The Yugoslav parliament's acceptance Thursday of a NATO - backed peace plan is only the start of what is likely to be a prolonged process, assuming Belgrade keeps its word. Beyond ending hostilities, restoring any sense of normalcy to Kosovo, the rest of Yugoslavia and the region as a whole will take careful diplomacy, billions of dollars and the determined commitment of foreign military forces, civilian administrators and humanitarian groups for many years.
Many questions remain about the shape of a future peace.
For starters, NATO and Yugoslav military authorities must work out the details of withdrawing an estimated 40,000 Serbian soldiers, police and paramilitary forces from Kosovo. The peace plan suggests full withdrawal within a week. But how the withdrawal will be phased and coordinated with a pause in the NATO bombing and deployment of an international security force remains to be addressed. There is also the question of how many Serb forces will be allowed to return, to which locations and with what sort of equipment. He suggests that the United States and Britain deploy airborne forces in major Kosovo cities as soon as the Serb forces begin to leave.