Kosovo

Kosovo (Albanian: Kosovë / Kosova, Serbian: Косово) is a region in central Balkans. It is the subject of an ongoing territorial dispute between Serbia and the province's majority ethnic Albanian population. It is internationally still part of Serbia and Montenegro, but since the Kosovo War it has been administered by the United Nations Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). The province's final status has yet to be determined; talks on this issue jave started pm February 20, 2006.

Geography


With an area of 10,912 km² (4,203 mi²) 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 Prishtina/Priština 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.

History
The region of Kosova has been inhabited since ancient times. For 3000 years the area has been known as Dardania and was settled by the tribe with the same name. The Dardanians (see also: Albania, Illyria) were of Illyrian, Celtic, and Thracian stock, and their traits can be noticed even today among the Albanian population. The region was later occupied by the Roman Empire.

In relative terms, the Slavs, notably the Serbs, were latecomers to the region. They came to the territories of roughly modern-day Kosovo in the 6th and 7th centuries.

Kosovo was ruled by the Bulgarians from the 850s until 1014.

In 1166 - 1168, a Serbian nobleman from Zeta, Stephen Nemanja, who called himself the King of Serbs, Albanians and Vallahians, asserted to the Grand Princely throne and conquered most of Kosovo in an uprising against the Byzantines, in the process taking over many religious establishments of Orthodox Albanians. Nemanja was eventually defeated and had to return some of his conquests, and vouched to the Byzantine Emperor that he would not raise his hand against him. In 1183, Nemanja embarked on a new offensive with the Hungarians after the Byzantine Emperor's death. Nemanja's son, Stephen II the First-crowned of Nemanja, recorded Nemanja's conquests, as Nemanja restored the Kosovar lands from the Greeks, the border of the Serbian realm reaching the river of Lab. King of Serbs Stephen II finished the inclusion of the Kosovan territories in 1208, by which time he had conquered Prizren and Lipljan, and moved the border of his realm to the Shar mountain.

After the Empire of Tsar Stefan Dušan fell into disarray prior to his death in the 14th century, feudal anarchy caught up with the country, with Kosovo becoming a part of Prince Lazar of Moravian Serbia's domain. The Ottomans invaded the realm and met the coalition of South East European princes and Kings on 28 June 1389, near Prishtina. The epic Battle of Kosovo followed, in which Prince Lazar himself lost his life and the coalition was broken. Through the cunning of Miloš Obilić (Albanian Millosh Kopiliqi, whose origin is disputed), the Sultan was murdered and the new Sultan had, despite winning the battle, to retreat to consolidate his power. The local House of Branković came to prominence as the local lords of Kosovo, under Vuk Branković, with the temporary fall of the Serbian Despotate in 1439. Another great battle occurred between the Hungarian troops supported by the King of Albanians and Lord Protector of Christianity, Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, and Ottoman troops supported by the Brankovićs in 1448. Hungarian King John Hunyadi lost the battle after a 2-day fight, but essentially stopped the Ottoman advance northwards. Kosovo then became vassalaged to the Ottoman Empire, until its direct incorporation after the final fall of Serbia in 1459.

The Ottomans brought Islamisation with them, particularly in towns, and later also created the Viyalet of Kosovo as one of the Ottoman territorial entities. This brought a great shift, as the Orthodox population (Albanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Greek) began to lose its majority. Kosovo was taken by the Austrian forces during the Great War of 1683 - 1699. In 1690, the Serbian Patriarch Arsenije III led 30,000 people from Kosovo to evade Ottoman wrath, since Kosovo had just been retaken by the Ottomans. The people that followed him were Serbs, Albanians, Vallahians, Bulgarians and Greeks. Other migrations of Orthodox people (Albanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Greek) from Kosovo continued throughout the 18th century.

In 1878, with the Berlin Conference, Serbia gained what is today known as Southern Serbia, a region as large as Kosovo. In less than two months, the region was ethnically cleansed and its population was located in today's Kosovo, Macedonia, and largely Turkey.

As a result, Albanians formed the League of Prizren in Prizren. In 1910, an Albanian uprising spread from Prishtina and lasted until the Ottoman Sultan's visit to Kosovo in June 1911. The Aim of the League of Prizren was to unite the four Albanian Vilayets within the Ottoman Empire into one Albanian State.

