WTNH News Channel 8 / News / Crisis in Kosovo

	KOSOVO CHRONOLOGY 1968 _ First pro-independence demonstrations by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, many arrested. 1974 _ Yugoslav constitution redrawn, declares Kosovo an autonomous province within Serbia. 1980 _ Yugoslav leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito dies. 1981 _ Ethnic Albanians hold street demonstrations demanding Kosovo be declared a republic, dozens injured. 1989 _ Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic (sloh-BOH'-dahn mee-LOH'-shuh-vich) strips Kosovo of autonomy. More than 20 killed in protests. 1990 _ Yugoslavia sends in troops to impose control. Serbia dissolves Kosovo's government. 1991 _ Separatists proclaim Kosovo a republic, which is recognized by neighboring Albania. 1992 _ Ibrahim Rugova, who advocates a peaceful path to independence, elected president of separatist republic. 1996 _ Pro-independence rebel Kosovo Liberation Army emerges, claims responsibility for bombing police targets. Feb. 28, 1998 _ Militant Kosovo Albanians kill two Serb policemen, leading to police reprisals by Milosevic, now the Yugoslav president. March 1998 _ Dozens killed in Serb police action against suspected Albanian separatists. April 1998 _ 95 percent of Serbs reject international mediation on Kosovo in referendum. International sanctions imposed against Yugoslavia. May 1998 _ Milosevic and Rugova hold talks for first time, but Albanian side boycotts further meetings. July and August 1998 _ KLA seizes control of 40 percent of Kosovo before being routed in Serb offensive. September 1998 _ Serb forces attack central Kosovo, where 22 Albanians found massacred. U.N. Security Council adopts resolution calling for immediate cease-fire and political dialogue. October 1998 _ NATO allies authorize airstrikes against Serb military targets, Milosevic agrees to withdraw troops and facilitate the return of tens of thousands of refugees. Belgrade agrees to allow 2,000 unarmed monitors to verify compliance. October-December 1998 _ U.S. envoy Christopher Hill tries to broker political settlement. Scattered daily violence undermines fragile truce. December 1998 _ Yugoslav troops kill 36 KLA rebels. Six young Serbs killed in a cafe, prompting widespread Serb protests. Fighting in north kills at least 15. Jan. 15, 1999 _ 45 ethnic Albanians slain outside Racak, spurring international efforts for a peace settlement. Jan. 29 _ Serb police kill 24 Kosovo Albanians in a raid on a suspected rebel hideout. Western allies demand warring sides attend Kosovo peace conference or face NATO airstrikes. Feb. 6-17 _ First, inconclusive round of talks between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs in Rambouillet, France. February-March 1999 _ Yugoslav forces sweep through Macedonian border region, digging in across from where thousands of NATO forces gather for a possible peacekeeping mission, and bombard KLA positions in the north. Rebels launch several attacks on Serbs. March 18 _ Kosovo Albanians unilaterally sign peace deal calling for a broad interim autonomy and 28,000 NATO troops to implement it. Serb delegation refuses and talks suspended. March 20 _ International peace monitors evacuate Kosovo, as Yugoslav forces buildup and launch offensives against rebels. NATO aircraft and ships ready for possible bombardments. March 22 _ U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke visits Belgrade to warn Milosevic of airstrikes unless he signs peace agreement. Milosevic refuses to allow NATO troops in Yugoslavia. March 23 _ Holbrooke declares the talks have failed. March 24 - NATO air strikes begin. March 27 - An American F-117-A stealth fighter crashed near Belgrade, but NATO would not confirm Serb claims that it was shot down. A NATO team rescued the pilot. March 30 - Talks between Russia's prime minister and Milosevic apparently fail to bring a breakthrough that would end NATO attacks on Serb forces. March 31 - Three U.S. Army soldiers disappear after reporting they were under fire near the Macedonia-Yugoslav border. April 1 - Serbian television shows video of the three captured Americans. The Yugoslav state news agency later announces that the soldiers would be tried before a military court. U.S. officials denounce the move, and demand the soldiers be treated well. April 2 - Court proceedings begin against three captured American soldiers. The proceedings are described as a gathering of evidence to decide what charges, if any, would be filed. April 3 - NATO missiles for the first time hit targets in downtown Belgrade, including the headquarters of some of President Milosevic's security forces. April 4 - NATO once again attacks targets in Belgrade. Yugoslav civil defense officials say a heating plant was hit in a residential-industrial area. A police academy in the suburbs was also attacked. Yugoslav media report three dead. April 5 -- Yugoslav officials say NATO's latest raids kill 12 civilians, while Serb TV claims two alliance planes are shot down (which NATO denies). President Clinton vows NATO will persist until it prevails in battle with Milosevic. Airlifts begin, taking some refugees to Turkey and Norway. April 6 -- Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic offers cease-fire to mark the approach of Orthodox Easter and pledged to forge a "temporary agreement" with ethnic Albanians. US rebuffs the offer. US announces it will take in up to 20,000 ethnic Albanian refugees and house them temporarily at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Subsequently it said it would rethink the plan, because the refugees were being adequately taken care of in