On 15 January 1999 the Račak massacre occurred when " 45 Kosovan Albanian farmers were rounded up , led up a hill and massacred " . The bodies had been discovered by OSCE monitors , including Head of Mission William Walker , and foreign news correspondents . Yugoslavia denied a massacre took place . The Račak massacre was the culmination of the KLA attacks and Yugoslav reprisals that had continued throughout the winter of 1998 – 1999 . The incident was immediately condemned as a massacre by the Western countries and the United Nations Security Council , and later became the basis of one of the charges of war crimes leveled against Milošević and his top officials . This massacre was the turning point of the war . NATO decided that the conflict could only be settled by introducing a military peacekeeping force under the auspices of NATO , to forcibly restrain the two sides . Pristina , the capital of Kosovo , had been subjected to heavy firefights and segregation according to OSCE reports
Račak massacre
Račak massacre
Kosovo War