Peace in Kosovo: Rebuilding a Future for the Balkans

around 6.000 troops, Serbia's commanders were remarkably defiant, before signing up, on June 9th, to a detailed plan for a complete and rapid withdrawal of their troops from Kosovo," wrote The Economist on behalf of Jackson's difficulties with the Serbian generals in Kumanovo. When the Yugoslavian military leaders finally accepted the conditions the air-raids, which had already been reduced, were stopped and the Serbian retreat began.

The news reached the Western leaders at the G8 summit of Cologne in Germany. The next day the UN Security Council voted a resolution to authorize the deployment of an international contingent, called Kosovo-Force (K-For).

Milosevic's judgement

With the whole country's infrastructure destroyed and the military forced to retreat from the "holy grounds" of Serbian history, the newspapers in Belgrade titled very clearly about the "Capitulation", but in a rare and wondrous TV appearance Milosevic still tried to tell his people that the "invincible and heroic" Serbian forces had been victorious in this conflict with the greatest military alliance of the world. Milosevic should be judged by an international court at the Hague now, although Bill Clinton has said that it will not be easy to get hold of him and put him on trial. While the Yugoslavian president is still clinging to power, the Serbian Orthodox Church, which backed him during the conflict, has now invited him to leave his office and the task of reconciliation and reconstruction to a new generation of leaders. With its wanted leader still in power, Serbia cannot expect any financial help from the international community. Milosevic could now at least hope to find a safe exile in Russia or in South-Africa.

The first to pay for Milosevic's criminal politics were now the Serbian people in Kosovo. Fearing the Albanian Kosovars' revenge despite NATO's pledge to guarantee the safety of all population in the province, many of them decided to follow their soldiers towards the Serbian heartland. At least 50.000 Serbs have already left, probably forever, the homes in which their ancestors had settled many centuries ago.

The peacekeeping force in Kosovo

The race to enter the province abandoned by the Serbians began on 11th June. The Kosovo Force" (K-For) is made up of 50.000 men from several countries. The biggest contingents come from the United Kingdom (13.000), Russia (10.000), Germany (8.500), USA (7.000), France (7.000) and Italy (4.000). The Britains occupied the center with Pristina, the French the North with Mitrovica, the

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