Europe. April 8 -- A former president of Cyprus, Spyros Kyprianou, travels to Yugoslavia in an effort to arrange the release of three captured American soldiers. April 9 -- The former Cypriot president announces his efforts to free three captured US soldiers in Yugoslavia had failed. He blames a NATO refusal to let up on air strikes. April 10 -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says the number of refugees leaving Kosovo since the NATO bombing began has topped half a million, a number not seen in Europe since World War Two. April 11 -- NATO says it showed restraint in its bombing campaign in deference to the Orthodox Easter holiday. April 13 -- NATO admits accidentally bombing train on Yugoslavia railroad bridge. Serb officials say at least ten passengers were killed and 16 hurt in yesterday's attack. April 14 -- Serb officials say NATO bombs hit a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees under Serb police escort, killing at least 64 people and wounding 20. April 15 -- NATO acknowledges mistakenly bombing a convoy of refugees, thinking it was a Serb military convoy. Yugoslavia said the attack killed 75 people and wounded more than two dozen. April 16 -- NATO disputes Serbia's account of attacks on Albanian refugees in Kosovo. Acknowledges an attack killed civilians, but says it was in a different area from those shown reporters. More strikes against targets throughout Yugoslavia. April 18 -- NATO said its jets flew 500 missions in a 24-hour period ending at midday, the most active day of airstrikes in the assault on Yugoslavia. A car carrying a family across the border to Albania from Kosovo struck a land mine, killing three children and their mother and grandmother. April 19 -- NATO said its planes may have killed civilians in a convoy in Kosovo last week -- but officials can't confirm Yugoslav claims of 80 dead. NATO said despite ban weather, it's planes had struck ammunition stores, oil installations and the airport in the Kosovo capital of Pristina, during the 26th night of its bombing campaign. April 21 -- More overnight attacks on targets throughout Yugoslavia, including party headquarters in Belgrade. A dozen Apache tank-killer helicopters sent to Albania for use in the war against Serbian ground forces in Kosovo. April 22 -- NATO rockets one of Milosevic's houses in Belgrade. Leaders begin arriving in Washington for start of NATO's weekend 50th anniversary summit. April 23 -- NATO leaders begin Washington summit. Russia floats peace plan, which NATO promptly rejects. Serbian state television headquarters hit in Belgrade. April 26 -- The head of the International Red Cross has met briefly with three captured US soldiers in Belgrade. He says chances of their release any time soon are slim. April 27 -- A doctor and a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross visit three captured Americans, and receive messages to be delivered to their families. Pentagon begins process of calling up reservists. April 28 -- NATO acknowledges a missile hit a residential neighborhood some 200 miles south of Belgrade. Serb authorities claim hundreds of homes were damaged and 20 people killed. The US House of Representatives votes to require President Clinton to get congressional approval before deploying ground forces in Yugoslavia, and refuses to endorse the NATO air strikes. April 29 -- Jesse Jackson leads a delegation to Belgrade, hoping to win the release of three captured American soldiers, while a Russian envoy launches a peace initiative. The Pentagon announces it's dispatching ten more Air Force B-52 bombers to help in the air campaign. April 30 -- The campaign against Yugoslavia is in its 38th day. That's the length of the US led air campaign against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. On the 39th day, a ground attack was added. Jesse Jackson met with three American POW's in Belgrade. May 1 -- Jesse Jackson meets with President Milosevic and secures agreement to win freedom for the three American POWs. Media reports say a NATO bomb hit a civilian bus, killing 40 people. President Clinton signs an embargo against Serbia. Ten additional B-52's were due to arrive in England, from where they will take part in attacks on Yugoslavia. May 2 -- Yugoslavia releases three American POW's to the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jackson and Senate Majority leader Trent Lott call for US to try again for a diplomatic solution. A US F-16 crashes in western Serbia returning from a combat mission, and a U.S. Marine Harrier jet crashes in Adriatic on a training mission for Operation Allied Force. Both pilots are rescued. May 3 -- Freed American soldiers hold reunions with their families in Germany. Jesse Jackson, who negotiated the release, flies to Washington to give President Clinton a peace proposal from Yugoslavia's president. May 4 -- NATO presses ahead with its bombing campaign, although on a somewhat more limited basis than in previous days. Denies involvement in bus attack Monday. Clinton leaves for NATO headquarters and troop visits in Germany. Vietnam warns US of danger of another Vietnam-style war. May 5 -- Two US army pilots are killed in the crash of their Apache helicopter during a training mission in Albania. President Clinton arrives in Germany and meets with US troops. He also meets with the former American prisoners of war. The first group of ethnic Albanian refugees arrived at New Jersey's Fort Dix Army base today. May 6 -- Russia and western leaders find common ground on Kosovo. Foreign ministers from the G-8 nations agree on the basic terms of an international force that would secure the safe return of ethnic