ftermath Refugee camp in Fier, Albania Within three weeks, over 500,000 Albanian refugees had returned home.

[citation n eeded] By November 1999, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 848 ,100 out of 1,108,913 had returned. According to the 1991 Yugoslavia Census there were 194,190 Serbs and 45,745 Roma ni in Kosovo.[192] According to the Human Rights Watch, 200,000 Serbs and thousa nds of Roma fled from Kosovo during and after the war.[193] The Yugoslav Red Cro ss had also registered 247,391 mostly Serbian refugees by November. The persiste nt anti-Serb attacks and riots, including against other non-Albanians, had remai ned in the anarchic stage until some form of order was established in 2001. This order disintegrated during the 2004 pogrom against non Albanians. More than 164 ,000 Serbs have left Kosovo during the seven weeks since Yugoslav and Serb force s withdrew and the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) entered the province.[194] War crimes Main article: War crimes in Kosovo Serbian war crimes Main article: Serbian war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars Before the end of the bombing, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milo evic, along with M ilan Milutinovic, Nikola ainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic and Vlajko Stojiljkovic were charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with crimes against humanity including murder, forcible transfer, deportation, a nd "persecution on political, racial or religious grounds". Further indictments were leveled in October 2003 against former armed forces chief of staff Neboj a Pa vkovic, former army corps commander Vladimir Lazarevic, former police official V lastimir ordevic, and Sreten Lukic. All were indicted for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war. Later, the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugosla via (ICTY) legally found that Serbia "use[d] violence and terror to force a sign ificant number of Kosovo Albanians from their homes and across the borders, in o rder for the state authorities to maintain control over Kosovo ... This campaign was conducted by army and Interior Ministry police forces (MUP) under the contr ol of FRY and Serbian authorities, who were responsible for mass expulsions of K osovo Albanian civilians from their homes, as well as incidents of killings, sex ual assault, and the intentional destruction of mosques."[195] Albanian war crimes The ICTY also leveled indictments against KLA members Fatmir Limaj, Haradin Bala , Isak Musliu, and Agim Murtezi for crimes against humanity. They were arrested on February 17 and 18, 2003. Charges were soon dropped against Agim Murtezi as a case of mistaken identity, whereas Fatmir Limaj was acquitted of all charges on November 30, 2005 and released. The charges were in relation to the prison camp run by the defendants at Lapu nik between May and July 1998. In 2008, Carla Del Ponte published a book in which she alleged that, after the e nd of the war in 1999, Kosovo Albanians were smuggling organs of between 100 and 300 Serbs and other minorities from the province to Albania.[196] The ICTY and the Serbian War Crimes Tribunal are currently investigating these allegations, a s numerous witnesses and new materials have recently emerged.[197][not in citati on given] On March 2005, a U.N. tribunal indicted Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj f or war crimes against the Serbs. On March 8, he tendered his resignation. Haradi naj, an ethnic Albanian, was a former commander who led units of the Kosovo Libe ration Army and was appointed Prime Minister after winning an election of 72 vot es to three in the Kosovo's Parliament in December 2004. Haradinaj was acquitted on all counts along with fellow KLA veterans Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj. The Office of the Prosecutor appealed their acquittals, resulting in the ICTY order ing a partial retrial. However on 29 November 2012 all three were acquitted for second time on all charges.[198] According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), "800 non

