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Kosova [see map] After the revocation of Kosova's
autonomy, the Serbian authorities closed schools in the
Albanian language, massively dismissed Albanians from
state-owned enterprises, and suspended Kosova's legal
parliament and government. Serbia instituted a regime of
systematic oppression of the Albanian population in
Kosova, and flagrant violations of basic rights of
Albanians occured frequently. Initially the Albanians
responded to the repression with peaceful and passive
resistance. In 1992 the people of Kosova held free
elections in which they chose their leadership,
expressed their determination for the independence of
Kosova in the 1991 referendum, and in the same year the
Kosovaian parliament declared the independence of Kosova.
They formed a parallel government, found means of
continuing Albanian-language education outside of
occupied premises and providing health care (most
Albanian doctors were dismissed from state-owned
hospitals by Serb installed authorities).
In early 1998 the Serbian government began a crackdown
against the Kosova Liberation Army (UÇK), a guerilla
movement which emerged after it became apparent that the
peaceful approach was ineffective in face of the brutal
regime of Milosevic. After 1998 Serbian security forces
conducted a scorched earth policy in Kosova, raising
villages to the ground, creating an exodus of over one
million refugees and internally displaced persons, and
committed horrific atrocities against unarmed civilians,
including women and children.
The NATO bombing campaign, which began in March 1999
after Serbia's refusal to sign a peace accord for the
settlement of the conflict in Kosova, lasted until June
1999 when the Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic
capitulated and agreed to withdraw all Serbian security
forces from Kosova. United Nations Security Council
resolution 1244 established a United Nations civilian
administration in Kosova (known as the United Nations
Mission in Kosova; UNMIK) and allowed a NATO-led
peacekeeping force to enter Kosova to ensure security.
The war in Kosova had created over one million refugees
and internally displaced persons, left over 300,000
people without shelter, an estimated 14,000 dead, and
mass graves containing bodies of up to one hundred
civilians, including women and children, who have been
summarily executed.
The people of Kosova, UNMIK, NATO and the international
community are now making efforts to rebuild Kosova,
revitalize its economy, establish democratic
institutions of self-government, and heal the scars of
war. (For more up-to-date information on the deveopments
in Kosova please check out the Kosova Crisis Center.)
Geographic Features
Kosova borders Serbia in the north and northeast,
Montenegro in the northwest, Albania in the west and the
FYR of Macedonia in the south. It covers a total of
12,887 squared kilometers and its population is around
2.2 million, 94 percent of which are ethnic Albanian
oldest nation in Balkan Peninsula. |