Albanians to Kosovo. It's a seven-point plan, which includes the deployment of an international "civil and security" force. U.S. officials order as many as 176 more planes to join the Yugoslav effort, bringing the number of U.S. planes in the campaign to more than 800. May 7 -- NATO missiles strike Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. NATO says it was an accident. Yugoslavia calls it a war crime. May 9 -- Thousands of demonstrators angry about the Chinese Embassy bombing besiege the US Embassy in Beijing, in China's biggest public protest since the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations ten years ago. May 10 -- China suspends some high-level contacts with the United States, to protest the bombing of its embassy in Belgrade. Yugoslavia's army announces a partial withdrawal of military and police forces from Kosovo, saying it has completed its operations against ethnic Albanian rebels. NATO says there will be no interruption in its air campaign. May 11 -- More fighting in Yugoslavia. May 12 -- NATO says the most recent 24-hour period was the most intense in the air campaign to date. European monitors say there's been heavy fighting between Kosovo rebels and Yugoslav forces who've crossed over the border from Kosovo into Albania. May 14 -- Yugoslav authorities accuse NATO of killing scores of ethhnic Albanian refugees in Kosovo during a bombing raid. NATO confirms its planes attacked the village in question, which it calls a military command center. NATO says it cannot confirm any civilian casualties. Alliance officials suggest Serb shelling could have killed the refugees, or that the Serbs are using the refugees as human shields. Serb media put the death toll at 84. May 15 -- A top Yugoslav general appealed to NATO to suspend its bombing to allow the military to go through with a planned withdrawal of some of its forces from Kosovo. Major General Vladimir Lazarevic said a suspension would be the "honorable and soldierly honest" thing to do. May 16 -- NATO says evidence is mounting that Serbs in Kosovo are using ethnic Albanians as human shields. NATO and the Pentagon say that may be what happened to refugees bombed last week in a Kosovo village. Yugoslavia dismisses the claim and charges that increased NATO bombings are preventing Serb forces from withdrawing from Kosovo, as NATO demands. May 18 -- United States releases two Serb POW's. President Clinton has refused to rule out using ground troops in the NATO campaign against Yugoslavia. But German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called the use of ground forces "unthinkable." May 20 -- President Clinton, speaking at the White House, insists the NATO air campaign is working and that the allies remain united. Clinton says they will "persist as long as it takes" to make Kosovo safe for ethnic Albanians. Clinton spoke hours after a bomb leveled part of a Belgrade hospital. The Serbs say three people were killed. A NATO spokesman says only that one of its bombs "was misdirected for technical reasons." May 21 -- Yugoslav news reports say NATO hit a Kosovo jail, killing at least 19 people and injuring many more. Western reporters saw some bloodied corpses and shrapnel-pocked buildings. American officials apologize for an attack that blew the windows out of the Swiss ambassador's residence in Belgrade. Meantime, President Clinton signs a bill that authorizes 12 (b) billion dollars to help Kosovo Albanian refugees, aid the neighboring Balkan countries and fund US forces around the globe. May 22 -- NATO says it hit an ethnic Albanian rebel base in Kosovo, which until recently had been a Yugoslav army base. The rebels call it a technical error and say bombing should continue. NATO defends an earlier attack on a prison, saying aerial photography showed it was part of a military complex. And it says it hit 40 targets in Serbia. May 24-25 -- NATO says targets in Yugoslavia over the past 24 hours included one of Milosevic's private residences near Belgrade which also houses a command and control bunker. NATO says other targets included the ministry of internal affairs in Belgrade, electric power transmission towers and various military targets. The alliance's leader says the bombings are working. May 27 -- The UN war crimes tribunal announced the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic and four powerful aides for crimes against humanity. NATO says the previous 24 hours were the most intense yet in its air campaign against Yugoslavia. The alliance says its aircraft flew 741 sorties, 308 of them classified as strike sorties. NATO says a wide range of military targets were hit, including an army-special police command headquarters. May 28 -- A five-judge military panel convicts three aid workers on espionage charges. Two Australians and a Yugoslav coworker allegedly passed on military secrets while doing humanitarian work for the group CARE Australia. The Australians were sentenced to 12 and four years in prison; the Yugoslav got six years. June 1 -- NATO air campaign moves into day 70. Slobodan Milosevic's bunker among latest targets. Russian envoy meets in Germany with US and European officials on peace plan. US skeptical that Yugoslavia's leader is serious about peace. June 2 -- NATO pounding continues. Alliance says Serb forces hit hard, taking out a significant amount of artillery. Belgrade peace mission by Russian envoy goes to Belgrade after general agreement on the plan by Russia, the US and the European Union. June 3 -- Serbian parliament and Yugoslav government say they accept the Western terms for peace. Today's News Page. WTNH Home Page. ©1999 WTNH-TV A LIN station.

