The Government of the Republic of Serbia established, on October 13th, 1998, at the basis of the Agreement between the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic and the Special American Representative, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the political framework, i. e. the principles for the solution of the situation in Kosovo and Metohija:

1. The political approach and the peaceful solution of the problems in Kosmet achieved by dialogue are the only acceptable way of reaching of any durable, just and humane solution of all pending questions;

2. Violence and terrorism, as unacceptable means, contrary to all international norms, must cease immediatelly;

3. Every solution for Kosmet must respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty and the internationally recognized borders of the FRY, in accordance with the basic principles of the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Document and the Paris Charter of the OSCE;

4. The solution must be based on the full respect of the equality of all citizens and national communities in Kosmet. The full affirmation and equal treatment of national, religious and cultural values, and of the historical heritage, shall be guaranteed;

5. The future of Kosmet is in peace, equality, integration, economic prosperity and free and common life, and not in ethnic, religious cultural or any other divisions or isolation;

6. The legal arrangements for the establishment of self-government in Kosmet should be in accordance with the legal systems of the republic of Serbia and of the FRY, and with the international standards and the Helsinki Final Document;

7. The citizens of Kosmet shall achieve their democratic self-government through their parliamentary, executive and judiciary bodies in Kosmet. Within ten months, free and fair elections for the bodies in Kosmet shall take place, including the bodies at the communal level. The Government of the FRY invites the OSCE to monitor those elections, in order to make sure that they will be open and honest;

8. The members of national communities shall enjoy additional rights, in order to make it possible to them to preserve and express their national, cultural religious and language identities, in accordance with the international standards and the Helsinki Final Document. The national communities shall be equal and shall not use their additional rights to endanger the rights of other national communities or other citizens’ rights;

9. In the context of the political solution for Kosmet,, by which many competencies shall be transferred to the communal level, local police shall be established, under the control of communal authorities. That local police, whose structure shall reflect the structure of the local population, shall be coordinated by the local bodies in Kosmet. That solution must ensure full protection to all citizens and to all national communities;

10. No person shall be criminally prosecuted by state courts of justice for criminal offenses in connection with the conflict in Kosmet, except for crimes against humanity and against the International Law, as provided by Chapter 16 of the Federal Criminal Code. In order to assure full transparency, the state shall allow full and unimpeded access to foreign experts (including pathologists), who shall collaborate with the state investigators;

11. The competent organs shall reexamine, for the purpose of extraordinary mitigation of punishments, the sentences pronounced to the members of the national communities in Kosovo and Metohija, who have been convicted for criminal offenses motivated by political aims.

The Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, on its meeting of October 14th, 1998, fully supported the Agreement Milosevic-Holbrooke, and decided that the FR of Yugoslavia shall allow, as a part of the process of verification and of the application of the Security Council Resolution No. 1199, a non-fighter airplane to observe the situation in Kosmet.

- Adhering to the respect of the principles of the UN Charter and of the principles of the Helsinki Final Document, on peace, stability and cooperation in Europe, and to the principles of the Paris Charter,

- Bearing in mind especially the importance of the achievement of a peaceful, democratic and durable solution of all existing problems in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija, based on equality of all citizens and of all national and ethnic communities,

- Adhering to the respect of sovereignty and of territorial integrity of all countries in the region,

- Agreeing to respect, and ready to contribute to the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions 1160 and 1199 by the FRY,

- The Federal Government of the FRY at the one hand, and,

- The OSCE, at the other,

- Reached the following AGREEMENT:

I. Establishment and termination

1. The OSCE Verification Mission in Kosmet is established by the Permanent Council of the OSCE, in accordance with the Resolution of the UN Security Council, which invites the OSCE to establish the Mission.

2. The Government of the FRY informed the Chairman of the OSCE that it supports the establishment of the Mission.

3. The OSCE will ask its member countries to provide personnel and funds for the Verification Mission in Kosmet, in accordance with the established procedures.

4. The OSCE shall establish coordination with other organizations which it deems necessary, so that the Verification Mission could fulfill all its objectives in the most efficient way.

5. The Diplomatic Observers’ Mission in Kosovo (KDOM) shall act on behalf of the OSCE Verification Mission, until its establishment. At the moment the Verification Mission starts functioning, it will absorb the KDOM.

6. The Government of the FRY guarantees, by this document, the safety and security of the Verification Mission and of all its members.

7. In the case of an emergency situation in Kosmet, which would, according to the assessment of the Director of the Mission, endanger the security of the members of the Verification Mission, the FRY shall allow and cooperate in the evacuation of the members of the Verification Mission.

8. The Government of the FRY shall accept the OSCE Verification Mission as a diplomatic body, in the sense of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The Mission shall enjoy the privileges and immunities resulting from such a status, and its members as well, in accordance with the Vienna Convention.

9. The Government of the FRY and its organs shall nominate official liaison officers who will cooperate with the Verification Mission in Belgrade, Prishtina, and on sites. The organs of the FRY, of Serbia, and of Kosmet, take the obligation to assure full cooperation and to provide full support to the Verification Mission. This shall include, but not be limited to, accommodation, frequence or frequencies, visas and documents, customs facilities, vehicle immatriculation, fuel, medical aid, air access for auxiliary aircrafts, and the access to the Belgrade and Prishtina airports and to other airports, in accordance with normal procedures.

10. The OSCE and the FRY agreed on a one-year mandate of the Verification Mission, with prolongations at the requests of the Chairman of the OSCE or of the Government of the FRY.

II GENERAL OBLIGATIONS, ROLE AND MISSION

1. The verification of the implementation, by all parties in Kosmet, of the UN Security Council Resolution 1199 and reports sent to the OSCE Permanent Council, the Security Council and to other organizations about the cases of progress and/or non-respect. These reports shall be sent to the organs of the FRY, as well.

