Belgrade  – NATO unleashed its first-ever strike on March 24, 1999 against the then-Yugoslavia, with an aim of ending the heavy – handed rule of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime in Kosovo. After 78 days of bombing Belgrade capitulated, paving the way for the entry of a United Nations administration and a NATO-led peacekeeping mission.

NATO campaigned mostly with precision bombs, but without a UN mandate. But it also used controversial cluster bombs and turned “collateral damage” – meaning unintended civilian casualties and damage – into a household term.

The political consequences of the intervention, most of all the eventual secession of Kosovo from Serbia a year ago, are still being analyzed.

Yet, despite huge efforts and billions of dollars, Kosovo is no closer to becoming a true multi-ethnic society today than it was before.

Mutual hatred and fear persist between ethnic groups and the new country remains firmly partitioned along ethnic lines – which, many warn, means that the seeds of future conflicts remain.

Following is a brief chronology of the bombing and events leading to it:

1989-90: After grabbing power in Belgrade, Slobodan Milosevic revokes Kosovo’s autonomy after 15 years. The change leads to violent demonstrations by the ethnic-Albanian majority and a heavy-handed response by Serbian police. Ethnic Albanians eventually pull out from all institutions, including schools and the health system. They start parallel structures and declare independence.

1991-92: Wars flare in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina after they declare independence from Yugoslavia.

In underground elections, Kosovo Albanians name Ibrahim Rugova, a writer and proponent of peaceful resistance, as president. 1993-95: Tension steadily rises as talks between Belgrade and Albanian leaders fail. Repression increases with trials of ethnic Albanians accused of plans to launch an insurgency.

1996-97: The Kosovo Liberation Army UCK emerges and launches terrorist attacks.

1998: The insurgency gains momentum. Serbian security forces respond with indiscriminate force, flattening many houses in suspected rebel strongholds.

Demonstrations in cities add to the pressure. Ethnic Albanians again hold underground elections and demand independence for Kosovo.

US envoy Richard Holbrooke launches shuttle diplomacy in May and forces talks beetween Milosevic and Rugova. But the situation in the field continues to deteriorate and Serb forces continue attacking UCK strongholds in central Kosovo, at a heavy cost to civilian life. UN and Western calls for a ceasefire remain unheeded.

In October, NATO issues the order for airstrikes against Yugoslavia. Milosevic budges, allowing an OSCE monitoring mission to Kosovo, but the attack order remains in effect.

After a brief remission, fighting picks up again in December.

1999

January – Dozens of Albanians are killed in the village Racak. Belgrade says the dead are UCK fighters, but the West brands the killings as a massacre. Pressure on Milosevic rises as NATO warns it is ready to attack.

February 6 – Talks in Rambouillet near Paris begin. Serb and Kosovo Albanian teams remain on different floors, never meeting face-to- face, while intermediaries shuttle between them. Serbia dismisses the proposed deal.

March 24 – NATO begins bombing Yugoslavia with the objective of ousting Serbian security forces from Kosovo. A huge exodus of ethnic Albanians begins. Tens of thousands of refugees arrive at borders with Albania and Macedonia, telling stories of a campaign of terror carried out by police, military and paramilitary units.

The inflow of refugees virtually overwhelms the two countries within days, so Western European countries begin taking in tens of thousands of refugees and financially support Skopje and Tirana.

March 27 – Yugoslav defence forces shoot down a United States Stealth bomber F-117. The pilot is evacuated. March 30 – NATO begins “round- the-clock” bombing.

April 3 – The Interior ministry in downtown Belgrade is hit, in the first attack on the inner core of the Yugoslav and Serbian capital.

April 12 – NATO pilots target a train in southern Serbia, killing civilian passengers. The attacks is declared a mistake in Brussels.

April 22 – Milosevic’s residence hit. By this date all bridges across the Danube at Novi Sad are downed.

April 23 – Controversial bombing on Serbian state television RTS, in which 16 were killed. Serb authorities were warned of the attack in advance, but evacuated only a part of the staff.

April 24 – NATO warplanes drop cluster ammunition on Nis in the first of several such attacks.

April 27 – Civilians killed in bombing of the town Surdulica. NATO admits mistake.

April 30 – May 1 – Serbian defence headquarters and police in =downtown Belgrade hit by several missiles. Civilian casualties reported in a hit on a passenger bus at Luzane.

May 2 – NATO begins using “graphite bombs,” eventually knocking out the entire Serbian electric grid for hours and days at a time.

May 7 – NATO hits Chinese embassy in sprawling New Belgrade, killing three Chinese nationals. China later receives an apology and compensation from US.

May 14 – Nearly 100 displaced ethnic Albanians huddling together at night are killed in a bungled NATO attack in southern Kosovo, at Korisa. Sorties are carried out daily and incessantly. Moscow adds to pressure on Milosevic, urging it to accept a deal made under the umbrella of the United Nations.

June 10 – Milosevic agrees to withdraw troops from Kosovo and to a UN administration to govern the province, along with a NATO-led peacekeeping mission. NATO suspends airstrikes.

June 12 – 50,000 peacekeepers led by NATO, but including Russians, race to Kosovo. Ethnic Albanian refugees rush to return, as many thousands of terrified Serbs run with the withdrawing security forces.

June 20 – NATO stands down following the complete withdrawal of Serbian security forces. (dpa)