KOSOVO CHRONOLOGY

1968 _ First pro-independence demonstrations by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, many arrested.

1974 _ Yugoslav constitution redrawn, declares Kosovo an autonomous province within Serbia.

1980 _ Yugoslav leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito dies.

1981 _ Ethnic Albanians hold street demonstrations demanding Kosovo be declared a republic, dozens injured.

1989 _ Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic (sloh-BOH'-dahn mee-LOH'-shuh-vich) strips Kosovo of autonomy. More than 20 killed in protests.

1990 _ Yugoslavia sends in troops to impose control. Serbia dissolves Kosovo's government.

1991 _ Separatists proclaim Kosovo a republic, which is recognized by neighboring Albania.

1992 _ Ibrahim Rugova, who advocates a peaceful path to independence, elected president of separatist republic.

1996 _ Pro-independence rebel Kosovo Liberation Army emerges, claims responsibility for bombing police targets.

Feb. 28, 1998 _ Militant Kosovo Albanians kill two Serb policemen, leading to police reprisals by Milosevic, now the Yugoslav president.

March 1998 _ Dozens killed in Serb police action against suspected Albanian separatists.

April 1998 _ 95 percent of Serbs reject international mediation on Kosovo in referendum. International sanctions imposed against Yugoslavia.

May 1998 _ Milosevic and Rugova hold talks for first time, but Albanian side boycotts further meetings.

July and August 1998 _ KLA seizes control of 40 percent of Kosovo before being routed in Serb offensive.

September 1998 _ Serb forces attack central Kosovo, where 22 Albanians found massacred. U.N. Security Council adopts resolution calling for immediate cease-fire and political dialogue.

October 1998 _ NATO allies authorize airstrikes against Serb military targets, Milosevic agrees to withdraw troops and facilitate the return of tens of thousands of refugees. Belgrade agrees to allow 2,000 unarmed monitors to verify compliance.

October-December 1998 _ U.S. envoy Christopher Hill tries to broker political settlement. Scattered daily violence undermines fragile truce.

December 1998 _ Yugoslav troops kill 36 KLA rebels. Six young Serbs killed in a cafe, prompting widespread Serb protests. Fighting in north kills at least 15.

