Serbs migrated to the
territories of modern Kosovo in the 7th century
but did not fully incorporate them into the Serbian realm until the
early 13th century. The Serbian defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389
led to five centuries of Ottoman rule during which large numbers of
Turks and Albanians moved to Kosovo. By the end of the 19th century,
Albanians replaced the Serbs as the dominant ethnic group in Kosovo.
Serbia reacquired control over Kosovo from the Ottoman Empire during
the First Balkan War (1912). After World War II (1945), the government
of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia led by Josip TITO
reorganized Kosovo as an autonomous province within the constituent
republic of Serbia. Over the next four decades, Kosovo Albanians
lobbied for greater autonomy, and Kosovo was granted the status almost
equal to that of a republic in the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution. Despite
the legislative concessions, Albanian nationalism increased in the
1980s leading to nationalist riots and calls for Kosovo's independence.
Serbs in Kosovo complained of mistreatment and Serb nationalist
leaders, such as Slobodan MILOSEVIC, exploited those charges to win
support among Serbian voters many of whom viewed Kosovo as their
cultural heartland. Under MILOSEVIC's leadership, Serbia instituted a
new constitution in 1989 that drastically curtailed Kosovo's autonomy.
Kosovo Albanian leaders responded in 1991 by organizing a referendum
that declared Kosovo independent from Serbia. The MILOSEVIC regime
carried out repressive measures against the Albanians in the early
1990s as the unofficial government of Kosovo, led by Ibrahim RUGOVA,
tried to use passive resistance to gain international assistance and
recognition of its demands for independence. In 1995, Albanians
dissatisfied with RUGOVA's nonviolent strategy created the Kosovo
Liberation Army and launched an insurgency. In 1998, MILOSEVIC
authorized a counterinsurgency campaign that resulted in massacres and
massive expulsions of ethnic Albanians by Serbian military, police, and
paramilitary forces. The international community tried to resolve the
conflict peacefully, but MILOSEVIC rejected the proposed international
settlement - the Rambouillet Accords - leading to a three-month NATO
bombing of Serbia beginning in March 1999, which forced Serbia to
withdraw its military and police forces from Kosovo in June 1999. UN
Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999) placed Kosovo under a
transitional administration, the UN Interim Administration Mission in
Kosovo (UNMIK), pending a determination of Kosovo's future status.
Under the resolution, Serbia's territorial integrity was protected, but
it was UNMIK that assumed responsibility for governing Kosovo. In 2001,
UNMIK promulgated a Constitutional Framework, which established
Kosovo's Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG). In
succeeding years UNMIK increasingly devolved responsibilities to the
PISG. A UN-led process began in late 2005 to determine Kosovo's future
status. Negotiations held intermittently between 2006 and 2007 on
issues related to decentralization, religious heritage, and minority
rights failed to yield a resolution between Serbia's willingness to
grant a high degree of autonomy and the Albanians' call for full
independence for Kosovo. On 17 February 2008, the Kosovo Assembly
declared its independence from Serbia. Its languages are: Albanian
(official), Serbian (official), Bosniak, Turkish, and Roma