Co-funded by the Internal Security Fund of the European Union LET4CAP Law Enforcement Training for Capacity Building KOSOVO Downloadable Country Booklet DL. 2.5 (Version 1.1) 1 Dissemination level: PU Let4Cap Grant Contract no.: HOME/ 2015/ISFP/AG/LETX/8753 Start date: 01/11/2016 Duration: 33 months Dissemination Level PU: Public X PP: Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission) RE: Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission) Revision history Rev. Date Author Notes 1.0 18/05/2018 Ce.S.I. Overall structure and first draft 1.1 30/11/2018 Ce.S.I. Final version LET4CAP_WorkpackageNumber 2 Deliverable_2.5 VER WorkpackageNumber 2 Deliverable Deliverable 2.5 Downloadable country booklets VER 1.1 2 KOSOVO Country Information Package 3 This Country Information Package has been prepared by Paolo Crippa Ce.S.I. – Centre for International Studies Within the framework of LET4CAP and with the financial support to the Internal Security Fund of the EU LET4CAP aims to contribute to more consistent and efficient assistance in law enforcement capacity building to third countries. The Project consists in the design and provision of training interventions drawn on the experience of the partners and fine-tuned after a piloting and consolidation phase. © 2018 by LET4CAP…. All rights reserved. 4 Table of contents 1. Country Profile 1.1 Country in Brief 1.2 Modern and Contemporary History of Kosovo 1.3 Geography 1.4 Territorial and Administrative Units 1.5 Population 1.6 Ethnic Groups, Languages, Religion 1.7 Health 1.8 Education and Literacy 1.9 Country Economy 2. Political and Security Context 2.1 The Constitution of Kosovo 2.2 Elections 2.3 Political Parties 2.4 Key Political Leaders 2.5 Media Landscape and Civil Society 2.6 Security Sector 3. Law Enforcement Structures and Actors 3.1 The Police 3.2 Other Security Forces 3.3 The Judiciary 4. Migrations and Human Rights issues 4.1 Internal and International Migration 4.2 Human Rights Situation 5. The UN and Kosovo 6. The EU - Kosovo Relations 6.1 A priority partner 6.2 The European commitment to the reconstruction of Kosovo 6.3 EULEX (European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo) 7. Other regional organisations and Kosovo 7.1 NATO’s role in KOSOVO (KFOR) 7.2 OSCE missions in Kosovo 8. Other Practical Info 8.1 Local Customs Cultural Awareness 8.2 Medical Travel Recommendations for Kosovo 8.3 Other Travel Info 8.4 Radio Transmissions 9. Useful contacts Sources Bibliography Annex – UN Security Council Resolution 1244 5 1. Country Profile 6 1.1 Country in Brief Source: Wikimedia Commons Formal Name: Republic of Kosovo Term for Citizens: Kosovars, (Kosovans) Previous formal names: Autonomous Province of Kosovo Area (sq km): 10,887 km2 and Metohija, Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo Capital City: Pristina Population: 1,895,250 Independence: 2008, from Serbia (disputed) 7 1.2 Modern and Contemporary History of Kosovo Early History In the late 14th and 15th centuries, the Ottoman Empire, The area belonging to the current Republic of Kosovo in ancient exploiting the military weakness of the Greeks and the Serbs, times was characterized by a very low level of urbanization and began to expand until it reached the territories of Kosovo. Some was inhabited mostly by warlike tribes. In the IV century B.C. it parts of Kosovo, then fragmented into some tiny feuds, became was conquered by Alexander the Great and in 160 B.C. part of the League of Lezhë, a federation deployed against the occupied by the Romans, thus incorporated into the Roman Ottoman empire, that gathered all the Albanian principalities. province of Illyricum. Around the year 100 AD the area, which The first great clash between Slavic-Christians and the Ottoman had in the meantime been largely urbanized and Romanized, Empire was the so-called Battle of Kosovo, which took place in was incorporated by the Byzantine Empire and included in the the present-days city of Kosovo Polje, on June 15 1389. In this province of Dardania. After the disintegration of the Byzantine occasion the Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic gathered a Empire, the region was subject to the incursions of the Slavic coalition of Christian soldiers, composed by Serbs, Bosnians, populations who migrated to Europe, who mingled with the Magyars and a handful of Saxon mercenaries, united against the local populations throughout all the Middle Ages. Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Murad I. During the battle, which With regard to the Early Middle Ages, there is little news and so saw the defeat of the Serbian kingdoms, both Lazar and Murad I much confusion. In the year 850 AD, the Kosovo area was lost their lives. Consequently, almost all the Serbian included into the Bulgarian empire, which began the process of principalities agreed to become vassals of the Ottoman Sultan. Christianization and consolidation of the Slavic-Byzantine Throughout the early part of the 1400s, the whole area remained cultural identity. From the year 900 to the end of the XII century, under Ottoman control. Kosovo was continuously contended between Serb-Bulgarians In 1445, the Albanian leader George Castriot Scanderbeg fought on one side and the Byzantine Empire on the other. Towards the the Sultan Murad II in the battle of Prizren and succeeded in end of the 12th century, the Serbs, a population gathered around freeing the Albanian and Kosovar territories from the Ottoman Prince Stefan Nemanja, took control of the region. At the time Empire. In light of the heavy defeat inflicted to the Ottoman of the conquest of Serbia by the Byzantine Empire (occurred in Empire, Murad II negotiated a peace with the Serbian kingdoms 1018 AD) the region was already inhabited by ethnic groups to and returned the territories to the Brankoviç family. Kosovo, which the historians referred as "Serbs" and "Albanians", subsequently, along with Albania, maintained its independence divided into very small potentates (Župan). After the fall, these until the death of Scanderbeg, in 1468. Later the region was groups were forced to Christianization and became tributaries of conquered again by the Turks. While the former territories taken the Eastern Roman Empire, even if they never stopped rising by Scanderbeg (more or less correspondents to the modern against the empire. The successor of Nemanja, Stefan Albania and Kosovo) were fighting with Hungarians and Poles Prvovenčani, in 1216 conquered the rest of Kosovo. The region against the Sultan, Branković's Serbia, by virtue of its previous was then merged with other lands belonging to the area of peace arrangements with the Sultan, remained alongside the present-day Serbia and Montenegro, in order to create an actual Ottomans. kingdom. The ethnic composition of this state during the Middle As a result of a series of further defeats inflicted to the Christian Ages is subject to controversy. In fact, it is uncertain if the kingdoms, the Sultanate extended its effective rule over most of majority of the population were Serbians or Albanians. More the Balkans. For five hundred years much of the region has been likely, the Albanian component was dominant, even though ruled by the Ottoman Turks, taking the name of Rumelia. there were not yet profound ethno-cultural differences. During this period the area was divided into administrative During the XIII and XIV centuries, Kosovo became the political districts called Sandžak. Although the Turks allowed freedom and religious center of the Serbian Kingdom. In the same period of religion and Christians continued to live and prosper, more hundreds of churches and monasteries were built, while the and more people began to convert to Islam in order to avoid sovereigns of the Nemanjic dynasty moved their residence being subject to the heavy taxation addressed to non-Muslims. continuously between Pristina, Prizren and Skopje. Throughout This triggered the process of Islamization of the Albanians. the Middle Ages, the city of Pristina, the current capital of the Toward the XVII century there was a sharp increase in the Republic of Kosovo after the 2008 declaration of independence, Muslim Albanian population in the western plain of Metohija, was a commercial center of primary importance, being a hub for Kosovo. This was the consequence of a series of migrations trade flows directed to the Adriatic Sea. During the Middle coming from the South-West territories (modern Albania). Ages, some Saxon communities also settled in Kosovo, coming to explore the region in search of mineral resources. Kosovo in modern history In 1346 the power of the Serbs reached its maximum expansion In 1689, Kosovo was seriously involved in the Great Turkish and the Serbian Empire was founded. Stefan Dušan was thus War (1683-1699). In autumn 1689, in fact, a group of Austrian crowned Tsar of the Serbs, Vlachi, Greeks and Albanians. soldiers, led by Ludwig I of Baden, successfully managed to However, following his death in 1355, roughly around 1371, the penetrate the Turkish lines and reach the Kosovo plains, having Serbian empire fell and fragmented into a series of small feudal previously freed the city of Belgrade. Many Serbs thus joined principalities. Specifically, Kosovo became a hereditary land for the Austrian army, led by the Albanian Catholic bishop Pjetër the Mrnjavčević and Branković families. Bogdani. On the contrary, many Albanians fought alongside the 8 Ottoman Empire against the advance of the Austrians. revenging themselves with atrocities on the Albanian population Following a series of defeats, the Austrians withdrew over the that had opposed them. After the defeat of the central empires, in Danube to Austria, completely leaving the Balkan territories. 1918, Serbia and Montenegro merged to give life to the new The Ottoman offensive in the area, which led to reprisals and Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which later became raids, caused a large migration of hundreds of thousands of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.