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Kosovo
GeographyKosovo is land-locked and mostly mountainous. It borders Serbia to the north and east, Montenegro to the northwest, Albania to the west, and Macedonia to the south. Kosovo is roughly the size of Connecticut. GovernmentRepublic. Kosovo, a former territory of Serbia, declared independence in February 2008. HistoryThe first inhabitants on the Balkan Peninsula were the ancient people known as the Illyrians. The Slavs followed in the 6th and 7th centuries. Albanian speakers began moving into Kosovo from the Adriatic in the 8th century. Kosovo was ruled by Bulgaria from the 9th century until Serbs gained control of Kosovo in the 12th century. Kosovo was the site of the Serbs' defeat by the Ottoman Turks in 1389. Kosovo was then absorbed by the Ottoman Empire. The battle at Kosovo Field figures prominently in Serbian poetry and has great national significance as the cradle of Serbian civilization. The Ottoman Empire ruled Kosovo for centuries, until 1913, when Serbia resumed control over the region. Under Ottoman rule, the region grew increasingly more populated by Albanian speakers as a large number of Christian Serbs emigrated. (Albanians are largely Muslim.) In 1918, Kosovo became part of the Yugoslav Federation. Kosovo’s Albanians opposed Serbia’s attempts to relocate Serbs into Kosovo in the 1920s and ‘30s. During World War II, Kosovo’s Albanians attempted to unite with Albania, but the Yugoslav government thwarted the rebellion. After the war, Kosovo became an autonomous region within Serbia under Josip Broz Tito. In the post-war years, Albanians cultivated their national identity and assumed a more active role in government, with tacit approval from the capital, Belgrade. Albanization of the province coincided with the migration of Serbs. The 1974 Yugoslav Constitution granted Kosovo status nearly equivalent to a republic. By 1981, Albanians accounted for 75% of the population of Kosovo, and 90% by 1991. Serbia’s new constitution adopted in 1989 significantly limited Kosovo's autonomy. In 1991, Kosovo’s Albanian leaders attempted to break free from Serbia using non-violent resistance. The government of Serb president Slobodan Milosevic cracked down on the Albanians’ efforts to gain independence. In 1995, Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, frustrated by the lack of progress toward independence under Ibrahim Rugova, formed the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army and started an armed insurgency. In Feb. 1998 the Yugoslav army and Serbian police began fighting against the Kosovo Liberation Army, but their scorched-earth tactics were concentrated on ethnic Albanian civilians. More than 900 Kosovars were killed in the fighting, and the hundreds of thousands forced to flee their homes were without adequate food and shelter. Although Serbs made up only 10% of Kosovo's population, the region figures strongly in Serbian nationalist mythology. NATO was reluctant to intervene because Kosovo—unlike Bosnia in 1992—was legally a province of Yugoslavia. The proof of civilian massacres finally gave NATO the impetus to intervene for the first time ever in the dealings of a sovereign nation with its own people. NATO's reason for involvement in Kosovo changed from avoiding a wider Balkan war to preventing a human rights calamity. On March 24, 1999, NATO began launching air strikes. Weeks of daily bombings destroyed significant Serbian military targets, yet Serb president Slobodan Milosevic showed no signs of relenting. In fact, Serbian militia stepped up civilian massacres and deportations in Kosovo, and by the end of the conflict, the UN high commissioner for refugees estimated that at least 850,000 people had fled Kosovo. Serbia finally agreed to sign the UN-approved peace agreement with NATO on June 3, ending the 11-week war. NATO peacekeeping forces were deployed to Kosovo, and the UN assumed administration of the province. On March 17, 2004, Mitrovica, a city in northern Kosovo, experienced the worst ethnic violence in the region since the 1999 war. At least 19 people were killed, another 500 were injured, and about 4,000 Serbs lost their homes. NATO sent in an extra 1,000 troops to restore order. Negotiations between the European Union, Russia, and the United States on the future of Kosovo ended in stalemate in November 2007. On Feb. 17, 2008, Kosovar prime minister Hashim Thaçi declared independence from Serbia, which, as predicted, denounced the move. Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica said he would never recognize the "false state." International reaction was mixed, with the United States, France, Germany, and Britain indicating that they planned to recognize Kosovo as the world's 195th country. Serbia and Russia, however, called the move a violation of international law. On March 18, 2008, one United Nation's officer was killed and dozens more wounded when violence broke out in the northern Kosovo city of Mitrovica as Serbs tried to overtake a United Nation's courthouse. On April 3, 2008, at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Ramush Haradinaj and Idriz Balaj, former commanders of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, were acquitted of murder, persecution, rape, and torture charges. Former rebel commander, Lahi Brahimaj was found guilty for torture and cruel treatment of prisoners and sentenced to six years in prison. In the court summary, judges said the case was vague due to intimidation and fear among witnesses. Three of the case witnesses were killed before they could testify. In April 2008, parliament ratified the constitution to protect the rights of Kosovo's minorities, including Serbs. The new document—intended to create a safer environment for all citizens in Kosovo—was adopted on June 15, 2008. See also Serbia. Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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