2. The establishment of permanent presence at as many places in Kosmet as deemed necessary, in order to fulfill the obligations.

3. Keeping close contacts with the organs of the governments of the FRY and of Serbia, and, when necessary, with other organs in Kosmet, with political parties and other organizations in Kosmet, and with accredited international and non-governmental organizations which help the fulfillment of its tasks.

4. Monitoring of elections in Kosmet, in order to ensure openness and correctness of the elections, in accordance with the regulations and procedures to be agreed. For the needs of the elections, the Mission may be enlarged by auxiliary personnel for elections.

5.The reporting and the recommendations to the Permanent OSCE Council, to the UN Security Council and to other organizations in the fields included in the UN Security Council Resolution 1199.

III SPECIFIC TASKS

1. The Verification Mission shall travel all over Kosmet in order to verify whether all parties respect the cease-fire. It shall examine reports on the violations of the cease-fire. The personnel of the Mission shall enjoy full freedom of movement and of access all over Kosovo, at any time.

2. The Verification Mission shall receive, each week, information from the competent headquarters of the army and of the police of FRY/Serbia in Kosmet, regarding the movement of the forces during the previous week into, out of, and inside Kosmet. At the request of the Director of the Verification Mission, the personnel of the Mission may be invited to follow the police inside Kosmet.

3. The Verification Mission shall look for barriers on the roads and report about them and about other objects which influence the traffic flow, and which are not installed for traffic or criminal control. The Director of the Mission shall establish contacts with the appropriate organs, after receiving such reports. These organs shall explain, in a satisfactory way, the reasons for the installations of such objects, or order the immediate removal of the objects. The Verification Mission shall also be informed, if emergency circumstances result in the installation of objects due to reasons other than those of traffic and criminal control. The Director of the Mission may request the removal of all barriers on the roads.

4. The Verification Mission shall keep contacts with the organs of the FRY regarding the activities aimed at border control and the movement of units for the control of borders in the regions of Kosmet far away from the borders. The Verification Mission shall, at the request of the organs of the FRY, or at its own request, visit the units of border control and follow them while they fulfill their routine tasks of border control.

5. The Verification Mission may follow, on request, or at its own request, the police units in Kosmet, in the fulfillment of their routine tasks.

6.The Verification Mission shall, as much as possible, provide help to the UNHCR, the ICRC, and other international organizations, to facilitate the return of the displaced persons to their homes, to give them humanitarian aid which would facilitate the normalization of their life, and to the humanitarian aid provided by the authorities of FRY/Serbia and Kosmet, and to that of humanitarian and non-governmental organizations. The Mission shall verify the degree of cooperation and support given by the FRY and its organs to the humanitarian organizations and to the accredited non-governmental organizations in facilitating the procedures requested by them, like the issue of travel documents, the accelerating of customs procedures for humanitarian parcels and radio frequencies. The Mission shall present such demarches as it deems necessary for the solution of the problems identified.

7. After reaching the political solution which will define the self-government in Kosmet, and after the beginning of the application of such solution, the Director of the Mission shall provide, from own resources and thanks to the increased support of the OSCE assistance in the establishment of the institutions in Kosmet and the development of the police forces of Kosmet, for application in the fields like the monitoring of the elections.

8. The Director of the Mission shall receive periodical updated reports from relevant organs concerning possible allegations about abuses by the police or by the army, and about the status of disciplinary or legal procedures against persons who would be involve in such abuses.

9. The Verification Mission shall keep contacts with the organs of the FRY, of Serbia, and, in the necessary degree, with the organs of Kosmet and of the ICRC, concerning the access of the ICRC to arrested persons.

10. The Director of the Mission shall invite, when and if necessary, the representatives of the national communities and of the authorities to exchange information and provide directives for the application of the Agreement on the Establishment of the Verification Mission.

11. The Director of the Mission shall inform the OSCE and other organizations about the cases of progress and/or non-respect or absence of complete cooperation by any party.

IV COMPOSITION AND FACILITIES

1. The Director, together with the personnel in the Headquarters, the number of whom is to be decided, depending on the needs of the Verification Mission.

2. The presence of 2.000 unarmed persons performing the verification, fro m members countries of the OSCE, shall be allowed.

3. Headquarters in Prishtina.

4. The presence on the sites, in various places in Kosmet shall be fixed by the Director of the Mission.

5. A small liaison office in Belgrade.

6. The vehicles, communication facilities and other equipment, together with locally hired interpreters and additional personnel, deemed necessary by the Director for the fulfillment of the tasks of the Mission.

V PRESENCE ON SITES

1. Coordination centers shall be established in the seats of all communes in Kosmet, with special fields of competence, under the direction of the Director of the mission, situated in Prishtina.

2.Many commune centers for coordination shall have one or more substations in smaller towns/villages in the communes. The number and the locations of the substations shall differ from commune to commune., depending on the conditions of verification and the previous state of the conflicts.

3. The heads of the coordination centers shall keep contact with the local communal authorities and with local leaderships of ethnic Albanians and of other communities. Each of the substations shall be responsible for the coordination with the local authorities, including the local leaderships of the main ethnic groups.

4. The number of the verification personnel allotted to each of the substations shall depend on the complexity of the questions of verification in the given area.

5. All coordination centers and substations shall have vehicles of appropriate configuration, to be used for patrolling in the areas in their respective responsibilities.

Done in Belgrade, on October 16th, 1998, in two originals, in Serbian and English languages.

FOR THE ORGANIZATION FOR EUROPEAN

FOR THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA