In February 1998, Albanian separatists living in Kosovo and Metohija launched armed demonstrations aimed at separating these territories from Yugoslavia. The conflict that arose in connection with this, called the "Kosovo War", lasted ten years and ended with the official declaration of independence of these lands and the creation of an independent republic.
Historical roots of the problem
This conflict, as has often happened throughout the history of mankind, began on religious grounds. The composition of the population of Kosovo and Metohija even before the Second World War was mixed, consisting of Muslim Albanians and Christian Serbs. Despite the long cohabitation, the relationship between them was extremely hostile.
According to historical materials, even during the Middle Ages, the core of the Serbian state was formed on the territory of modern Kosovo and Metohija. Starting from the middle of the 14th century and over the next four centuries, there, not far from the city of Pec, was the residence of the Serbian patriarch, which gave the region the importance of the center of the spiritual life of the people. Based on this, in the conflict that caused the start of the Kosovo war,the Serbs invoked their historical rights, while their Albanian opponents referred only to ethnic ones.
Infringement of the rights of Christians of the region
At the end of the Second World War, these territories were forcibly annexed to Yugoslavia, although most of the inhabitants were extremely negative about this. They were not satisfied even with the formally granted status of autonomy, and after the death of the head of state I. B. Tito, they demanded independence. However, the authorities not only did not satisfy their demands, but also deprived them of autonomy. As a result, Kosovo in 1998 soon turned into a seething cauldron.
The current situation had an extremely negative impact on the economy of Yugoslavia and on its political and ideological state. In addition, the Kosovo Serbs, Christians, who found themselves in a minority among the Muslims of the region and were subjected to severe oppression from their side, significantly escalated the situation. To force the authorities to respond to their petitions, the Serbs were forced to make several protest marches on Belgrade.
Criminal inaction of the authorities
Soon, the government of Yugoslavia formed a working group to solve the problem and sent it to Kosovo. After a detailed acquaintance with the current situation, all the claims of the Serbs were found to be justified, but no decisive measures were taken. After some time, the newly elected head of the Yugoslav communists S. Milosevic arrived there, however, his visit only contributed to the aggravation of the conflict, as it became the cause of bloody clashes between Serbiandemonstrators with the police, wholly manned by Albanians.
Creation of the Kosovo Army
The next stage of the conflict was the creation by supporters of the separation of Kosovo and Metohija of the Democratic League party, which led anti-government protests and the formation of its own government, which called on the population to refuse to submit to the central government. The response to this was mass arrests of activists. However, large-scale punitive measures only aggravated the situation. With the help of Albania, the Kosovo separatists created armed formations called the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). This started the infamous Kosovo War, which lasted until 2008.
There is some conflicting information about exactly when the Albanian separatists created their armed forces. Some researchers tend to consider the 1994 unification of several previously operating armed groups as the moment of their birth, but the Hague Tribunal considered the beginning of the army's activity in 1990, when the first armed attacks on police stations were recorded. However, a number of authoritative sources attribute this event to 1992 and connect it with the separatists' decision to create underground militant groups.
There are numerous testimonies of participants in the events of those years that until 1998 the training of militants was carried out in compliance with the requirements of secrecy in numerous sports clubs in Kosovo. When did the Yugoslav war become apparentreality, the classes were continued on the territory of Albania and were openly conducted by instructors from the American and British intelligence services.
Start of bloodshed
Active hostilities began on February 28, 1998, after the KLA officially announced the beginning of the war for the independence of Kosovo. Following this, the separatists carried out a series of attacks on police stations. In response, Yugoslav troops attacked several settlements in Kosovo and Metohija. Eighty people became victims of their actions, most of them women and children. This act of violence against civilians caused a wide resonance around the world.
Escalation of war
In the following months, the war in Kosovo flared up with renewed vigor, and by the fall of that year, more than a thousand civilians had become its victims. A mass outflow of the population of all religions and nationalities began from the war-torn territory. In relation to those who, for one reason or another, could not or did not want to leave their homeland, the Yugoslav military committed numerous crimes that were repeatedly covered in the media. The world community tried to influence the government of Belgrade, and the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on this matter.