In 1912 during the Balkan Wars, Kosovo was conquered by Serbia, with parts of it being captured by Montenegro. Serbia aimed at ethnically cleansing Kosovo of its Albanian poupulation and it was negotiated with Turkey for the Albanians to be transferred into Turkey, with relative success. In 1912, Albania declared independence from the Ottoman Empire. In 1913, in the Coference of London, Albania was recognized as an independent state without Kosovo. Serbia continued a policy of discrimination, and at times aimed at ethnic cleansing of Kosovo.

After the 1918-1929 period of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the 1929-1941 Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis forces. The greatest part became a part of Italian-controlled Fascist Albania, and smaller bits by the Nazi-Fascist Tsardom of Bulgaria and Nazi German-occupied Kingdom of Serbia. Serbian genocide against Albanians continued after the Second World War, when a large number of Albanians were expelled to Turkey.

During the war, Kosovo Albanians met in the Conference of Bujan and decided that, after the war, Kosovo would join Albania. It was widely believed both in Albania and in Yugoslavia that Kosovo should join Albania, which would in turn become the seventh Yugoslav republic. This did not happen, but Kosovo gained the status of a province. In the 1974 constitution, Kosovo gained more powers and was advanced to a status which was almost that of a republic, but not in name.

In the 1980s Kosovo students organized protests seeking better conditions. Due to Serb police reaction this turned into a protest for Kosovo to become a republic within Yugoslavia. Those protests were harshly attacked by the Serbian government. In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts published a document Memorandum which contained heavy Serb nationalist rhetoric. With Serbian nationalism on the increase, Milosevic easily came to power.

In 1989 the autonomy of Kosovo was revoked. Albanians organized a peaceful resistance movement. Most Albanians were expelled from their jobs, Albanian schools and the medical care system were shut down, and Kosovo was put under an effective apartheid. On July 2, 1990 Kosovo parliament declared Kosovo an independent country. In September that year the parliament, meeting in secrecy in the town of Kaqanik, adopted the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo. Two years later, Kosovo organized a referendum which was observed by international organisations but was not recognized internationally. With an 80% turnout, 98% voted for Kosovo to be independent. In the early nineties, Albanians organized a parallel state system which managed the non-violent resistance movement and organized a parallel system of education and healthcare, among other things.

With the events in Bosnia and Croatia coming to an end, the Serb government started moving Serb refugees from Croatia and Bosnia to Kosovo. In a number of cases, Albanian families were expelled from their apartments to make space for the refugees, only a few of whom remain in Kosovo today.

After the Dayton Agreement and numerous atrocities commited by Serb security forces inside Kosovo, the disillusioned Albanians organized into the Kosovo Liberation Army and started a guerilla war for liberation. The Serb reaction was stiff in plundering Albanian villages and executing civilians. This triggered a 78-day NATO campaign. During the conflict, some 12,000 Kosovar Albanians were killed and some 800,000 expelled. Some 3,000 Albanians are still missing. The number of Serbian soldier, policemen, and civilian deaths is considered to be around 1,000.

With the arrival of NATO a large number of Serbs fled the region, estimated at 100,000 by the UNHCR. Around 120,000 remain in Kosovo and oppose any rule by Albanians. The Serbian government usually claims that some 250,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo. This instills fear within the Albanians and makes them oppose return projects. There are now, according to the European Stability Initiative, some 65,000 Kosovo Serbs living in Serbia. Some 20,000 may go back, mainly rural Serbs, while urban Serbs have largely integrated into Serbia and will not go back to Kosovo regardless of what their status will be.

The Status talks started in February 2006; it is widely believed they will result in the independence of Kosovo in the course of the year, provided Kosovar institutions grant guarantees for the 120,000-strong Serbian minority in Kosovo.

Disputes over language, culture and citizenship
The province 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 a long way, 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. The province has never had an official flag of its own. 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, Croats, Turks, Goranis and other smaller minorities apart from Serbs and some Roma.

Politics and international status
Kosovo's international status is anomalous in that although it is a Serbian province within the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, 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 government of the province 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 the province'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 Serbia. 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 reluctant to see Kosovo become independent, as its independence without Belgrade's consent would violate international law (the principles of territorial integrity and noninterference in internal affairs). It could also potentially provide a precedent for the parallel Serb demands of secession for the Republika Srpska from Bosnia and Herzegovina, re-igniting tension in that country. 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 size, the state of its economy and fears that criminal and smuggling networks have strong positions there. In early 2006, western diplomants 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 of the province is 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 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.

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-present

Pro-Albanian

 * Human Rights in Kosovo: As Seen, As Told. Volume I, October 1998 - June 1999.
 * 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"
 * RTK - Kosova's public television (news in Albanian, Serbian, Turkish and Roma)
 * 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