March 24: NATO launches
air campaign, with the goal of crippling the Serbian war machine in Kosovo and enforcing
compliance with the international peace plan drawn up at Rambouillet, France. |
March 26: The first of
a massive tide of refugees arrive in Albania. |
March 27: A US F-117
Nighthawk STEALTH fighter is shot down near Belgrade but the pilot is recovered. |
March 31: Three US
soldiers are captured by Yugoslav forces after an incident on the Macedonian border. |
April 1: Moderate
Kosovar leader Ibrahim Rugova is shown on Serb television talking with Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic. |
April 13: Incidents on
Yugoslav-Albanian border. |
April 14: Yugoslavia
claims that rockets fired by allied jets killed 75 people in two separate refugee columns.
NATO later admits accidentally hitting a civilian vehicle. |
April 20: Russian
President Boris Yeltsin says Moscow "cannot break with leading world powers"
over Kosovo. |
April 21: Two NATO
missiles smash into the headquarters of Yugoslavia's ruling Socialist Party. |
April 23: NATO bombs
the headquarters of Serbian state television. NATO leaders in Washington rebuff as
inadequate an offer by Milosevic to accept an "international presence" in
Kosovo. |
April 28: Yugoslav
Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic is dismissed after he accuses the country's rulers of
"lying to the people." |
May 1: Forty-seven bus
passengers are killed when NATO bombs a bridge in Kosovo. |
May 2: Three captured
US soldiers are released into the custody of US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. |
May 5: NATO claims that
they suffers its first losses when the two-man crew of a US Apache attack helicopter die
in a crash in Albania. Rugova is released by the Yugoslav authorities and flies to Rome. |
May 6: Foreign
ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) agree on a framework for a peace plan which calls
for the return of all refugees and the deployment of an international "security"
force in Kosovo. |
May 8: The Chinese
embassy in Belgrade is hit by NATO missiles which kill three people. NATO describes the
bombing as a "tragic mistake" caused by "faulty information." |
May 10: Yugoslavia
begins proceedings before the UN International Court of Justice in the Hague, accusing
NATO of genocide. Belgrade says it has begun pulling troops out of Kosovo. |
May 13: NATO dismisses
as insignificant a reported pullout by 250 Yugoslav troops. |
May 14: At least 79
people are killed and 58 wounded when NATO missiles hit Korisa, a village in southern
Kosovo. |
May 19: Milosevic and
Russia's Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin back a settlement of the Kosovo conflict within
the framework of the United Nations. |
May 21: Russia says
mediation efforts with the West are deadlocked. A NATO bomb kills 10 inmates in a Pristina
jail. |
May 22: A UN
humanitarian mission visits Kosovo, as NATO admits bombing a position held by the KLA. |
May 23: Fighting flares
on border between Serb forces and Albanian police. President Bill Clinton says he no
longer rules out "other military options". |
May 26: NATO agrees to
boost the number of troops in a future Kosovo peacekeeping mission from 28,000 to 45,000. |
May 27: Milosevic and
four other top officials are indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal
Tribunal in The Hague. |
May 29: Yugoslavia says
it has accepted the Group of Eight principles for a peace deal in Kosovo. |
May 30: NATO says it
wants a clear, personal statement from Milosevic that he accepts alliance conditions
before it will halt air raids. A German soldier dies when a tank crashes off a bridge in
Albania. |
May 31: At least 20
people are killed at a sanatorium at Surdulica, southern Serbia. NATO denies that its
missles are responsible. |
June 1: Belgrade says
in a letter to Bonn that it "has accepted the G8 principles." European, US and
Russian envoys meet in Bonn to hammer out a common policy for a peace mission to Belgrade.
|
June 2: The
International Court of Justice rejects Yugoslavia's petition to order an end to NATO
airstrikes. EU and Russian envoys travel to Belgrade for talks with Milosevic and hand him
a peace plan worked out in Bonn with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. |
June 3: Talks in
Belgrade resume for a second session. A Russian spokesman in Moscow says Yugoslavia viewed
the peace plan as a "realistic" way out of the Kosovo crisis. |
