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Where
is Kosova? |
Kosova [see map] After the revocation of Kosova's
autonomy, the Serbian authorities closed schools
in the Albanian language, massively dismissed
Albanians from state-owned enterprises, and
suspended Kosova's legal parliament and
government. Serbia instituted a regime of
systematic oppression of the Albanian population
in Kosova, and flagrant violations of basic rights
of Albanians occured frequently. Initially the
Albanians responded to the repression with
peaceful and passive resistance. In 1992 the
people of Kosova held free elections in which they
chose their leadership, expressed their
determination for the independence of Kosova in
the 1991 referendum, and in the same year the
Kosovaian parliament declared the independence of
Kosova. They formed a parallel government, found
means of continuing Albanian-language education
outside of occupied premises and providing health
care (most Albanian doctors were dismissed from
state-owned hospitals by Serb installed
authorities).
In early 1998 the Serbian government began a
crackdown against the Kosova Liberation Army (UÇK),
a guerilla movement which emerged after it became
apparent that the peaceful approach was
ineffective in face of the brutal regime of
Milosevic. After 1998 Serbian security forces
conducted a scorched earth policy in Kosova,
raising villages to the ground, creating an exodus
of over one million refugees and internally
displaced persons, and committed horrific
atrocities against unarmed civilians, including
women and children.
The NATO bombing campaign, which began in March
1999 after Serbia's refusal to sign a peace accord
for the settlement of the conflict in Kosova,
lasted until June 1999 when the Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milosevic capitulated and agreed to
withdraw all Serbian security forces from Kosova.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1244
established a United Nations civilian
administration in Kosova (known as the United
Nations Mission in Kosova; UNMIK) and allowed a
NATO-led peacekeeping force to enter Kosova to
ensure security.
The war in Kosova had created over one million
refugees and internally displaced persons, left
over 300,000 people without shelter, an estimated
14,000 dead, and mass graves containing bodies of
up to one hundred civilians, including women and
children, who have been summarily executed.
The people of Kosova, UNMIK, NATO and the
international community are now making efforts to
rebuild Kosova, revitalize its economy, establish
democratic institutions of self-government, and
heal the scars of war. (For more up-to-date
information on the deveopments in Kosova please
check out the Kosova Crisis Center.)
Geographic Features
Kosova borders Serbia in the north and northeast,
Montenegro in the northwest, Albania in the west
and the FYR of Macedonia in the south. It covers a
total of 12,887 squared kilometers and its
population is around 2.2 million, 94 percent of
which are ethnic Albanian oldest nation in Balkan
Peninsula. |
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More about Kosovo, Here! |
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