Twenty-seven years since the Kumanovo Agreement: The document that ended the war but did not bring lasting stability

The signing of the Kumanovo Military-Technical Agreement on June 9, 1999, brought an end to NATO's air campaign against the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and created the conditions for the deployment of international forces in Kosovo. Twenty-seven years later, this document remains one of the most significant turning points for Serbia and for the future course of the Kosovo issue.

The Military-Technical Agreement, between representatives of the Yugoslav Army and the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs on one side and NATO military representatives on the other, was signed on June 9, 1999, in Kumanovo.

The agreement followed 78 days of NATO air strikes against the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which began on March 24, 1999, and served as the basis for the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Yugoslav military and police forces from Kosovo.

It defined the deadlines and procedures for the withdrawal, established a Ground Safety Zone five kilometers wide and an Air Safety Zone twenty-five kilometers wide, and provided for the deployment of an international security presence in Kosovo.

The day after the agreement was signed, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1244, establishing an international civilian and security framework for Kosovo.

Based on that resolution, UNMIK and KFOR were established and assumed responsibility for security and the administrative governance of Kosovo during the transitional period.

The first KFOR units entered Kosovo on June 12, 1999, marking the beginning of a new chapter in Kosovo's history.

For some, the Kumanovo Agreement represents the document that stopped the war and prevented further loss of life.

For others, it marked the beginning of a process that led to a prolonged international protectorate and later political disputes over Kosovo's status.

Nevertheless, most participants in the events of that period agree that its most important consequence was the end of the fighting.

Former Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army Branko Krga, speaking to Kosovo Online, assessed that "the key benefit of the agreement was the end of the war," emphasizing that it created the conditions for halting further conflict.

One of the agreement's signatories, General Obrad Stevanovic, has repeatedly pointed out that certain provisions of the document have been interpreted differently over the years and that some contradictions remain present today.

Former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic believes that the Kumanovo Agreement and Resolution 1244 ended the war but did not prevent the later suffering and displacement of the Serbian population.

Former commander of the Yugoslav Army's Pristina Corps, Vladimir Lazarevic, stressed that what was signed in Kumanovo was not a capitulation but an agreement that ended the conflict and regulated the withdrawal of forces.

The security challenges that followed after June 1999 demonstrated that signing the agreement did not mean the end of interethnic tensions.

Following the withdrawal of Serbian forces and the arrival of international missions, a wave of violence against Serbs and other non-Albanian communities followed, and in the months after the conflict ended, large numbers of Serbs, Roma, Gorani, and other non-Albanians left Kosovo due to the deteriorating security situation.

Throughout 1999 and 2000, the situation was particularly tense in Mitrovica, a city divided into northern and southern parts that became a symbol of the division between the Serbian and Albanian communities.

The bridge over the Ibar River repeatedly became the scene of clashes, protests, and attempts to break through from the southern to the northern part of the city, prompting frequent interventions by KFOR to prevent wider incidents.

The security challenges were not limited to Kosovo alone.

The establishment of the Ground Safety Zone created an area in which armed Albanian extremist groups soon appeared and launched an insurgency in the Presevo, Bujanovac, and Medvedja region. 

The activities of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB) further complicated the security situation in southern central Serbia during 2000 and 2001.

The most serious blow to the normalization process occurred in March 2004.

The trigger for the violence was unverified information about the drowning of three Albanian boys in the Ibar River, for which some media outlets and political actors blamed Serbs.

In the days that followed, mass riots and attacks on Serbian communities broke out across Kosovo.

During the two days of violence, 19 people were killed and more than 900 injured, while over 4,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians were forced to leave their homes. More than 900 houses and 35 churches and monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church were destroyed or heavily damaged.

The March Pogrom remains one of the most serious security incidents in Kosovo since the end of the war and is often cited as evidence that the international missions failed to ensure protection for all communities.

The years that followed brought new political changes.

In Pristina, the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government gradually grew stronger, while the question of Kosovo's final status remained at the center of international negotiations.
The process culminated on February 17, 2008, when the institutions in Pristina unilaterally declared independence.

Belgrade rejected the move as illegal and continued to invoke Resolution 1244 as the valid framework of international law.

Despite numerous political developments over the past 27 years, the Kumanovo Agreement has remained one of the foundational documents regulating the presence of international forces in Kosovo.

Its provisions continue to serve as the basis for KFOR's mandate, which operates in accordance with Resolution 1244.

Assessments of the Kumanovo Agreement remain divided.

While some emphasize that it ended the war and prevented further suffering among the population, others argue that it failed to provide lasting security for all communities or to prevent later conflicts, population displacement, and political disputes.

Nevertheless, regardless of differing interpretations of its consequences, the fact remains that the agreement signed in Kumanovo on June 9, 1999, marked the end of one war and the beginning of a new political and security order in Kosovo, the consequences of which continue to this day.