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Build-up to conflict: Timeline
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Serbian forces on the move in Kosovo
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BBC News Online tracks the developments in the months leading up to Nato's air strikes against Yugoslavia, with links to key news stories and analysis and the best audio and video. Use the options on the left to return the latest news, the background behind the conflict, and other BBC coverage. March 1999 Nato carries out its threat to bomb Serbia over Kosovo, attacking
a sovereign European country for the first time in the alliance's history.
Nato Secretary-General Javier Solana orders air strikes against Yugoslavia
after the failure of diplomatic efforts to peacefully resolve the Kosovo
crisis. US President Bill Clinton orders his special envoy Richard Holbrooke
to leave Belgrade, after Slobodan Milosevic continues to refuse to accept
an autonomy plan for Kosovo's Albanians secured by Nato troops. US envoy Richard Holbrooke flies to Belgrade to try to get Slobodan
Milosevic to agree to a peace plan, but there is no immediate sign of
progress. An offensive by Serb forces in Kosovo, meanwhile, continues.
International monitors are ordered out of Kosovo as the peace talks
break down following Serbia's continued refusal to sign up to the proposed
peace deal. The Serb side is told the talks will not resume unless they
agree to the deal. At a second round of talks on the future of Kosovo in Paris, the
Kosovo Albanians agree to the peace deal on offer, while there is continuing
defiance from Serbia. Violence in the province, meanwhile, continues.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, speaking after talks in Belgrade
with Slobodan Milosevic, says the Yugoslav president remains defiant
about the proposed peace plan for Kosovo.
Rebel leaders play for time (9 March) A key figure in the Kosovo Liberation Army, Adem Demaci, who has
opposed the international plan to end the conflict in the province,
resigns as the KLA's political representative. February 1999 The Yugoslav army moves 4,500 troops, more than 60 tanks and other
military equipment to the Kosovo border amid stern warnings from Nato
and the US. Thousands of ethnic Albanians flee their homes as a result
of fighting, many crossing into Macedonia. The major powers welcome the progress made at the Kosovo peace talks
in Paris, but both the Serbs and ethnic Albanians stress many obstacles
still stand in the way of a definitive deal.
Partial deal in Kosovo talks (23 February) US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says the "stalemate" has
been broken but full agreement has not been reached on either a political
or a military deal. The deadline is extended by two more days for the two sides in the
Kosovo peace talks to strike a deal. Nato policing remains the major
sticking point. US President Bill Clinton has given a fresh warning to Serbia that
Nato is ready to attack if it refuses to accept a peace agreement to
end the conflict in Kosovo.. President Boris Yeltsin says Russia has warned the US not to use
force against Yugoslavia even if the Kosovo peace talks fail. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic reiterates his insistence that
Nato forces will not be allowed into Kosovo as part of a peace deal.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright joins the Kosovo peace conference
at Rambouillet chateau near Paris and gets the Serbian and ethnic Albanian
delegations to talk face to face for the first time.
Thousands bury Racak dead (11 February) The Kosovo peace conference organised by the six-nation Contact Group
begins at Rambouillet. For the first week, the Serbian and the ethnic
Albanian delegations do not meet face to face, but stay on different
floors, with the mediators shuttling between them. The ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army names a team of negotiators
to take part in the peace talks in France. The Serbian parliament agrees
that Serb delegates should attend, but urges them to take a tough stance.
January 1999 Nato gives its Secretary General Javier Solana the authority to order
military action if the latest peace initiative for Kosovo fails. US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, give Yugoslav and
ethnic Albanian leaders three weeks to finalise a settlement which would
give Kosovo "substantial autonomy". Yugoslav authorities suspend the expulsion of international monitoring
mission head William Walker in Kosovo, whom they had earlier ordered
out in the wake of killings in the village of Racak.
New fighting in Kosovo (15 January) December 1998 Tensions mount with two separate protests symbolising the polarisation
between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
The killings continue (18 December) President Clinton's special envoy, Richard Holbooke, speaking after
talks in Belgrade with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, says differences
between Serbs and ethnic Albanians over the future of Kosovo remain
very grave. His comments come shortly after UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan warns of the danger of all-out war in Kosovo in 1999. November 1998 Nato and the US accuse both the Belgrade government and the ethnic
Albanian rebels of endangering the cease-fire. October 1998 Amid intense negotiating by US envoy Richard Holbrooke, Nato countries give the go-ahead for military action against Yugoslavia, if President Slobodan Milosevic does not comply with UN resolutions on Kosovo.
Countdown to Kosovo strikes (12 October) The UN Security Council condemns massacres of ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo. September 1998 BBC journalists see first-hand evidence of a massacre of ethnic Albanian
civilians, including women and children, in Kosovo. The roots of the Kosovo conflict run deep.
History, bloody history, by Tim Judah |
