Kosovo and Metohia

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Kosovo and Metohia (Serbian: Косово и Метохија; Albanian: Kosova), oftenly called just Kosovo, is a province of Serbia, which together with Montenegro constitute Serbia and Montenegro. The name "Kosovo" is from "Kosovo Polje" which means "Blackbird's field" in Serbian language. "Metohia" is a Greek word which denotes church-owned land.

Table of contents

1 History
2 Politics and international status
3 Administrative subdivisions
4 Geography
5 Economy
6 Demographics
7 Culture
8 Miscellaneous topics
9 See also
10 External links

History

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 is mostly formed by migrants from the south-west (modern Albania) during the centuries of Ottoman rule (particularly during and after the 17th century), when Islam also became the faith of most of the Albanian people.

From the 1870s onwards Albanians formed the League of Prizren to resist Ottoman rule, and a provisional government was formed in 1881. In 1912 Kosovo was briefly included in the newly independent state of Albania. But the following year the Great Powers (Britain, America, France etc) forced Albania to cede the region to Serbia as at that time about 60% of the population was Serb (see Kosovo population data-points). In 1918, Kosovo became a part of the newly formed Yugoslavia.

Between 1941 and 1945, Kosovo was included under the Italian-occupied Greater Albania. Following the end of the war and the establishment of Tito's Communist regime, Kosovo was given the status of an autonomous region of Serbia in 1946 and an autonomous province in 1963.

In 1974, new constitution of Yugoslavia was passed, under which Kosovo enjoyed almost complete self-government under predominantly Albanian local communist party leaders. For example, schools had the same curriculum and textbooks as in Albania under Enver Hoxha, even after they were dropped from Albania's school system.

Serbs living in Kosovo were widespreadly discriminated by Albanians. In August 1987, during the dying days of Yugoslavia's communist regime. Kosovo was visited by Slobodan Milosevic, then a rising politician. He appealed to Serb nationalism to further his career. Having drawn huge crowds, he pledged to Kosovo Serbs that "No one should dare to beat you", and became an instant hero of Kosovo's Serbs. By the end of the year Milosovic was in control of the Serbian government.

In 1989, following discrimination against Serbs, the autonomy was revoked by a Serbia wide referendum which implemented a new Serbian constitution which was more democratic as it allowed multi-party system, introduced factual freedom of speech and respect of human rights.

It also drastically took away the provinces' rights, which was felt to be a democratic step by Serbs. However, Kosovo Albanians have strongly opposed that. Albanians refused to participate in the referendum. Because it was a republic wide referendum and they are a minority in Serbia as a whole, their participation would not have changed the outcome of the referendum.

After constitutional changes, parliaments of all Yugoslavian republics and provinces, which until then had MPs only from the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, were dissolved and multi-party elections were held for them. Kosovo Albanians refused to participate in the elections and held their own, unsanctioned elections instead. As election laws required (and still require) turnout higher then 50%, parliament of Kosovo could not be established.

New constitution took away the right of having official media from provinces and official media were integrated within official media of Serbia while still having program in Albanian language. Albanian language media in Kosovo was surpressed. Funding was withdrawn from state-owned media, including those in Kosovo. As the constitution made creating privately-owned media possible, privately-owned Albanian media appeared; of these, probably the most famous is "Koha ditore", which operated until late 1998 when it was closed following publishing 1999 calendar with KLA iconography and glorification.

The constitution also gave control over state-owned companies (at the time, most of the companies were state-owned and de jure they still are) to Serbian government, so new non-communist government fired old communist (mostly Albanian) directors and some of those who stayed have quit, refusing to work for Serbian government. Up to 125,000 Albanian employees were sacked from state industries in September 1990, provoking a general strike and mass unrest.

The Albanian curriculum and textbooks were revoked, and new made. The curriculum was (and still is, as that is the curriculum used for Albanians in Serbia outside Kosovo) basically the same as Serbian and that of all other nationalities in Serbia except that it had education on and in Albanian language. New textbooks were (still are) basically the same as those in Serbian, except that they were in Albanian language. Education on Albanian language was reportedly withdrawn in 1992 and re-established in 1994; also, education of Albanian language was cut at the Pristina University. It is reported that Albanian teachers were also sacked. Albanians responded by boycotting state schools and attempts to maintain a parallel system of education.

Following outbreaks of inter-communal violence, in February 1990, a state of emergency was declared, and presence of the Yugoslav Army and police was increased.

Kosovo Albanians were outraged by these developments. Unsanctioned elections held in 1992, overwhelmingly elected Ibrahim Rugova as "president", however these elections were not recognised neither by Serbian nor any foreign government. In 1995, thousands of Serb refugees from Croatia settled in Kosovo, which further worsened relations between the two communities.

Albanian opposition to sovereignty of Yugoslavia and especially Serbia, which had surfaced in rioting (1968 and 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 �lirimtare e Kosov�s, or U�K). The Serbian police and U�K actions by 1998 created a state of low intensity warfare with some 2000 dying prior to Kosovo War of 1999.

The KLA repeatedly attacked Serbian police. In March 1998 Yugoslav army units joined Serbian police to fight the KLA separatists. In the months that followed, hundreds of people were killed and more than 200,000 have fled from their homes, most of these people were Albanians. Some media have reported that many Albanian families told of being forced to flee their homes at gunpoint.

The United Nations estimated that during the Kosovo War, nearly 640,000 Albanians fled Kosovo between March 1998 and the end of April 1999. Most of the refugees went to Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or Montenegro. Most western media have reported that at some border crossings, some identification papers of some Albanian families were destroyed by Serbian officials.

Slobodan Milosevic and other senior Serb officials were indicted by the United Nations for war crimes committed by Serb forces in Kosovo. There were no indictments of NATO and KLA officials.

Politics and international status

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 (under Security Council resolution 1244 of 10 June 1999; see Security Council Resolutions 1999). 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.

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 and civilian infrastructure by members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, without endorsement by the United Nations, forced the signing of the Kumanovo agreement which provided for the withdrawal of military and the province's occupation by a NATO-led international force (KFOR) including also Russian troops (no longer serving as of July 2003).

Since 1998, Yugoslav forces were heavily fighting with the KLA, during which, according to NATO intentionally, a number of Albanian civilians was killed, wounded or temporarily driven out of province, and NATO claims that it began air strikes in order to stop that.

Both NATO and the UN continue formally to recognise Kosovo as a part of Serbia although Serbia is not allowed to exercise any sovereignty over it, as since 1999 much of the Serb population have departed and local Albanians are reluctant to see Serbian sovereignty in Kosovo restored in practice. On the other side, Serbia would hardly recognize Kosovo's independence, and recognizing the independence of Kosovo without Serbia's consent would violate international law (the principles of territorial integrity and noninterference in internal affairs). The most likely outcome is the indefinite continuation of the current situation.

Administrative subdivisions

Geography

Larger version

With an area of 10,887 km² and a population of almost 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.

Economy

UNMIK declared the Euro as the official currency in Kosovo, however the Serbian dinar remains an official currency in Kosovo. The Dinar is widespread in Kosovo because most trade is done with the rest of Serbia and the Kosovo Serb enclaves also use it widely. Other international currencies (Dollar, Swiss Franc) are also widespread.

Demographics

The population is currently comprised of a majority of Albanians (estimated at 80% prior to the international conflict of 1999, but now somewhat larger owing to the flight of many Serbs and other non-Albanians; see Kosovo population data-points).

Culture

Miscellaneous topics

External links