June UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned Nato that it must seek a Security Council mandate for any military intervention in the Serbian province. May U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke begins a round of shuttle diplomacy which results in Yugoslav President Milosevic inviting Ibrahim Rugova for peace talks. Ethnic Albanian and Serb negotiators start talks in Pristina as fighting continues. March-April Intermittent clashes continue. Facing mounting international pressure, and the threat of sanctions, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic proposes talks that he says could lead to broad autonomy.
Albanian leaders refuse, insisting on foreign mediation and, ultimately, independence.
The U.N. Security Council votes 14-0 to impose an arms embargo on Yugoslavia to force a peaceful settlement. Kosovar Albanian separatist leader Ibrahim Rugova rejects Serbian plans to hold a referendum on foreign mediation in the Kosova crisis, accusing the Serbs of defying the international community. The bodies of six men are found by the side of a road near Orahovac in southwest Kosova. Reports of mass graves surface. Serbia amends a referendum law to allow a vote to be held on foreign mediation in Kosova before a Big Power deadline expires.