Chloe Holmes
Stories (1/0)
The Role of International Institutions in Determining the Outcome of the Events of the Kosovo War, Leading up to, and Including, the Kosovo Declaration of Independence from Serbia
Kosovo became the seventh state to declare independence from Serbia (which was a part of former Yugoslavia) on February 17th, 2008, after a war riddled with human rights violations and controversy regarding the role that international institutions such as the UN and NATO played in attempting to resolve the conflict. It had been a part of Serbia within the former Yugoslavia Confederation since 1946, but there had been tensions between the Serbian majority and Albanian minority (in Yugoslavia) for years, since Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic came into power (as president of Serbia from 1989-1997 and as president of Yugoslavia from 1997-2000) and had started oppressing Albanians through his nationalist policies. In July 1990, ethnic Albanians declared independence, which ultimately failed and led to Milosevic stripping the right of Kosovar autonomy laid out in the 1974 constitution and the dissolution of the government of Kosovo. In March-September 1998, after nearly five years of tensions, the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and Serbian police began to engage in violent clashes which led to NATO giving president Milosevic an ultimatum to stop the brutal Serbian crackdown on Kosovar Albanians. When that didn’t happen, NATO commenced airstrikes against the Serbs and the Kosovo War continued, eventually ending in failed peace talks and a Kosovar declaration of independence from Serbia, nearly ten years later.
By Chloe Holmes6 years ago in The Swamp