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (born April 24, 1941 to a Russian Jewish and German Jewish family in New York City) is an American One month later, Holbrooke, after a trip to Belgrade where he threatened to Milosevic that if he did not obey "what's left of your country will implode", he visited the border areas affected by the fighting in early June; there he was famously photographed with the KLA. The publication of these images sent a signal to the KLA, its supporters and sympathisers, and to observers in general, that the U. S. was decisively backing the KLA.

The Yeltsin agreement included Milosevic's allowing international representatives to set up a mission in Kosovo-Metohija to monitor the situation there. This was the Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission (KOM) that began operations in early July. Kom or KOM can refer to KOM (BBS, a type of text-based BBS system KOM, Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission The American government welcomed this part of the agreement, but denounced the initiative's call for a mutual cease fire. Rather, the Americans demanded that the Serbian-Yugoslavian side should cease fire "without linkage. . . to a cessation in terrorist activities".

All through June and into mid July, the KLA maintained its advance. KLA surrounded Peć, Djakovica, and had set up an interim capital in the town of Mališevo (to the north of Orahovac). Peć is a city and municipality in north-western Kosovo. It is also the administrative centre of the homonymous district. Đakovica, Djakovica or Gjakova ( Albanian: Gjakova or Gjakovë; Mališevo or Malisheva ( Albanian Malishevë or Malisheva; Serbian: Малишево Mališevo) is a town and Orahovac or Rahovec ( Albanian: Rahovec or Rahoveci, Serbian Cyrillic The KLA troops were infiltrating Suva Reka, and north to the area west of Priština. Suva Reka or Suhareka ( Albanian: Suhareka, Suharekë, or Theranda, Therandë; Serbian: Сува Река They threatened the Belacevec coal pits and captured them in late June, threatening energy supplies in the region.

The tide turned in mid-July when the KLA captured Orahovac. On the 17th of July 1998 in the two close by villages to Orahovac, Retimlije and Opteruša, all the Serb males were kidnapped and later found dead. Similar, even if less systematic incidents took place in the town of Orahovac and the larger Serb village Velika hoċa. The Orthodox monastery of Zociste 5 km from Orehovac - famous for the relics of the Saints Kosmas and Damianos and revered also by local Albanians - was robbed, its monks deported to a KLA prison camp, and, while empty, the monastery church and all its buildings were leveled to the ground by mining. This led to a series of Serb and Yugoslav offensives which would continue into the beginning of August.

A new set of KLA attacks in mid-August triggered Yugoslavian operations in south-central Kosovo-Metohija south of the Pristina-Pec road. This wound down with the capture of Klecka on 23 August and the discovery of a KLA-run crematorium in which some of their victims were found. The 1st of September featured a KLA offensive around Prizren, causing Yugoslavian military activity there. Prizren ( Albanian: Prizren or Prizreni, Serbian Cyrillic: Призрен is a historical city located in southern Kosovo. In Metohija, around Pec, another offensive caused condemnation as international officials expressed fear that a large column of displaced people would be attacked. This followed the fall of Donji Ratis where the KLA kept a mass grave; about 60 bodies were found there of recently "disappeared" Serbs and other Kosovo citizens.

In early mid-September, for the first time, some KLA activity was reported in northern Kosovo around Podujevo. Podujevo or Podujeva ( Albanian: Podujevë, Podujeva or Besiana; Serbian: Подујево Podujevo) is Finally, in late September, a determined effort was made to clear the KLA out of the northern and central parts of Kosovo and out of the Drenica valley itself. During this time many threats were made from Western capitals but these were tempered somewhat by the elections in Bosnia, as they did not want Serbian Democrats and Radicals to win. Following the elections, however, the threats intensified once again but a galvanising event was needed. They got it on September 28, when the mutilated corpses of a family were discovered by KDOM outside the village of Gornje Obrinje; the bloody doll from there became the rallying image for the ensuing war. Events 48 BC - Pompey the Great is assassinated on orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt.

The other major issue for those who saw no option but to resort to the use of force was the estimated 250,000 displaced Albanians, 30,000 of whom were out in the woods, without warm clothing or shelter, with winter approaching.

Meanwhile, the U. S. Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonia, Christopher Hill, was leading shuttle diplomacy between an Albanian delegation, led by Rugova, and the Yugoslav and Serbian authorities. The Republic of Macedonia (Република Christopher Robert Hill (born 1952 is an American Diplomat who currently serves as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. It was these meetings which were shaping what was to be the peace plan to be discussed during a period of planned NATO occupation of Kosovo.

During a period of two weeks, threats intensified, culminating in NATO's Activation Order being given. All was ready for the bombs to fly; Richard Holbrooke went to Belgrade in the hope of reaching an agreeming with Milošević with regards to deploying a NATO presence in Kosovo. With him came General Michael Short, who threatened to destroy Belgrade. Long and painful discussions led to the Kosovo Verification Agreement on October 12, 1998. Events 539 BC - The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar)

Officially, the international community demanded an end to fighting. It specifically demanded that the Serbs end its offensives against the KLA, (without mention of an end to KLA-perpetrated attacks), whilst attempting to convince the KLA to drop its bid for independence. Moreover, attempts were made to persuade Milošević to permit NATO peacekeeping troops to enter Kosovo. This, they argued, would allow for the Christopher Hill peace process to proceed and yield a peace agreement. A ceasefire was brokered, commencing on October 25, 1998. Events 1147 - The Portuguese, under Afonso I, and Crusaders from England and Flanders conquer Lisbon after a Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) It feaured the Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM), which was large contingent of unarmed OSCE peace monitors (officially known as verifiers) moved into Kosovo. Their inadequacy was evident from the start. They were nicknamed the "clockwork oranges" in reference to their brightly coloured vehicles (in English, a "clockwork orange" signifies a useless object. ) The ceasefire broke down within a matter of weeks and fighting resumed in December 1998 after the KLA occupied some bunkers overlooking the strategic Priština-Podujevo highway, not long after the Panda Bar Massacre, when the KLA shot up a cafe in Peć. A couple of days after the massacre, the KLA assassinated the mayor of Kosovo Polje. Kosovo Polje or Fushë Kosova ( Albanian Fushë Kosovë or Fushë Kosova; Serbian Косово Поље or Kosovo Polje

The January to March 1999 phase of the war brought increasing insecurity in urban areas, including bombings and murders. Such attacks took place during the Rambouillet talks in February and as the Kosovo Verification Agreement unravelled in March. Killings on the roads continued and increased and there were military confrontations in, among other places, the Vucitrn area in February and the heretofore unaffected Kacanik area in early March.

