7/29/2019 KosovoWord.doc
1/2
Kosovo, an impoverished land with a mainly Albanian population,
unilaterally declared
independence from Serbia in February 2008.
It immediately won recognition from the United States and major
European Unioncountries. But Serbia, with the help of its big-power
ally Russia, has vowed to block
Kosovo from getting a United Nations seat.
Kosovo has been the backdrop to an often-strained relationship
between its Serb and
Albanian inhabitants.
From 1999 to 2008 the province was administered by the UN, after
enduring a conflictfuelled by ethnic division and repression.
Reconciliation between the majority Albanians,
most of whom support independence, and the Serb minority remains
elusive.
More than half of landlocked Kosovo's people live in poverty.
Although it possesses rich
mineral resources, agriculture is the main economic activity
because of decades of under-
development.
Divided town: Mitrovica has been a flashpoint for inter-ethnic
tensionsContinue reading the main story
At a glance
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
It has been
recognised by the US and many EU countries Serbia so far
declines to renounce its claim to the territory. Serb-populated
northern areas are beyond the writ of the Albanian-dominated
government
The EU is brokering talks between Kosovo and Serbia. Nato
peacekeepers havebeen in Kosovo since 1999
Profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
Kosovar Albanians number about 2 million - about 90% of the
population. Some 100,000
Serbs remain following a post-war exodus of non-Albanians. The
Serbian minority live inseparate areas watched over by Nato
peacekeepers.
History
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18328859#story_continues_1http://monitor.bbc.co.uk/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18328859#story_continues_1http://monitor.bbc.co.uk/
7/29/2019 KosovoWord.doc
2/2
Slavonic and Albanian peoples have lived side by side in Kosovo
since the eighth
century. The region was the centre of the Serbian Empire until
the mid-14th century, and
Serbs regard Kosovo as the birthplace of their nation.
Over the centuries, as the ethnic balance shifted in favour of
Albanians, Kosovo came to
represent a golden age in the Serbian national imagination,
embodied in epic poetry.
Serbia's defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 ushered in
centuries of rule by the Muslim
Ottoman Empire. Serbia regained control of Kosovo in 1913, and
the province was laterincorporated into Yugoslavia.
Path to autonomy
Serbs and Albanians vied for control in the region throughout
the 20th century. In the
1960s the suppression of Albanian national identity in Kosovo
gave way to a more
tolerant line from Belgrade. Albanians gained a foothold in the
Kosovan and Yugoslav
administrations.
The 1974 Yugoslav constitution laid down Kosovo's status as an
autonomous province,
and pressure for independence mounted in the 1980s after the
death of YugoslavPresident Tito.
But resentment over Kosovan influence within the Yugoslav
federation was harnessed by
the future Yugoslav Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic. On
becoming president in 1989
he proceeded to strip Kosovo of its autonomy.
A passive resistance movement in the 1990s failed to secure
independence or to restore
autonomy, although Kosovar Albanian leaders declared unilateral
independence in 1991.
In the mid-1990s an Albanian guerrilla movement, the Kosovo
Liberation Army, stepped
up attacks on Serb targets. The attacks precipitated a major
Yugoslav military crackdown.
War
Slobodan Milosevic's rejection of an internationally-brokered
deal to end the crisis, andthe persecution of Kosovar Albanians,
led to Nato air strikes against targets in Kosovo
and Serbia in March 1999.
A campaign of ethnic cleansing against Kosovar Albanians was
launched by the Serbianauthorities. Hundreds of thousands of
refugees fled to Albania, Macedonia andMontenegro and further
afield, and thousands died in the conflict.
Serbian forces were driven out in the summer of 1999 and the UN
took over the
administration of the province.
