Serb troops withdraw from Kosovo before Sunday's midnight deadline  MILITARY PLAN: RELATED VIDEO CNN's Jill Dougherty reports that it is back to business for Russia and the United States. (June 20) Windows Media 28K 80K The people of Prizren are getting back to business. CNN's Mike Boettcher reports on how they are adjusting to life after war (June 20) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Christiane Amanpour reports on how Albanians survived in the hills (June 20) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Richard Blystone looks at KFOR's efforts to disarm Kosovo rebels (June 19) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Richard Blystone reports from Novosela, Yugoslavia on the aftermath of the Kosovo conflict (June 19) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K  ALSO: U.S. officials upbeat after Clinton-Yeltsin meeting G-8 summit ends with promise of 'strong action' in Balkans Clinton: 'Happy day' as Yugoslav pullout completed  MESSAGE BOARD: Rebuilding Kosovo  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: Focus on Kosovo

June 20, 1999
Web posted at: 6:01 p.m. EDT (2201 GMT)

In this story: Refugees and suspected war crimes KLA a question mark RELATED STORIES, SITES

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- NATO officially ended its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia on Sunday after the alliance's top general reported that all Yugoslav forces had left Kosovo.

"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," said NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana in a statement.

Solana's announcement came after Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander, notified the alliance that all Yugoslav army and special police units were out of Kosovo, well ahead of a midnight Sunday (2200 GMT, 6 p.m. EDT) deadline.

The campaign of air strikes began on March 24 and was aimed at forcing Yugoslav PresidentSlobodan Milosevic to pull his troops from the Serbian province. Solana suspended the campaign when Milosevic agreed to a deal negotiated by Russia, the United States and the European Union.

The pullout was completed 11 hours ahead of a midnight Sunday deadline.

In Pristina, Kosovo's capital, NATO spokesman Lt. Col. Robin Clifford said that Lt. Gen. Michael Jackson -- the commander of the KFOR peacekeeping mission -- was still awaiting written confirmation that armed civilians and paramilitary groups had withdrawn along with the uniformed forces.

"Personnel belonging to either of these categories who remain in Kosovo after midnight tonight will be subject to robust KFOR enforcement," Clifford said.

Refugees and suspected war crimes

As the last Yugoslav troops left the war-torn province, more reports of suspected war crimes emerged.

German peacekeeping troops pulled the body of a 62-year-old ethnic Albanian from Kosovo and 11 others from a well in Dragacina, near Prizren, on Saturday as NATO peacekeepers continued to discover sites of the reported atrocities.

A suspected mass grave site was found just outside the village of Izbica. Witnesses told international war crimes investigators that they saw Yugoslav forces rounding up and shooting ethnic Albanians at the site near the end of March.

People who escaped the alleged massacre say that as many as 150 bodies may be buried at the Izbica site.

Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians fled their homes as the conflict's intensity increased. Those people are now returning, from mountain hideouts within Kosovo and from outside the country altogether.

Over 60,000 people have returned from Albania in the past five days, said Capt. Wolfgang Greven, a spokesman for NATO's Albania force, AFOR. Another 30,000 have crossed the border from Macedonia, said the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.

But as ethnic Albanians returned, Serbs -- fearing reprisals -- fled. Kosovar Albanians were reported on a burning spree, torching Serb homes, in the German-held sector of Kosovo.

KLA a question mark

A NATO soldier searches for weapons in a car bearing the Kosovo rebels' initials

NATO peacekeepers faced other problems across the province --notably from the pro-independence Kosovo Liberation Army.

It was the KLA's armed struggle against the Yugoslav government in the predominantly ethnic Albanian province that triggered a military crackdown in February 1998, beginning a chain of events that led to NATO airstrikes.

KLA members agreed to demilitarize as part of the peace framework for Kosovo worked out between NATO and the Yugoslav government. But some KLA members have vowed not to lay down their weapons, saying they consider themselves a legitimate army guaranteeing Kosovo's security and independence.

NATO soldiers in Pristina have ordered KLA soldiers on the streets of the provincial capital to remove their armbands. But in other locations armed KLA members dressed in camouflage drill openly, in sight of KFOR troops, disquieting both Serb civilians and KFOR commanders.

Representatives of KFOR and the KLA have been negotiating over demilitarization and are reportedly near an agreement. Whether guerrillas in the field will go along with any deal calling for them to lay down their weapons remains an open question.

French President Jacques Chirac said Sunday that such a deal had been signed, but at least one KLA commander has told CNN that his forces would "never disarm."

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