Račak massacre

KLA attacks and Serbian reprisals continued throughout the winter of 1998–1999, culminating on January 15, 1999 with the Račak massacre. The UAZ-469 is an all-terrain vehicle manufactured by UAZ. It was used by the Red Army and other Warsaw Pact forces as well as paramilitary units in The M53/59 Praga was a Czechoslovak Self-propelled anti-aircraft gun developed in the late 1950s Events 588 BC - Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah 's reign Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) The incident was immediately (before the investigation) condemned as a massacre by the Western countries and the United Nations Security Council, and later became the basis of one of the charges of war crimes leveled against Milošević and his top officials. The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings The details of what happened at Račak were revealed shortly after Serb paramilitaries left the scene of the massacre. Rolling TV cameras featured United States Ambassador William Walker walking through mutilated bodies of Albanians. William Graham Walker (born 1935 is a veteran United States Foreign Service diplomat who has notably served as the US Ambassador to El Salvador and as the head Shortly after that he held a press conference where he stated that he had just witnessed Serbian crimes against civilians[2]. The massacre was the turning point of the war. NATO decided that the conflict could only be settled by introducing a military peacekeeping force under the auspices of NATO, to forcibly restrain the two sides. The North Atlantic Treaty A carefully coordinated set of diplomatic initiatives was announced simultaneously on January 30, 1999:

• NATO issued a statement announcing that it was prepared to launch air strikes against Yugoslav targets "to compel compliance with the demands of the international community and [to achieve] a political settlement". Events 1648 - Eighty Years' War: The Treaty of Münster is signed ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) While this was most obviously a threat to the Milošević government, it also included a coded threat to the Albanians: any decision would depend on the "position and actions of the Kosovo Albanian leadership and all Kosovo Albanian armed elements in and around Kosovo. " In effect, NATO was saying to the Serbs "make peace or we'll bomb you" and to the Albanians "make peace or we'll abandon you to the Serbs. "

• The Contact Group issued a set of "non-negotiable principles" which made up a package known as "Status Quo Plus"—effectively the restoration of Kosovo's pre-1990 autonomy within Serbia, plus the introduction of democracy and supervision by international organisations. It also called for a peace conference to be held in February 1999 at the Château de Rambouillet, outside Paris. The château de Rambouillet is a palace in the town of Rambouillet, Yvelines department, France 50 km (30 miles southwest of Paris. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city

The Rambouillet Conference (January–March 1999)

The Rambouillet talks began on February 6, with NATO Secretary General Javier Solana negotiating with both sides. The Rambouillet Agreement is the name of a proposed peace agreement between then- Yugoslavia and a delegation representing the ethnic- Albanian majority population of Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats the combined army of Pompeian followers and Numidians under Metellus Scipio The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ( NATO) is the chair of the North Atlantic Council, the supreme decision-making organisation of the Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga, PhD (born 14 July 1942 in Madrid, Spain is the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP They were intended to conclude by February 19. Events 197 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum The Serbian delegation was led by then president of Serbia Milan Milutinović, while Milošević himself remained in Belgrade. Milan Milutinović ( Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Милутиновић born 19 December, 1942 in Belgrade, is a former President of Serbia This was in contrast to the 1995 Dayton conference that ended war in Bosnia, where Milošević negotiated in person. The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol The absence of Milošević was interpreted as a sign that the real decisions were being made back in Belgrade, a move that aroused criticism in Serbia as well as abroad; Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox bishop Artemije traveled all the way to Rambouillet to protest that the delegation was wholly unrepresentative.

The first phase of negotiations was successful as can be seen in the historical evidence. In particular, the statement by the Contact Group co-chairmen on the 23 February 1999 that the negotiations have led to a consensus on substantial autonomy for Kosovo, including on mechanisms for free and fair elections to democratic institutions, for the governance of Kosovo, for the protection of human rights and the rights of members of national communities; and for the establishment of a fair judicial system. Events 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western Book printed from Movable Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) They went on to say that a political framework is now in place leaving the further work of finalizing the implementation Chapters of the Agreement, including the modalities of the invited international civilian and military presence in Kosovo. During the next month, however, NATO, under the influence of US diplomats Rubin and Albright, sought to impose a forced, as opposed to invited, military presence. The tilting of NATO towards the KLA organisation is chronicled in the BBC Television "Moral Combat: NATO at War" program. ^[18] This happened despite the fact, quoting General Klaus Naumann (Chairman of NATO Military Committee), that Ambassador Walker stated in the NAC (North Atlantic Council) that the majority of [ceasefire] violations was caused by the KLA. Klaus Naumann, KBE (born May 25 1939 in Munich) is a retired German General, who was Inspector General of the Bundeswehr

In the end, on 18 March 1999, the Albanian, American and British delegation signed what became known as the Rambouillet Accords while the Serbian and Russian delegations refused. Events 37 - The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius ' will and proclaims Caligula emperor Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) The Rambouillet Agreement is the name of a proposed peace agreement between then- Yugoslavia and a delegation representing the ethnic- Albanian majority population of The accords called for NATO administration of Kosovo as an autonomous province within Yugoslavia; a force of 30,000 NATO troops to maintain order in Kosovo; an unhindered right of passage for NATO troops on Yugoslav territory, including Kosovo; and immunity for NATO and its agents to Yugoslav law. The American and British delegations must have known that the new version would never be accepted by the Serbs or the Contact Group. These latter provisions were much the same as had been applied to Bosnia for the SFOR (Stabilisation Force) mission there. The Stabilisation Force (SFOR was a NATO -led multinational force in Bosnia and Herzegovina which was tasked with upholding the Dayton Agreement.

While the accords did not fully satisfy the Albanians, they were much too radical for the Serbs, who responded by substituting a drastically revised text that even the Russians, traditional allies of the Serbs, found unacceptable. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending It sought to reopen the painstakingly negotiated political status of Kosovo and deleted all of the proposed implementation measures. Among many other changes in the proposed new version, it eliminated the entire chapter on humanitarian assistance and reconstruction, removed virtually all international oversight and dropped any mention of invoking "the will of the people [of Kosovo]" in determining the final status of the province. Even the word "peace" was deleted.

Events proceeded rapidly after the failure at Rambouillet.

In the week before the start of NATO bombing, Arkan appeared at the Hyatt hotel in Belgrade where most of Western journalists were staying and ordered all of them to leave Serbia. Željko Ražnatović (ˈʑěʎko raˈʑnâtovitɕ Serbian cyrillic: Жељко Ражнатовић widely known as Arkan (Аркан (April 17 1952 Hyatt is an international brand of hotels within the Global Hyatt Corporation that operates numerous properties The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings ^[19]

The international monitors from the OSCE withdrew on March 22, for fear of the monitors' safety ahead of the anticipated NATO bombing campaign. Events 238 - Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperor. On March 23, the Serbian assembly accepted the principle of autonomy for Kosovo^[20] and non-military part of the agreement. Events 1174 - Jocelin, Abbot of Melrose, is elected Bishop of Glasgow. But the Serbian side had objections to the military part of the Rambouillet agreement, appendix B in particular,^[21] which it characterized as "NATO occupation". The full document was described "fraudulent" because the military part of the agreement was offered only at the very end of the talks without much possibility for negotiation, and because the other side, condemned in harshest terms as a "separatist–terrorist delegation", completely refused to meet delegation of FRY and negotiate directly during the Rambouillet talks at all. The following day, March 24, NATO bombing began. Events 1401 - Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus. 1603 - James VI of Scotland

The NATO bombing campaign

Main article: 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

NATO's bombing campaign lasted from March 24 to June 11, 1999, involving up to 1,000 aircraft operating mainly from bases in Italy and aircraft carriers stationed in the Adriatic. Aviano Air Base is a NATO Airbase in northeastern Italy, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Events 1401 - Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus. 1603 - James VI of Scotland Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) Sremska Mitrovica ( Serbian Cyrillic: Сремска Митровица is a city and municipality located Events 1401 - Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus. 1603 - James VI of Scotland Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Tomahawk cruise missiles were also extensively used, fired from aircraft, ships and submarines. The Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM is a long-range all-weather subsonic cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided Missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system usually a Jet engine, to allow All of the NATO members were involved to some degree—even Greece, despite publicly opposing the war. Over the ten weeks of the conflict, NATO aircraft flew over 38,000 combat missions. For the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) it was the first time it had participated in a conflict since World War II.

