yugoslavias implosion

deployment of a nato Extraction Force in Macedonia and a nato
Verification Mission in Kosovo, and bound Milošević to comply with
un Security Council Resolution 1199. Un Resolution 1203 endorsed the
creation of an osce Kosovo Verification Mission and a nato Air Verification
Mission.
Many displaced people returned to their homes after the
Milošević-Holbrooke agreement. Yet the kla was almost broken in
an attack on Orahovac in October 1998. The international community
increased pressure on the Serbs and threatened to intervene.
Ambassador Hill, representing the Contact Group, tried but failed to
persuade the Serbs to accept the international community’s plans to
improve the humanitarian situation in Kosovo, facilitate the return
of refugees and internally displaced people, and launch a serious
political dialogue on the province’s future.
The political elite in Serbia greeted the Milošević-Holbrooke
agreement with near-hysteria. The nationalist opposition blamed
Milošević for every setback. His agreement with Holbrooke was condemned
as capitulation. Milošević was accused of underhanded deals
with the West to sell Kosovo in order to stay in power. Sps spokesman
Ivica Dačić denied the existence of any secret arrangements: “The
agreement has not been supplemented by any annexes and subsequent
interpretations.” 387
The strongest reaction came from the Democratic Party of Serbia
and its president, Vojislav Koštunica, who espoused the interests
of the spc and the nationalist bloc. He warned Milošević that
Milošević had “not been given a mandate to negotiate with the u.s.
envoy,” and that because the Milošević-Holbrooke agreement would
leave Kosovo outside the legal system of the fry, the agreement could
be interpreted as a “criminal act of high treason.” 388 Koštunica also
counseled that in effect the terms of the agreement “guarantee the
387 Glas javnosti, November 6, 1998 .
388 Blic, October 31–November 1, 1998 .
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