Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told attempt to promote a negotiated settlement had achieved a procedural breakthrough, in that both Milosevic and Rugova had expressed a willingness to defer consideration of the long-term future of Kosovo. Kosovo Albanian leaders produced a draft proposal later in the month for an interim arrangement in which Kosovo would settle temporarily for republican status within the FRY, short of full independence. UN Security Council Resolution 1199 and the Milosevic-Holbrooke agreement On 23 September 1998 the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1199, acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The vote was 14 to 0, with China abstaining. Resolution 1199 called for an immediate cease-fire in Kosovo, an international presence to monitor it, the withdrawal of "security units used for civilian repression", and dialogue on the future of Kosovo. The Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic claimed on 28 September that all "anti-terrorist activities" had ended and that "peace reigns in Kosovo", but his claim was undermined by the lack of evidence of any withdrawal of Serbian forces, and the simultaneous discovery of three particularly shocking massacres of civilians in and near the neighbouring villages of Gornje Obrinje/Obri e Eperme (Glogovac/Gllogoc) and Donje Obrinje/Obri e Ulet (Srbica/Skenderaj). Although Russia explicitly declared its opposition to the use of force to back up UN Resolution 1199, the use of air bombardments against the FRY for this purpose was officially approved by NATO, and a deadline issued for Serbia to comply. The deadline was repeatedly postponed in the succeeding days. On 16 October, however, the so-called Milosevic-Holbrooke agreement was announced. This agreement was the product of protracted discussions between Milosevic and US envoy Richard Holbrooke during a succession of visits by the latter to Belgrade. Its text was not published, but its key provisions, in addition to the ending of hostilities, were threefold. All those who had fled their homes in Kosovo and become refugees were to be allowed to return. Serbian forces in Kosovo, including both army units and special forces, were to be scaled back to their pre-1999 levels. Under the MilosevicHolbrooke agreement, and an agreement between OSCE Chairman-in-Office Bronislaw Geremek (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland) and the Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic on the same day, international observers, in the shape of a 2,000-member OSCE mission, were to be allowed into Kosovo to verify compliance. This mission, the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission (OSCE-KVM), began to be deployed in the field from November The renewed escalation of human rights violations For two months the Milosevic-Holbrooke agreement appeared to be making progress on all these provisions, despite a number of violations of the cease-fire. Meanwhile United States and European diplomats pursued their efforts to promote a Kosovo settlement, although still without including the UCK in the process. In the last week in December and the first half of January 1999, however, three things became clear. One http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch1.htm (6 of 8)12/5/2003 11:48:35 AM