-Albanian civilians were kidnapped and murdered from 1998 to 1999". After the wa r, "479 people have gone missing ... most of them Serbs".[199] NATO war crimes The Yugoslav government and a number of international pressure groups (e.g., Amn esty International) claimed that NATO had carried out war crimes during the conf lict, notably the bombing of the Serbian TV headquarters in Belgrade on April 23 , 1999, where 16 people were killed and 16 more were injured. Sian Jones of Amne sty stated, "The bombing of the headquarters of Serbian state radio and televisi on was a deliberate attack on a civilian object and as such constitutes a war cr ime".[200] However, a later report conducted by the ICTY entitled Final Report t o the Prosecutor by the Committee Established to Review the NATO Bombing Campaig n Against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia sided with NATO's version of the at tack, opining that, "Insofar as the attack actually was aimed at disrupting the communications network, it was legally acceptable" and that, "NATO's targeting o f the RTS building for propaganda purposes was an incidental (albeit complementa ry) aim of its primary goal of disabling the Serbian military command and contro l system and to destroy the nerve system and apparatus that keeps Milosevic in p ower."[132] In regards to civilian casualties, it further stated that though the y were, "unfortunately high, they do not appear to be clearly disproportionate." [132] International reaction to NATO intervention Africa Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Libyan Jamahiriya leader, Muammar Gaddafi had opposed the campaign and called on world leaders to support Yugoslavia's 'legitimate right to defend its freedoms and territorial integrity against a possible aggression.' [201] Asia Cambodia Cambodia was against the campaign.[202] China The People's Republic of China deeply condemned and strongly opposed the b ombing, saying it was an act of aggression against the Yugoslav people, especial ly when NATO bombed its embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999, riots and mass demon strations against the governments of the United States and Great Britain have be en reported against both the attack and the operation overall.[203] Jiang Zemin, the President of the country at the time, called 'once more' for an immediate h alt to the airstrikes and demanded peaceful negotiations.[201] India India had condemned the bombing.[202] The Indian foreign ministry also sta ted that it 'urged all military actions to be brought to a halt' and that 'FR Yu goslavia be enabled to resolve its internal issues internally.'[201] Indonesia Indonesia was against the campaign.[202] Japan Japan's PM Keizo Obuchi had advocated the bombing, stating that Yugoslavia had an 'uncompromising attitude.'[202] Moreover, Japan's foreign minister Masah iko Komura said that, 'Japan understands NATO's use of force as measures that ha d to be taken to prevent humanitarian catastrophe.'[201] Malaysia Malaysia had supported the bombing, stating that it 'was necessary to p revent genocide in Kosovo.'[202] Pakistan Pakistan's government was concerned about developing situations in Koso vo and called for UN intervention.[202] Vietnam Vietnam was against the bombing campaign.[202] Europe Albania Albania had strongly supported the bombing campaign. This resulted in th e breaking of diplomatic ties between Albania and the Federal Republic of Yugosl avia, who had made claims of the Albanian government harboring UK insurgents and supplying them with weapons.[citation needed] France France had mixed responses to the bombing, despite being a combatant.[204 ] Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milo evic, the president of the Federal Re public of Yugoslavia had called the bombings, an 'unlawful act of terrorism' and the 'key to colonize Yugoslavia'. The Yugoslav population also strongly opposed the bombing and showed defiance with cultural-related themes. Milo evic also stat

ed that, 'the only correct decision that could have been made was the one to rej ect foreign troops on our territory.'[205] The Yugoslavs who opposed Milo evic als o opposed the bombing, saying that it 'supports Milo evic rather than attacking hi m.' Greece Greece was opposed to the NATO bombings with around 97% of the Greek popu lation completely condemning it.[citation needed] Italy The bombing was met with mixed reactions in Italy, despite the country's p articipation in the air campaign. Silvio Berlusconi along with the centre-right had supported the bombardment while the far left strongly opposed it.[citation n eeded] Russia Russia strongly condemned the campaign. With the president Boris Yeltsin stating that, 'Russia is deeply upset by NATO's military action against sovereig n Yugoslavia, which is nothing more than open aggression.'[201] They also condem ned NATO at the United Nations saying that NATO air strikes on Serbia was 'an il legal action.'[206] Many Russians volunteered to Kosovo to not just fight the UK, but to also oppose NATO.[207] United Kingdom As a member of the bombing, the United Kingdom had strongly suppo rted the bombing campaign. A majority of the British population had supported it .[208] Oceania Australia Australia had supported the campaign. Prime Minister John Howard state d that, "history has told us that if you sit by and do nothing, you pay a much g reater price later on."[209] United Nations United Nations The United Nations had mixed reactions to the bombing. The bombin g had also been carried out without its authorization.[210] However, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General had said this, "It is indeed tragic that diplomacy has failed, but there are times when the use of force is legitimate in the pursuit of peace."[201] Military and political consequences

