The US draws up a document which it presents to the KLA and the Yugoslav government. There are no negotiations. Both sides are told to "take it or leave it." The document requires Yugoslav withdrawal from Kosovo, the introduction of a NATO occupying force with total powers, and a plebiscite to decide on independence for Kosovo. What the American people aren't told is that the document also gives NATO forces free rein throughout Yugoslavia, including Serbia itself, even Belgrade. It grants NATO forces free use of airports, roads, rails, and ports; free telecommunication services; and total immunity throughout Yugoslavia. In essence, this "agreement" would allow NATO to occupy all of Yugoslavia, not just Kosovo. Members of the US "negotiating" team bragged that they intentionally set the bar too high for Milosevic to accept. "He needs a good dose of bombing, and that's what he's going to get."
Amazingly, Milosevic accepted all the Rambouillet demands except for NATO occupation of Yugoslavia itself. He wanted the troops to be under UN command. (NY Times 4/8/99) Dan Goure, Deputy Director, CSIS and a Pentagon official under Bush said, "Rambouillet was not a negotiation, it was a setup, a lynch party." (Institute for Public Accuracy 5/4/99)[source]
Or this, um, "fantasy" interpretation:
Let's see how the American people might like it if their government was asked to sign the Rambouillet Agreement. Imagine that in Ten years, the people of Mexican descent in Texas had decided that they had enough of the discriminatory treatment they often receive. The Texas Liberation Army (TLA) takes up arms against their oppressors. China, the last remaining superpower, decides that the human rights violations in Texas must stop. Mexico and the other Latin American countries in North America, outraged by the United States' treatment of persons of hispanic descent, have formed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in North America.The Chinese government drafts an "agreement" and summons President Hillary Clinton and the TLA to Rambouillet. The Chinese government informs President Clinton that she must either sign the agreement or China will bomb the United States.
I have taken the text of the Rambouillet agreement and substituted China for Nato, Texas for Kosovo, Austin for Pristina, etc.
And the problem with this is? The man and his government was an island of genocidal dictatorship in a sea of emerging democracy. He had to go. The real shame was that he didn't come down with a nice case of leukemia so he could have gone quietly, like a certain unamed OTHER dictator I know.