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Kosovo (;
Constitution of the Republic of Serbia) is a disputed territory in the
Balkans. The
partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo (; ), a self-declared independent state, has
de facto control over most of the territory, with limited control in
North Kosovo.BBC,
Could Balkan break-up continue?, 22.02.08
Serbia does not recognise the unilateral secession of KosovoStaff (23 July 2010)
"Serbia rejects UN legal ruling on Kosovo's secession" BBC News and considers it a
United Nations-governed entity within its
sovereign territory, the
Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (), according to the 2006
Constitution of Serbia.
Kosovo is landlocked and borders
Central Serbia north and eastward, the
Republic of Macedonia to the south,
Albania to the west and
Montenegro to the northwest (the latter three recognise it as independent). The largest city and the capital of Kosovo is
Pristina (alternatively spelled
Prishtina or
Priština), while other cities include
Peć (),
Prizren,
Đakovica (), and
Kosovska Mitrovica ().
During
classical antiquity, the territory roughly corresponding to present-day Kosovo was inhabited by the
Dardani.Pannonia and Upper Moesia. A History of the Middle Danube Provinces of the Roman Empire. A Mocsy. Pages, 9, 26, 65 Subsequently,
Dardani were conquered by the
Roman,
Byzantine,
Bulgarian and
Serbian empires. Following the
Battle of Kosovo in 1389, it became part of the
Ottoman Empire; this brought the region into close contact with the
Middle East and subsequently introduced
Islam to the population. During the late 19th century, Kosovo was the centre of the Albanian national
awakening. In 1912, the Ottoman
province was divided between
Montenegro and
Serbia, both of which became part of
Yugoslavia in 1918. During
World War II, the majority of Kosovo was part of
Italian occupied Albania, followed by a
Nazi German Occupation before becoming an
autonomous province under the
SFR Yugoslavia.
After the
Kosovo War and the 1999
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the territory came under the interim administration of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (
UNMIK), most of whose roles were assumed by the European Union
Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (
EULEX) in December 2008."
EU launches Kosovo police mission", BBC, 9 December 2008. – Retrieved on 19 May 2009. In February 2008, the
Assembly of Kosovo declared Kosovo's independence as the
Republic of Kosovo. Its independence is
recognised by and the
Republic of China (Taiwan). On 8 October 2008, upon request of Serbia, the
UN General Assembly adopted a resolution asking the
International Court of Justice for an
advisory opinion on the issue of Kosovo's
declaration of independence. On 22 July 2010, the ICJ ruled that Kosovo's declaration of independence did not violate international law, which its president said contains no "prohibitions on declarations of independence".
Name
Kosovo (, ) is the Serbian neuter
possessive adjective of
kos (кос) "
blackbird",
"The name Kosovo". Dr John-Peter Maher,
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics,
Northeastern Illinois University an
ellipsis for
Kosovo Polje "field of the blackbirds", the
site of the 1389
Battle of Kosovo Field. The name of the field was applied to
an Ottoman province created in 1864.
The region currently known as "Kosovo" became an
administrative region in 1946, as the
Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. In 1974, the compositional "Kosovo and
Metohija" was reduced to simple "Kosovo" in the name of the
Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, but in 1990 was renamed back to
Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija.
The entire region is commonly referred to in
English simply as
Kosovo and in
Albanian as
(
definite form, ) or
(
"indefinite" form, ). In
Serbian, a distinction is made between the eastern and western areas; the term
() is used for the eastern part, while the western part is called
Metohija ().
History
Kosovo's current status is the result of the turmoil of the
disintegration of Yugoslavia, particularly the
Kosovo War of 1998 to 1999, but it is suffused with issues dating back to the
rise of nationalism in the Balkans during the last part of
Ottoman rule in the 19th century,
Albanian nationalism (centred around the claim that Kosovo was historically theirs due to
alleged connections with the
Illyrians) vs.
Serbian nationalism (notably surrounding the
Battle of Kosovo eponymous with the Kosovo region) in particular.
Early history
Kosovo was part of the region of the
Dardani (; ).
Located at the
Thraco-Illyrian contact zone, their identification as either
Illyrian or
Thracian tribe is uncertain.Wilkes, J. J. The Illyrians, 1992, ISBN 0631198075, Page 85, "... Whether the Dardanians were an Illyrian or a Thracian people has been much debated and one view suggests that the area was originally populated with Thracians who where then exposed to direct contact with illyrians over a long period...""the Dardanians
... living in the frontiers of the Illyrian and the
Thracian worlds retained their individuality and, alone among the peoples of that region succeeded in maintaining themselves as an ethnic unity even when they were militarily and politically subjected by the Roman arms
... and when at the end of the ancient world, the Balkans were involved in far-reaching ethnic perturbations, the Dardanians, of all the Central Balkan tribes, played the greatest part in the genesis of the new peoples who took the place of the old" The central Balkan tribes in pre-Roman times: Triballi, Autariatae, Dardanians, Scordisci and Moesians, Amsterdam 1978, by Fanula Papazoglu, ISBN 9025607934, page 131.
The area was then conquered by Rome in the
160s BC, and incorporated into the
Roman province of
Illyricum in 59 BC. Subsequently, it became part of
Moesia Superior in AD 87. The
Slavic migrations reached the Balkans in the 6th to 7th century, whereby autochthonous peoples merged with the northern newcomers.The Illyrians. A Stipcevic. Noyes Press. Pg 76
the Slavs merged with these people (the Illyrians), thus preserving in their own identity remains of ancient Illyrians Kosovo was absorbed into the
Bulgarian Empire in the 850s, where Christianity and a Byzantine-Slavic culture was cemented in the region. It was re-taken by the Byzantines after 1018, and became part of the newly established Theme of Bulgaria. As the centre of Slavic resistance to Constantinople in the region, the region often switched between Serbian and Bulgarian rule on one hand and Byzantine on the other until the Serb principality of
Rascia conquered it definitively by the end of the 12th century.John Fine.
The Early Medieval Balkans. A Critical Survey from the late 12th Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Page 7.the Hungarian attack launched in 1183 with which Nemanja was allied...was able to conquer Kosovo and Metohija, including Prizren '' Such takeovers had little impact on the local populace, since it merely represented a changing of one Balkan Christian dynasty by another. The zenith of Serbian power was reached in 1346, with the formation of the
Serbian Empire. During the 13th and 14th centuries, Kosovo became a political and spiritual centre of the Serbian Kingdom. In the late 13th century, the seat of the Serbian Archbishopric was moved to Pec, and rulers centred themselves between Prizren and Skopje.Denis P Hupchik. The Balkans. From Constantinople to Commnism. Page 93 "Dusan.. established his new state primate's seat at Pec (Ipek), in Kosovo" When the Serbian Empire fragmented into a conglomeration of principalities in 1371, Kosovo became the hereditary land of the
House of Branković.
In the 1389
Battle of Kosovo, Ottoman forces defeated a coalition of Serbs, Albanians, and Bosnians History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by Barbara Jelavich, Cambridge paperback library Edition illustrated, reprint Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1983 ISBN 0521274583, 9780521274586 Length 407 pages page 31 link
link led by the Tsar
Lazar Hrebeljanović. Soon after parts of Serbia accepted Turkish vassalage and Lazar's daughter was married to the Sultan to seal the peace.
By 1455, it was finally and fully conquered by the Ottoman Empire.
