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Kosovo

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008

Kosovo or Kosovo-Metohija , Albanian Kosova, Serbo-Croatian Kosovo i Metohija and Kosmet, province (2002 est. pop. 1,900,000), 4,126 sq mi (10,686 sq km), S Serbia. Priština is the chief city. The largely mountainous region includes the fertile valleys of Kosovo and Metohija and is drained by tributaries of the Morava (Velika Morava) and Drin rivers. Agriculture, stock raising, forestry, and mining are the major occupations. Kosovo's population before 1999 was about 80% Albanian; ethnic Albanians now make up about 88% of the inhabitants.

Settled by the Slavs in the 7th cent., the region passed to Bulgaria in the 9th cent. and to Serbia in the 12th cent. From 1389 to 1913, it was under Turkish rule. Partitioned in 1913 between Serbia and Montenegro, it was incorporated into Yugoslavia after World War I. Following World War II, Kosovo became an autonomous region within Serbia. In 1990, demands for greater autonomy were rebuffed by Serbia, which rescinded its autonomous status. Albanians were repressed and Serbian migration into the region encouraged; in response Albanians pressed for Kosovo's complete independence.

Harsh Serbian repression and a breakdown in negotiations to settle the issue provoked NATO into attacking Serbia by air in Mar., 1999. Serbia responded by forcing hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians to flee Kosovo, creating an enormous refugee problem; perhaps 1.5 million Albanian Kosovars were expelled from their homes or fled. An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 Kosovars were killed by Serbian forces. An agreement resulted in the end of the bombing campaign and withdrawal of Serbian forces from Kosovo in June, and NATO peacekeepers entered the province. Many Serbs fled; those that remain are largely in areas bordering Serbia proper.

In municipal elections in 2000, Ibrahim Rugova's moderate independence party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), won 60% of the vote; Serbs boycotted the polls. The 2001 elections for the provincial assembly, in which Rugova's party won 46% of the vote, saw greater Serbian participation. Differences between Albanian parties delayed the formation of a government until Mar., 2002, when a power-sharing agreement led to the election of Rugova as president. Real power, however, resides with the UN adminstration that was imposed after NATO forces entered Kosovo.

The process of rebuilding has been slow and marred by retaliatory Albanian attacks on Serbs and other non-Albanians. In Mar., 2004, there was a major outbreak of anti-Serb rioting that many observers believe was orchestrated to drive Serbs from areas of mixed population. Assembly elections in Oct., 2004, resulted in a plurality for Rugova's party, which formed a coalition government with Rugova as president. Kosovo's Serbs largely boycotted the vote.

Rugova survived an assassination attempt in Mar., 2005. Rugova died in Jan., 2006; the following month, Fatmir Sejdiu, a law professor and assembly deputy, was elected to succeed Rugova as president. In 2006 Serbia and Kosovo began discussing the provinces final status, but any quick resolution seemed unlikely. The vast majority of the Albanians favor independence, a solution that continues to be rejected by Serbia, which adopted a new constitution in Nov., 2006, that calls Kosovo an inalienable part of Serbia.

In Mar., 2007, after months of talks that failed to yield a compromise, UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari presented a proposal for Kosovo's eventual independence to the UN Security Council. Serbia strongly opposed the plan. Russia, a historical Serbian ally, called for an agreemeent acceptable to both sides, making it likely that a final plan would not be quickly adopted. Remarks by U.S. President Bush, during a 2007 visit to Albania, that Kosovo would eventually be independent provoked outrage from Serbia's government. In the Nov., 2007, elections, the Democratic party (PDK) won a plurality; a coalition government was formed with the LDK. Sejdiu remained president.

At Kosovo Field, Serbo-Croatian Kosovo Polje [field of the black birds], the Turks under Sultan Murad I defeated Serbia and its Bosnian, Montenegrin, Bulgarian, and other allies in 1389. Before the battle Milosh Obilich, a Serb, posing as a deserter, was taken into the tent of Murad, whom he stabbed to death; he was immediately slain, as was Prince Lazar of Serbia after being captured. The battle of Kosovo Field broke the power of Serbia and Bulgaria, which soon passed under Ottoman rule. The battle figures prominently in Serbian poetry. In another battle on the site in 1448, Sultan Murad II defeated an army led by John Hunyadi . The harsh repression of Albanian separatist movements by the Serb government was due in part to the historical significance placed on Kosovo Field by Serb nationalists.

Bibliography: See S. K. Pavlowitch, The Albanian Problem in Yugoslavia (1982); N. Malcolm, Kosovo: A Short History (1998); M. Vickers, Between Serb and Albanian (1998); T. Judah, Kosovo: War and Revenge (2000).



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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press