Country Report: August 2020

Kosovo, or the Republic of Kosovo, was an autonomous region of the Republic of before self- declaring independence in 2008. Throughout the 1970’s, Kosovar Albanians enjoyed a large degree of autonomy under communist rule in Yugoslavia and were able to pursue leading positions in the economy and administration. By the 1980’s ethnic tensions between Kosovar Albanians and Serbians worsened and Albanians held massive demonstrations to call for independence from Serbia. After the , Kosovo officially declared independence from Serbia. International recognition of Kosovo as a state remains mixed, while Serbia continues to reject any claims of statehood. Ethnic tensions are high between the Albanian majority and Serbian minority in Kosovo.

After President Josip Broz Tito’s death in 1980, Kosovar Albanians began participating in large-scale protests calling for independence from Serbia. In 1981, students from University organized several protests throughout the capital, calling for Kosovo to be granted republic status. The protests turned into riots after the Serbian police and military got involved, resulting in several fatalities. Kosovo’s struggle for independence intensified in 1989 when Slobodan Milosevic became President of Serbia and started cracking down on Kosovo, stripping it of its autonomous status. Thousands of Kosovar Albanians lost their jobs in government, police, media, and educational institutions to Serbians. Hundreds of ethnic Albanians were arrested and beaten for allegedly participating in separatist activities.

In response to Milosevic’s destruction of Kosovo’s autonomy, Kosovar Albanians established a non- violent separatist movement and began boycotting public institutions that were seized by Serbians. Albanians built their own parallel political and social institutions (schools and hospitals), although they were constantly running low on resources. Kosovar Albanian leaders held a referendum calling for independence in 1991 and later established the Republic of Kosova, a self-declared proto-state. Despite their declaration of independence, the state was never endorsed by the international community and was only officially recognized by . The non-violent separatist movement began to lose support after the international community failed to address the status of Kosovo during the Dayton Agreement in 1995.

In 1996, after years of mounting frustration from Kosovar Albanians, the (KLA) came to power. The KLA was an ethnic Albanian paramilitary organization that used armed resistance to gain independence from Serbia. The Kosovo war began in 1998 after fighting between the KLA and Serbian forces intensified. Serbian forces committed numerous massacres against Kosovar Albanians. Serbian forces systematically destroyed Albanian villages and displaced Albanians who were threatened with murder, rape, and torture. Those who were displaced were victim to “identity cleansing” and had their IDs and personal documents confiscated, preventing them from returning. Several Albanian cultural sites such as mosques, libraries, and monuments were destroyed, constituting a war crime.

The KLA were responsible for committing atrocities against the minority of ethnic Serbs that lived in Kosovo. They abducted, murdered, and displaced many Serbs, Roma, and ethnic Albanians thought to have conspired with Serbia. The KLA systematically destroyed homes and churches belonging to non- Albanians.

NATO began a bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999 to force Milosevic to remove Serbian forces from Kosovo. After Serbian forces finally withdrew from Kosovo, the UN placed Kosovo under an interim administration and authorized a peacekeeping force to enter. By the end of the war, over 850,000

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or 90% of Albanians had been displaced, and thousands of Albanians and Serbs were killed. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) charged Slobodan Milosevic and other Serbian officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, though Serbia does not recognize its independence. In order to qualify for EU membership however, both Serbia and Kosovo must resolve their territorial disputes. EU facilitated peace talks between the two countries faltered in 2018 when Kosovo placed a 100% import tax on Serbian imports in retaliation for Serbia’s campaign to hinder Kosovo’s international recognition. Though Kosovo has since lifted the tariff, the peace talks were delayed again in 2020 when the , Hashim Thaci, was indicted on war crimes charges by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in the Hague.

Ethnic tensions remain high between Kosovar Albanians who make up over 93% of the population and Kosovar Serbians who only account for 1.3%. Serbians, who mainly live in the north of the country, do not recognize Kosovo as an independent state. Kosovar Albanians do not want to be under Serbian rule and will never forget the atrocities committed during the Kosovo war. Serbians refuse to recognize Kosovo as independent from Serbia because it is considered the “heartland” of Serbia where countless Serbian Orthodox Churches are located.

• Genocide Watch supports the European Union in facilitating peace talks between Serbia and Kosovo to encourage accession.

As a result of ethnic tensions in Kosovo and the potential risk for further conflicts, Genocide Watch considers Kosovo to be at Stage 5: Polarization.

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