Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, reacted through a post on Facebook marking the 27th anniversary of NATO’s bombing campaign against Serbia. Kurti wrote that the intervention came more than a year after the start of the war in Kosovo.
He emphasized that the tragedy of the people of Kosovo, spanning decades, culminated in the 1998–1999 war, which, according to him, mobilized the democratic Western world and prompted NATO to act. Kurti added that the intervention brought freedom to Kosovo and paved the way for building democracy.
“Today marks 27 years since the first day of NATO’s bombing campaign over Yugoslavia, which stopped the genocide and ethnic cleansing that the occupying Serbian state was carrying out against Albanians in Kosovo.
On March 24, 1999, the air forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), led by the United States, launched Operation Allied Force, targeting Yugoslavia’s military and police forces and their infrastructure. This campaign came more than a year after the outbreak of the war in Kosovo and one day after it became clear that Serbia, led by the ‘Butcher of the Balkans,’ Slobodan Milošević, would not accept any ultimatum to halt military and police operations against the civilian population in Kosovo or withdraw its forces, nor would it accept diplomatic solutions to the Kosovo issue.
As U.S. President Bill Clinton stated on the evening of March 24: ‘Over the past months, we have done everything we could to resolve this issue peacefully. Secretary Albright has worked tirelessly to negotiate an agreement. Mr. Milošević has refused. On Sunday, I sent Ambassador Holbrooke to Serbia to make it clear, on behalf of the United States and our NATO allies, that he must honor his commitments and stop the repression, or face military action. He again refused.
Today, we and our 18 NATO allies have agreed to do what we said we would do, what we must do to restore peace. Our mission is clear: to demonstrate NATO’s seriousness of purpose, so that Serbian leaders understand the need to change course, to deter an even bloodier offensive against innocent civilians in Kosovo, and, if necessary, to significantly damage Serbia’s military capacity to harm the people of Kosovo. In short, if President Milošević does not make peace, we will limit his ability to make war.’”
Despite expectations, Milošević’s Yugoslavia did not surrender for nearly three months. NATO’s 19 member states continued the bombing campaign for 78 days and nights, until June 10, when the Military-Technical Agreement signed in Kumanovo ended the war in Kosovo.
During that period, Serbian forces intensified operations on the ground, implementing the “Horseshoe” plan for ethnic cleansing. More than 860,000 Albanians were expelled from Kosovo, while around half a million others were internally displaced. In April 1999 alone, Serbian state forces killed over 4,000 Albanian civilians. Many were victims of massacres across Kosovo, and numerous others remain missing.
Kurti stressed that the decades-long tragedy of the people of Kosovo, culminating in the 1998–1999 war, mobilized the democratic Western world and led NATO—the largest military alliance in history—to intervene in order to stop genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other state crimes against Albanians in Kosovo.
Following the armed struggle of the Kosovo Liberation Army, NATO’s bombing campaign and the subsequent deployment of its troops in June 1999 brought freedom to Kosovo, paving the way for democracy-building and statehood.
“We remember with gratitude the extraordinary support of all NATO countries and especially honor the role of the United States in Kosovo’s path toward freedom, democracy, and state-building with integration,” Kurti wrote.
