Kosovo
Kosovo (autonomous province of Kosovo and
Metohija) is a region in the western
Balkan Peninsula with an
Albanian majority population (estimated at 82% prior to the
international conflict of 1999, but now somewhat larger owing to the
ethnic cleansing of Serbs c.f.Kosovo
population data-points). “Kosovo” means “Blackbird's field” in
Serbian.
Its international status is anomalous in that although it is
formally a province of the Republic of
Serbia, actual administration is presently conducted by the
United Nations with no involvement on the part of the Serbian
governments. A
parliament was elected in November
2001 and
Ibrahim Rugova[?] was selected as president in March
2002, however the UN retained control of security, justice and
external affairs.
With an area of
10,887
km2 and a population of around 2 million on the eve
of the 1999 crisis, Kosovo borders with
Montenegro to the northwest, rest of
Serbia to the north and east, the
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the south and
Albania to the southwest. The largest cities are
Priština, the capital, with 190,000 inhabitants, and
Prizren[?] in the southwest with 120,000: five other towns have
populations in excess of 50,000.
Kosovo's anomalous status is the result of the
Kosovo War of March-June
1999, in the course of which air strikes against the
Federal republic of Yugoslavia's armed forces, by members of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization forced the withdrawal of
military and the province's occupation by a NATO-led international
force (KFOR) including also
Russian troops.
Entered by Serbs migrating from the north-east around the early
7th century AD, Kosovo was a centre of the medieval Serbian kingdom
until its conquest by the
Ottoman Turks in the late 14th century. The existing Albanian
population was greatly added to by migrants from the west (modern
Albania) during the centuries of Ottoman rule, when Islam also
became the faith of most of the Albanian people.
Kosovo became a part of the revived kingdom of Serbia during the
First Balkan War of 1912-1913, at which time Albanians numbered
some 60-65% and Serbs 25-30% of the area's 400-500,000 inhabitants
(or vice versa, c.f.
Kosovo population data-points).
Yugoslavian
communist government created Kosovo as an autonomous region of
Serbia in 1946 and an autonomous province in 1963. Kosovo enjoyed
almost complete self-government under predominantly Albanian local
communist party leaders from 1974 until 1989, when its autonomy was
revoked by a more
nationalistic Serbian government following widespread
allegations of discrimination against Serbs.
Albanian opposition to Serbian sovereignty, which had surfaced in
rioting (March 1981) in the capital
Priština, subsequently took the form of separatist agitation by
opposition political groups and armed action from 1996 by the "Kosovo
Liberation Army" (Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves, or UCK).
Terrorist attacks and Serbian military action reduced the province
by 1998 to a state of internal war, occasioning western intervention
amid widespread allegations of Serbian reprisals against Albanian
civilians.
Both
NATO and the
UN continue to recognise Kosovo as a part of Serbia, but with
the departure since 1999 of much of the Serb population and the
reluctance of local Albanians to see Serbian sovereignty restored in
practice, it is difficult to imagine how the removal of de facto
Serbian authority in the province can be reconciled with assurances
of Serbia's continued territorial integrity given by the NATO powers
and reaffirmed (June 1999) in UN Security Council resolution 1244.
At the same time, it is also difficult to see how
Serbia would consent to recognizing independence of Kosovo, and
without Serbia's approval, recognition of Kosovo independence would
be extremely problematic under
international law as it would be a violation of the principles
of
territorial integrity and
non-interference in internal affairs[?]. The most likely outcome
is the indefinite continuation of the current situation.