Members of the Kosovo Liberation Army turn over their weapons to U.S. Marines Main articles: Kosovo status process and Constitutional status of Kosovo The Kosovo war had a number of important consequences in terms of the military a nd political outcome. The status of Kosovo remains unresolved; international neg otiations began in 2006 to determine Kosovo's level of autonomy as envisaged und er UN Security Council Resolution 1244, but efforts failed. The province is admi nistered by the United Nations despite its unilateral declaration of independenc e on February 17, 2008. Seized uniform and equipment of U.S. soldiers 1999 in Kosovo War US Marines captured Yugoslav soldiers on July 3, 1999 during the ceasefire and t he implementation MTA from Kumanovo of 9 June. The UN-backed talks, led by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, had begun in Febr uary 2006. Whilst progress was made on technical matters, both parties remained diametrically opposed on the question of status itself.[211] In February 2007, A htisaari delivered a draft status settlement proposal to leaders in Belgrade and Pristina, the basis for a draft UN Security Council Resolution which proposes " supervised independence" for the province, which is in contrary to UN Security C ouncil Resolution 1244. By July 2007, the draft resolution, which was backed by the United States, United Kingdom, and other European members of the Security Co uncil, had been rewritten four times to try to accommodate Russian concerns that such a resolution would undermine the principle of state sovereignty.[212] Russ ia, which holds a veto in the Security Council as one of five permanent members, stated that it would not support any resolution which is not acceptable to both

Belgrade and Pri tina.[213] The campaign exposed significant weaknesses in the U.S. arsenal, which were late r addressed for the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns. Apache attack helicopters an d AC-130 Spectre gunships were brought up to the front lines but were never used after two Apaches crashed during training in the Albanian mountains. Stocks of many precision missiles were reduced to critically low levels. For combat aircra ft, continuous operations resulted in skipped maintenance schedules, and many ai rcraft were withdrawn from service awaiting spare parts and service.[214] Also, many of the precision-guided weapons proved unable to cope with Balkan weather, as the clouds blocked the laser guidance beams. This was resolved by retrofittin g bombs with Global Positioning System satellite guidance devices that are immun e to bad weather. Although pilotless surveillance aircraft were extensively used , often attack aircraft could not be brought to the scene quickly enough to hit targets of opportunity. This led missiles being fit onto Predator drones in Afgh anistan, reducing the "sensor to shooter" time to virtually zero. Kosovo also showed that some low-tech tactics could reduce the impact of a hightech force such as NATO; the Milo evic government coperated with Saddam Hussein's r egime in Iraq, passing on many of the lessons learned.[215] The Yugoslav army ha d long expected to need to resist a much stronger enemy, either Soviet or NATO, during the Cold War and had developed effective tactics of deception and conceal ment in response. These would have been unlikely to have resisted a full-scale i nvasion for long, but were probably in misleading overflying aircraft and satell ites. Among the tactics used were: U.S. stealth aircraft were tracked with radars operating on long wavelengths. If stealth jets got wet or opened their bomb bay doors, they would become visible on the radar screens. An F-117 Nighthawk downed by a missile was possibly spotte d in this way.[216] Dummy targets such as fake bridges, airfields and decoy planes and tanks were us ed extensively. Tanks were made using old tires, plastic sheeting and logs, and sand cans and fuel set alight to mimic heat emissions. They fooled NATO pilots i nto bombing hundreds of such decoys, though General Clark's survey found that in Operation: Allied Force, NATO airmen hit just 25 decoys an insignificant percenta ge of the 974 validated hits.[217] However, NATO sources claim that this was due to operating procedures, which oblige troops, in this case aircraft, to engage any and all targets, however unlikely they may be. The targets needed only to lo ok real to be shot at, if detected, of course. NATO claimed that Yugoslav air fo rce had been devastated. "Official data show that the Yugoslav army in Kosovo lo st 26 percent of its tanks, 34 percent of its APCs, and 47 percent of the artill ery to the air campaign."[217] Military decorations As a result of the Kosovo War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation created a second NATO medal, the NATO Medal for Kosovo Service, an international military decoration. Shortly thereafter, NATO created the Non-Article 5 Medal for Balkans service to combine both Yugoslavian and Kosovo operations into one service meda l.[218] Due to the involvement of the United States armed forces, a separate U.S. milita ry decoration, known as the Kosovo Campaign Medal, was established by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Weaponry & vehicles used A variety of weapons were used by the Yugoslav security forces and the Kosovo Li beration Army during the conflict. NATO only operated aircraft and various naval units for the duration of the conflict. Yugoslav security forces The following weapons used by Yugoslav government forces are listed below. Most of them were Yugoslav made weaponry, while almost all of the AA units were Sovie t made. BOV BVP M-80

D-20 D-30 MiG-21 MiG-29 M80 Zolja M-84 SA-3 SA-7 SA-9 SA-13 Soko J-22 Orao Soko Gazelle T-54/55