Kosovo and Macedonia: US and Allied Military Operations

Publication Date: July 2003

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: International relations

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Abstract:

With the failure of the Rambouillet peace talks and violence against ethnic Albanian civilians escalating, on March 24, 1999 NATO began Operation Allied Force airstrikes against targets in Serbia and Kosovo. In all, NATO aircraft flew over 37,000 sorties in the 78-day air campaign. At the end of the campaign about 1,100 aircraft were participating, with the United States contributing about 725. Of the total aircraft, about 535 were strike aircraft, (U.S. 323/Allied 213). Thirteen of NATO’s 19 nations contributed aircraft to the operation, with 8 nations’ aircraft flying combat missions. The only NATO fatalities in Operation Allied Force were two U.S. Apache helicopter pilots killed in a training accident in Albania.

With the air campaign escalating, on June 4, 1999, Yugoslavia accepted a peace proposal devised at a G-8 summit, and on June 8, signed a military-technical agreement with NATO officials providing for the withdrawal of all Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and turning military control of the province over to NATO’s peacekeeping forces (KFOR). On June 10, 1999, the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 endorsed the peace settlement and “an international security presence with substantial NATO participation.”

Dubbed Operation Joint Guardian, KFOR totals about 30,000 in Kosovo, The United States has about 2,500 troops in Kosovo and 1,000 troops in near-by countries providing support to operations in both Kosovo and Bosnia. The U.S. has suffered no casualties from hostile action.

Albanian insurgencies in southern Serbia and Macedonia led NATO to permit the reintroduction of the Yugoslav army into the Ground Safety Zone around Kosovo, and increase efforts to seal the Kosovo border. Subsequently the Presavo Valley insurgents signed an amnesty agreement with the Serb government. In Macedonia, the Albanian nationalists and the government have reached an agreement that would grant many of the insurgents’ demands for equal political status, pending parliamentary approval. NATO troops have assisted in the voluntary collection the nationalists’ arms, and will continue to maintain a small operation (450) dubbed Allied Harmony to monitor the peace agreement. The European Union assumed command of this mission on April 1, 2003.

Congressional concerns have focused on the impact of Balkan operations on overall military readiness, and whether there has been an equitable distribution of responsibilities among the NATO allies or if the United States needs to participate in KFOR at all. Congress has appropriated approximately $8.63 billion for Kosovo operations through FY2003. In keeping with congressional direction, costs for Balkan peacekeeping operations after FY2002 are no longer separately budgeted, but rather are included in the individual armed services regular operating budgets. For FY2004, DOD has requested $936 million defense-wide for Kosovo operations.