- Date of the event
- Place
- Unknown
- Evidence status
- Evidence status: Documented. Supported by contemporaneous documents, institutional reports or independent studies that corroborate one another.
On 1 September 1996 Slobodan Milošević and Ibrahim Rugova signed an agreement, mediated by the Community of Sant'Egidio, to return Albanian pupils, students and teachers to school buildings. It was largely not implemented.
Responsibility for the failure is disputed: the Sant'Egidio mediator blamed the Serbian side in a June 1998 letter, while Serbian officials told the ICTY the government intended to implement it. An implementation accord was signed on 23 March 1998 [1] [2].
Historical context
1996–1997
After Dayton, disappointment with international inaction turned into a search for new paths: student protests, underground networks and, at the end of 1997, the first public appearance of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Read the chapter “The crisis of peaceful resistance and the KLA's first public appearance”Sources
- [1]Tribunali Penal Ndërkombëtar për ish-Jugosllavinë (ICTY). Prosecutor v. Milutinović et al., Judgement, Volume 1 of 4. 2009-02-26. IT-05-87-T. https://www.icty.org/x/cases/milutinovic/tjug/en/jud090226-e1of4.pdf. Accessed 2026-09-16. — paras 234–236
- [2]Fred Abrahams, Benjamin Ward. Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo. 2001-10-26. https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/. Accessed 2026-09-16.