Kosovo

Kosovo (Albanian: Kosovë / Kosova, Serbian: Косово и Метохија / Kosovo i Metohija) is a territory in South Eastern Europe. By the UN resolution 1244 (adopted in 1999), Kosovo is defined as autonomous territory within former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under UN administration. Whether this will remain the case is still unclear, as the final status of Kosovo is the subject of an ongoing dispute between government of Serbia and Kosovo's government. Talks on this issue started in Vienna, on February 20, 2006.

Geography


With an area of 10,912 square kilometres (4,213 sq. mi) and a population of over two million on the eve of the 1999 crisis, Kosovo borders Montenegro to the northwest, Serbia to the North and East; Macedonia to the south, and Albania to the southwest. The largest cities are Prishtinë/Pristina the capital, with an estimated 500,000 inhabitants, and Prizren in the southwest with 120,000: five other towns have populations in excess of 50,000. The name Metohija is used by mostly Serbs for the western part of the land. Albanians refer the area as Rrafshi i Dukagjinit.

History
It is likely that the region of Kosovo has been inhabited by Illyrian tribes since the Bronze Age. In ancient times the area has been known as Dardania and was settled by a tribe with the same name. The Dardani were of Illyrian and Thracian stock and some (notably Albanians) claim that Albanians are direct descendants of Illyrians. Illyrians organised resistance against Greeks and Romans for hundreds of years but after the long wars of Illyrian tribes against intruders, the region was later occupied by the Roman Empire under Emperor Augustus. When the Roman Empire split in A.D. 395, the Kosovo region came under the Eastern Roman Empire, later known as the Byzantine Empire.

Disputes over language, culture and citizenship
The territory is most widely known as 'Kosovo' and this has become the standard in international and United Nations usage. In Albanian this name becomes 'Kosova', which is more often found within Kosovo and in official use by the Provisional Institutions, though both Albanian and Serbian are official languages. Wherever political and cultural sensitivity are particularly important, the international community will use 'Kosovo/Kosova' to describe the province and adopt a similar standard for many place names. While the formal title 'Republic of Kosova' has fallen out of use with the integration of Kosovo Albanian politics into the UNMIK system, the formal Serbian title 'Kosovo i Metohija' remains in colloquial and official use in parts of Kosovo and in Serbia proper, where parallel institutions for Kosovo remain until final status is resolved.

The question of what to call the inhabitants of Kosovo collectively has also aroused debate. The two words accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary are "Kosovar" (borrowed from Albanian), the most widely used variant in English, by far, and "Kosovan" (using the English rules for demonyms) much less used. As Kosovo has no formal statehood, current international usage is to refer to Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians. Most of the Albanian-descended community in Kosovo would prefer the use of Kosovar or Kosovan because of the attendant political overtones, while the Serb minority continue to think of themselves as Serb or Serbian (from Kosovo).

As for language and citizenship, so for cultural and political symbols. Kosovo had its own flag, when it used to have a province status within former Yugoslavia. The former province of Kosovo was identified with a flag similar to the one of Albania, but had a large star on the right-handside. The Albanian flag is used unofficially by the Kosovo Albanian-dominated administration and the vast majority of Kosovo Albanians; although recently the flag of the presidency is being used as an unofficial flag of Kosovo, as could be seen during Ibrahim Rugova's funeral.

The Serb-inhabited area of north Kosovo uses only the flag of Serbia, which is formally the flag of Serbia, although this usage is rejected by virtually all Kosovo Albanians and other smaller minorities apart from Serbs and some Roma.

Politics and international status
Kosovo's international status is anomalous. The administration is presently conducted by the United Nations with little or no involvement on the part of the Serbian government (under Security Council resolution 1244 of 10 June 1999; see Security Council Resolutions 1999). The supervision of the government of Kosovo is the responsibility of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Under the terms of the Kumanovo agreement and subsequent UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which ended the Kosovo War, security is provided by the Kosovo Force (KFOR), which is led by NATO and is answerable to UNMIK.

UNMIK has so far established a provisional assembly, provisional government and the office of provisional president, which are legislative and executive bodies under UNMIK's control. Control of security, justice and external affairs are still under full UNMIK control. Elections for the Assembly of Kosovo were held in November 2001 and again in 2004 and were qualified as the most democratic elections in the Balkans. Ibrahim Rugova was elected as president in March 2002. The seat of the assembly, government and president is in Prishtina/Pristina. So far, the parliament has enacted and UNMIK approved a constitutional framework, customs code, two criminal codes and some 200 laws.

The Constitutional Framework enacted by the Kosovo Assembly (with UN Security Council approval) has adopted a policy of affirmative action in the assembly to ensure that Kosovo's minorities are properly represented. Out of 120 seats, 10 are reserved for Serbs and another 10 for non-Albanian minorities, while the remaining 100 seats are elected through direct voting. UNMIK does not take account, though, the Serbs and other non-Albanians who have left Kosovo as a result of interethnic tension, many of whom are unable to reclaim lost property or safely to attend elections. The process of 'returns' of these displaced persons has yet to begin in earnest, as a result of insufficient funding and a perceived inability of the UN to control violence against minority groups, as well as a concern on the part of Kosovo Albanians that an increased number of Serbs will undermine the chances for an independent Kosovo.

