North Kosovo

North or Northern Kosovo (Северно Косово, Severno Kosovo; Kosova Veriore) is an unofficial name for a region in the northern part of Kosovo with an ethnic Serb majority that functions largely autonomously from the remainder of the disputed territory, which has an ethnic Albanian majority. Ibarian Kolashin (Ибарски Колашин, Ibarski Kolašin; Kollashini i Ibrit), a toponym that pre-dates the political partition, is also used to refer to the area.

Kosovo is subject to a contested constitutional status: it had been defined by UNSCR 1244, in the interim, as part of the FRY (being an autonomous province of the constituent republic of Serbia) under United Nations international administration, but its provisional government declared independence on February 18, 2008 and has since received partial recognition. Most Serb institutions in Kosovo refuse to acknowledge and recognize this, continuing to consider the territory an integral part of Serbia. The Kosovar institutions, in turn, claim the entirety of the territory and oppose any kind of parallel government for Serbs in Kosovo. The entirety of Kosovo is under the effective control of the NATO forces which provide security from external and internal threats

North Kosovo is by far the largest of the Serb-dominated areas within Kosovo, and unlike the others, directly borders Central Serbia. This has facilitated its ability to govern itself almost completely independently of the Kosovo institutions in a de facto state of partition. Although the Kosovo status process had repeatedly ruled out formalizing this partition as a permanent solution, it has been increasingly mooted amidst continued deadlock.

Geography
North Kosovo consists of the region's three northernmost municipalities, Leposavić, Zvečan and Zubin Potok, plus a relatively small portion of Kosovska Mitrovica municipality (North Kosovska Mitrovica). The latter includes those parts of the city of Mitrovica proper that are on the north bank of the Ibar River. It covers around 1,200 km², or 11.1% of Kosovo's land area. Owing to its border with Serbia proper, North Kosovo is not, strictly speaking, a "Serb enclave" or "Serb exclave".

North Kosovo is rich in mineral resources, once known for the Trepča mining complex.

History
North Kosovo was a party of the Thracian-Illyrian land of Dardania before the Roman conquest in the 1st century. With the split of the Empire into two halves it became a part of the Eastern in 395 AD. By the 7th century during the Great Migrations Slavs overwhelmed the territory, often a part of various Slavic and Serb states. In the 11th century it was fully taken over by the Serbian state of Rascia, transformed into a Kingdom in 1217 and a Serbian Empire in 1346. With its collapse into feudalism in the 1370s, North Kosovo became a part of the domain of the House of Lazarević, and in 1402 of the renewed Serbian realm in the form of a Despotate. The richness of its mineral sources was discovered and exploited for the first time by the Serbian lords. After a 1441-1444 Ottoman occupation, the Ottomans conquered it in 1455 and added it to its province of Rumelia.



Over the centuries the new Empire brought Islamic culture and religion into the region, including Turk and other settlers amongst the Orthodox Serbs. Between 1689 and 1690 the Habsburgs managed to take control of the region with the help of the Serb insurgents. In the 19th century a separate Vilayet of Kosova was created during restructuring of the Ottoman Empire. It became one of the centers of Serbian culture in the Ottoman realm. The 1878 Congress of Berlin mandated administration over North Kosovo to the newly independent Principality of Serbia, which regained the territory after nearly five centuries following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire as part of the Balkan League during the First Balkan War in 1912.

Between 1915 and 1918 it was briefly under the occupation of the Central Powers during World War I, after which it was restored to a unified Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Originally it was a part of the Zvecan District, but in 1922 a new unitarian administrative division was adopted and it mostly became a part of the Raška Area. In 1929 the name of the Kingdom was formally changed to Yugoslavia and North Kosovo became a part of the Zeta Banovina. During World War II, after occupation by the Axis forces in 1941, most of North Kosovo was under the Nazi puppet National Salvation Government Serbian regime of Milan Nedić. The Chetniks had a presence in the area, but it was fully liberated by the Partisans in 1945, becoming a part of the Federal Unit of Serbia of a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia. In 1959 it was decided to strengthen the dying out Serb element in the Autonomous Region of Kosovo-Metohija, so the area that comprises today Northern Kosovo was annexed to it. With the annexes and structural changes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, North Kosovo became administered directly by Pristina, less and less under the influence of Belgrade.

Serbian control over the region was restored in 1989 and 1990. After the 1999 NATO bombing campaign, North Kosovo was put under international administration and virtually all Serbia's control over it vanished.

The city of Zvecan is of immense historical heritage.

Demographics
Before the 1999 Kosovo War the area was predominately inhabited by Serbs, with a substantial Albanian minority and smaller populations of Muslims (Gorani and other Slavic Muslims), Roma and Turks. The Yugoslav census of 1991 recorded a population of some 35,000 people in the municipalities of Leposavić, Zvečan and Zubin Potok, of whom 84.9% were Serbs, 11.1% Albanians and 3.9% others, though the Statistical Office of Kosovo regards the accuracy of this census as "questionable" given that most Albanians boycotted it. The population of Kosovska Mitrovica municipality was predominately Albanian, with the town itself and two of the nearby villages being ethnically mixed.