New York Times
Ottoman Kosovo (1455–1912)
Kosovo was part of the
Ottoman Empire from 1455 to 1912, at first as part of the
eyalet of
Rumelia, and from 1864 as a separate
province (
vilayet). During this time,
Islam was introduced to the population. The
Vilayet of Kosovo was an area much larger than today's Kosovo; it included all today's Kosovo territory, sections of the
Sandžak region cutting into present-day
Central Serbia and
Montenegro along with the
Kukës municipality, the surrounding region in present-day northern
Albania and also parts of north-western
Macedonia with the city of
Skopje (then Üsküp), as its capital. Between 1881 and 1912 (its final phase), it was internally expanded to include other regions of present-day
Republic of Macedonia, including larger urban settlements such as
Štip (
İştip),
Kumanovo (
Kumanova) and
Kratovo (
Kratova).
There are different records casting light on Ottoman rule over Kosovo. Records mainly come from Habsburg, Venetian and Ottoman archives. This period of Kosovo's history has shown to be very important to modern Serbia’s national identity. Though the main claims made by Serbian nationalist awakening movement and backed by most Serbian scholars today seem to have little ground to be backed by reliable evidenceAnscombe, Frederick F. (2006).
The Ottoman empire in recent international politics - II: the case of Kosovo.
The International History Review 28 (4) 758-793.. Serbian authors such as Sima Cirkovic back the idea that Ottoman occupation left a lasting demographic effect on Kosovo — with full-scale dislocation of Christian groups (especially Serbs and Orthodox
Vlachs). Most Serbian authors do not mention Albanians as being part of the exodus, though historians like Malcolm and Anscombe clearly show the opposite. Banac, focused on the difference between Bosniacs and Serbians under Ottoman Empire, shows the atmosphere of non-conforming groups, "Ottoman raids, plunder, slaving forays, as well as the general devastation caused by constant wars uprooted large numbers of Serbs even before the 'Great Serb Migration'". Kosovo, like Serbia, was occupied by Austrian forces during the Great War of 1683–1699, but the Ottomans re-established their rule of the region. Such acts of assistance by the Austrian Empire (then arch-rivals of the Ottoman Empire), or Russia, were always abortive or temporary at best.Cirkovic. Pg 115
Prior to the final conquest, the Turks often took inhabitants as slaves, frequently to Asia Minor In 1690, the Serbian Patriarch of Peć Arsenije III apparently led a group of around 30,000 to 40,000 people out of Kosovo and Montenegro and other areas into Austria.The Serbs. Sima Cirkovic. Blackwell Publishing. Pg 144 Patriarch Arsenije III claimed that 30,000 people followed him (on another occasion the figure was 40, 000)
According to Serb historians more migrations of Orthodox Christians from the Kosovo area preceded and followed throughout the 18th century during the Great Serb Migrations.Cirkovic. Pg 115 The great migrations that had begun earlier continued after the establishment of Ottoman rule in territories that had formerly been part of the Serbian state'' But, the claims made historians that the exodus was exclusively parted by Serbs and that the territory was mainly populated by Serb ethnicity seems to be in contradiction with Ottoman records. Records show that the demography of Kosovo was very much mixed and that both Serbian and Albanian ethnic groups dominated. Moreover, they seem to indicate more cases of Albanians rebelling than any other ethnicity in the region.
In 1766, the Ottomans abolished the
Patriarchate of Peć and the position of Christians in Kosovo further deteriorated, including full imposition of
jizya (taxation of non-Muslims).
Although initially stout opponents of the advancing Turks, Albanian chiefs ultimately came to accept the Ottomans as sovereigns. The resulting alliance facilitated the mass conversion of Albanians to Islam. Given that the Ottoman Empire's subjects were divided along religious (rather than ethnic) lines, Islamicisation greatly elevated the status of Albanian chiefs. Prior to this, they were organised along simple tribal lines, living in the mountainous areas of modern Albania (from Kruje to the Sar range). Soon, they expanded into a depopulated Kosovo, as well as northwestern Macedonia, although some might have been autochthonous to the region.Cirkovic. Pg 244
In Kosovo there were visible signs of ethnic change which had accumulated since the Middle Ages with the immigration of Albanian cattle farmers. In addition to the continual flow of settlers and the Islamisation of urban centres, changes in the population were also caused by political events ... Serbs left territories still under the Sultan's control.John Fine. The Early Medieval Balkans. A Critial Survey from the late 12th Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Page 51.
The Albanians were not to create any structure resembling a state until the fifteenth century. However, organised in tribes under their own chieftains, the Albanians dominated the mountains of most of what we today think of as Albania Though, Banac favors the idea that the main settlers of the time were Vlachs. Many Albanians gained prominent positions in the Ottoman government, no fewer than 42
Grand Viziers of the Empire were Albanian in origin, including
Mehmet Akif Ersoy (1873–1936) an Albanian from
Peć who composed the
Turkish National Anthem in 1921, "İstiklâl Marşı" (The Independence March).Kosovo (Bradt
Travel Guide), by Gail Warrander (Author), Verena Knaus (Author), ISBN 1841621994; ISBN 978-1841621999, Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides; 1st edition (January 1, 2008) As Hupchik states, "Albanians had little cause of unrest" and "if anything, grew important in Ottoman internal affairs",The Balkans. From Constantinople to Communism. Dennis Hupchik and sometimes persecuted Christians harshly on behalf of their Turkish masters.
In the 19th century, there was an
awakening of
ethnic nationalism throughout the Balkans. This systematised the underlying ethnic tensions into a broader struggle of Christian Serbs against Muslim Albanians. The ethnic
Albanian nationalism movement was centred in Kosovo. In 1878 the
League of Prizren () was formed. This was a
political organisation which aimed to unify all the
Albanians of the Ottoman Empire in a common struggle for autonomy and greater
cultural rights,Kosovo What Everyone Needs to Know by Tim Judah Publisher
Oxford University Press US, 2008 ISBN 0195376730, 9780195376739 page 36 although they generally desired the continuation of the Ottoman Empire.Cirkovic. Pg 244
since Islamicised Albanians represented a significant portion of the Ottoman armed forces and administration, they did not give up the Empire easily The League was dis-established in 1881 but nevertheless enabled the awakening of a
national identity amongst Albanians.George Gawlrych, The Crescent and the Eagle, (Palgrave/Macmilan, London, 2006), ISBN 1845112873 It would be clear that Albanian ambitions were at odds with Serbian aims. The Kingdom of Serbia wished to incorporate this land formerly within its empire.
20th century
Balkan Wars
The
Young Turk movement took control of the Ottoman Empire after a coup in 1912 which disposed of Sultan
Abdul Hamid II. The movement supported a centralised form of government and opposed any sort of autonomy desired by the various nationalities of the Ottoman Empire. An allegiance to
Ottomanism was promoted instead.Erik Zurcher, Ottoman sources of Kemalist thought, (New York, Routledge, 2004), Page. 19. An Albanian uprising in 1912 exposed the Empires Northern territories in Kosovo and
Novi Pazar which led to an invasion by the
Kingdom of Montenegro.
