The End

NATO announced on Sunday that all Serb troops and soldiers had left Kosovo 11 hours earlier than scheduled. At almost the same time, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana issued a statement, saying as all Serb forces had left Kosovo in compliance with international agreements, he was therefore officially terminating NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia. "Acting under the authority granted me by the North Atlantic Council, I have accordingly decided to terminate with immediate effect the air campaign which I suspended on June 10", Solana said. NATO spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Robin Clifford told reporters in the Kosovo capital Pristina that the alliance was still awaiting written confirmation from Yugoslav authorities that Serb paramilitary groups and armed civilians had also left the province. "At one o'clock this afternoon (1100 GMT) the commander, KFOR, Lieutenant-General Sir Mike Jackson declared...that, with the exception of a few stragglers, all Yugoslav uniformed forces have now withdrawn from Kosovo," Clifford said. At 11.00 on Sunday, the UN special representative for Kosovo, Sergio Vieira de Mello, hoisted a United Nations flag over the former Yugoslav army headquarters in Kosovo's capital Pristina.

Source: Free Serbia

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