The document provided for the beginning of the bombing of Yugoslavia as a last resort in the event of continued violence. This measure of deterrence had a certain effect, and in October 1998 a truce was signed, but, despite this, the Kosovo people continued to die at the hands of Yugoslav soldiers, and from the beginning of next yearhostilities resumed in full.
Attempts to peacefully resolve the conflict
The Kosovo war attracted even more attention of the world community after forty-five civilians accused of having links with separatists were shot by the Yugoslav military in the city of Racak at the end of January 1999. This crime caused a wave of indignation around the world. The following month, negotiations between representatives of the warring parties took place in France, but, despite the best efforts of the UN representatives present, they did not bring positive results.
During the negotiations, representatives of the Western countries supported the Kosovo separatists who advocated the independence of Kosovo, while Russian diplomats took the side of Yugoslavia, lobbying for its demands aimed at the integrity of the state. Belgrade found the ultimatum put forward by the NATO countries unacceptable for itself, and as a result, the bombing of Serbia began in March. They continued for three months, until in June the head of Yugoslavia, S. Milosevic, ordered the withdrawal of troops from Kosovo. However, the Kosovo war was far from over.
Peacekeepers on Kosovo soil
Subsequently, when the events in Kosovo became the subject of consideration by the international tribunal that met in The Hague, NATO representatives explained the start of the bombing by the desire to put an end to the ethnic cleansing carried out by the Yugoslav special services against the Albanian part of the population of the region.
However, it followed from the materials of the case that such crimes against humanity, although they took place, were committed after the start of airstrikes, and were, although illegal, but provoked by them. The statistics of those years show that the Kosovo war of 1998-1999 and the bombing of Yugoslav territory by NATO forces forced more than a hundred thousand Serbs and Montenegrins to leave their homes and seek salvation outside the combat zone.
Mass exodus of civilians
In June of the same year, according to the UN declaration, a contingent of peacekeeping forces consisting of units of NATO and Russian troops was introduced into the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. Soon it was possible to reach an agreement with representatives of the Albanian militants on a ceasefire, but, in spite of everything, local clashes continued, and dozens of civilians died in them. The total number of victims continued to grow steadily.
This caused a massive outflow from Kosovo of two hundred and fifty thousand Christians living there - Serbs and Montenegrins, and their forced resettlement to Serbia and Montenegro. Some of them returned after the Republic of Kosovo was proclaimed in 2008, but their number was very small. So, according to the UN, in 2009 it was only seven hundred people, a year later it increased to eight hundred, but then it began to decline every year.
Declaration of Independence of Kosovo and Metohija
In November 2001, Albanian separatists held elections on their territory, according to the resultswhich they formed a government headed by I. Rugova. Their next step was the declaration of independence of the region and the creation of an independent state on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. It is quite understandable that the Yugoslav government did not consider their actions legitimate, and the war in Kosovo continued, although it took the form of a protracted, barely smoldering conflict, nevertheless claiming hundreds of lives.
In 2003, an attempt was again made in Vienna, sitting at the negotiating table, to find a way to resolve the conflict, but it was as ineffectual as four years ago. The end of the war is considered to be the statement of the Kosovo authorities on February 18, 2008, in which they unilaterally declared the independence of Kosovo and Metohija.
Problem left unresolved
By this time, Montenegro had separated from Yugoslavia, and the once unified state ceased to exist in the form it had at the beginning of the conflict. The Kosovo war, the causes of which were interethnic and religious in nature, ended, but the mutual hatred of the representatives of the previously warring parties remained. This still creates tension and instability in the region to this day.
The fact that the Yugoslav war went beyond a local conflict and involved wide circles of the world community in solving related problems became another reason for the West and Russia to resort to a show of force as part of the escalation of the covert Cold War. Fortunately, it had no consequences. proclaimed afterthe end of hostilities, the Republic of Kosovo is still the cause of discussions between diplomats of various countries.