The Ottomans suffered a serious defeat at the hands of Albanians in 1912, culminating in the Ottoman loss of most of its Albanian inhabited lands. The Albanians threatened to march all the way to
Salonika and reimpose
Abdul Hamid.Noel Malcolm, A short history of Kosovo, (London, 1998), Page. 248. A wave of Albanians in the
Ottoman army ranks also deserted during this period, refusing to fight their own kin. Two months later in September of the same year, a joint Balkan force made up of Serbian, Montenegrin, Bulgarian and Greek forces drove the Ottomans out of most of their European possessions. The
British MP Audrey Hebert sums up the impact of the Albanian revolt in bringing an end to Ottoman rule in Europe; ‘In the end, like Samson in the Temple of Gaza, they pulled down the columns of the Ottoman Empire upon their own head. It was the Albanians and not the Serbs or Bulgarians or Greeks who defeated the Turks’.Malcolm, 1998, p. 249.
The rise of Nationalism unfortunately hampered relations between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo, due to influence from
Russians,
Austrians and
Ottomans.See: Isa Blumi,
Rethinking the Late Ottoman Empire: A Comparative Social and Political History of Albania and Yemen, 1878–1918
(Istanbul: The Isis Press, 2003) Kosovo's status within Serbia was finalised the following year at the
Treaty of London.
Treaty of London, 1913. Soon, there were concerted Serbian colonisation efforts in Kosovo during various periods between Serbia's 1912 takeover of the province and
WWII. So the population of Serbs in Kosovo fell after World War II, but it had increased considerably before then.Noel Malcolm,
A short history of Kosovo, (London, 1995) An exodus of the local Albanian population occurred. Serbian authorities promoted creating new Serb settlements in Kosovo as well as the dissimilation of Albanians into Serbian society.Schabnel, Albrecht; Thakur, Ramesh (eds). Kosovo and the Challenge of Humanitarian Intervention: Selective Indignation,
Collective Action, and International Citizenship. New York: The United Nations University, 2001. Pp. 20. Numerous colonist Serb families moved into Kosovo, equalising the demographic balance between Albanians and Serbs.
First World War and birth of Kingdom of Yugoslavia
In the winter of 1915–16, during
World War I, Kosovo saw the retreat of the Serbian army as Kosovo was occupied by
Bulgaria and
Austria-Hungary.
In 1918, the Serbian Army pushed the
Central Powers out of Kosovo. After World War I ended, the Monarchy was then transformed into the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians on 1 December 1918.
Kosovo was split into four counties, three being a part of Serbia (Zvečan, Kosovo and southern Metohija) and one of Montenegro (northern Metohija). However, the new administration system since 26 April 1922 split Kosovo among three Areas of the Kingdom: Kosovo,
Rascia and
Zeta. In 1929, the Kingdom was transformed into the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the territories of Kosovo were reorganised among the
Banate of Zeta, the
Banate of Morava and the
Banate of Vardar.
In order to change the ethnic composition of Kosovo, between 1912 and 1941 a large-scale Serbian re-colonisation of Kosovo was undertaken by the Belgrade government. Meanwhile, Kosovar Albanians' right to receive education in their own language was denied alongside other non-Slavic or unrecognised
Slavic nations of Yugoslavia, as the kingdom only recognised the Slavic Croat, Serb, and Slovene nations as
constituent nations of Yugoslavia, while other Slavs had to identify as one of the three official Slavic nations while non-Slav nations were only deemed as minorities. Albanians and other Muslims were forced to emigrate, mainly with the
land reform which struck Albanian landowners in 1919, but also with direct violent measures.Daskalovski, Židas. Claims to Kosovo: Nationalism and
Self-Determination. In: Florian Bieber & Zidas Daskalovski (eds.),
Understanding the War in Kosovo. L.: Frank Cass, 2003. ISBN 0714653918. P. 13-30.
Malcolm, Noel.
Kosovo: A Short History. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998. ISBN 0333666127. In 1935 and 1938 two agreements between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and
Turkey were signed on the expatriation of 240,000 Albanians to Turkey, which was not completed because of the outbreak of
World War II.Ramet, Sabrina P. The Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Ends: Kosovo in Serbian Perception. In Mary Buckley & Sally N. Cummings (eds.),
Kosovo: Perceptions of War and Its Aftermath. L. – N.Y.: Continuum Press, 2002. ISBN 0826456707. P. 30-46.
Second World War
In 1941, Kosovo and Yugoslavia became involved in
World War II after the
Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia in 1941. Large parts of Kosovo became a part of
Italian-controlled Albania, other parts went to
Bulgaria and
German-occupied
Military Administration of Serbia. The Italian Fascist regime of
Benito Mussolini with its expansionist and
irredentist aims on both Albania and Yugoslavia exploited the nationalist sentiment amongst Albanians to gain favour of the Albanian population for the Italian-run protectorate which ruled Albania, and thus encouraged the establishment of a
Greater Albania which included large portions of Kosovo which was achieved in the Second World War.Schabnel, Albrecht; Thakur (ed), Ramesh (ed), 2001. Pp. 20.
At the 1944 wartime
Bujan conference the Kosovar communist resistance leaders passed a resolution on the postwar assignment of Kosovo to Albania, but their opinion was later disregarded. After numerous uprisings of
Partisans led by
Fadil Hoxha, Kosovo was liberated after 1944 with the help of the Albanian partisans of the
Comintern and became a province of
Serbia within the
Democratic Federal Yugoslavia.
Kosovo in Communist Yugoslavia
The province as in its outline today first took shape in 1945 as the
Autonomous Kosovo-Metohian Area. Until World War II, the only entity bearing the name of Kosovo had been a political unit carved from the former vilayet which bore no special significance to its internal population. In the
Ottoman Empire (which previously controlled the territory), it had been a
vilayet with its borders having been revised on several occasions. When the
Ottoman province had last existed, it included areas which were by now either ceded to
Albania, or found themselves within the newly created Yugoslav republics of
Montenegro, or
Macedonia (including its previous capital,
Skopje) with another part in the
Sandžak region of
Central Serbia.
Tensions between ethnic Albanians and the Yugoslav government were significant, not only due to national tensions but also due to political ideological concerns, especially regarding relations with neighbouring Albania.Independent International Commission on Kosovo.
The Kosovo report: conflict, international response, lessons learned. New York, New York, USA: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp. 35. Harsh repressive measures were imposed on Kosovo Albanians due to suspicions that they there were Kosovo Albanian sympathisers of the
Stalinist regime of
Enver Hoxha of Albania. In 1956, a show trial in Pristina was held in which multiple Albanian Communists of Kosovo were convicted of being infiltrators from Albania and were given long prison sentences. High-ranking Serbian communist official
Aleksandar Ranković sought to secure the position of the Serbs in Kosovo and gave them dominance in Kosovo's
nomenklatura.Melissa Katherine Bokovoy, Jill A. Irvine, Carol S. Lilly. State-society relations in Yugoslavia, 1945-1992. Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997. Pp. 295.
Islam in Kosovo at this time was repressed and both Albanians and Muslim Slavs were encouraged to declare themselves to be Turkish and emigrate to Turkey. At the same time
Serbs and
Montenegrins dominated the government, security forces, and industrial employment in Kosovo. Albanians resented these conditions and protested against them in the late 1960s, accusing the actions taken by authorities in Kosovo as being
colonialist, as well as demanding that Kosovo be made a republic, or declaring support for Albania.
After the ouster of Ranković in 1966, the agenda of pro-decentralisation reformers in Yugoslavia, especially from Slovenia and Croatia succeeded in the late 1960s in attaining substantial decentralisation of powers, creating substantial autonomy in Kosovo and Vojvodina, and recognising a
Muslim Yugoslav nationality.Melissa Katherine Bokovoy, Jill A. Irvine, Carol S. Lilly. State-society relations in Yugoslavia, 1945-1992. Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997. Pp. 296. As a result of these reforms, there was a massive overhaul of Kosovo's nomenklatura and police, that shifted from being Serb-dominated to ethnic Albanian-dominated through firing Serbs in large scale. Further concessions were made to the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo in response to unrest, including the creation of the
University of Pristina as an
Albanian language institution. These changes created widespread fear amongst Serbs that they were being made second-class citizens in Yugoslavia by these changes.Melissa Katherine Bokovoy, Jill A. Irvine, Carol S. Lilly. State-society relations in Yugoslavia, 1945-1992. Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997. Pp. 301. In the 1974 Constitution of Yugoslavia, Kosovo was granted major autonomy, allowing it to have its own administration, assembly, and judiciary; as well as having a membership in the collective presidency and the Yugoslav parliament, in which it held veto power.Independent International Commission on Kosovo.
The Kosovo report: conflict, international response, lessons learned. New York, New York, USA: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp. 35-36.
In the aftermath of the 1974 constitution, concerns over the rise of Albanian nationalism in Kosovo rose with the widespread celebrations in 1978 of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the
League of Prizren. Albanians felt that their status as a "minority" in Yugoslavia had made them second-class citizens in comparison with the "nations" of Yugoslavia and demanded that Kosovo be a
constituent republic, alongside the other republics of Yugoslavia.Independent International Commission on Kosovo.
The Kosovo report: conflict, international response, lessons learned. New York, New York, USA: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp. 36. Protests by Albanians in 1981 over the status of Kosovo resulted in Yugoslav territorial defence units being brought into Kosovo and a state of emergency being declared resulting in violence and the protests being crushed. In the aftermath of the 1981 protests, purges took place in the Communist Party, and rights that had been recently granted to Albanians were rescinded - including ending the provision of Albanian professors and Albanian language textbooks in the education system.
Due to very high
birth rates, the number of Albanians increased from 75% to over 90%. In contrast, the number of Serbs barely increased, and in fact dropped from 15% to 8% of the total population, since many Serbs departed from Kosovo as a response to the tight economic climate and increased incidents of alleged harassment from their Albanian neighbours. While there was tension, charges of "genocide" and planned harassments have been debunked as an excuse to revoke Kosovo's autonomy. For example in 1986 the
Serbian Orthodox Church published an official claim that Kosovo Serbs were being subjected to an Albanian program of 'Genocide' Even though they were disproved by police statistics, they received wide play in the Serbian press and that led to further ethnic problems and eventual removal of Kosovo's status. Beginning in March 1981, Kosovar Albanian students of the University of Pristina organised protests seeking that Kosovo become a republic within Yugoslavia along with
human rights.New York Times 1981-04-19, "One Storm has Passed but Others are Gathering in Yugoslavia" The protests were brutally suppressed by the police and army, with many protesters arrested.
Elsie, Robert.
Historical Dictionary of Kosova. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004. ISBN 0810853094. During the 1980s, ethnic tensions continued with frequent violent outbreaks against Yugoslav state authorities resulting in a further increase in emigration of Kosovo Serbs and other
ethnic groups.Reuters 1986-05-27, "Kosovo Province Revives Yugoslavia's Ethnic Nightmare"Christian Science Monitor 1986-07-28, "Tensions among ethnic groups in Yugoslavia begin to boil over" The Yugoslav leadership tried to suppress protests of Kosovo Serbs seeking protection from
ethnic discrimination and violence.New York Times 1987-06-27, "Belgrade Battles Kosovo Serbs"
Disintegration of Yugoslavia
over the
Ibar, connecting the Serbian and Albanian parts of the city of
Kosovska Mitrovica.]]
Inter-ethnic tensions continued to worsen in Kosovo throughout the 1980s.
The 1986
Memorandum of the Serbian Academy warned that Yugoslavia was suffering from ethnic strife and the disintegration of the Yugoslav economy into separate
economic sectors and territories, which was transforming the federal state into a loose confederation.SANU (1986):
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Memorandum. GIP Kultura. Belgrade.
On June 28, 1989,
Slobodan Milošević delivered the
Gazimestan speech in front of a large number of Serb citizens at the main celebration marking the 600th anniversary of the
Battle of Kosovo. Many think that this speech helped Milošević consolidate his authority in Serbia.
The Economist, June 05, 1999, U.S. Edition, 1041 words, "What's next for Slobodan Milošević?"
In 1989, Milošević, employing a mix of intimidation and political manoeuvring, drastically reduced Kosovo's special autonomous status within Serbia and started cultural oppression of the ethnic Albanian population.Rogel, Carole.
Kosovo: Where It All Began.
International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 17, No. 1 (September 2003): 167–82. Kosovo Albanians responded with a
non-violent separatist movement, employing widespread
civil disobedience and creation of parallel structures in
education, medical care, and taxation, with the ultimate goal of achieving the independence of Kosovo.Clark, Howard.
Civil Resistance in Kosovo. London:
Pluto Press, 2000. ISBN 0-745315690. On July 2, 1990, the self declared Kosovo parliament declared Kosovo an independent country, the
Republic of Kosova. In May 1992,
Ibrahim Rugova was elected president.Babuna, Aydın.
Albanian national identity and Islam in the post-Communist era.
Perceptions 8(3), September-November 2003: 43-69. During its lifetime, the Republic of Kosova was only
recognised by
Albania; it was formally disbanded in 2000 when its institutions were replaced by the
Joint Interim Administrative Structure established by the
United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
Kosovo War
In 1995 the
Dayton Agreement ended the
Bosnian War, drawing considerable international attention. However, despite the hopes of Kosovar Albanians, the situation in Kosovo remained largely unaddressed by the
international community, and by 1996 the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an ethnic
Albanian guerilla group, had prevailed over the
non-violent resistance movement and had started offering armed resistance to
Serbian and
Yugoslav security forces, resulting in early stages of the
Kosovo War.Rama, Shinasi A.
The Serb-Albanian War, and the International Community’s Miscalculations.
The International Journal of Albanian Studies, 1 (1998), pp. 15–19. By 1998, as the violence had worsened and displaced scores of Albanians, Western interest had increased. The Serbian authorities were compelled to sign a
ceasefire and partial retreat, monitored by
OSCE observers according to an agreement negotiated by
Richard Holbrooke. However, the ceasefire did not hold and fighting resumed in December 1998. The
Račak massacre in January 1999 in particular brought new international attention to the conflict. Within weeks, a multilateral international conference was convened and by March had prepared a draft agreement known as the
Rambouillet Accords, calling for restoration of Kosovo's autonomy and deployment of
NATO peacekeeping forces. The
Serbian party found the terms unacceptable and refused to sign the draft.
Between March 24 and June 10, 1999,
NATO intervened by bombing Yugoslavia aimed to force Milošević to withdraw his forces from Kosovo. This military action was not authorised by the Security Council of the United Nations and was therefore contrary to the provisions of the United Nations Charter. Combined with continued skirmishes between Albanian guerrillas and Yugoslav forces the conflict resulted in a further massive displacement of population in Kosovo.