The proclaimed goal of the NATO operation was summed up by its spokesman as "Serbs out, peacekeepers in, refugees back". Serbs ( Serbian: Срби Srbi) are a South Slavic people living in the Balkans and Central Europe, mainly in Serbia, That is, Yugoslav troops would have to leave Kosovo and be replaced by international peacekeepers in order to ensure that the Albanian refugees could return to their homes. The campaign was initially designed to destroy Yugoslav air defences and high-value military targets. It did not go very well at first, with bad weather hindering many sorties early on. NATO had seriously underestimated Milošević's will to resist: few in Brussels thought that the campaign would last more than a few days, and although the initial bombardment was more than just a pin-prick, it was nowhere near the concentrated bombardments seen in Baghdad in 1991. On the ground, the ethnic cleansing campaign by the Serbians was stepped up and within a week of the war starting, over 300,000 Kosovo Albanians had fled into neighboring Albania and Macedonia, with many thousands more displaced within Kosovo. By April, the United Nations was reporting that 850,000 people—the vast majority of them Albanians—had fled their homes.

NATO military operations switched increasingly to attacking Yugoslav units on the ground—hitting targets as small as individual tanks and artillery pieces—as well as continuing with the strategic bombardment. This activity was, however, heavily constrained by politics, as each target needed to be approved by all nineteen members states. Montenegro was bombed on several occasions but NATO eventually desisted in order to prop up the precarious position of its anti-Milošević leader, Đukanović. Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! Milo Đukanović ( Serbian Cyrillic: Мило Ђукановић (born 15 February, 1962) is the Prime Minister of Montenegro. So-called "dual-use" targets, of use to both civilians and the military, were attacked: this included bridges across the Danube, factories, power stations, telecommunications facilities and—particularly controversially—the headquarters of Yugoslavian Leftists, a political party led by Milošević's wife, and the Serbian state television broadcasting tower. Dual-use is a term often used in Politics and Diplomacy to refer to Technology which can be used for both Peaceful and Military aims The Danube (In Donau from earlier Danuvius, Celtic *dānu, meaning "to flow run" Slovak and Polish Dunaj Yugoslav Left ( Serbo-Croat: Југословенска Левица Jugoslovenska Levica; abbreviated ЈУЛ, JUL) is a political Some saw these actions as violations of international law and the Geneva Conventions in particular. The Geneva Conventions consist of four Treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland, that set the standards for International law for humanitarian NATO however argued that these facilities were potentially useful to the Yugoslav military and that their bombing was therefore justified.

At the start of May, a NATO aircraft attacked an Albanian refugee convoy, believing it was a Yugoslav military convoy, killing around 50 people. NATO admitted its mistake 5 days later, but the Serbs accused NATO of deliberately attacking the refugees. On May 7, NATO bombs hit the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese journalists and outraging Chinese public opinion. Events 558 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses See also Targeting of civilian areas during Operation Allied Force On May 7 1999 in Operation Allied Force, NATO bombs hit the NATO claimed they were firing at Yugoslav positions. The United States and NATO later apologized for the bombing, saying that it occurred because of an outdated map provided by the CIA. near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all This was challenged by a joint report from The Observer (UK) and Politiken (Denmark) newspapers^[22] which claimed that NATO intentionally bombed the embassy because it was being used as a relay station for Yugoslav army radio signals. The Observer is a British Newspaper published on Sundays In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The This article is about the Danish paper Politiken For the Swedish paper Politiken see Folkets Dagblad Politiken. The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe The bombing strained relations between China and NATO countries and provoked angry demonstrations outside Western embassies in Beijing.

In another major incident - Dubrava prison in Kosovo - the Yugoslav government attributed 85 civilian deaths to NATO bombing. Human Rights Watch research in Kosovo determined that an estimated 18 prisoners were killed by NATO bombs on May 21 (three prisoners and a guard were killed in an earlier attack on May 19. Human Rights Watch is a United States -based international Non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on Human rights. Events 878 - Syracuse Italy is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily. Events 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships 110 men and

By the start of April, the conflict seemed little closer to a resolution and NATO countries began to think seriously about a ground operation—an invasion of Kosovo. This would have to be organised very quickly, as there was little time before winter set in and much work would have to be done to improve the roads from the Greek and Albanian ports to the envisaged invasion routes through Macedonia and northeastern Albania. U. S. President Bill Clinton was however extremely reluctant to commit American forces for a ground offensive. At the same time, Finnish and Russian negotiators continued to try to persuade Milošević to back down. He finally recognised that NATO was serious in its resolve to end the conflict one way or another and that Russia would not intervene to defend Serbia despite Moscow's strong anti-NATO rhetoric. Faced with little alternative, Milošević accepted the conditions offered by a Finnish–Russian mediation team and agreed to a military presence within Kosovo headed by the UN, but incorporating NATO troops.

Yugoslav withdrawal and entry of KFOR

On June 12, after Milosevic accepted the conditions, KFOR began entering Kosovo. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. The M1 Abrams is a main battle tank produced in the United States. The T-54 and T-55 tank were a series of Main battle tanks designed by the Soviet Union. Events 1381 - Peasants' Revolt: in England, rebels arrive at Blackheath. The Kosovo Force ( KFOR) is a NATO -led international force responsible for establishing a safe and secure environment in Kosovo, the self-proclaimed independent KFOR, a NATO force, had been preparing to conduct combat operations but in the end its mission was only peacekeeping. It was based upon the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps headquarters commanded by then Lieutenant General Mike Jackson of the British Army. The Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, ( HQ ARRC or ARRC) was created in 1992 in Bielefeld based on the former British I Corps General Sir Michael David "Mike" Jackson GCB, CBE, DSO, DL, (born 21 March 1944) is a British The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It consisted of British forces (a brigade built from 4th Armoured and 5th Airborne Brigades), a French Army Brigade, a German Army brigade, which entered from the west while all the other forces advanced from the south, and Italian Army and United States Army brigades. The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre (Land Army is the land-based component of the French Armed Forces and its largest The German Army (Deutsches Heer heɐ) is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Italian Army (Esercito Italiano is the ground defense force of the Military of Italy. The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. The U. S. contribution, known as the Initial Entry Force, was led by the 1st Armored Division. Subordinate units included TF 1-35 Armor from Baumholder Germany, the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment from Fort Bragg, N. C; the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment from Schweinfurt Germany, and Echo Troop, 4th Cavalry Regiment, also from Schweinfurt, Germany. The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (26th MEU is one of seven Marine Expeditionary Units currently in existence in the United States Marine Corps. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is near Jacksonville North Carolina, on the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. North Carolina ( is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States Also attached to the U. S. force was the Greek Army's 501st Mechanized Infantry Battalion. Mission The Hellenic Army's objective is to defend Greece's independence borders and terrain and also to guarantee the country's defense The initial U. S. forces established their area of operation around the towns of Urosevic, the future Camp Bondsteel, and Gnjilane, at Camp Monteith, and spent four months—the start of a stay which continues to date—establishing order in the south east sector of Kosovo. Camp Bondsteel is the main base of the United States Army under KFOR command in Kosovo. Camp Monteith is a military base near Gnjilane, Kosovo and located about 20 miles east of Camp Bondsteel. During the initial incursion the U. S. soldiers were greeted by Albanians cheering and throwing flowers as U. S. soldiers and KFOR rolled through their villages. Although no resistance was met, three U. S. soldiers from the Initial Entry Force lost their lives in accidents. ^[23]

Following the military campaign, the involvement of Russian peacekeepers proved to be tense and challenging to the NATO Kosovo force. The Russians expected to have an independent sector of Kosovo, only to be unhappily surprised with the prospect of operating under NATO command. Without prior communication or coordination with NATO, Russian forces entered Kosovo from Bosnia and seized the Pristina airport. Eventually a deal was struck whereby Russian forces operated as a unit of KFOR but not under the NATO command structure. ^[24]

Reaction to the war

The legitimacy of NATO's bombing campaign in Kosovo has been the subject of much debate. The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia took place during the Kosovo War. NATO did not have the backing of the United Nations Security Council because the war was opposed by permanent members, China and, in particular Russia, who had threatened to veto any resolution authorising force. NATO argued that their defiance of the Security Council was justified based on the claims of an "international humanitarian emergency". Criticism was also drawn by the fact that the NATO charter specifies that NATO is an organization created for defence of its members, but in this case it was used to attack a non-NATO country which was not directly threatening any NATO member. NATO claimed that instability in the Balkans was a direct threat to the security interests of NATO members, and military action was therefore justified by the NATO charter; however, the only NATO member country to which the instability was a direct threat was Greece. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία

Many on the left of Western politics saw the NATO campaign as U. S. aggression and imperialism, while critics on the right considered it irrelevant to their countries' national security interests. Veteran anti-war campaigners such as Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, Justin Raimondo, and Tariq Ali were prominent in opposing the campaign. Avram Noam Chomsky (noʊm ˈtʃɑmski born December 7 1928 is an American linguist, Philosopher, cognitive scientist, Political Edward Wadie Saïd MRSL ( إدوارد وديع سعيد,; 1 November 1935 &ndash 25 September Justin Raimondo (born Dennis Raimondo on November 18, 1951) is a Paleoconservative / libertarian American Author Tariq Ali ( Arabic: طارق علی) (born October 21, 1943) is a British - Pakistani historian novelist filmmaker However, in comparison with the anti-war protests against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the campaign against the war in Kosovo aroused much less public support. The 2003 invasion of Iraq, from March 20 to May 1 2003 was spearheaded by the United States, backed by British forces and smaller contingents from Australia The television pictures of refugees being driven out of Kosovo made a vivid and simple case for NATO's actions, and the ulterior motives of Western powers as well as alleged atrocities committed by the KLA went relatively unreported. The personalities were also very different—the NATO nations were mostly led by centre-left and moderately liberal leaders, most prominently U. S. President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema. William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19 1946 served as the forty-second President of the United States Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair (born 6 May 1953 is a British Politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien, (generally known as Jean Chrétien) (born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian politician who was the twentieth Prime ˌɡeɐ̯haɐ̯t fʁɪʦ kʊɐ̯t ˈʃʁøːdɐ (born 7 April 1944 German politician, was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005 Massimo D'Alema (born April 20 1949) is an Italian politician Anti-war protests were generally from the libertarian right, the far-left and Serbian émigrés, with many other left-wingers supporting the campaign on humanitarian grounds. The German participation in the aggression against Belgrade (the third in the course of the 20th century) was one of the reasons for Oskar Lafontaine's resignation from the post of Federal Minister of Finance and the chairman of the SPD. Oskar Lafontaine (ˈlafɔntɛn born September 16, 1943 in Saarlouis -Roden is a German Politician, former German finance minister

There was, however, criticism from all parts of the political spectrum for the way that NATO conducted the campaign. NATO officials sought to portray it as a "clean war" using precision weapons. The U. S. Department of Defense claimed that, up to June 2, 99. The United States Department of Defense ( DOD or DoD) is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government Events 455 - The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks 6% of the 20,000 bombs and missiles used had hit their targets. However, the use of technologies such as depleted uranium ammunition and cluster bombs was highly controversial, as was the bombing of oil refineries and chemical plants, which led to accusations of "environmental warfare". Depleted uranium (DU is Uranium primarily composed of the Isotope Uranium-238 (U-238 Cluster munitions or cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched munitions that eject a number of smaller submunitions a cluster of bomblets The slow pace of progress during the war was also heavily criticised. Many believed that NATO should have mounted an all-out campaign from the start, rather than starting with a relatively small number of strikes and combat aircraft.

Targets of the NATO bombing campaign

The choice of targets was highly controversial. Kragujevac ( Serbian Cyrillic: Крагујевац) is a city in Serbia, the largest city of the Šumadija The destruction of bridges over the Danube greatly disrupted shipping on the river for months afterwards, causing serious economic damage to countries along the length of the river. Industrial facilities were also attacked, damaging the economies of many towns. In fact, as the Serbian opposition later complained, the Yugoslav military was using civilian factories as weapons plants: the Sloboda vacuum cleaner factory in the town of Čačak also housed a tank repair facility, while the Zastava plant in Kragujevac made both cars and Kalashnikov rifles, although in completely separate buildings and locations. Čačak ( Serbian Cyrillic: Чачак is a city and municipality located 140 km south from Belgrade in Serbia at 43°50' North 20°20' East Zastava Automobiles is a Serbian industrial conglomerate based in the city of Kragujevac, 86 miles (138 km southeast of Belgrade. Kragujevac ( Serbian Cyrillic: Крагујевац) is a city in Serbia, the largest city of the Šumadija

Only state owned factories were targeted, leading many to suspect that the bombing campaign was partly designed to prepare the way for a free market-based reconstruction by wealthy foreign powers. ^[25] No private or foreign owned industrial sites were bombed. Perhaps the most controversial deliberate attack of the war was that made against the headquarters of Serbian television on April 23, which killed at least fourteen people. Events 215 BC - A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at NATO justified the attack on the grounds that the Serbian television headquarters was part of the Milošević regime's "propaganda machine". Opponents of Milošević inside Serbia charged that the managers of the state TV station had been forewarned of the attack but ordered staff to remain inside the building despite an air raid alert.

Within Yugoslavia, opinion on the war was (unsurprisingly) split between highly critical among Serbs and highly supportive among Albanians—although not all Albanians felt that way; some appear to have blamed NATO for not acting quickly enough. Although Milošević was increasingly unpopular, the NATO campaign created a mood of national unity. Milošević did not leave matters entirely to chance, however. Many opposition supporters feared for their lives, particularly after the murder of the dissident journalist Slavko Curuvija on April 11, an act widely blamed on Milošević's secret police. Slavko Ćuruvija ( Serbian: Славко Ћурувија born August 9, 1949 in Zagreb, Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia Events 491 - Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, with the name of Anastasius I. In Montenegro, President Milo Đukanović—who opposed both the NATO bombardment and Serbian actions in Kosovo—publicly expressed fear of a "creeping coup" by Milošević supporters.

Opinion in Yugoslavia's neighbours was much more mixed. Macedonia was the only Yugoslav republic apart from Montenegro not to have fought a war with Serbia and had tense relations between the Macedonian majority and a large Albanian minority. The Republic of Macedonia (Република The Macedonians (Македонци transliterated Makedonci) also referred to as Macedonian Slavs --> --> are a South Slavic people Its government did not approve of Milošević's actions, but it was also not very sympathetic towards the Albanian refugees. Albania was wholly supportive of NATO's actions, as might be expected given the ethnic ties between Albanians on both sides of the border. Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria granted overflight rights to NATO aircraft. Hungary was a new member of NATO and supported the campaign. Across the Adriatic, Italian public and political opinion was against the war, but the Italian government nonetheless allowed NATO full use of Italian air bases. In Greece, popular opposition to the war reached 96%. ^[26]

