June 6, 2008
Nebojsa Malic
On June 9, 1999, the 78-day war that NATO waged on what was then Yugoslavia came to a close. Representatives of Yugoslav military and NATO signed an armistice in the Macedonian town of Kumanovo, paving the way for NATO’s takeover of the province. At the time, it was spun in the West as a victory for the Alliance – Yugoslav president Milosevic “caved” and “capitulated,” and his army was “forced” from Kosovo. Yet on paper, it was a defeat; Serbia had resisted ten times longer than anyone in Washington or Mons expected, and the terms of the Kumanovo treaty were much better for Belgrade than the disgraceful Rambouillet ultimatum, which NATO sought to impose at the beginning of the bombing. What was to be a purely NATO occupation became a UN mission (UNMIK) and Serbia’s territorial integrity was explicitly guaranteed by the UN resolution 1244.
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