During the conflict, roughly a million ethnic Albanians fled or were forcefully driven from Kosovo. Altogether, more than 11,000 deaths have been reported to
Carla Del Ponte by her prosecutors. Some 3,000 people are still missing, of which 2,500 are Albanian, 400 Serbs and 100
Roma. Ultimately by June Milošević had agreed to a foreign military presence within Kosovo and withdrawal of his troops.
Since May 1999, the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has prosecuted crimes committed during the Kosovo War. Nine Serbian and Yugoslavian commanders have been indicted so far for
crimes against humanity and violations of the
laws or customs of war in Kosovo in 1999: Yugoslavian President
Slobodan Milošević, Serbian President
Milan Milutinović, Yugoslavian
Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Šainović, Yugoslavian Chief of the General Staff Gen.
Dragoljub Ojdanić, Serbian Interior Minister
Vlajko Stojiljković, Gen.
Nebojša Pavković, Gen.
Vladimir Lazarević, Deputy Interior Minister of Serbia
Vlastimir Đorđević and Chief of the Interior for Kosovo
Sreten Lukić. Stojiljković killed himself while at large in 2002 and Milošević died in custody during the trial in 2006. No final judgement concerning the other defendants has been produced so far. The indictment against the nine has alleged that they directed, encouraged or supported a campaign of terror and violence directed at Kosovo Albanian civilians and aimed at the expulsion of a substantial portion of them from Kosovo. It has been alleged that about 800,000 Albanians were expelled as a result. In particular, in the last indictment as of June 2006, the accused were charged with murder of 919 identified Kosovo Albanian civilians aged from one to 93, both male and female. Six KLA commanders were indicted in two cases:
Fatmir Limaj,
Isak Musliu and
Haradin Bala,Another Albanian was indicted together with them, but the charges against him were promptly withdrawn after his arrest, as he turned out not to be the person referred to in the indictment. as well as
Ramush Haradinaj,
Idriz Balaj and
Lahi Brahimaj. They were charged with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war in Kosovo in 1998, consisting in persecutions, cruel treatment, torture, murders and rape of several dozens of the local Serbs, Albanians and other civilians perceived unloyal to the KLA. In particular, Limaj, Musliu and Bala were accused of murder of 22 identified detainees at or near the Llapushnik
Prison Camp. In 2005 Limaj and Musliu were found not guilty on all charges, Bala was found guilty of persecutions, cruel treatment, murders and rape and sentenced to 13 years. The appeal chamber affirmed the judgements in 2007. In 2008 Ramush Haradinaj and Idriz Balaj were acquitted, whereas Lahi Brahimaj was found guilty of cruel treatment and torture and sentenced to six years. Notices of appeal are currently being considered.
UN administration period
river.]]
On June 10, 1999, the UN Security Council passed
UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which placed Kosovo under transitional UN administration (
UNMIK) and authorised
KFOR, a NATO-led peacekeeping force. Resolution 1244 provided that Kosovo would have autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and affirmed the
territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, which has been legally succeeded by the Republic of Serbia.
Some 200,000-280,000, representing the majority of the Serb population, left when the Serbian forces left. There was also some looting of Serb properties and even violence against some of those Serbs and Roma who remained."
Kosovo: The Human Rights Situation and the Fate of Persons Displaced from Their Homes (.pdf) ", report by
Alvaro Gil-Robles,
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Strasbourg, October 16, 2002, p. 30. The current number of
internally displaced persons is disputed,
UNHCR, Critical Appraisal of Responsee Mechanisms Operating in Kosovo for Minority Returns, Pristina, February 2004, p. 14.U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR), April 2000, Reversal of Fortune: Yugoslavia's Refugees Crisis Since the Ethnic Albanian Return to Kosovo, p. 2–3."
Kosovo: The human rights situation and the fate of persons displaced from their homes (.pdf) ", report by
Alvaro Gil-Robles,
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Strasbourg, October 16, 2002.International Relations and Security Network (ISN):
Serbians return to Kosovo not impossible, says report (.pdf) , by Tim Judah, June 7, 2004. with estimates ranging from 65,000European Stability Initiative (ESI):
The Lausanne Principle: Multiethnicity, Territory and the Future of Kosovo's Serbs (.pdf) , June 7, 2004. to 250,000.Coordinating Centre of Serbia for Kosovo-Metohija:
Principles of the program for return of internally displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija .
UNHCR: 2002 Annual Statistical Report:
Serbia and Montenegro, pg. 9
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI):
Country report: Serbia and Montenegro 2006. Many displaced Serbs are afraid to return to their homes, even with UNMIK protection. Around 120,000-150,000 Serbs remain in Kosovo, but are subject to ongoing harassment and discrimination due to physical threats for their safety.
International negotiations began in 2006 to determine the final status of Kosovo, as envisaged under
UN Security Council Resolution 1244. The UN-backed talks, led by UN
Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, began in February 2006. Whilst progress was made on technical matters, both parties remained diametrically opposed on the question of status itself."
UN frustrated by Kosovo deadlock ",
BBC News, October 9, 2006.
In February 2007, Ahtisaari delivered a draft status settlement proposal to leaders in Belgrade and Pristina, the basis for a draft
UN Security Council Resolution which proposes 'supervised independence' for the province. A draft resolution, backed by the
United States, the
United Kingdom and other European members of the
Security Council, was presented and rewritten four times to try to accommodate Russian concerns that such a resolution would undermine the principle of state sovereignty. Russia, which holds a veto in the Security Council as one of five permanent members, had stated that it would not support any resolution which was not acceptable to both Belgrade and Kosovo Albanians. Whilst most observers had, at the beginning of the talks, anticipated independence as the most likely outcome, others have suggested that a rapid resolution might not be preferable.
After many weeks of discussions at the UN, the United States, United Kingdom and other European members of the Security Council formally 'discarded' a draft resolution backing Ahtisaari's proposal on 20 July 2007, having failed to secure Russian backing. Beginning in August, a "
Troika" consisting of negotiators from the
European Union (
Wolfgang Ischinger), the United States (
Frank Wisner) and
Russia (Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko) launched a new effort to reach a status outcome acceptable to both Belgrade and Pristina. Despite Russian disapproval, the U.S., the United Kingdom, and France appeared likely to recognise Kosovar independence. A declaration of independence by Kosovar Albanian leaders was postponed until the end of the
Serbian presidential elections (4 February 2008). Most
EU members and the US had feared that a premature declaration could boost support in Serbia for the ultra-nationalist candidate,
Tomislav Nikolić.
UN administration 1999–present
On June 10, 1999, the UN Security Council passed
UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which placed Kosovo under transitional UN administration (
UNMIK) and authorised
KFOR, a NATO-led peacekeeping force. Resolution 1244 provided that Kosovo would have autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and affirmed the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, which has been legally succeeded by the Republic of Serbia.
According to the
Constitutional Framework, Kosovo shall have a 120-member Kosovo Assembly. The Assembly includes twenty reserved seats: ten for Kosovo Serbs and ten for non-Serb minorities (Bosniaks, Roma, etc.). The Kosovo Assembly is responsible for electing a President and Prime Minister of Kosovo.
Provisional Institutions of Self-Government
In November 2001, the
OSCE supervised the first elections for the Kosovo Assembly."
OSCE Mission in Kosovo - Elections ", Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe After that election, Kosovo's political parties formed an all-party unity coalition and elected
Ibrahim Rugova as President and
Bajram Rexhepi (PDK) as Prime Minister."
