yugoslavias implosion

244
ChApter 3
and that nato would soon cease hostilities, having suffered a moral,
if not a military, defeat. Several heavy air raids convinced the regime
and the public otherwise, however. As blackouts became routine and
civilian water supplies were jeopardized, the regime clamped down
on the media, instituted a partial draft, and proclaimed a state of
war.
Negotiations had collapsed largely because of Milošević’s refusal
to allow a nato-led force to guarantee the process. He refused to
let nato troops enter Yugoslavia’s territory although he had greenlighted
such a possibility in the Dayton Accords’ Annex agreement
with nato. Opponents of intervention based their criticism
on appeals to state sovereignty, arguing that Milošević was right to
reject the Rambouillet agreement because it was a clear interference
in the fry’s internal affairs.
Between the start of the nato onslaught and its halt on June
19, 1999, Serbian forces killed 10,000 people and expelled 900,000 people
from Kosovo, most of whom found refuge in Macedonia, Albania,
and Montenegro. In addition, 600,000 people had been displaced
internally. There is evidence of rape of Kosovo Albanian women,
torture, and theft. Some 110,000 Albanian houses were set on fire. The
operations were carried out by the vj, paramilitary formations, and
police who drove the Albanians out in a systematic and organized
way. 434
434 Evidence was presented on these atrocities in Milošević’s case at the ICTY, and at the trial of a
number of top former Serbian political, police and military officials . On February 26, 2009, five
former high-ranking Yugoslav and Serbian political, military, and police officials were convicted
by the ICTY for crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo in 1999 . As reported in a press
release by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (“Five Senior Serbs
Officials Convicted of Kosovo Crimes, One Acquitted,” 26 February, 2009, http://www .icty .org/
sid/10070):
Five former high-ranking Yugoslav and Serbian political, military and police officials were
today convicted by Trial Chamber III of the Tribunal for crimes against humanity committed in
Kosovo in 1999 .
Former Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister, Nikola Šainović, Yugoslav Army (VJ) General,
Nebojša Pavković and Serbian police General Sreten Lukić were each sentenced to 22 years’
imprisonment for crimes against humanity and violation of the laws or customs of war .