The Kosovo Report: Conflict, International Response, Lessons Learned

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. — 372 p. — ISBN: 0-19-924309-9.The Kosovo Report is a final product of the work by the Independent International Commission on Kosovo, established to examine key developments prior to, during, and after the Kosovo war, including systematic violations of human rights in the region. The report assesses effectiveness of diplomatic efforts to prevent the war, legality of the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, and the progress of the United Nations in post-conflict reconstruction. The Report makes a recommendation for the future status of Kosovo and proposes a new general framework for humanitarian intervention based on principles of legitimacy. It argues that the intervention by the international community in the Kosovo conflict did not so much create a precedent for intervention elsewhere as raise vital question about the legitimacy and practicability of the use of military force to defend human rights. The intervention, the Report concludes, exposed the limitations of the current international law on the balance between the rights of citizens and the rights of states; it demonstrated the difficulties that ensue when even the most sophisticated and professional military forces are deployed to achieve humanitarian goals; and it showed the immense obstacles that lie in the path of creating multi-ethnic cooperation in societies torn apart by ethnic war.What happened?
The Origins of the Kosovo Crisis.
Internal Armed Conflict: February 1998–March 1999.
International War Supervenes: March 1999–June 1999.
Kosovo under United Nations Rule.Analysis
The Diplomatic Dimension.
International Law and Humanitarian Intervention.
Humanitarian Organizations and the Role of Media.
Kosovo: The Regional Dimension.
The Future Status of Kosovo.Documentation on Human Rights Violations.
Kosovo - Facts and Figures.
The Rambouillet Agreement - a Summary.
The Ahtisaari-Chernomyrdin Agreement - a Summary.