Kosovo is still recognised internationally as a part of former Yugoslavia. Its final status has not yet been resolved, (talks on the subject started on 20 February 2006), and considerable difficulties lie ahead in balancing the irreconcilable Kosovo Albanian, Kosovo Serb and Belgrade positions. The Kosovo Albanians reject Serbian sovereignty and demand secession from the country. On the other side, Serbia is opposed to yielding any of its territory, and domestic opinion, supported by the existence of a centuries-old written, material and architectural history, continues to see the province as the heartland of Serbian culture.

The international community is becoming less and less reluctant to see Kosovo become independent, as the last Contact Group and UN Security Council meetings showed. The NATO countries insisted on the republican borders as the only acceptable solution during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s, but this does not rule out that they might revisit this in the case of Kosovo vis-à-vis Serbia and Montenegro. Questions have also been raised about whether an independent Kosovo would be politically or economically viable, given its small populationa and the state of its economy. However the population of Kosovo is larger than several European countries including Estonia, Iceland, Luxembourg and Malta. But once its status is resolved and Kosovo has access to international monetary institutions the economic development will be possible. In early 2006, Western diplomats have come out clearly in support of an independent Kosovo, with guarantees for the minorities.

UNMIK is issuing travel documents which serve instead of passports in countries which recognise them, and issues identity cards and car plates, which again are valid only in certain countries. UNMIK has created a police force (the Kosovo Police Service) with employees from all ethnic communities (Albanian, Serbian, Roma, Bosniac, etc) and manages the province's railways and airline (Kosova Airlines). The airspace and borders of Kosovo are controlled by KFOR.

The European Union runs the Kosovo economy in cooperation with the Kosovo institutions. The EU has initiated the Stabilisation Tracking Mechanism, a special and separate track of EU integration for Kosovo.

On January 21, 2006, the President of Kosovo, Dr.Ibrahim Rugova, died at age 61. On February 10, 2006, Fatmir Sejdiu was elected to be the second President by an 80-12 vote in parliament. On March 10, 2006, Agim Çeku was appointed as the Prime Minister of Kosovo, during a voting by the Assembly of Kosovo.

Economy
UNMIK declared the euro to be the official currency of the province in 2001 in the course of implementing a currency reform. This was undertaken to replace the previous widespread use of the Deutschmark, which had become the de facto currency even before the 1999 war. However, the Serbian dinar remains an official currency, used principally in the Kosovo Serb enclaves; it is only used sporadically outside of them. Most trade is conducted using the euro; Kosovo's administration uses the euro exclusively, and all commercial banks use the euro as the primary currency. Of other international currencies, the United States dollar and Swiss franc are the most widespread.

Demographics
Ethnic Albanians comprise almost 90% of the population of the province. In the aftermath of the conflict some one thousand non-Albanians, particularly Serbs and Roma either followed Serb soldiers as they withdrew, were forcibly expelled by the Albanian majority or fled the province to escape perceived threats of revenge by Albanians. The non-Albanian population of Kosovo has continued to fall since the arrival of NATO and the UN as a result of violence, perceived intimidation, and economic hardship. Many still live in communal camps in Serbia or Macedonia cared for by international relief agencies. However, there have been many attempts by Kosovo's government to resettle non-Albanians in the region which have largely been successful, including the resettlement of well over one thousand Serbians and Roma from 2004 - 2005. The Kosovo government has been widely praised for paying for the rebuilding of Serb houses in the aftermath of the 2004 riots. This has been marked as the first case of reparations in the history of the Balkans.

According to the 2000 Living Standard Measurement Survey of the Statistical Office of Kosovo, Kosovo's total population is estimated between 1,8 and 2,0 million in the following ethnic proportions: However, the figures are highly disputable and may presently include an Albanian majority well above 90 percent.
 * 88% Albanians (between 1,584,000 and 1,733,600)
 * 7% Serbs (between 126,000 and 140,000)
 * 3% Muslims and Bosniaks (54 to 60 thousand)
 * 2% Roma (36 to 40 thousand) Roma in Mitrovica Camps
 * 1% Turks (18 to 20 thousand)

Presidents

 * Ibrahim Rugova, 1992-2006 (deceased)
 * Fatmir Sejdiu, 2006-present

Prime Ministers

 * Bajram Rexhepi, 2002-2004
 * Ramush Haradinaj, 2004-2005
 * Bajram Kosumi, 2005-2006
 * Agim Çeku, 2006-present

Pro-Albanian

 * Balkan Update- A blog with news, analysis and the lates updates from Balkans
 * Economic Initiative for Kosovo - "...latest news, analysis and publications from the Kosovar economy"
 * Albanian.com - general information
 * Kosova e lirë (Free Kosova) -- Material about Kosovars and Albanians in Albanian language.
 * General information from Beqiraj.com (in German)
 * General information from Beqiraj.com (in Albanian)
 * Why Independence for Kosovo? A summary of the case for an independent Kosova by two Prishtina intellectuals

Pro-Serb

 * Hugo Roth, Kosovo Origins: a historian's comprehensive overview
 * Kosovo.com Serbian Orthodox Church's official website on Kosovo
 * Account of destroyed Serbian Orthodox churches in Kosovo and Metohija
 * Kosovo Newsgroup archive
 * Coordination Center of SCG and the Republic of Serbia for Kosovo
 * Serbian Government Kosovo-Metohija site
 * Eastern Orthodox Resource Centre
 * Southern Serbia: The second Kosovo?

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