On this day 20 years ago, a peace conference on Kosovo and Metohija began in Rambouillet, near Paris. The epilogue is known – after 17 days of negotiations that failed, on March 24, 1999, NATO started bombing the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (consisting of Serbia and Montenegro).
The talks were attended by representatives of Yugoslav authorities and of Kosovo Albanians, with the mediators from the United States, Russia and the EU – Christopher Hill, Boris Mayorski and Wolfgang Petritsch.
The beginning of the conference was preceded by the months of US “shuttle diplomacy,” followed by the announcement of a peace treaty proposal, whose content was met with serious objections both by Belgrade and by Kosovo Albanians.
According to the general assessment, the ambitiously imagined and pompously announced peace conference in the French castle was scheduled too early and without adequate preparation, and was destined to fail.
“The Rambouillet text, which called on Serbia to admit NATO troops throughout Yugoslavia was a provocation, an excuse to start bombing. Rambouillet is not a document that an angelic Serb could have accepted. It was a terrible diplomatic document that should never have been presented in that form,” former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote in London’s Daily Telegraph in June 1999.
The Kosovo Albanian delegation consisted of: Azim Syla, Bajram Kosumi, Blerim Shala, Bujar Bukoshi, Edita Tahiri, Fehmi Agani, Hashim Thaci, Hidajet Hiseni, Ibrahim Rugova, Idriz Ajeti, Jakup Krasniqi, Mehmet Hajrizi, Ram Buja, Rexhep Qosja, Veton Surroi, and Xhavit Haliti.
The Serbian delegation was led by Ratko Markovic, and included Vladan Kutlesic, Nikola Sainovic, Vladimir Stambuk, Vojislav Zivkovic, Guljbehar Sabovic, Zejnelabedin Kurejshi, Faik Jashari, Sokol Quse, Refik Sinadinovic, Ibro Vajt, Luan Koka, and Qerim Abazi. \
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