Criticism of the case for war

Some critics have accused the coalition of leading a war in Kosovo under the false pretense of genocide. Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction in whole or in part of an ethnic racial religious or national group ^[27] President Clinton of the United States, and his administration, were accused of inflating the number of Kosovar Albanians killed by Serbians. Kosovo has an estimated population of 21 million (as of 2007 The dominant ethnic group is Albanian (92% with significant minorities of Serbs and others ^[28] Clinton's Secretary of Defense William Cohen, giving a speech, said, "The appalling accounts of mass killing in Kosovo and the pictures of refugees fleeing Serb oppression for their lives makes it clear that this is a fight for justice over genocide. The United States Secretary of Defense ( SECDEF) is the head of the U William Sebastian Cohen (born 28 August 1940) is an author and American politician from the U "^[29] On CBS' Face the Nation Cohen claimed, "We've now seen about 100,000 military-aged men missing. . . they may have been murdered. "^[30] Clinton, citing the same figure, spoke of "at least 100,000 (Kosovar Albanians) missing". ^[31] Later, talking about Yugoslav elections, Clinton said, "they're going to have to come to grips with what Mr. Milošević ordered in Kosovo. . . they're going to have to decide whether they support his leadership or not; whether they think it's OK that all those tens of thousands of people were killed. . . ". Clinton also claimed, in the same press conference, that "NATO stopped deliberate, systematic efforts at ethnic cleansing and genocide. "^[32] Clinton compared the events of Kosovo to the Holocaust. The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as CNN reported, "Accusing Serbia of 'ethnic cleansing' in Kosovo similar to the genocide of Jews in World War II, an impassioned President Clinton sought Tuesday to rally public support for his decision to send U. S. forces into combat against Yugoslavia, a prospect that seemed increasingly likely with the breakdown of a diplomatic peace effort. "^[33] Clinton's State Department also claimed Yugoslav troops had committed genocide. The New York Times reported, "the Administration said evidence of 'genocide' by Yugoslav forces was growing to include 'abhorrent and criminal action' on a vast scale. The language was the State Department's strongest yet in denouncing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević. "^[34] The State Department also gave the highest estimate of dead Albanians. The New York Times reported, "On April 19, the State Department said that up to 500,000 Kosovar Albanians were missing and feared dead. Events 1012 - Martyrdom of Alphege in Greenwich London. 1529 - At the Second Diet of Speyer "^[35]

The United Nations Charter does not allow military interventions in other sovereign countries with few exceptions which in general need to be decided upon by the United Nations Security Council. The issue was brought before the UN Security Council by Russia, in a draft resolution which - inter alia - would affirm "that such unilateral use of force constitutes a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter". China, Namibia and Russia voted for the resolution, the other members against, thus it failed to pass. ^[36]

On April 29, 1999 Yugoslavia filed a complaint at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague against ten NATO member countries (Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the USA). Events 1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) The Court did not decide upon the case because Yugoslavia was not a member of the UN during the war.

In Western countries, opposition to NATO's intervention was mainly from the libertarian right, and from most of the far left. Ultra-left|Radical left|Radicalism (historical|Hard left Far left and extreme left are terms used to discuss the position a group or person occupies within a Political spectrum In Britain, the war was opposed by many prominent conservative figures including former UK Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont, and journalists Peter Hitchens and Simon Heffer, whereas opposition on the left was confined to The Morning Star newspaper and left wing MPs like Tony Benn and Alan Simpson. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a member of the United Kingdom Government heading the Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind KCMG QC (born 21 June 1946 is a British Conservative Politician and Member of Parliament for The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all Economic and Financial Norman Stewart Hughson Lamont Baron Lamont of Lerwick, PC (born 8 May 1942 is a former Conservative MP for Kingston-upon-Thames, England Peter Jonathan Hitchens (born 28 October 1951 in Sliema, Malta) is a British Journalist and Author, noted Simon James Heffer (born 18 July 1960) is a British journalist and writer noted for his Right wing political views For other uses see Morning Star. The Morning Star is a left-wing, British daily Newspaper, set in a Anthony "Tony" Neil Wedgwood Benn (born 3 April 1925 formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British Socialist Politician. Alan John Simpson (born 20 September 1948 in Bootle, Liverpool) is a British Labour politician and Member of Parliament for Nottingham However, the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee), a Leninist splinter-group, backed the Kosovo Liberation Army (while opposing NATO's intervention, seeing it as American-led imperialist opportunism) and support the complete secession of Kosovo from Serbia. The Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee, which commonly calls itself the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB is a British Leninism refers to various related political and economic theories elaborated by Bolshevik revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. Imperialism has two meanings one describing an action and the other describing an attitude

When the war ended on June 11, 1999, it left Kosovo in chaos and Yugoslavia as a whole facing an unknown future. Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar)

The war inflicted many casualties. Already by March 1999, the combination of fighting and the targeting of civilians had left an estimated 1,500-2,000 civilians and combatants dead. ^[37] Final estimates of the casualties are still unavailable for either side.

Casualties

Civilians killed by NATO airstrikes

Main article: Targeting of civilian areas during Operation Allied Force

Yugoslavia claimed that NATO attacks caused between 1,200 and 5,700 civilian casualties. Civilian casualties as a result of Operation Allied Force were significant NATO acknowledged killing at most 1,500 civilians. Human Rights Watch counted a minimum of 488 civilian deaths (90 to 150 of them killed from cluster bomb use) in 90 separate incidents. Human Rights Watch is a United States -based international Non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on Human rights. Attacks in Kosovo overall were more deadly - a third of the incidents account for more than half of the deaths. ^[38]

Civilians killed by Yugoslav ground forces

Various estimates of the number of killings attributed to Yugoslav ground forces have been announced through the years.

In June 2000 the Red Cross reported that 3,368 civilians (2,500 Albanians, 400 Serbs, and 100 Roma) were still missing, nearly one year after the conflict. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an International humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers worldwide who stated ^[39]

In August 2000 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced that it had exhumed 2,788 bodies in Kosovo, but declined to say how many were thought to be victims of war crimes. The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 ^[40] Earlier however, KFOR sources told Agence France Presse that of the 2,150 bodies that had been discovered up until July 1999, about 850 were thought to be victims of war crimes. ^[41]

Some of the missing civilians were re-buried in mass graves in Serbia-proper. In July 2001, the Serbian authorities announced the discovery of four mass graves containing nearly 1,000 bodies. ^[37] The largest grave was found on a Serbian Police training ground in Batajnica just outside of Belgrade.

Although it far exceeds the 4,400 killings reported to human rights groups, statistical experts working on behalf of the ICTY prosecution estimate that the total number of dead is about 10,000. The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 ^[42] Their higher estimate was based on the controversial assumption that most people wouldn't report the killing or disappearance of a loved one. ^[43]

The estimate of 10,000 deaths is also used by the U. S. State Department, which cited human rights abuses as its main justification for attacking Yugoslavia. ^[44]

A study by researchers from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia published in 2000 in medical journal the Lancet estimated that "12,000 deaths in the total population" could be attributed to war. This article is about the journal For other uses of the term "lancet" see Lancet (disambiguation. ^[45] This number was achieved by surveying 1197 households from February, 1998, through June, 1999. 67 out of the 105 deaths reported in the sample population were attributed to war-related trauma, which extrapolates to be 12,000 deaths if the same war-related mortality rate is applied to Kosovo's total population. Treatment of physical trauma is described here and in First aid. The highest mortality rates were in men between 15-49 accounting for 5421 victims of war as well as for the man over 50 accounting for total of 5176 victims of the war. For persons younger than 15 the estimates were 160 victims for males and 200 for females. For the woman between 15-49 the estimate is that there was 510 victims and for the woman older than 50 years the estimate is 541 victims. The authors stated that it is not "possible to differentiate completely between civilian and military casualties".

Civilians killed by the KLA

Main article: 1998-present persecution of Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo

According to a Serbian government report, from January 1, 1998 to June 10, 1999 the KLA killed 988 people and kidnapped 287; in the period from June 10 1999 to November 11 2001, when NATO took control in Kosovo, 847 were reported to have been killed and 1,154 kidnapped. Persecution of non-Albanians, mostly Serbs, by Kosovo Albanian extremists occurred during and after the 1998 - 1999 Kosovo War. New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Events 1190 - Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the Sally River while leading an army to Jerusalem Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) This comprised both civilians and security force personnel: of those killed in the first period, 335 were civilians, 351 soldiers, 230 police and 72 were unidentified; by nationality, 87 of killed civilians were Serbs, 230 Albanians, and 18 of other nationalities. ^[46]

NATO losses

Military casualties on the NATO side were light—according to official reports the alliance suffered no fatalities as a result of combat operations. However, in the early hours of May 5, an American military AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed not far from the border between Serbia and Albania. Events 553 - The Second Council of Constantinople begins 1215 - Rebel Barons renounce their allegiance to King John WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout ^[47]

An American AH-64 helicopter crashed about 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Tirana, Albania's capital, very close to the Albanian/Kosovo border. Tirana (Tiranë or Tirana is the Capital and largest city of the Republic of Albania. ^[48] According to CNN the crash happened 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Tirana. Cable News Network, usually referred to by its Initialism CNN, is a major English language Television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner ^[49] The two American pilots of the helicopter, Army Chief Warrant Officers David Gibbs and Kevin L. "Chief Warrant Officer" in the United States Armed Forces refers to any warrant officer W-2 and above Reichert, died in that crash. They were the only NATO casualties during the war, according to NATO official statements.

There were other casualties after the war, mostly due to land mines. After the war, the alliance reported the loss of the first U. S. stealth plane (a F-117 stealth fighter) ever shot down by enemy fire. Stealth aircraft are Aircraft that use Stealth technology to make it harder to be detected by radar and other means than conventional aircraft by employing a ^[50] Furthermore 32 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from different nations were lost. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV is an unpiloted Aircraft. UAVs can be remote controlled or fly autonomously based on pre-programmed flight plans or more complex dynamic The wreckages of downed UAVs were shown on Serbian television during the war. A second F-117A was also heavily damaged, and although it made it back to its base, it never flew again. ^[51] The Yugoslav armed forces claimed to have shot down seven helicopters, 30 UAVs, 61 planes and 238 cruise missiles, counting only those they said crashed within the territory of Yugoslavia.

Yugoslav military losses

NATO did not release any official casualty estimates. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Events 196 BC - Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt. 1309 - Pope Clement V excommunicates Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) Ugljevik ( Cyrillic: Угљевик is a municipality and town of the same name in northeast Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan The Yugoslav authorities claimed 169 soldiers were killed and 299 wounded by NATO airstrikes. ^[52] The names of Yugoslav casualties were recorded in a "book of remembrance".

Of military equipment, NATO destroyed around 50 Yugoslav aircraft, of which many were old and unflyable and were intentionally placed as decoys to draw attention away from valuable targets. Two notable exceptions were the 11 destroyed MiG-29s, and 6 G-4 Super Galebs which were destroyed right in their hardened aircraft shelter when someone forgot to close the shelter doors. At the end of war, NATO officially claimed they destroyed 93 Yugoslav tanks. Yugoslavia admitted a total of 13 destroyed tanks. The latter figure was verified by European inspectors when Yugoslavia rejoined the Dayton accords, by noting the difference between the number of tanks then and at the last inspection in 1995. The army lost 14 tanks (9 M-84's and 5 T-55's), 18 APCs and 20 artillery pieces. This article is about the Yugoslav tank For other uses see M84. The T-54 and T-55 tank were a series of Main battle tanks designed by the Soviet Union. ^[53] Most of the targets hit in Kosovo were decoys, such as tanks made out of plastic sheets with telegraph poles for gun barrels, or old World War II-era tanks which were not functional. Anti-aircraft defences were preserved by the simple expedient of not turning them on, preventing NATO aircraft from detecting them, but forcing them to keep above a ceiling of 15,000 ft (5,000 m), making accurate bombing much more difficult. Towards the end of the war, it was claimed that carpet bombing by B-52 aircraft had caused huge casualties among Yugoslav troops stationed along the Kosovo–Albania border. Careful searching by NATO investigators found no evidence of any such large-scale casualties.

However, the most significant loss for the Yugoslav Army was the damaged and destroyed infrastructure. The Yugoslav Army ( Serbian: Војска Југославије - ВЈ Vojska Jugoslavije - VJ) was the name of the armed forces of the Federal Republic Almost all military air bases and airfields (Batajnica, Lađevci, Slatina, Golubovci, Kovin, Đakovica) and other military buildings and facilities were badly damaged or destroyed. Batajnica Airbase ( Serbian: Аеродром Бaтajницa tr Kraljevo-Lađevci Airport ( Serbian: Аеродром Лaђeвци, Latin Aerodrom Lađevci) also known as Obrva Airport is an airport in the Slatina (aеродром Слатина aerodrom Slatina Airport near Priština was the second largest underground airport in former Yugoslavia. Kovin Airport ( Serbian Latin Aerodrom Kovin, Cyrillic: Аеродром Кoвин) is an airport in the Kovin Gjakova/Đakovica Airfield ( Albanian: Aeroporti i Gjakovës; Serbian: Aerodrom Đakovica or Аеродром Ђаковица is an airfield Unlike the units and their equipment, military buildings couldn't be camouflaged. Thus, defence industry and military tehnical overhaul facilities were also damaged seriously (Utva, Zastava Arms factory, Moma Stanojlović air force overhaul center, technical overhaul centers in Čačak and Kragujevac). Utva ( English wild duck) is an Aircraft factory ( Serbian fabrika aviona) located in Pančevo, near Belgrade Zastava Arms (Застава оружје Zastava oružje from Kragujevac Serbia is a subsidiary of Zastava, and is the sole producer of civilian Čačak ( Serbian Cyrillic: Чачак is a city and municipality located 140 km south from Belgrade in Serbia at 43°50' North 20°20' East Kragujevac ( Serbian Cyrillic: Крагујевац) is a city in Serbia, the largest city of the Šumadija Moreover, in an effort to weaken the Yugoslav Army, NATO targeted several important civilian facilities (Pančevo oil rafinery, bridges and railroads). Pančevo ( Serbian: Панчево is a city and municipality located in Serbia at 44

KLA losses

Kosovo Liberation Army losses are difficult to analyze, and reports range from less than 1,000 on up. Difficulties arise in calculating an accurate figure, as KLA fighters dying in combat would sometimes be carried away by retreating KLA forces, and other times left on the battlefield and buried in mass graves by the Yugoslavs. Things are further complicated by the difficulty of determining who was a KLA member. For example, the Yugoslavs considered any armed Albanian to be a member of the KLA, regardless of whether he was officially a card-carrying member, so someone who is counted as a civilian by the Albanian side might be counted as a KLA combatant by the Serbs. Also, many members of the KLA were not wearing uniforms and the KLA tactic was to take weapons from killed members to make them appear as civilians shot by Yugoslav security forces.

Aftermath

Within three weeks, over 500,000 Albanian refugees had returned home. The Serbian Orthodox Church ( Serbian: Српска Православна Црква / Srpska Pravoslavna Crkva; СПЦ / SPC) or the According to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race By November 1999, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 808,913 out of 848,100 had returned. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR (established December 14, 1950) is a

However, an estimated 200,000 Serbs fled Kosovo. Serbs are currently the largest ethnic minority in Kosovo. Population According to the Statistical Office of Kosovo in 2006 there were 111300 ^[54] Gypsies were also driven out after being harassed by Albanians. The Romani people (singular Rom, plural Roma as a Noun; also known as Romanies or Roma people) are an ethnic group with origins Since June 12, 1999, as many as 1,000 Serbs and Roma have been murdered or have gone missing as a result of KLA elements and possibly criminal gangs or vengeful individuals. Events 1381 - Peasants' Revolt: in England, rebels arrive at Blackheath. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) Gangsters redirects here For the computer game see Gangsters (video game. ^[55][37] The Yugoslav Red Cross had also registered 247,391 mostly Serbian refugees by November. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an International humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers worldwide who stated The new exodus was a severe embarrassment to NATO, which had established a peacekeeping force of 45,000 under the auspices of the United Nations Mission In Kosovo (UNMIK). The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo or UNMIK is the interim civilian administration in Kosovo, under the authority of the United

Returning IDPs from the Republic of Macedonia were kept in a lead polluted refugee camp set up by KFOR / UNMIK in North Mitrovica. The Republic of Macedonia (Република The charity, ran by Paul Polansky, claims 27 died from lead poisoning, denied by UNMIK who recognise only one death. Paul Polansky is an American author and activist working for the rights of the Roma people (also called Gypsies)

According to Amnesty International, the presence of peacekeepers in Kosovo led to an increase in the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation. Human trafficking is the recruitment transportation harbouring or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery forced labor (including bonded labor or debt bondage and servitude ^[56][57][58]

War crimes

Before the end of the bombing, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević, along with Milan Milutinović, Nikola Šainović, Dragoljub Ojdanić and Vlajko Stojiljković were charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with crimes against humanity including murder, forcible transfer, deportation and "persecution on political, racial or religious grounds". Milan Milutinović ( Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Милутиновић born 19 December, 1942 in Belgrade, is a former President of Serbia Nikola Šainović ( Serbian: Никола Шаиновић born 7 December 1948 in Bor, Serbia, Yugoslavia) is a former Dragoljub Ojdanić ( Serbian Cyrillic: Драгољуб Ојданић (born June 1, 1941 in Ravni near Užice Kingdom of Yugoslavia was former The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991

Further indictments were leveled in October 2003 against former armed forces chief of staff Nebojša Pavković, former army corps commander Vladimir Lazarević, former police official Vlastimir Đorđević and the current head of Serbia's public security, Sreten Lukić. Nebojša Pavković ( Serbian Cyrillic: Небојша Павковић born in the village of Senjski Rudnik near Ćuprija on April 10, 1946 Vlastimir Đorđević (born 1948 in Koznica, Serbia) is a Serbian colonel general All were indicted for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war.

The ICTY also leveled indictments against KLA members Fatmir Limaj, Haradin Bala, Isak Musliu and Agim Murtezi, indicted for crimes against humanity. Fatmir Limaj (born in February 4, 1971 in the village of Banja Mališevo municipality Yugoslavia – now Kosovo) is a politician Haradin Bala (born 10 June, 1957, in Glogovac, in Kosovo, Yugoslavia) is an Albanian-Kosovar command in the Kosovo Liberation Isak Musliu was charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY with a series of beatings and murders in a Kosovo Liberation Army They were arrested on February 17–18, 2003. Events 1500 - Battle of Hemmingstedt. 1600 - Philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive at Campo de' Fiori Events 3102 BC - Epoch (origin of the Kali Yuga. 1229 - The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II Holy Charges were soon dropped against Agim Murtezi as a case of mistaken identity, whereas Fatmir Limaj was acquitted of all charges on 30 November 2005 and released. Events 1700 - Battle of Narva — A Swedish army of 8500 men under Charles XII defeats Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The charges were in relation to the prison camp run by the defendants at Lapusnik between May and July 1998.

War crimes prosecutions have also been carried out in Yugoslavia. Yugoslav soldier Ivan Nikolić was found guilty in 2002 of war crimes in the deaths of two civilians in Kosovo. A significant number of Yugoslav soldiers were tried by Yugoslav military tribunals during the war.

On March 2005, a U. N. tribunal indicted Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj for war crimes against the Serbs, on March 8 he tendered his resignation. Ramush Haradinaj ( Serbo-Croatian: Рамуш Харадинај Ramuš Haradinaj) born 3 July 1968 in the village of Glođane near Events 1618 - Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion. Haradinaj, an ethnic Albanian, was a former commander who led units of the Kosovo Liberation Army and was appointed Prime Minister after winning an election of 72 votes to three in the Kosovo's Parliament in December 2004.

The Serbian government and a number of international pressure groups claimed that NATO had carried out war crimes during the conflict, particularly regarding the bombing of alleged dual-use facilities such as the Serbian TV headquarters in Belgrade. The ICTY conducted an inquiry into these charges. ^[59] The tribunal has proclaimed that it has no mandate to press charges against NATO for war crimes against civilian population.

In 2008, Carla Del Ponte published a book in which she collected extensive evidence that right after the end of the war in 1999, Kosovo Albanians were smuggling organs of hundreds of Serbians from the province to Albania. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Carla Del Ponte (born February 9, 1947 in Lugano, Switzerland) is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations International ^[60] But the ICTY has found no "substantial element" to support Del Ponte's charges. ^[61]

Military and political consequences

Main articles: Kosovo status process and Constitutional status of Kosovo

The Kosovo war had a number of important consequences in terms of the military and political outcome. This article is about the Yugoslav tank For other uses see M84. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional During and after the breakup of Yugoslavia there were increasing ethnic and regional conflicts culminating in the Kosovo War of 1999 The political status of Kosovo is the subject of a long-running political and territorial dispute between the Serbian (and previously the Yugoslav) The status of Kosovo remained unresolved until 2007; international negotiations began in 2006 to determine the final status of Kosovo, as envisaged under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, and the province was administered by the United Nations until its unilateral declaration of independence on February 17, 2008. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 authorised an international civil and military presence in Kosovo, then part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security The 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence was an act of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government Assembly of Kosovo, adopted on 17 February 2008 which declared

The UN-backed talks, lead by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, had begun in February 2006. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari ( pronounced) (born on June 23 1937 is a former President of Finland (1994–2000 2008 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Whilst progress was made on technical matters, both parties remained diametrically opposed on the question of status itself. ^[62] In February 2007, Ahtisaari delivered a draft status settlement proposal to leaders in Belgrade and Pristina, the basis for a draft UN Security Council Resolution which proposes 'supervised independence' for the province. By July 2007 the draft resolution, which was backed by the United States, United Kingdom and other European members of the Security Council, had been rewritten four times to try to accommodate Russian concerns that such a resolution would undermine the principle of state sovereignty. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located ^[63] Russia, which holds a veto in the Security Council as one of five permanent members, stated that it would not support any resolution which is not acceptable to both Belgrade and Pristina. ^[64]. With the February 2008 declaration of independence, the proposal became redundant.

Milošević survived the immediate aftermath of the war, but the effective loss of Kosovo was a major factor in provoking the popular revolt which overthrew him in 2000. He was subsequently arrested and taken to The Hague, where he died from natural causes in his cell, awaiting trial for crimes against humanity on 10 March 2006. Events 241 BC - First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands - The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

Despite the successful conclusion of the war, Kosovo exposed gaping weaknesses in NATO. It revealed how dependent the European members had become on the United States military—the vast majority of combat and non-combat operations were dependent on U. S. involvement—and highlighted the lack of precision weapons in European armories. Some right-wing and military critics in the U. S. also blamed the alliance's agreement-by-consensus arrangements for hobbling and slowing down the campaign. Consensus has two common meanings One is a general agreement among the members of a given group or Community, each of which exercises some discretion in

The campaign exposed significant weaknesses in the U. S. arsenal, which were later addressed for the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns. The War in Afghanistan, which began on October 7 2001 as the U The 2003 invasion of Iraq, from March 20 to May 1 2003 was spearheaded by the United States, backed by British forces and smaller contingents from Australia Apache attack helicopters and AC-130 Spectre gunships were brought up to the front lines but were never actually used after two Apaches crashed during training in the Albanian mountains. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout The Lockheed AC-130 Gunship is a heavily-armed ground attack airplane Stocks of many precision missiles were run down to critically low levels; had the campaign lasted much longer, NATO would have had to revert back to using "dumb" bombs for lack of anything better. Situation was not any better with the combat aircraft; continuous operations meant skipped maintenance schedules and many aircraft were withdrawn from service awaiting spare parts and service. ^[65] Also, many of the precision-guided weapons proved unable to cope with Balkan weather, as the clouds blocked the laser guidance beams. This was resolved by retrofitting bombs with Global Positioning System satellite guidance devices that are immune to bad weather. Basic concept of GPS operation A GPS receiver calculates its position by carefully timing the signals sent by the constellation of GPS Satellites high above the Earth Also, although pilotless surveillance aircraft were extensively used, it often proved the case that attack aircraft could not be brought to the scene quickly enough to hit targets of opportunity. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV is an unpiloted Aircraft. UAVs can be remote controlled or fly autonomously based on pre-programmed flight plans or more complex dynamic This led to the fitting of missiles to Predator drones in Afghanistan, reducing the "sensor to shooter" time to virtually nil.

Kosovo also demonstrated that even a high-tech force such as NATO could be thwarted by quite simple tactics, according to Wesley Clark and other NATO generals who analyzed these tactics a few years after the conflict. Wesley Kanne Clark, KBE (born December 23 1944 is a retired General of the United States Army. ^[66] The Yugoslav army had long expected to need to resist a much stronger enemy; either Soviet or NATO; during the Cold War and had developed effective tactics of deception and concealment in response. The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the These would have been unlikely to have resisted a full-scale invasion for long, but were probably effective in misleading overflying aircraft and satellites. Among the tactics used were:

• U. S. stealth aircraft were tracked with radars operating on long wavelengths. If stealth jets got wet or started to drop bombs they would become visible on the radar screens. An F-117 Nighthawk was spotted in this way and downed with a missile.

• Precision-guided missiles were often confused and unable to pinpoint radars, because radar beams were reflected off heavy farm machinery like old tractors and plows.

• Many low-tech approaches were used to confuse heat-seeking missiles and infrared sensors. Decoys such as small gas furnaces were used to simulate nonexistent positions on mountainsides.

• Dummy targets were used very extensively. Fake bridges, airfields and decoy planes and tanks were used. Tanks were made using old tires, plastic sheeting and logs, and sand cans and fuel set alight to mimic heat emissions. They fooled NATO pilots into bombing hundreds of such decoys, though General Clark's survey found that in Operation: Allied Force, NATO airmen hit just 25 decoys-an insignificant percentage of the 974 validated hits. ^[67] However, NATO sources claim that this was due to operating procedures, which oblige troops, in this case aircraft, to engage any and all targets however unlikely they were real. The North Atlantic Treaty The targets needed only to look real to be shot at, if detected, of course. NATO claimed that Yugoslav air force had been decimated. "Official data show that the Yugoslav army in Kosovo lost 26 percent of its tanks, 34 percent of its APCs, and 47 percent of the artillery to the air campaign. "^[67]

• Old electronic jammers were used to block U. S. bombs equipped with satellite guidance.

• Hispano-Suiza anti-aircraft cannons from the World War II era were used effectively against slow-flying drone aircraft. History Early Years In 1898 a Spanish artillery captain Emilio de la Cuadra started with electric automobile production in Barcelona under World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

Military decorations

As a result of the Kosovo War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation created a second NATO medal, the NATO Medal for Kosovo Service, an international military decoration. The NATO Medal is an International military decoration which is awarded to various militaries of the world under the authority of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation An international decoration is a military award which is not bestowed by a particular country but rather by an international organization such as the United Nations or Shortly thereafter, NATO created the Non-Article 5 Medal for Balkans service to combine both Yugoslavian and Kosovo operations into one service medal.

Due to the involvement of the United States armed forces, a separate U.S. military decoration, known as the Kosovo Campaign Medal, was established by President Bill Clinton in the year 2000. The United States Armed Forces are the overall unified military forces of the United States Awards and decorations of the United States military are Military decorations which recognize service and personal accomplishments while a member of the United States armed The Kosovo Campaign Medal is a military decoration of the United States armed forces which was established by Presidential Order of President Bill Clinton William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19 1946 served as the forty-second President of the United States

Gallery

Kosovar refugee camp in Kukës, Albania	USS Theodore Roosevelt launching an F/A-18 Hornet	A French Air Force Mirage 2000 on patrol	Ruins in Kosovo in 1999
Wreck of 2S1 Gvozdika near Glogovac	Destroyed T-55 tank near Prizren	MQ-1 Predator drone shot down in Serbia	Fragments of the downed F-117 in museum

References

See also

• Breakaway states
• 2004 unrest in Kosovo
• Headquarters Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps
• Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Preševo valley crisis
• Serbs in Kosovo
• Serbian-Albanian Conflict
• UN Mission in Kosovo
• Distance in military affairs
• History of Ottoman Kosovo
• List of wars
• Serb propaganda

External links

• UNDER ORDERS: War Crimes in Kosovo Human Rights Watch
• Indictment of Milosevic United Nations
• OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission OSCE (Internet Archive)
• Operation Allied Force NATO
• war in europe PBS Frontline
• Kosovo fact files BBC News
• Focus on Kosovo CNN
• HUMANITARIAN LAW VIOLATIONS IN KOSOVO HRW (1998)
• ABUSES AGAINST SERBS AND ROMA IN THE NEW KOSOVO HRW (1999)
• War and mortality in Kosovo, 1998 99: an epidemiological testimony The Lancet (PDF)
• "Bombing Serbia to prevent a wider war is not only hypocritical, but also insane" says Prof. Robert M. Hayden (University of Pittsburg)in an article for the Pittsburg Post-Gazette
• The Ethnic Cleansing of Kosovo U.S. State Department
• Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo: An Accounting U. This is a list of currently active autonomist and Secessionist movements around the world Violent unrest in Kosovo broke out on March 17, 2004. Albanians retaliated to the alleged " Ethnic cleansing " during mass unrest leading The Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, ( HQ ARRC or ARRC) was created in 1992 in Bielefeld based on the former British I Corps The Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts was a draft document produced by a committee of the Serbian Academy from 1985 to 1986 The Insurgency in the Preševo Valley ( 1999 – 2001) was a struggle between the Yugoslav federal government and an Albanian rebel Serbs are currently the largest ethnic minority in Kosovo. Population According to the Statistical Office of Kosovo in 2006 there were 111300 The Serbian-Albanian conflict is a struggle between the Serbs and Albanians that lasted through the 20th century The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo or UNMIK is the interim civilian administration in Kosovo, under the authority of the United Geographic Distance is a key factor in military affairs. The shorter the distance the greater the ease with which force can be brought to bear upon an opponent Kosovo was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1455 to 1912, at first as part of the Eyalet of Rumelia, and from 1864 as a separate This is a listing of lists of Wars, sorted by country date region and type of conflict In the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia indictments of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, one of his alleged contributions to the Joint Human Rights Watch is a United States -based international Non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on Human rights. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security The North Atlantic Treaty Frontline is a public affairs television program of varying length produced at WGBH in Boston Massachusetts, and distributed through the Cable News Network, usually referred to by its Initialism CNN, is a major English language Television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner This article is about the journal For other uses of the term "lancet" see Lancet (disambiguation. S. State Department
• Maps of Kosovo, Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection

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