The 20th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia which lasted for 11 weeks and, unofficially, left some 2,500 civilians and 1,000 soldiers and police officers dead, will be marked on Sunday, by a series of events and laying wreaths and flowers on the monuments of the victims.

The bombing lasted for 78 days, significantly damaging the infrastructure, commercial property, healthcare facilities and media and military buildings.

The NATO operation, which was described by the former Yugoslav government and many legal experts as aggression, was the result of failed negotiations on solving the Kosovo crisis in Rambouillet and Paris in February and March 1999.

The bombing ended on June 10 with the adoption of UN Security Council’s Resolution 1244, after which police and military forces started pulling from Kosovo, and international peace-keeping troops began entering the region.

According to the UNHCR’s data, after the peace-keeping forces entered Kosovo, some 230,000 Serbs and Rome left Kosovo, and approx. 800.000 Albanian refugees had returned.