History
Following their defeat in 1389 by the Turks, the Serbs abandoned the region to the Albanians, descendants of the Illyrians who were the original inhabitants. Serbia regained control after the Turks departed in 1913 and in the ensuing years 500, 000 Albanians emigrated, and Serbs were brought in to settle the vacated land. During WWII the territory was incorporated into Italian-controlled Albania and then liberated in October 1944 by Albanian partisans.
Three postwar decades of pernicious neglect followed until an autonomous province was created in 1974 and economic aid increased. Little changed and the standard of living in Kosovo stagnated at a quarter of the Yugoslav average. There was agitation for full republic status and in 1981 demonstrations were violently put down by the Serbian military. 300 people died and 700 were imprisoned.
Trouble reignited in November 1988 with demonstrations against the sacking of local officials and President Azem Vllasi. Further unrest and strikes in February 1989 produced a Serbian-declared state of emergency; in serious rioting, 24 Albanian Kosovars were shot dead. In July 1990 Kosovo's autonomy was cancelled, broadcasts in Albanian ceased, the only Albanian-language newspaper was banned, and 115, 000 Albanians had their jobs taken by loyalist Serbs. A referendum held against Serbian opposition produced a 90% turnout with 98% voting for independence.
Frustrated attempts to negotiate autonomy encouraged the formation of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1996, and using guerrilla tactics they began to harass the Serbs.
In March 1999 a US-backed plan to return Kosovo's autonomy was rejected by Serbia. Stepping up attacks on the KLA, Serbia moved to empty the province of its non-Serbian population. Nearly 850, 000 Kosovo Albanians fled to Albania and Macedonia; Serbia ignored demands to desist and NATO unleashed a bombing campaign on 24 March 1999. On 2 June Milošević acquiesced to a UN settlement, Serbian forces withdrew and the Kosovo Force (KFOR) took over. Since June 1999 Kosovo has been administered as a UN-NATO protectorate.
Kosovo slipped from the world's eye until March 2004, when two Albanian children, allegedly chased by Serbs, drowned in a river. Investigations disproved this allegation but at the time it sparked off a simmering discontent, mostly among youths. Nineteen Serbs were killed, 600 homes burnt and 29 Orthodox monasteries and churches, many medieval, were destroyed. KFOR, which could have controlled much of the outrage, was disastrously slow to act.
Independence negotiations commenced in February 2006. The Kosovo Albanians demand independence, whereas the Serbian stance hovers between rejection and accepting some form of Kosovar-Serb autonomy in an independent Kosovo.