Jan. 15, 1999 _ 45 ethnic Albanians slain outside Racak, spurring international efforts for a peace settlement.

Jan. 29 _ Serb police kill 24 Kosovo Albanians in a raid on a suspected rebel hideout. Western allies demand warring sides attend Kosovo peace conference or face NATO airstrikes.

Feb. 6-17 _ First, inconclusive round of talks between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs in Rambouillet, France.

February-March 1999 _ Yugoslav forces sweep through Macedonian border region, digging in across from where thousands of NATO forces gather for a possible peacekeeping mission, and bombard KLA positions in the north. Rebels launch several attacks on Serbs.

March 18 _ Kosovo Albanians unilaterally sign peace deal calling for a broad interim autonomy and 28,000 NATO troops to implement it. Serb delegation refuses and talks suspended.

March 20 _ International peace monitors evacuate Kosovo, as Yugoslav forces buildup and launch offensives against rebels. NATO aircraft and ships ready for possible bombardments.

March 22 _ U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke visits Belgrade to warn Milosevic of airstrikes unless he signs peace agreement. Milosevic refuses to allow NATO troops in Yugoslavia.

March 23 _ Holbrooke declares the talks have failed.

March 24 - NATO air strikes begin.

March 27 - An American F-117-A stealth fighter crashed near Belgrade, but NATO would not confirm Serb claims that it was shot down. A NATO team rescued the pilot.

March 30 - Talks between Russia's prime minister and Milosevic apparently fail to bring a breakthrough that would end NATO attacks on Serb forces.

March 31 - Three U.S. Army soldiers disappear after reporting they were under fire near the Macedonia-Yugoslav border.

April 1 - Serbian television shows video of the three captured Americans. The Yugoslav state news agency later announces that the soldiers would be tried before a military court. U.S. officials denounce the move, and demand the soldiers be treated well.

April 2 - Court proceedings begin against three captured American soldiers. The proceedings are described as a gathering of evidence to decide what charges, if any, would be filed.

April 3 - NATO missiles for the first time hit targets in downtown Belgrade, including the headquarters of some of President Milosevic's security forces.

April 4 - NATO once again attacks targets in Belgrade. Yugoslav civil defense officials say a heating plant was hit in a residential-industrial area. A police academy in the suburbs was also attacked. Yugoslav media report three dead.

April 5 -- Yugoslav officials say NATO's latest raids kill 12 civilians, while Serb TV claims two alliance planes are shot down (which NATO denies). President Clinton vows NATO will persist until it prevails in battle with Milosevic. Airlifts begin, taking some refugees to Turkey and Norway.

April 6 -- Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic offers cease-fire to mark the approach of Orthodox Easter and pledged to forge a "temporary agreement" with ethnic Albanians. US rebuffs the offer.

US announces it will take in up to 20,000 ethnic Albanian refugees and house them temporarily at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Subsequently it said it would rethink the plan, because the refugees were being adequately taken care of in Europe.

April 8 -- A former president of Cyprus, Spyros Kyprianou, travels to Yugoslavia in an effort to arrange the release of three captured American soldiers.

April 9 -- The former Cypriot president announces his efforts to free three captured US soldiers in Yugoslavia had failed. He blames a NATO refusal to let up on air strikes.

April 10 -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says the number of refugees leaving Kosovo since the NATO bombing began has topped half a million, a number not seen in Europe since World War Two.

April 11 -- NATO says it showed restraint in its bombing campaign in deference to the Orthodox Easter holiday.

April 13 -- NATO admits accidentally bombing train on Yugoslavia railroad bridge. Serb officials say at least ten passengers were killed and 16 hurt in yesterday's attack.

April 14 -- Serb officials say NATO bombs hit a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees under Serb police escort, killing at least 64 people and wounding 20.

April 15 -- NATO acknowledges mistakenly bombing a convoy of refugees, thinking it was a Serb military convoy. Yugoslavia said the attack killed 75 people and wounded more than two dozen.

April 16 -- NATO disputes Serbia's account of attacks on Albanian refugees in Kosovo. Acknowledges an attack killed civilians, but says it was in a different area from those shown reporters. More strikes against targets throughout Yugoslavia.