Power-sharing deal reached in Kosovo ",
BBC News, 21 February 2002 After Kosovo-wide elections in October 2004, the LDK and AAK formed a new governing coalition that did not include PDK and Ora. This coalition agreement resulted in
Ramush Haradinaj (AAK) becoming Prime Minister, while Ibrahim Rugova retained the position of President. PDK and Ora were critical of the coalition agreement and have since frequently accused the current government of corruption.
Parliamentary elections were held on 17 November 2007. After early results,
Hashim Thaçi who was on course to gain 35 per cent of the vote, claimed victory for PDK, the
Democratic Party of Kosovo, and stated his intention to declare independence. Thaçi formed a coalition with current President
Fatmir Sejdiu's
Democratic League which was in second place with 22 percent of the vote."
Kosovo gets pro-independence PM ", BBC News, 9 January 2008 The turnout at the election was particularly low. Most members of the Serb minority refused to vote.
EuroNews: Ex-guerrilla chief claims victory in Kosovo election. Retrieved 18 November 2007.
However, since 1999, the Serb-inhabited areas of Kosovo, such as
North Kosovo have remained
de facto independent from the Albanian-dominated government in
Pristina.
Local politics in the Serb areas are dominated by the
Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija. The Serbian List is led by
Oliver Ivanović, an engineer from Mitrovica. Within Serbia, Kosovo is the concern of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija, currently led by minister
Goran Bogdanović.
Government of Serbia official site:
Members of the Government
Declaration of independence
.]]
Kosovo declared independence on 17 February 2008"
Kosovo MPs proclaim independence",
BBC News Online, 17 February 2008 and over the following days, a number of
states (the
United States,
Turkey,
Albania,
Austria,
Germany,
Italy,
France, the
United Kingdom, the
Republic of China (Taiwan),
Australia,
Poland and others) announced their recognition, despite protests by
Russia and others in the
UN."
Recognition for new Kosovo grows", BBC News Online, 18 February 2008 Currently, recognise the independence of Kosovo and it has become a member country of the
IMF and
World Bank as the Republic of Kosovo.
The UN Security Council remains divided on the question (). Of the five members with
veto power, USA, UK, and France
recognised the declaration of independence, and the
People's Republic of China has expressed concern, while Russia considers it
illegal. , no member-country of
CIS,
CSTO or
SCO has recognised Kosovo as independent. Kosovo has not made a formal application for
UN membership yet in view of a possible veto from Russia and China.
The
European Union has no official position towards Kosovo's status, but has decided to deploy the
European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo to ensure a continuation of international civil presence in Kosovo. , most of the member-countries of
NATO,
EU,
WEU and
OECD have recognised Kosovo as independent.
, all of Kosovo's immediate neighbour states except
Serbia have recognised the declaration of independence.
Montenegro and
Macedonia announced their recognition of Kosovo on 9 October 2008.
BBC News. Retrieved 10 October 2008. Albania,
Croatia,
Bulgaria and
Hungary have also recognised the independence of Kosovo.
BBC News, Serbia's neighbors accept Kosovo , accessed 12:41 19 March 2008.
The Serb minority of Kosovo, which largely opposes the declaration of independence, has formed the
Community Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija in response. The creation of the assembly was condemned by Kosovo's president Fatmir Sejdiu, while UNMIK has said the assembly is not a serious issue because it will not have an operative role.
On 8 October 2008, the
UN General Assembly resolved to request the
International Court of Justice to render an advisory opinion on the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.
The advisory opinion, which is legally non-binding but had been expected to carry "moral" weight, was rendered on 22 July 2010, holding that Kosovo's declaration of independence was not in violation of international law
BBC News America, ICJ,International Court Of Justice:Declaration of independence of Kosovo from Serbia is not a violation of international law,
Government and politics
EULEX
]]
The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) is the largest civilian mission ever launched under the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The central aim is to assist and support the Kosovo authorities in the rule of law area, specifically in the police, judiciary and customs areas. The mission is not in Kosovo to govern or rule. It is a technical mission which will monitor, mentor and advise whilst retaining a number of limited executive powers. EULEX works under the general framework of United Nations Security Resolution 1244 and has a unified
chain of command to Brussels. It has around 3,000 staff, (1,900 international, 1,100 local) and a budget of 205 million Euros for the first 16 months. The head of the mission is
Yves de Kermabon.
Local politics in the Serb areas are dominated by the
Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija. The Serbian List is led by
Oliver Ivanović, an engineer from Kosovska Mitrovica.
In February 2007 the Union of Serbian Districts and District Units of Kosovo and Metohija transformed into the Serbian Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija, presided by
Marko Jakšić, a hardline nationalist residing in the northern part of the divided city of Mitrovica. It has demanded unity of the Serb people in Kosovo, boycotted
EULEX, and announced massive protests in support of Serbia's sovereignty over Kosovo. On 18 February 2008, day after Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence, the Assembly declared it "null and void".
The Eulex mission intends to remain in Kosovo until at least June 2012.
Constitutional Status and the Republic of Kosovo
A new constitution for the Republic of Kosovo was approved by the Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo, coming to force on June 15, 2008.
CNN AFP;
ITAR-TASS
Kosovo is under
de facto governance of the Republic of Kosovo except for
North Kosovo, which remains under
de facto governance of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo is governed by legislative, executive and judicial institutions that derive from, and are set-up in, accordance with the
Constitution of Kosovo. In November 2001, the OSCE supervised the first elections for the Kosovo Assembly. The last parliamentary elections were held in
in 2007. Last local elections were held in November 2009, the first elections since Kosovo declared independence on February 17, 2008.
United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo has undergone a significant reconfiguration, and no longer possesses the capacity, having handed over its few responsibilities to
EULEX, to govern in any meaningful fashion. It will, its head claims, function as a facilitator of contact between Kosovo and those states or organisations which do not recognise it yet.
Government
The Republic of Kosovo is a
parliamentary representative democracy. The
executive power is exercised by the
Government of Kosovo led by the
Prime Minister of Kosovo. Two or three of the ministers, depending on the size of the government, are required to be from the minorities. The
President of the Republic of Kosovo is the head of state. The judiciary is independent. The
legislative power is exercised by the single-chamber
Assembly of Kosovo consisting of 120 members, 100 of them directly elected by the people for a four-year term and twenty seats reserved for representatives of the
ethnic minorities only. The assembly elects the president for five years and approves the government.
The Government of the Republic of Kosovo is responsible for implementation of laws
and state policies and is subject to parliamentarian control.
The Government consists of the Prime Minister, deputy prime minister(s) and ministers. The Government of Kosovo exercises the executive power in compliance with the Constitution and the law. The Government implements laws and other acts adopted by the Assembly of Kosovo and exercises other activities within the scope of responsibilities set forth by the Constitution and the law.The Government makes decisions in accordance with this Constitution and the laws, proposes draft laws, proposes amendments to existing laws or other acts and may give its opinion on draft laws that are not proposed by it.
The Supreme Court of Kosovo is the highest judicial authority foreseen by the constitution of the Republic of Kosovo. A
Kosovo Police force was established in 1999 and remains subordinated to the UNMIK Police.
The Government has the following competencies: Proposes and implements the internal and foreign policies of the country, makes decisions and issues legal acts or regulations necessary for the implementation of laws, promotes the economic development of the country, proposes draft laws and other acts to the Assembly, proposes the budget of the Republic of Kosovo, guides and oversees the work of administration bodies, guides the activities and the development of public services, proposes to the President of the Republic of Kosovo the appointment and dismissal of the heads of diplomatic missions of the Republic of Kosovo, etc.
