Home / Press review / Archive / Magazine / Politics / Kosovo / Background

Kosovo- a historical overview, by Norbert Rütsche

« back . 1 . 2

From passive resistance to bombing raids

The situation in Kosovo took on more and more of the characteristics of a system of apartheid. The attention of the international community was drawn to the catastrophic situation in Kosovo. The EU urged observation of the basic democratic and human rights. The dissatisfaction of the Kosovo Albanians with their pacifist political leaders grew, and some protagonists began to resort to violence. In February 1996 the underground organisation Kosovo Liberation Army KLA (or UCK) confessed for the first time to bombings of Serbian institutions, marking the beginning of armed resistance. Further KLA attacks followed, in a rapidly escalating cycle of attacks and reprisals until a war-like situation was reached. The Serbian Special Police carried out two attacks in February and March 1998 against KLA command posts in the region of Drenica, in which 87 Kosovo Albanians were killed - not only armed men, but a large number of women, children and old people.

The international community becomes aware of Kosovo

After the events in Drenica, which unleashed indignation worldwide, pressure on the international community increased. The so-called Contact Group (Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Russia and the USA) demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Serbian special police force from Kosovo and declared an arms embargo against Belgrade. This meant that the KLA had accomplished (using violence) within months what peaceful protest and civil disobedience had been unable to attain in years: the attention of the world.

In September 1998, after offensives by the Yugoslavian army and the Serbian Special Police led to the deaths of around 1,500 Kosovo Albanians and the expulsion of over 300,000 in the previous year, the UN Security Council ordered (in Resolution 1199) that hostilities cease immediately. A NATO ultimatum, however, was necessary before the Serbs withdrew their troops from Kosovo at the end of October and a large number of the expelled Kosovo Albanians returned. At the same time, unarmed observers from the OSZE moved in to the crisis province to monitor the ceasefire. By December the violence had already escalated anew.

NATO aerial attacks, 10,000 dead and mass expulsions

The peace negotiations between the Kosovo Albanians and the Serbs which were convened by the Contact Group and held in Rambouillet in France in March 1999 failed. NATO began a series of aerial bombing attacks (without a UN mandate) on targets in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on the 24th of March 1999 after a last ultimatum given to Milosevic had expired. The military intervention lasted 78 days, in which (according to British sources), some 10,000 Kosovo Albanians were killed by units of the Yugoslavian army, the Serbian Special Police and by paramilitary groups. More than a million Kosovo Albanians fled or were expelled, over 800,000 of them to the neighbouring countries of Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro. Tens of thousands of houses and many mosques were destroyed or damaged. The KLA, however, is also accused of committing serious war crimes.
According to information from international human rights organisations, between 400 and 600 civilians were killed as a direct result of the NATO aerial bombing campaign on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Peacekeeping troops and UN administration

Milosevic finally began the retreat of all his police and army units from Kosovo on the 10th of June 1999. Fearing reprisals, 10,000 Serbs and members of other non-Albanian minorities -particularly Roma- followed.
Many were forcibly expelled. The UN Resolution1244, passed on the 10th of June 1999, authorised the stationing of a NATO-led international peacekeeping force (KFOR), of approximately 50,000 soldiers initially (in 2007 circa 16,000 remained). On the basis of the UN Resolution a UN interim administration (UNMIK) was also established.

Within a few weeks hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians returned to their home. Around 120,000 Serbs remained in Kosovo and were repeatedly subjected to attacks, as were many Roma. Today, apart from the Serb-dominated north, most of the Kosovo Serbs still live in isolated enclaves. Violent anti-Serbian riots took place in March 2004, in which a number of people were killed, around 30 Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries and circa 700 Kosovo Serb and Roma houses were destroyed or damaged.

Negotiations about Kosovo's future status.

The UN Security Council gave the go-ahead for the beginning of negotiations about the future status of Kosovo in October 2005. At the end of February 2006, one month after the death of Kosovo's first president, Ibrahim Rugova, direct negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina began in Vienna. The conflicting parties were unable to resolve the status question before the close of negotiations in March 2007. Now that UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari has presented his plan, the UN Security Council will decide on Kosovo's future status.

European Union as main protagonist in the future

Since September 2006 the German diplomat Joachim Rücker is the head of the UN interim administration UNMIK, which is responsible for administration, public services and the maintenance of law and order. Many competencies have been transferred to the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government, or PISG (eg the Assembly, the Presidency and Ministeries), although the UNMIK still has the last word. Within UNMIK, the EU is responsible for reconstruction and for economic development. According to UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari's plan, in future the EU should replace the UN as the main protagonist of the international community in Kosovo.

« back . 1 . 2

Further articles on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » EU Policy, » History, » Serbia, » South East Europe
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » EU Policy, » History, » Serbia, » South East Europe