to the Middle Ages, the roots of this ethnic conflict. After escalation of 1989 (the beginning), the military intervention of NATO in 1999 and the collapse of Yugoslavia is still no peace has returned to the land that politically belongs to Serbia and Montenegro, and on which neither Serbs nor Albanians can find a quiet home. causes:
The roots of the Kosovo conflict, ranging well into the Middle Ages: In the famous battle of Kosovo Field (Kosovo Polje) in 1389 had the Slavic people plug in a crushing defeat against the Turks. The result is that the Serbs from the territory that they had heard for centuries sold. Kosovo was now as well as Macedonia and Albania to Osmate area and a multi-ethnic state, this was broken in 1912 when Montenegro, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria declared war against the Turks. The Treaty of London 1913, Kosovo was divided between Serbia and Montenegro. Albania became independent, Macedonia went to Serbia.
After the founding of Yugoslavia in 1918, Kosovo came across to Serbia.
1974 granted Yugoslavia under the communist leader Josip Broz Tito, Kosovo extensive political, economic and cultural autonomy.
In 1989 the Serbs under Milosevic raised the status of Kosovo as an autonomous republic and in 1990 she dissolved the regional parliament. Since then, the Albanians in Kosovo have been put in a situation reminiscent of the disastrous situation in their pre-war Yugoslavia. Until the mid-90s, the Albanians were discriminated against. In 1995, the Albanian majority was suppressed almost completely from public life. Thus, almost all training places and items in hospitals and the state administration were occupied by Serbs.
parties and its aims:
The conflict between the Albanians and the Serbs, who make up respectively 77.4% and 13.2% of the population in Kosovo. That was after the Second World War some 700,000 Albanians and 300,000 Serbs. By March 1998, the number of Albanians to 1.8 million has more than doubled, which bisects the Serbs.
The Kosovo Albanians: Albanians want to detach
with substantial autonomy for Kosovo from Serbia. To this end they created a shadow government with a government formed by the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) with President Ibrahim Rugova at the top. They created their own education, an independent from Serbia and its own economic health.
The Serbs:
The Serbian Government ("the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia") wishes to Kosovo in its territory - keep - with Serbian dominance. She was leaning so far from any autonomy for the Kosovo Albanians.
course of the war:
March 1989: mass demonstrations, the start of the conflict
1991: Albanians set up their own government
1993: Detachment of the Albanians from Kosovo
03/19/1998: violent clashes. Albanians and Serbs
March 1998: NATO gets involved, U.S. government threatens hardest
consequences of
June 1998: attempt to drive out the Serbs, the Albanians;
Germany, America, etc want to intervene
July 1998: renewed heavy fighting between Serb
special forces and Albanian Freischälern
Sept.1998: If the UN Security Council conditions for Serbia:
- not the underground groups fighting
- remove federal troops and state police
- unlimited access to the refugees
Oct. 1998: Slobodan Milosevic wondered if he otherwise meets the conditions
threatened consequences, he agreed
Oct. 1998: troop withdrawal, the arrival of the OSCE group
Oct. 1998: three Serb policemen and 17 other people were killed.
Janu.1999: Serbian units killed 45 Albanian civilians
Janu.1999: new ultimatum was
Febr.1999 asked: peace conference in Rambouillet, near Paris
March 1999: signed peace treaty Albanians, Serbs not
the NATO troops into Kosovo
to 2007: the time is truce between them, that is but
is not all in order and there is no more war
victims in Kosovo:
The English forensic Perez Pujol (ICTY forensic experts in Kosovo) estimates that The number of killed Kosovo Albanians is about 2,500 persons.
The international war crimes tribunal in The Hague talks of a number of up to 10,000 casualties on both sides.
Current State of War:
since NATO marched into Kosovo in March 1999 is still to this day cease-fire.
solutions and Entfeindungsarbeit:
As a "Center for Peace," we want to contribute to the development of civil peace afford. This is inter alia through participation in forumZFD (Forum Civil Peace Service). The forumZFD In spring 2000 a project started in the Balkans, which is funded with federal funds. An extra page Kosov @ informed about this project.
Another article provides information on a "house of deserters" in Budapest. There, seek and find support soldiers who do not want to further guilt on themselves, and therefore fled from the illegal war. (17 9th 1999)
The peace researcher Ekkehart Krippendorf asked why the Red-Green Federal Government abandoned the Council of Peace Research. (14th 5th 1999)
The Forum Civil Peace Service commented upon the Kosovo war: bombs will not bring peace - peace processes already in motion. (April 1999)
An analysis of the Kosovo conflict with proposed solutions by Christine Schweitzer from the Federation of Social Defense (19 1, 1999)
