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Kosovo
| Kosovo National name:
Republic of Kosovo President: Fatmir
Sejdiu (2006) Prime minister: Hashim
Thaçi (2007) Total area: 4,211 sq mi
(10,908 sq km) Population (2007 est.):
2,126,708;
Capital and largest city (2007 est.):
Pristina, 400,000 (2007 est.) Other large cities: Prizren, 110,000;
Peja, 70,000; Mitrovica, 70,000 Monetary
unit: euro (EUR); Serbian Dinar (RSD) is also in circulation
Languages:
Albanian, Serbian, Bosniak, Turkish
Ethnicity/race:
Albanians 88%, Serbs 7%, other 5%
Religion:
Muslim, Serbian Orthodox, Roman Catholic Economic summary: GDP/PPP $4 billion
(2007 est.); per capita: $1,800 (2007 est.). Real growth rate:
2.6% (2007). Inflation: 2% (2007 est.). Unemployment:
43% (2007 est.). Labor force: 832,000 (June 2007 est.),
agriculture 21.4%. Natural resources: nickel, lead, zinc,
magnesium, lignite, kaolin, chrome, bauxite. Exports: $148.4
million (2007): scrap metals, mining and processed metal products,
plastics, wood. Imports: $84.99 million (2006): petroleum,
foodstuffs, machinery and electrical equipment. Major trading
partners: Central Europe Free Trade Area (2006). International disputes: Serbia with several
other states protest the US and other states' recognition of Kosovo's
declaring itself as a sovereign and independent state in February
2008; ethnic Serbian municipalities along Kosovo's northern border
challenge final status of Kosovo-Serbia boundary; several thousand
NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers under UNMIK authority continue to keep the
peace within Kosovo between the ethnic Albanian majority and the Serb
minority in Kosovo; Kosovo authorities object to alignment of the
Kosovo boundary with Macedonia in accordance with the 2000
Macedonia-Serbia and Montenegro delimitation agreement.
Major sources and definitions |
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Geography
Kosovo is land-locked and mostly mountainous. It borders Serbia to the
north and east, Montenegro to the northwest, Albania to the west, and
Macedonia to the south. Kosovo is roughly the size of Connecticut.
Government
Republic. Kosovo, a former territory of Serbia, declared independence
in February 2008.
History
The first inhabitants on the Balkan Peninsula were the ancient people
known as the Illyrians. The Slavs followed in the 6th and 7th centuries.
Albanian speakers began moving into Kosovo from the Adriatic in the 8th
century. Kosovo was ruled by Bulgaria from the 9th century until Serbs
gained control of Kosovo in the 12th century. Kosovo was the site of the
Serbs' defeat by the Ottoman Turks in 1389. Kosovo was then absorbed by
the Ottoman Empire. The battle at Kosovo Field figures prominently in
Serbian poetry and has great national significance as the cradle of
Serbian civilization.
The Ottoman Empire ruled Kosovo for centuries, until 1913, when Serbia
resumed control over the region. Under Ottoman rule, the region grew
increasingly more populated by Albanian speakers as a large number of
Christian Serbs emigrated. (Albanians are largely Muslim.) In 1918, Kosovo
became part of the Yugoslav Federation.
Kosovo’s Albanians opposed Serbia’s attempts to relocate
Serbs into Kosovo in the 1920s and ‘30s. During World War II,
Kosovo’s Albanians attempted to unite with Albania, but the Yugoslav
government thwarted the rebellion. After the war, Kosovo became an
autonomous region within Serbia under Josip Broz Tito. In the post-war
years, Albanians cultivated their national identity and assumed a more
active role in government, with tacit approval from the capital, Belgrade.
Albanization of the province coincided with the migration of Serbs. The
1974 Yugoslav Constitution granted Kosovo status nearly equivalent to a
republic. By 1981, Albanians accounted for 75% of the population of
Kosovo, and 90% by 1991.
Serbia’s new constitution adopted in 1989 significantly limited
Kosovo's autonomy. In 1991, Kosovo’s Albanian leaders attempted to
break free from Serbia using non-violent resistance. The government of
Serb president Slobodan Milosevic cracked down on the Albanians’
efforts to gain independence. In 1995, Kosovo's ethnic Albanians,
frustrated by the lack of progress toward independence under Ibrahim
Rugova, formed the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army and started an armed
insurgency.
In Feb. 1998 the Yugoslav army and Serbian police began fighting
against the Kosovo Liberation Army, but their scorched-earth tactics were
concentrated on ethnic Albanian civilians. More than 900 Kosovars were
killed in the fighting, and the hundreds of thousands forced to flee their
homes were without adequate food and shelter. Although Serbs made up only
10% of Kosovo's population, the region figures strongly in Serbian
nationalist mythology.
NATO was reluctant to intervene because Kosovo—unlike Bosnia in
1992—was legally a province of Yugoslavia. The proof of civilian
massacres finally gave NATO the impetus to intervene for the first time
ever in the dealings of a sovereign nation with its own people. NATO's
reason for involvement in Kosovo changed from avoiding a wider Balkan war
to preventing a human rights calamity. On March 24, 1999, NATO began
launching air strikes. Weeks of daily bombings destroyed significant
Serbian military targets, yet Serb president Slobodan Milosevic showed no
signs of relenting. In fact, Serbian militia stepped up civilian massacres
and deportations in Kosovo, and by the end of the conflict, the UN high
commissioner for refugees estimated that at least 850,000 people had fled
Kosovo. Serbia finally agreed to sign the UN-approved peace agreement with
NATO on June 3, ending the 11-week war. NATO peacekeeping forces were
deployed to Kosovo, and the UN assumed administration of the province.
On March 17, 2004, Mitrovica, a city in northern Kosovo, experienced
the worst ethnic violence in the region since the 1999 war. At least 19
people were killed, another 500 were injured, and about 4,000 Serbs lost
their homes. NATO sent in an extra 1,000 troops to restore order.
Negotiations between the European Union, Russia, and the United States
on the future of Kosovo ended in stalemate in November 2007. On Feb. 17,
2008, Kosovar prime minister Hashim Thaçi declared independence
from Serbia, which, as predicted, denounced the move. Serbian prime
minister Vojislav Kostunica said he would never recognize the "false
state." International reaction was mixed, with the United States, France,
Germany, and Britain indicating that they planned to recognize Kosovo as
the world's 195th country. Serbia and Russia, however, called the move a
violation of international law.
On March 18, 2008, one United Nation's officer was killed and dozens more wounded when violence broke out in the northern Kosovo city of Mitrovica as Serbs tried to overtake a United Nation's courthouse.
On April 3, 2008, at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Ramush Haradinaj and Idriz Balaj, former commanders of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, were acquitted of murder, persecution, rape, and torture charges. Former rebel commander, Lahi Brahimaj was found guilty for torture and cruel treatment of prisoners and sentenced to six years in prison. In the court summary, judges said the case was vague due to intimidation and fear among witnesses. Three of the case witnesses were killed before they could testify.
In April 2008, parliament ratified the constitution to protect the rights of Kosovo's minorities, including Serbs. The new document—intended to create a safer environment for all citizens in Kosovo—was adopted on June 15, 2008.
See also Serbia.
Kosovo Factsheet
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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