New York Times News Service

March 22, 2000

BRUSSELS -- One year after NATO began its 78-day bombardment of Kosovo, the alliance's secretary general issued a report Tuesday highlighting what he said were the unsung accomplishments of the campaign.

In recent weeks, the U.S. and its NATO allies have been fighting among themselves over how to keep a deteriorating situation in the Serbian province of Kosovo from spinning out of control.

In his personal report, titled "Kosovo One Year On," the secretary general, Lord Robertson, appeared to be trying to pre-empt a harsh review of the NATO offensive when tensions between Serbs and the majority Albanians in Kosovo are rising again.

He said the difficulties of the present situation should not obscure the successes of the mission so far, including the resettling of 1.3 million refugees, the reopening of hundreds of schools and a drastic reduction in crime.

In June 1999, the report said, there were 50 killings a week in Kosovo. Today, there are about 5 a week.

"It is much too early to claim a complete success," Robertson said at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels. "But it is also far too early to have claimed that we failed. No one can be satisfied with the situation in Kosovo today, but it's wrong to say that nothing is going right."

The 20-page report, issued three days before the anniversary of the day when the first bombs were dropped on Kosovo, said the NATO force there has cleared mines or unexploded ordnance from more than 16,000 houses, 1,165 schools and almost 1,250 miles of roads. They have also distributed more than 1 million roofing tiles, 18,000 stoves and 4,000 truckloads of firewood to Kosovo villages.

NATO and Pentagon officials have grown worried about the potential for renewed fighting in Kosovo, particularly by Kosovo Albanian fighters using the relative security of NATO's peacekeeping zones to carry out strikes against Serbs in Serbia.