April 18 -- NATO said its jets flew 500 missions in a 24-hour period ending at midday, the most active day of airstrikes in the assault on Yugoslavia.
A car carrying a family across the border to Albania from Kosovo struck a land mine, killing three children and their mother and grandmother.

April 19 -- NATO said its planes may have killed civilians in a convoy in Kosovo last week -- but officials can't confirm Yugoslav claims of 80 dead. NATO said despite ban weather, it's planes had struck ammunition stores, oil installations and the airport in the Kosovo capital of Pristina, during the 26th night of its bombing campaign.

April 21 -- More overnight attacks on targets throughout Yugoslavia, including party headquarters in Belgrade. A dozen Apache tank-killer helicopters sent to Albania for use in the war against Serbian ground forces in Kosovo.

April 22 -- NATO rockets one of Milosevic's houses in Belgrade. Leaders begin arriving in Washington for start of NATO's weekend 50th anniversary summit.

April 23 -- NATO leaders begin Washington summit. Russia floats peace plan, which NATO promptly rejects. Serbian state television headquarters hit in Belgrade.

April 26 -- The head of the International Red Cross has met briefly with three captured US soldiers in Belgrade. He says chances of their release any time soon are slim.

April 27 -- A doctor and a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross visit three captured Americans, and receive messages to be delivered to their families. Pentagon begins process of calling up reservists.

April 28 -- NATO acknowledges a missile hit a residential neighborhood some 200 miles south of Belgrade. Serb authorities claim hundreds of homes were damaged and 20 people killed. The US House of Representatives votes to require President Clinton to get congressional approval before deploying ground forces in Yugoslavia, and refuses to endorse the NATO air strikes.

April 29 -- Jesse Jackson leads a delegation to Belgrade, hoping to win the release of three captured American soldiers, while a Russian envoy launches a peace initiative. The Pentagon announces it's dispatching ten more Air Force B-52 bombers to help in the air campaign.

April 30 -- The campaign against Yugoslavia is in its 38th day. That's the length of the US led air campaign against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. On the 39th day, a ground attack was added. Jesse Jackson met with three American POW's in Belgrade.

May 1 -- Jesse Jackson meets with President Milosevic and secures agreement to win freedom for the three American POWs. Media reports say a NATO bomb hit a civilian bus, killing 40 people. President Clinton signs an embargo against Serbia. Ten additional B-52's were due to arrive in England, from where they will take part in attacks on Yugoslavia.

May 2 -- Yugoslavia releases three American POW's to the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jackson and Senate Majority leader Trent Lott call for US to try again for a diplomatic solution. A US F-16 crashes in western Serbia returning from a combat mission, and a U.S. Marine Harrier jet crashes in Adriatic on a training mission for Operation Allied Force. Both pilots are rescued.

May 3 -- Freed American soldiers hold reunions with their families in Germany. Jesse Jackson, who negotiated the release, flies to Washington to give President Clinton a peace proposal from Yugoslavia's president.

May 4 -- NATO presses ahead with its bombing campaign, although on a somewhat more limited basis than in previous days. Denies involvement in bus attack Monday. Clinton leaves for NATO headquarters and troop visits in Germany. Vietnam warns US of danger of another Vietnam-style war.

May 5 -- Two US army pilots are killed in the crash of their Apache helicopter during a training mission in Albania. President Clinton arrives in Germany and meets with US troops. He also meets with the former American prisoners of war. The first group of ethnic Albanian refugees arrived at New Jersey's Fort Dix Army base today.

May 6 -- Russia and western leaders find common ground on Kosovo. Foreign ministers from the G-8 nations agree on the basic terms of an international force that would secure the safe return of ethnic Albanians to Kosovo. It's a seven-point plan, which includes the deployment of an international "civil and security" force. U.S. officials order as many as 176 more planes to join the Yugoslav effort, bringing the number of U.S. planes in the campaign to more than 800.

May 7 -- NATO missiles strike Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. NATO says it was an accident. Yugoslavia calls it a war crime.

May 9 -- Thousands of demonstrators angry about the Chinese Embassy bombing besiege the US Embassy in Beijing, in China's biggest public protest since the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations ten years ago.