The war resulted in major population changes brought about by ethnic cleansing and refugees fleeing the fighting elsewhere in Kosovo. The number of Serbs rose with the arrival of people driven out from other Serbian communities elsewhere in Kosovo. In 2006 the OSCE estimated that the population of the municipalities of Leposavić, Zvečan and Zubin Potok had increased to around 46,000 people, of whom 95.5% were Serbs, 3% Albanians and 1.5% others. Kosovska Mitrovica was split between Serbs and Albanians at the end of the war, with the Ibar River marking the dividing line. The north of Kosovska Mitrovica is now home to approximately 17,000 Serbs and 3,000 members of other minorities. Most of the Roma population was displaced to the north, while small numbers of Turks and Goranis continue to live on both sides of the river. The OSCE has, however, been unable to estimate accurately the population of the municipality.

Such figures would total to an approximate North Kosovo population of 66,000, of which slightly more than 95% is ethnically Serb. Based on a PISG estimate of a total Kosovan Serb population of 112,700, 54% of all Kosovo's Serbs live in North Kosovo.

Economy
The economy of the region was devastated by the war - by 2006, the unemployment rate had reached 77% in Kosovska Mitrovica municipality. The largest employer was the Trepča mining complex in Zvečan which employed 4,000 people at the height of its operations. However, it was shut down in August 2000 due to the severe pollution which it was producing. The economic situation has deteriorated significantly in recent years due to a lack of capital investment, exacerbated by the uncertainty caused by the political dispute over the region's future. The region uses the Serbian dinar rather than the euro used elsewhere in Kosovo.

Politics and government
Since 1999, the Serb-inhabited north of Kosovo has been governed as de facto independent from the Albanian-dominated government in Pristina. It uses Serbian national symbols and participates in Serbian national elections, which are boycotted in the rest of Kosovo; and in turn, it boycotts Kosovo's elections. The municipalities of Leposavić, Zvečan and Zubin Potok are run by local Serbs, while the Mitrovica municipality had rival Serb and Albanian governments until a compromise was agreed in November 2002, whereby the city has one mayor.

The region has united into a community, the Union of Serbian Districts and District Units of Kosovo and Metohija established in February 2008 by Serbian delegates meeting in Kosovska Mitrovica, which has since served as North Kosovo's capital. The Union's President is Dragan Velić. This union is not recognised by Kosovo authorities, or by UNMIK.

There is also a central governing body, the Serbian National Council for Kosovo and Metohija (SNV). The President of SNV in North Kosovo is Dr Milan Ivanović, while the head of its Executive Council is Rada Trajković.

Local politics are dominated by the Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija. The Serbian List is led by Oliver Ivanović, an engineer from Kosovska Mitrovica.

The principal issue facing the region is its future relationship with Serbia and independent Kosovo. The North Kosovo Serbs have taken a consistently hard line until relatively recently, refusing to cooperate with the government in Pristina or to take up their seats in the Assembly of Kosovo. Their stance has been encouraged by the Serbian government of Vojislav Koštunica.

However, Ivanović and other Kosovo Serb leaders have expressed increasing frustration at Belgrade's approach and have voiced their support for a more moderate stance, speaking openly of rejoining the Assembly of Kosovo and taking part in its government. This line has proved highly controversial, as many Kosovo Serbs reject any compromise; in February 2004, Ivanović's car was destroyed by a bomb explosion outside his home in Kosovska Mitrovica.

The Serbian government, the Serbian List, the Government of Kosovo and the United Nations all officially oppose the separation of North Kosovo from the rest of the province. However, many Serbs in the region are adamantly opposed to living under the rule of an Albanian-majority provincial government and reject an independent Kosovo. Ivanović has spoken out against partition, pointing out that more than 60,000 (55%) of the Serb population of Kosovo lives south of Ibar, and that all of the important cultural and economic assets are also in the south of Kosovo.

Most inhabitants of North Kosovo have boycotted the most recent elections for the provisional institutions upon advice from Belgrade, putting themselves in an awkward situation, as ethnic Albanian parties are leading on all local elections in North Kosovo.

In February 2007 the Union of Serbian Districts and District Units of Kosovo has transformed into the Serbian Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija presided by Marko Jakšić. The "Assembly" strongly criticized the independence moves of the Kosovo Assembly and demanded unity of the Serb people in Kosovo, boycott of EULEX and announced massive protests in "support of Serbia's sovereignty over Kosovo." On 18 February 2008, a day after Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence, the "Assembly" declared it "null and void" in an open assembly together with the presence of the pro-Serb opposition from Montenegro.

In June, 2008 the Community Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija was gathered to coordinate the efforts of the Serbian community in North Kosovo.