Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told March. NATO issued another ultimatum demanding Serbia's signature, but the Serbian parliament confirmed the rejection of the Rambouillet proposals, and on 24 March 1999 the NATO forces began their campaign of aerial attacks on FRY targets. The NATO air campaign and the June 1999 agreement An analysis of the situation on the ground inside Kosovo in the period from 20 March to the end of the NATO air campaign is central to the rest of this report, and is not summarized here. NATO air strikes, which inflicted considerable damage and loss of life within Yugoslavia, continued until June. The NATO action was formally suspended on June 10, once it was confirmed that Serbian forces were beginning their withdrawal under a peace plan embodied that same day in UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (on which China again abstained). This peace plan, accepted by FRY President Milosevic and formally approved by the Serbian National Assembly on 3 June, had emerged from a series of efforts at mediation, starting with initiatives by Russian special envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin. General principles for a solution were agreed at the Bonn meeting of the Group of Eight (G-8, the seven major Western industrialized countries plus Russia) in early May, and eventually accepted by the FRY government in early June after further Russian and European Union mediation. The basic elements of the June 1999 peace agreement began with the requirement that all Serbian forces should be withdrawn, and all refugees allowed to return. The UCK and any other armed Kosovo Albanian groups were to "end immediately all offensive actions" and comply with requirements for demilitarization. Implementation would be overseen by KFOR, an "effective international security presence with substantial NATO participation", meaning in practice a 50,000-strong joint NATORussian peacekeeping force, and by a 3,000-member UN civilian security force. Kosovo would have a civilian administrator, appointed by the UN Secretary-General, overseeing the establishment of "substantial autonomy" for Kosovo within the FRY and "provisional and democratic institutions" under an interim administration "pending a final settlement". No time limit was set on the life of the interim administration, nor was any specific mention made of a referendum on Kosovo's future status. Contents KOSOVO / KOSOVA As Seen, As Told http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch1.htm (8 of 8)12/5/2003 11:48:35 AM Previous Next OSCE ODIHR