May 10 -- China suspends some high-level contacts with the United States, to protest the bombing of its embassy in Belgrade. Yugoslavia's army announces a partial withdrawal of military and police forces from Kosovo, saying it has completed its operations against ethnic Albanian rebels. NATO says there will be no interruption in its air campaign.

May 11 -- More fighting in Yugoslavia.

May 12 -- NATO says the most recent 24-hour period was the most intense in the air campaign to date. European monitors say there's been heavy fighting between Kosovo rebels and Yugoslav forces who've crossed over the border from Kosovo into Albania.

May 14 -- Yugoslav authorities accuse NATO of killing scores of ethhnic Albanian refugees in Kosovo during a bombing raid. NATO confirms its planes attacked the village in question, which it calls a military command center. NATO says it cannot confirm any civilian casualties. Alliance officials suggest Serb shelling could have killed the refugees, or that the Serbs are using the refugees as human shields. Serb media put the death toll at 84.

May 15 -- A top Yugoslav general appealed to NATO to suspend its bombing to allow the military to go through with a planned withdrawal of some of its forces from Kosovo. Major General Vladimir Lazarevic said a suspension would be the "honorable and soldierly honest" thing to do.

May 16 -- NATO says evidence is mounting that Serbs in Kosovo are using ethnic Albanians as human shields. NATO and the Pentagon say that may be what happened to refugees bombed last week in a Kosovo village. Yugoslavia dismisses the claim and charges that increased NATO bombings are preventing Serb forces from withdrawing from Kosovo, as NATO demands.

May 18 -- United States releases two Serb POW's. President Clinton has refused to rule out using ground troops in the NATO campaign against Yugoslavia. But German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called the use of ground forces "unthinkable."

May 20 -- President Clinton, speaking at the White House, insists the NATO air campaign is working and that the allies remain united. Clinton says they will "persist as long as it takes" to make Kosovo safe for ethnic Albanians. Clinton spoke hours after a bomb leveled part of a Belgrade hospital. The Serbs say three people were killed. A NATO spokesman says only that one of its bombs "was misdirected for technical reasons."

May 21 -- Yugoslav news reports say NATO hit a Kosovo jail, killing at least 19 people and injuring many more. Western reporters saw some bloodied corpses and shrapnel-pocked buildings. American officials apologize for an attack that blew the windows out of the Swiss ambassador's residence in Belgrade. Meantime, President Clinton signs a bill that authorizes 12 (b) billion dollars to help Kosovo Albanian refugees, aid the neighboring Balkan countries and fund US forces around the globe.

May 22 -- NATO says it hit an ethnic Albanian rebel base in Kosovo, which until recently had been a Yugoslav army base. The rebels call it a technical error and say bombing should continue. NATO defends an earlier attack on a prison, saying aerial photography showed it was part of a military complex. And it says it hit 40 targets in Serbia.

May 24-25 -- NATO says targets in Yugoslavia over the past 24 hours included one of Milosevic's private residences near Belgrade which also houses a command and control bunker. NATO says other targets included the ministry of internal affairs in Belgrade, electric power transmission towers and various military targets. The alliance's leader says the bombings are working.

May 27 -- The UN war crimes tribunal announced the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic and four powerful aides for crimes against humanity. NATO says the previous 24 hours were the most intense yet in its air campaign against Yugoslavia. The alliance says its aircraft flew 741 sorties, 308 of them classified as strike sorties. NATO says a wide range of military targets were hit, including an army-special police command headquarters.

May 28 -- A five-judge military panel convicts three aid workers on espionage charges. Two Australians and a Yugoslav coworker allegedly passed on military secrets while doing humanitarian work for the group CARE Australia. The Australians were sentenced to 12 and four years in prison; the Yugoslav got six years.

June 1 -- NATO air campaign moves into day 70. Slobodan Milosevic's bunker among latest targets. Russian envoy meets in Germany with US and European officials on peace plan. US skeptical that Yugoslavia's leader is serious about peace.

June 2 -- NATO pounding continues. Alliance says Serb forces hit hard, taking out a significant amount of artillery. Belgrade peace mission by Russian envoy goes to Belgrade after general agreement on the plan by Russia, the US and the European Union.

June 3 -- Serbian parliament and Yugoslav government say they accept the Western terms for peace.

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