The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,which controlled Kosovo before the war,and the Kosovo Albanian separatist militia known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.
Since the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s,the foreign policy of the newly established Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was characterized primarily by a desire to secure its political and geopolitical position and the solidarity with ethnic Serbs in other former Yugoslav republics through a strong nationalist campaign. While the country was involved in Yugoslav Wars and therefore exposed to several rounds of devastating sanctions against Yugoslavia this involvement was often denied for political or ideological reasons. In the initial period Federal Republic of Yugoslavia unsuccessfully aspired to gain international recognition as the sole legal successor state to SFR Yugoslavia,the country which was one of the most prominent foreign policy subjects during the Cold War.
The Kosovo Liberation Army was an ethnic Albanian separatist militia that sought the separation of Kosovo,the vast majority of which is inhabited by Albanians,from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and Serbia during the 1990s. Albanian nationalism was a central tenet of the KLA and many in its ranks supported the creation of a Greater Albania,which would encompass all Albanians in the Balkans,stressing Albanian culture,ethnicity and nation.
The Rambouillet Agreement,formally the Interim Agreement for Peace and Self-Government in Kosovo,was a proposed peace agreement between the delegation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia on the one hand and the delegation of political representatives of the ethnic Albanian majority population of Kosovo on the other. It was drafted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and named for the Château de Rambouillet,where it was initially proposed in early 1999. Among other things,the accords called for 30,000 NATO peacekeeping troops in Kosovo;an unhindered right of passage for NATO troops on Yugoslav territory;and immunity for NATO and its agents to Yugoslav law. The Kosovo Albanian side signed the agreement on 18 March 1999,however the refusal of the Yugoslav and Serbian side to sign the accords led to the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia.
The Račak massacre or Račak operation was the massacre of 45 Kosovo Albanians that took place in the village of Račak in central Kosovo in January 1999. The massacre was perpetrated by Serbian security forces in response to Albanian separatist activity in the region. The Serbian government refused to let a war crimes prosecutor visit the site,and maintained that the casualties were all members of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) killed in combat with state security forces.
Reçak is a village in the Shtime municipality of Kosovo. It was the site of the January 1999 Račak massacre,in which 45 villagers were killed by Serbian forces.
The politics of Kosovo takes place in a framework of a multi-party parliamentary representative democratic republic,whereby the President (Presidenti) is the head of state and the Prime Minister (Kryeministri) the head of government. Parliamentary elections are held every four years,the most recent in 2021.
The Republic of Kosova,also known as the First Republic of Kosovo,was a self-declared proto-state in Southeast Europe established in 1991. During its peak,it tried to establish its own parallel political institutions in opposition to the institutions of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija held by Yugoslavia's Republic of Serbia.
Australia–Kosovo relations refer to the bilateral relations of Australia and Kosovo. Kosovo and Australia officially established diplomatic relations on 21 May 2008. Kosovo has an embassy in Canberra,which was opened in February 2013. The Ambassador of Australia to Kosovo is subordinate to the embassy in Vienna.
Italy–Serbia relations are diplomatic relations between Italy and Serbia. Kingdom of Italy established formal bilateral relations with the Principality of Serbia on 18 January 1879. The strategic partnership between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Italy was established in Rome on 13 November 2009. Italy is one of the member states of the EU which strongly support Accession of Serbia to the EU. Both countries are members of the CEI,OSCE,COE and WTO.
Sylejman Selimi is the former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army,who was convicted of war crimes for the torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners at the Likovac detention center during the Kosovo War. After the war,he served as Security Force of the Republic of Kosovo;he left this position in 2011 and became the ambassador to Albania.
Numerous war crimes were committed by all sides during the Kosovo War,which lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. According to Human Rights Watch,the vast majority of abuses were attributable to the government of Slobodan Milošević,mainly perpetrated by the Serbian police,the Yugoslav army,and Serb paramilitary units. During the war,regime forces killed between 7,000–9,000 Kosovar Albanians,engaged in countless acts of rape,destroyed entire villages,and displaced nearly one million people. The Kosovo Liberation Army has also been implicated in atrocities,such as kidnappings and summary executions of civilians. Moreover,the NATO bombing campaign has been harshly criticized by human rights organizations and the Serbian government for causing roughly 500 civilian casualties.
The colonization of Kosovo was a programme begun by the kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia in the early twentieth century and later implemented by their successor state Yugoslavia at certain periods of time from the interwar era (1918–1941) until 1999. Over the course of the twentieth century,Kosovo experienced four major colonisation campaigns that aimed at altering the ethnic population balance in the region,to decrease the Albanian population and replace them with Montenegrins and Serbs. Albanians formed the ethnic majority in the region when it became part of Yugoslavia in early twentieth century.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1160,adopted on 31 March 1998,after noting the situation in Kosovo,the council,acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter,imposed an arms embargo and economic sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,hoping to end the use of excessive force by the government.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1203,adopted on 24 October 1998,after recalling resolutions 1160 (1998) and 1199 (1998) on Kosovo,the Council demanded that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia comply with previous Security Council resolutions and co-operate with the NATO and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) verification missions in Kosovo.
Gabriel Keller is a French diplomat and teacher. Keller earned a history professor agrégédegree in 1972 at Paris West University Nanterre La Défense.
The OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) was an OSCE mission to verify that the Serbian and Yugoslav forces were complying with the UNSC Resolution 1203 and the Clark-Naumann agreement,to end atrocities in Kosovo,withdraw armed forces from Kosovo,and abide by a ceasefire. The mission was deployed on 25 October 1998,withdrawn in March 1999 and was closed on 9 June 1999.
On December 14,1998,the Yugoslav Army (VJ) ambushed a group of 140 Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) militants attempting to smuggle weapons and supplies from their base in Albania into the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A five-hour battle ensued,ending with the deaths of 36 militants and the capture of a further nine. Dozens more fled back to Albania,abandoning large quantities of weapons and supplies,which the Yugoslav authorities subsequently seized. The ambush was the most serious war-related incident in Kosovo since a U.S.-negotiated truce took effect two months before. It came on the heels of increasing tensions in the province,where inter-ethnic violence had been escalating steadily since early 1995.
The Ugljare mass grave is a burial site in the village of Ugljare in the Kosovo municipality of Gjilan. Those buried include Kosovo Serbs and possibly Kosovo Albanians sometime around July 1999. At the time,it was the only case which involved in the Kosovo war crimes tribunal the investigation of a crime against civilians which was possibly committed by Albanians against Serbs. No perpetrators have been found. Kosovo leaders during the war,including former Prime Minister and the "George Washington of Kosovo",Hashim Thaci,are currently on trial for crimes against humanity,murder,forced deportation,kidnapping,and persecution of Serbs and other minorities in a specially commissioned court,The Kosovo Specialist Chambers,established to prosecute Albanian leaders for crimes during and after the Kosovo War.
Operation Eagle Eye was the result of the NATO-Kosovo Verification Mission agreement which was signed in Belgrade on 15 October 1998,under which the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia agrees to establish an air surveillance system consisting of NATO non-combatant reconnaissance aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.
