15th anniversary of Kumanovo Treaty

BELGRADE - This Monday marks the 15th anniversary of the Military Technical Agreement known also as the Kumanovo Treaty, which was signed on June 9, 1999, ending NATO's 79-day long bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that killed at least 2,500 and injured more than 12,500 people.

During the campaign, 1,031 soldiers and police officers were killed on the Serbian side, while around 6,000 civilians were injured, including 2,700 children. The injured among the troops and police numbered 5,173, while around 10 people are still listed as missing.

The property damage was estimated at the time to be around USD 100 billion. NATO's losses have never been released.

The last missiles landed in the village of Kokolec at 1:30 p.m. CET, while the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1244.

A total of 37,200 KFOR troops from 36 countries were sent to Kosovo to protect peace and ensure the return of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees until the broadest possible autonomy for Kosovo was defined.

The decision to attack Yugoslavia was made without the consent of the UN Security Council for the first time in history, the order coming from NATO secretary general at the time Javier Solana and passed on to US General Wesley Clarke.

Yugoslavia was attacked under the argument that it was to blame for the failure of the negotiations in Rambouillet and Paris concerning Kosovo's future status.

After the Serbian parlament decided not to accept foreign troops and suggested that UN troops monitor the implementation of a peace agreement in Kosovo, NATO began the bombing campaign at 7:45 p.m. CET on March 24, 1999, targeting a number of locations in Serbia and Montenegro.