Kosovo leaders have said that the anniversary of the deployment of NATO in the area is one of the most important events in Kosovo's history, and that the alliance helped Kosovo to see to it that its centuries-long dreams about liberation and independence came true.
Air strikes began on 24 March and finished on 10 June 1999 when the UN Security Council adopted 1244 Resolution.
On 9 June 1999, representatives of the then Army of Yugoslavia and NATO signed a military and technical agreement in Kumanovo regulating the withdrawal of Serb froces from Kosovo and the deployment of international peace keepers.
With the arrival of NATO forces, Kosovo began actualising its dream about freedom and democratic transition, Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minsiter Hashim Thaci said in their messages on the occasion of the anniversary.
Kosovo Serb leader Randjel Nojkic said that life would go back to normal in Kosovo after analysing causes and consequences of the conflict.
Nojkic said that Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic had pursued an unfair and pernicious policy in the area of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but added that the international community failed to bring peace.
Upon NATO's intervention in 1999, the NATO-led Kosovo force had nearly 50,000 members. The peace keeping mission's personnel was gradually cut.
On Thursday, defence ministers from the 28 member states of the alliance agreed in Brussels to reduce the number of KFOR troops in Kosovo from around 14,000 to 10,000 by next year.