Kosovo

Kosovo

Kosovo is a region in the south of Serbia. The area has been under United Nations administration since 1999 because of conflict stemming from the desire for independence. Kosovo's population is mostly ethnic-Albanian, a stark contrast to the rest of the population of Serbia.

Kosovo was once an almost totally Serbian land. Under the long Ottoman rule, the land became more and more inhabited by Albanian migrants. The Turkish dominators favored the arrival of Albanians which ended up turning a Christian region into a Muslim-majority one. By the early 20th century, the Serbs were still in the majority, but because of demographic changes such as a high Albanian birth rate and Serb migration, they became the minority. Enver Hoxha, the Stalinist dictator of Albania from 1944 to his death in 1985, took advantage of this and created the precursor to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1979.

Like Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia, the Albanians in Kosovo tried to break off from the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Serbian resistance to the KLA led to the Kosovo War, with both the United Nations and NATO intervening to stop violence.

On 17 February 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.

Further reading

• Clinton Wag the Dog -- No Kosovo Genocide, German Foreign Office Report, January 6, 1999.
• Bosnia II: The Clinton Administration Sets Course for NATO Intervention in Kosovo, United States Senate, 1998-09-12