Politics
The largest
political parties in Kosovo are the
centre-right Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), which has its origins in the 1990s non-violent resistance movement to Miloševic's rule and was led by
Ibrahim Rugova until his death in 2006,"
Kosovo Update: Main Political Parties ", European Forum, 18 March 2008 and two parties having their roots in the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA): the
centre-left Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) led by former KLA leader
Hashim Thaçi and the centre-right
Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) led by former KLA commander
Ramush Haradinaj. Kosovo publisher
Veton Surroi in 2004 formed the centre-left
Reformist Party ORA. Kosovo Serbs formed the
Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija (SLKM) in 2004 and won several seats, but have boycotted Kosovo's institutions and never taken their seats in the Kosovo Assembly. In 2006 Swiss-Kosovar businessman
Behgjet Pacolli, reputed to be the richest living Albanian, founded the
New Kosovo Alliance (AKR), which came third in the 2007 elections.
Foreign relations
Currently 18 countries maintain
embassies to the Republic of Kosovo. As of , countries recognise Kosovo as independent.
Skënder Hyseni is Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kosovo.
Military
A 2,500-strong
Kosovo Security Force (KSF) was trained by
NATO instructors and became operational on September 2009. The KSF did not replace the
Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) which was dis-banded several months later. Fehmi Mujota is Minister for the Kosovo Security Force of the Republic of Kosovo.
Geography
Kosovo represents an important link between central and southern Europe and the Adriatic and Black Seas. Kosovo has an area of 10,908 square km.
The climate is
continental, with warm summers and cold and snowy winters. Most of Kosovo's terrain in mountainous, the highest peak is
Đeravica (). There are two main plain regions, the
Metohija basin is located in the western part of the Kosovo, and the
Plain of Kosovo occupies the eastern part. The main rivers of the region are the
White Drin, running towards the
Adriatic Sea, with the
Erenik among its
tributaries), the
Sitnica, the
South Morava in the
Goljak area, and
Ibar in the north. The biggest lakes are
Gazivoda,
Radonjić,
Batlava and
Badovac.
39.1% of Kosovo is
forested, about 52% is classified as agricultural land, 31% of which is covered by pastures and 69% is arable.
Strategic Environmental Analysis of Kosovo. The Regional Environmental Centre for
Central and Eastern Europe, Prishtina, July 2000.
Phytogeographically, Kosovo belongs to the Illyrian province of the
Circumboreal Region within the
Boreal Kingdom. According to the
WWF and Digital Map of European Ecological Regions by the
European Environment Agency, the territory of Kosovo belongs to the ecoregion of
Balkan mixed forests.Currently, the 39,000 ha Šar Mountains National Park, established in 1986 in the
Šar Mountains along the border with the Republic of Macedonia, is the only
national park in Kosovo, although the
Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park in the
Prokletije along the border with Montenegro has been proposed as another one.
Kosovo: Biodiversity assessment. Final Report submitted to the
USAID, ARD-BIOFOR IQC Consortium, May 2003.
The largest cities are
Pristina, the capital, with an estimated 500,000 inhabitants. The old city of
Prizren is towards the south west, with a population of 110,000.
Peć in the west has 70,000 inhabitants with
Mitrovica in the north at around 70,000.
In October 2009, Kosovo signed an agreement to re-adjust its border with the Republic of Macedonia by exchanging some lands
Economy
in Pristina.]]
mural,
Bill Clinton Boulevard in Pristina.]]
The economic policy of the Republic of Kosovo aims toward a free trade system. In this context, it has drafted a legal framework that ensures the fulfillment of European standards of competitiveness.
Kosovo has Europe's second largest coal reserves
Kosovo is classified a
developing country by
US intelligence, with a per capita income estimated at
€2,100 (2008).
CIA.gov Kosovo had the largest exporting company (Trepča) in the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia Yet Kosovo was the poorest province of Yugoslavia and received substantial development subsidies from all Yugoslav republics.Christian Science Monitor 1982-01-15, "Why Turbulent Kosovo has Marble Sidewalks but Troubled Industries" Additionally, over the course of the 1990s a blend of poor economic policies,
international sanctions, poor external commerce and
ethnic conflict severely damaged the economy.
After a jump in 2000 and 2001, growth in
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was negative in 2002 and 2003 and was expected to be around 3 percent in 2004–2005, with domestic sources of growth unable to compensate for the declining
foreign assistance.
Inflation is low, while the budget posted a deficit for the first time in 2004. Kosovo has high external deficits. In 2004, the deficit of the balance of
goods and services was close to 70 percent of GDP. Remittances from Kosovars living abroad accounts for an estimated 13 percent of GDP, and foreign assistance for around 34 percent of GDP.
Most
economic development since 1999 has taken place in the trade, retail and the construction sectors. The private sector that has emerged since 1999 is mainly small-scale. The
industrial sector remains weak and the
electric power supply remains unreliable, acting as a key constraint. Unemployment remains pervasive, at around 40–50% of the
labour force.
UNMIK introduced an
external trade regime and customs administration on September 3, 1999 when it set customs border controls in Kosovo. All goods imported in Kosovo face a flat 10%
customs duty fee. These taxes are collected from all Tax Collection Points installed at the borders of Kosovo, including those between Kosovo and Serbia. UNMIK and Kosovo institutions have signed
Free Trade Agreements with
Croatia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Albania and
Macedonia.
The
Euro is the official currency of Kosovo and is used by UNMIK and the government bodies. Initially, Kosovo adopted the
German mark in 1999 to replace the
Yugoslav dinar, and consequently switched to the Euro when the German mark was replaced by it. However, the
Serbian dinar is still used in Serbian-populated areas.
The chief means of entry, apart from the main highway leading to the south to
Skopje,
Macedonia, is
Pristina International Airport.
Trade and investment
Free trade:
Customs-free access to the EU market based on the EU Autonomous Trade Preference (ATP) Regime, Central European Free Trade Area–CEFTA
Kosovo has a liberal trade regime
Kosovo currently enjoys a free trade within Central European Free Trade Agreement–CEFTA, enabling its producers to access
the regional market comprising of 28 million consumers, free of any customs duties.
Taking into consideration the favourable business climate, stable macroeconomic environment and the excellent opportunities across different business sectors, Kosovo is increasingly becoming a very attractive place for doing business. As result, the interest
of foreign investors has been increasing steadily during the past years and together with it also the inflow of FDI.
According to the Business Registry data for 2007, there are 2,012 companies of foreign and mixed ownership that
have already used the opportunity to invest in Kosovo.
The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency MIGA (a member of the World Bank Group) guarantees investments in Kosovo in
the value of 20 million Euro.
The US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) also provides political risk insurance for foreign investors in Kosovo.
The economy is hindered by Kosovo's still-unresolved international status, which has made it difficult to attract investment and loans.
The province's economic weakness has produced a thriving
black economy in which smuggled petrol, cigarettes and cement are major commodities. The prevalence of
official corruption and the pervasive influence of organised crime gangs has caused serious concern internationally. The United Nations has made the fight against corruption and organised crime a high priority, pledging a "zero tolerance" approach.
Kosovo has a reported
foreign debt of 1,264 billion USD that is currently serviced by Serbia.
According to
ECIKS from 2001 to 2004 Kosovo received $3,2 billion of foreign aid. International donor conference is to be held in Switzerland in June or July 2008. Until now EU pledged €2 billion, $350 mil by USA. Serbia also pledged €120 million to Serb's enclaves in Kosovo.
Kosovo joined the
International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank on 26 June 2009 as the 186th country to join the two institutions. 95% of Kosovars had previously voted in favour of the move.
The accession follows a 50% tax reduction implemented in 2008 which has helped double investment in the country, setting the economy for an expected growth of "around 4.0 percent to 5.0 percent" in 2010, according to IMF projections.
Administrative regions
Kosovo, for administrative reasons, is considered as consisting of seven districts.
North Kosovo maintains its own government, infrastructure and institutions by its dominant ethnic
Serb population in the
District of Kosovska Mitrovica, viz. in the
Leposavić,
Zvečan and
Zubin Potok municipalities and the northern part of
Kosovska Mitrovica.
Districts
Municipalities and cities
Kosovo is subdivided into 30 municipalities:
Demographics
According to the Kosovo in Figures 2005 Survey of the Statistical Office of Kosovo, Kosovo's total population is estimated between 1.9 and 2.2 million with the following ethnic composition:
Albanians 92%,
Serbs 4%,
Bosniaks and
Gorans 2%,
Turks 1%,
Roma 1%.
CIA World Factbook estimates the following ratio: 88%
Albanians, 8%
Kosovo Serbs and 4% other ethnic groups.
CIA.gov
According to latest CIA
The World Factbook estimated data, as of July 2009, Kosovo's population stands at
1,804,838 persons. It stated that ethnic composition is "Albanians 88%, Serbs 7%, other 5% (Bosniak, Gorani, Roma, Turk, Ashkali, Egyptian,
Janjevci - Croats)"
Albanians, steadily increasing in number, have constituted a majority in Kosovo since the 19th century, the earlier ethnic composition being disputed. Kosovo's political boundaries do not coincide with the ethnic boundary by which Albanians compose an absolute majority in every municipality; for example, Serbs form a local majority in
North Kosovo and
two other municipalities, while there are large areas with an Albanian majority outside of Kosovo, namely in the neighbouring regions of former Yugoslavia: the north-west of
Macedonia, and in the
Preševo Valley in
Central Serbia.
At 1.3% per year, ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have the fastest rate of growth in population in Europe. Over an 82-year period (1921–2003) the population of Kosovo grew to 460% of its original size. If growth continues at such a pace, the population will reach 4.5 million by 2050. However, this is unlikely to happen; until about 1990, Kosovo Albanians had very high birth rates of about 4 children per woman, similar to many poor developing countries, but this has fallen down to about two since then and will likely sink below replacement eventually, as it has in
Albania itself. In addition, Kosovo has a high emigration rate now which it did not have before 1990.
By contrast, from
1948 to , the Serb population of Kosovo increased by mere 12% (one third the growth of the population in Central Serbia). In addition, in the same period, hundreds of thousands have left to settle in more prosperous
Central Serbia or Western Europe. 60% of Kosovo's pre-1999
Serbian population resides in Serbia proper following the
ethnic cleansing campaign in 1999. The population of Albanians in Kosovo increased by 300% in the same period a rate of growth twenty-five times that of the Serbs in Kosovo. Serbs, similar to most other
Eastern European Christian ethnic groups, since about 1990 have had very low birth rates (about 1.5 children per woman) and more deaths than births. This ensures a continued dwindling of the Serb minority as a percentage of the population, even with the dropping births among the Albanians.
Languages
The native dialect of the Kosovar Albanian population is
Gheg Albanian, although Standard
Albanian is now widely used as an official language.
Albanian, Gheg A language of Serbia and Montenegro. Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005.
, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.:
SIL International. Online version.Sylvia Moosmüller & Theodor Granser.
The spread of Standard Albanian: An illustration based on an analysis of vowels.
Language Variation and Change (2006), 18: 121-140. According to the draft
Constitution of Kosovo,
Serbian is another official language.
Religion
.]]
The two main religions of Kosovo are Christianity and Islam.
Islam is the predominant
religion in Kosovo and is mostly
Sunni Islam, with a
Berktashi Islam minority; Islam was brought into the region with the
Ottoman conquest in the 15th century and now nominally professed by most of the ethnic Albanians, by the Bosniak, Gorani, and Turkish communities, and by some of the
Roma/
Ashkali-"
Egyptian" community. Islam, however, hasn't saturated the Kosovar society, which remains largely secular.
Kosovo touts 'Islam Lite'. The
Associated Press, February 21, 2008. About three percent of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo remain
Roman Catholic despite centuries of the Ottoman rule. There are an estimated 65,000 Catholics in Kosovo and another 60,000 Kosovar born Catholics outside of Kosovo.
"In Kosovo, whole families return to Catholic faith" catholicnews.com 9 February 2009 Link accessed 21 March 2010 The Serb population, estimated at 100,000 to 120,000 persons, is largely
Serbian Orthodox. Kosovo is densely covered by numerous
Serb Orthodox churches and monasteries. Some 140 churches are reported to have been destroyed and partly looted for the black market in the 1999 to 2004 period, of these 30 in a single outburst of
violence in March 2004. According to the governments of the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia, there is no official or state religion of Kosovo.
Society
.]]
Relations between Albanian and Serb communities
The relations between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian and Serb populations have been hostile since the rise of nationalism in the Balkans during the 19th century, rivalry which became strong after Serbia gained Kosovo from the Ottoman Empire in 1913 and after Albania became independent in the same year.Schabnel, Albrecht; Thakur (ed), Ramesh (ed). Kosovo and the Challenge of Humanitarian Intervention: Selective Indignation, Collective Action, and International Citizenship. New York: The United Nations University, 2001. Pp. 20. During the
Ottoman period however, Serbs and Albanians within Kosovo enjoyed good-neighborly relations, working together to oppose foreign meddling in the territory on many occasionsSee: Isa Blumi, Rethinking the Late Ottoman Empire: A Comparative Social and
Political History of Albania and Yemen, 1878–1918 (Istanbul: The Isis Press, 2003) During the Tito-era of communist rule in Yugoslavia, the ethnic Albanian and Serb populations of Kosovo were strongly irreconcilable with sociological studies during the Tito-era indicating that ethnic Albanian and Serb peoples in Kosovo rarely accepted each other as neighbours or friends and few held interethnic marriages.Schabnel, Albrecht; Thakur (ed), Ramesh (ed), 2001. Pp. 24. Ethnic prejudices, stereotypes and mutual distrust between ethnic Albanians and Serbs have remained common for decades. The level of intolerance and separation between the ethnic Albanian and Serb communities during the Tito-period was reported by sociologists to be worse than that of Croat and Serb communities in Yugoslavia which also had tensions but held some closer relations between each other.
The Roma and other minorities
Despite of their planned integration into the Kosovar society, and their recognition in the Kosovar constitution, many difficulties of segregation and discrimination continue to face
Romani and other minorities (i.e. Ashkali and Egyptian communities), on the levels of housing, education, health, employment and social welfare. Many camps around Kosovo continue to house thousands of
Internally Displaced People, all of which are from minority groups and communities. Because many of the Roma are believed to have sided with the Serbs during the conflict, taking part in the widespread looting and destruction of Albanian property,
Minority Rights Group International report that Romani people encounter hostility by Albanians outside their local areas. The report adds: