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Multi-Ethnic Conflict: Yugoslavia

At the end of the twentieth century no region of the world better illustrated ethnic conflict than that of the Balkan countries formerly united as Yugoslavia. The term ethnic refers to a group of people recognized by certain characteristics, such as culture, national origin, ancestral history, or certain physical traits. Ethnic prejudice and violence became so dramatic in the region that the term ethnic cleansing was commonly used for the first time. It was used widely by the news media reporting on the conflict. Ethnic cleansing means the deliberate attempt to eliminate an entire ethnic group. Ethnic cleansing is a particular form of genocide (the deliberate destruction of a racial, religious, or cultural group) based on ethnic prejudice.

The violence erupted in Yugoslavia following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. The former world superpower had controlled Yugoslavia for more than forty-five years following World War II (1939–45), a war in which the Allied forces including the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union defeated Germany. Turmoil in the region lasted through much of the 1990s based on long-standing ethnic tensions within the former Yugoslavia. It led to mass killing among ethnic Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims, and Kosovo Albanians as Yugoslavia broke apart. Western nations from Europe and North America responded with force after numerous rounds of peace negotiations failed. The ethnic violence was associated with the rise and fall of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic (1941–2006). For many around the world Milosevic became the human face of ethnic cleansing and violence.

Early ethnic tensions

Immediately following World War I (1914–18) in 1918 the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was established. They adopted the name Yugoslavia in 1929. During the 1930s it became apparent that the ethnic groups were unwilling to blend and merge together. The Serbs who made up about 40 percent of the population dominated politics. The Croats and Slovenes resented Serbian aggressiveness. These ethnic groups lived an uneasy coexistence each distrustful of the other. Political assassinations were not unusual.

World War II and ethnic violence

Yugoslavia witnessed bitter ethnic relationships and rivalries during World War II. At the beginning of World War II, the Yugoslav leadership formed a military alliance with Nazi Germany. However, political upheaval followed and German dictator, or tyrannical ruler, Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) ordered air attacks on Belgrade. German ground troops arrived on April 6, 1941. The Yugoslav army was defeated in eleven days by forces from Germany and its allies including Italy, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. They were known as the Axis Powers in addition to Japan.

Following the German arrival, Yugoslavia was no longer a single, independent state. Instead, its land was parceled among its conquerors. For example, Italy and Germany shared Slovenia, Italy controlled various other areas including Albania and the Kosovo region of southern Serbia, and Germany and Bulgaria controlled parts of Serbia and Macedonia. Croatia declared itself an independent state and incorporated large sections of Bosnia-Herzegovina with the help of Nazi troops.

WORDS TO KNOW

autonomy:

Freedom of a government to make its own decisions known as self-rule.

crime against humanity:

A criminal offense in international law that refers to murderous actions on such a large scale that it affects the global population as a whole.

embargo:

A ban on shipping of goods and trade; usually an action taken against a foreign nation for violating treaties or other undesired activities.

federalist state:

A national government system in which a central government shares power with provincial governments such as states.

genocide:

The deliberate mass destruction of a racial, religious, or cultural group.

The Croat leadership, sharing a belief in the fascist (a political system in which a strong central government, usually run by a dictator, controls the nation) Nazi vision of ethnic purity, set out to rid Croatia of Serbs. From 1941 to 1945, the regime of Ante Pavelić (1889–1959) expelled Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, forced Orthodox Serbs to convert to Catholicism, and placed Serbs in concentration camps just as Germany was doing to Jews. Over 300,000 Serbs and Jews in Croatia were killed or disappeared.

Meanwhile violence and murder accompanied the German occupation of northern Slovenia. Slovenes were forcibly removed from their farms and homes and placed in Serbia. Slovene culture was banished and German colonists claimed the land and dwellings left behind by the forced relocation.

Various resistance movements formed in the areas occupied by the Axis powers, most notably led by Communist activist Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), a Croat-Slovenian. (Communism is a political and economic system where a single party controls all aspects of citizens' lives and private ownership of property is banned.) In July 1941, after the Germans launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union, armed Communist supporters in the Yugoslav region launched attacks against their German occupiers. They succeeded in holding parts of western Serbia. In December 1943 the Allied forces held a conference at Tehran, Iran, and decided to support Tito's resistance movement. They provided weapons and supplies. After all enemy armies were driven out of Yugoslavia, Tito became prime minister of a newly reunified government of Yugoslavia and the Communists had positioned themselves to rule.

In November 1945 the Communist Party captured 90 percent of the vote for the nation's legislature. The next year, Yugoslavia adopted a constitution modeled upon the Soviet Constitution of 1936. Yugoslavia was a federation (sharing power between a central government and various states) called the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia comprised of six states or provinces: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.

Bosnia-Herzegovina's population included the ethnic groups of Bosnian Muslims, Serbs, and Croatians. Ethnically, Bosnian Muslims were originally the same as Serbs many centuries ago. However, they converted to Islam in the fifteenth century. Bosnian Muslims traditionally lived in cities working as professionals and in government. Serbs predominantly populated Serbia with Albanians in its southern region known as Kosovo. The majority of Croatia's population was Croatian, Slovenia's population was overwhelmingly Slovene, Montenegro's was predominately of Montenegrins, and Macedonia was dominated by Macedonians.

Despite the language of the constitution and the appearance of Western-style federalism, the government of Yugoslavia was totally controlled by the central Yugoslav Communist Party led by Tito and it was under the direction of the Soviet Union leadership. The party leaders dictated the policies and laws of the nation. Yugoslavia would be controlled by Communists until 1991.

Bosnian Muslims

Under Yugoslav dictator Josip Tito, Muslims in Bosnia gained status and were eventually accorded equal footing with the other five peoples of Yugoslavia—Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, and Macedonians. In the 1970s many Islamic places of worship, known as mosques, were built in Bosnia and many Bosnians made the annual religious pilgrimage to Mecca. Following World War II, intermarriage between Muslims and non-Muslims increased, as did secularism (non-religious political leadership) within Bosnia. When Sarajevo was awarded the 1984 Winter Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee, it was a recognition from the international community of the tolerant and cosmopolitan (worldly) atmosphere that flourished in Bosnia.

Stirrings of ethnic conflict and the rise of Milosevic

Tito ruled until his death on May 4, 1980. His final years were marked with economic, agricultural, and most notably ethnic difficulty. Tito's death was followed by a decade of attempts to hold the multi-ethnic country together. While the Slovenians and Croats sought increasing independence in economic policies and political decisions, the Serbs supported a stronger federal government. In addition, Albanians in Kosovo voiced demands for greater autonomy (freedom to self-rule). A movement for recognition as a republic began in Kosovo. Slavic Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina also asserted their vision of a distinct nation.

In March 1981 Albanian students demonstrated in protest of their poor living conditions at the University of Priština. This protest gained the support of fellow Albanians in Kosovo who made greater demands for republican (a country governed by the consent of the people and for the benefit of the people through elected representatives) government in place of Communist rule. The protests also increased anti-Serb sentiment. The Serbs, who numbered far fewer than the Albanians, countered with accusations of discrimination, terror, and genocide. The Albanian revolt was eventually stopped by the Yugoslav army, but ethnic relations in Kosovo continued to grow more contentious.

Serbs, Croats, Bosnia, and Kosovo Albanians

The people known as Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, and Croats belong to three distinct ethnic groups. All three speak their own dialect of the Serbo-Croatian language. Originally farmers, after World War II Serbs increasingly migrated to cities where they became wage earners. Serbs are strongly influenced by Eastern European culture. Their religion is Eastern Orthodox.

Bosnian Muslims, sometimes referred to as Turks, were originally ethnically the same as Serbs, but converted to the Muslim religion in the fifteenth century. Bosnian Muslims live mostly in cities and are professionals, business owners, and government workers.

Croats are predominantly rural farmers, but many live in cities of southern Croatia. Croats are strongly influenced by the Western European culture in literature, art, science, and education. They are geographically located near the Italian cities of Genoa and Venice. Croatian culture reflects Italian culture. Croats are Roman Catholic.

The need for police action in Kosovo and the resulting rising costs for that action paid by the citizens of Slovenia and Croatia created resentment. Slovenia became the center of non-Communist political groups. They campaigned for nuclear disarmament of the world's superpowers, feminism (a belief in the social equality of women), and rights for minority groups. Slovenian politicians blamed Serbs for standing in the way of political and economic reform. Moderate Communist leaders tried to lessen the tension between Serbs and Slovenes.

Into the growing chaos and tension stepped Slobodan Milosevic (1941–2006), an ambitious Communist party activist. A Serb, Milosevic emerged as Serbia's leader in 1989 and began pushing to expand Serbia's borders wherever Serbs lived. Milosevic began to violently enforce his dream of a greater Serbia. First focusing within Serbia, he used the Albanian conflicts in Kosovo and the grievances of the Serbs as excuses to remove the former supporters of Tito from the Serbian Communist Party. He assumed its top leadership position. Milosevic persuaded many that Serbs had been the victims of discrimination at the hands of the Tito supporters and that the time had come to assert control over Kosovo and Vojvodina, the northernmost province of Serbia. In 1989 Milosevic and his supporters crafted a new Serbian constitution that eliminated any autonomy enjoyed by Kosovo and Vojvodina. In addition, a new established pro-Milosevic government in Montenegro expanded his control over four of the eight seats in the collective presidency of Yugoslavia that was created following Tito's death.

The breakup of Yugoslavia

In 1990 with the demise of the Soviet Union and its influence, Yugoslavia began to break apart.

Ethnic war begins

Serbs within the province of Croatia, armed and financed by the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav National Army, revolted in August 1990. They blockaded roads and train tracks. Order quickly dissolved as the local Croatian government began trying to disarm the Serb population and dismiss them from employment. In January 1991 the Yugoslav National Army started arresting Croat officials for their anti-Serbian actions while talks aimed at avoiding civil war broke down. Armed conflicts increased as more talks between Croat leaders and Milosevic only further emphasized their differing points of view.

Finally, Croatia along with Slovenia declared independence from the Yugoslav federation on June 25, 1991. Though the Croat leaders promised equal rights for Serbs within the country, conflicts immediately broke out in Croatia. Serbs living in Croatia, about 12 percent of the population, joined with the nearby Serbian military to halt the independence move by the Croats. Serbs from Serbia and Croatia immediately began attacking Croatian targets with weapons while the Yugoslav National Army provided air support. Able to fend off the Serb forces through the rest of 1991, Croatia received official recognition as an independent nation by other European nations on January 15, 1992.

Following the path of Croatia and Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina led by the Bosnian Muslims and Croats living in Bosnia and Macedonia also announced in late 1991 their intention to break from the Yugoslav federation. As a result, the war expanded to Bosnia-Herzegovina when Bosnian Serbs joined with the Serbian military to halt the move toward independence.

After engineering the control of Kosovo, Milosevic used his appeal to Serbian nationalism (a belief that a particular nation is superior to other nations) to attract support of Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Croatian Serbs attempted to establish an autonomous (the right to political independence) Serbian cultural society in Croatia. However, this effort only served to increase public support for a Croatian nationalist government that reaffirmed the sovereignty of Croatia.

As a result, the long history of ethnic differences among the Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, and Croats exploded into ethnic war over who would govern whom and what territory would be controlled. All three feared dominance by the other. They believed that dominance by one of the others would mean forced changes in their ethnic traditions.

During the winter of 1991–92, the Yugoslav National Army built artillery camps around Bosnian government-controlled areas, including the city of Sarajevo. The Serbian leader put in place by Milosevic created a Serbian national assembly in place of the Bosnian parliament. Bosnian leaders held free elections in their controlled areas. The vote was nearly unanimous for independence from Yugoslavia. In response, Serbian paramilitary groups began setting up barricades in Sarajevo and taking control of sections of Bosnia. The Yugoslav National Army also began using Bosnian territory to conduct offensive operations against Croatia, while secretly arming Bosnia Serbs and disarming the local Bosnian defense forces.

The resulting war was brutal on all sides. Serbian forces tortured, raped, and murdered Croats and Bosnian Muslims in Serb-controlled regions. Croats and Bosnian Muslims fought back with equal brutality. Homes and businesses were looted and destroyed. Churches including hundreds of mosques, museums, public buildings, architectural and historical landmarks, and cemeteries, all symbols of ethnic identity, were destroyed. Included was the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo, which had housed and preserved thousands of valuable documents and artifacts chronicling the Ottoman history of Bosnia.

On April 6, 1992, Bosnia-Herzegovina joined Croatia and Slovenia in gaining international recognition. The total disintegration of the former Yugoslav federation was nearly complete. In only one year after the fall of Soviet influence the previous six Yugoslav states became five independent countries. Only Serbia and Montenegro remained together as one nation called Serbia. The new nations of Slovenia and Macedonia proved somewhat stable, but conflict raged among the Serbs, Bosnians, and Croats in the other three nations of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia. The ethnic war would eventually be the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II.

During the following three years of war the fighting grew more unpredictable. Local paramilitary bands formed, some no more than groups of thugs, and fought neighborhood to neighborhood. It was frequently difficult to tell who—Serb, Croat, or Bosnian—was fighting whom. The once beautiful city of Sarajevo, which hosted the televised 1984 Winter Olympics, was reduced to a death trap with residents living in basements. It was destroyed. After two years of the fighting that began in Bosnia in 1992, more than two hundred thousand Bosnians died and two million more became refugees.

The West steps in

During the rise in tensions in 1991, Western nations began looking upon the chaotic situation in Yugoslavia with increasing concern. In June 1991 U.S. secretary of state James A. Baker (1930–) visited the region and declared U.S. support for a unified Yugoslav federation. At that time, Baker stated that the United States would not recognize an independent Croatia or Slovenia. However, the United States would also oppose any use of force to prevent their secession (withdrawal from political control).

Months prior to the recognition of these independent states, in September 1991 a conference of European nations fashioned a plan for peace and presented it to the various combatants. The plan was called the Carington-Cutiliero Plan after its authors, Lord Carrington (1919–) of Great Britain and Portuguese ambassador Jose Cutiliero. The specific aim of the conference was to prevent Bosnia-Herzegovina from slipping into violent conflict already involving Croatia. The proposed plan offered a revised system of government in which power was shared among ethnic groups. It eliminated a Yugoslav centralized government. The local ethnic communities would self-govern. For example, Bosnia-Herzegovina's districts would be classified according to ethnicity. The various groups initially accepted the plan, but before long Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic (1925–2003) decided to withdraw his support and the plan died.

United Nations' involvement

Despite attempting to stay personally removed from involvement in the fighting in early 1992, Milosevic was still seen as the culprit. Many in the West began placing blame for the fighting and violence on Milosevic. He was described as a modern-day Hitler in pursuit of creating what was called greater Serbia, just as Hitler sought an expansion of Germany across Europe. In response to the violence, the United Nations (UN; an international organization founded in 1945 composed of most of the countries in the world) imposed a full-scale embargo (a government order preventing trade of goods with a particular foreign country) upon Yugoslavia. Troops under the flag of the United Nations enforced the embargo.

After the first fighting that took place in Bosnia in the spring of 1992, the frontlines became relatively fixed though the continued fighting was very bloody. In 1993 the United Nations established clearly marked locations under its protection called safe havens. The UN established these places near the cities of Sarajevo, Goržade, and Srebencia.

Two more peace plans

In early 1993 UN special envoy Cyrus Vance (1917–2002), who had earlier served as U.S. secretary of state in the late 1970s, and European Community leader Lord Owen (1938–) began peace negotiations with the warring sides in Bosnia. Vance and Owen proposed dividing Bosnia into ten semi-autonomous (partially independent) regions. The UN supported the plan, but the Serb-dominated Bosnian assembly totally rejected it. This plan was the last peace proposal calling for a united, ethnically mixed Bosnia-Herzegovina.

A later plan fashioned by Lord Owen and Vance's replacement, Norwegian foreign minister Thorvald Stoltenberg (1931–), called for dividing Bosnia into three separate independent states. This proposal allotted to Bosnian Serbs 52 percent of the land, 30 percent to Muslims, and 18 percent to Bosnian Croats. This alternative, offered in late July 1993, was also rejected.

NATO military arrives

With all peace negotiations failing, in 1994 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) became involved in the conflict. NATO is a military defense alliance established in April 1949 among Western European and North American nations. Showing its resolve to keep Serbian forces out of Bosnia, NATO jets shot down four Serb aircraft when the Serb planes violated airspace that the UN had identified as off-limits to warring aircraft, known as a "no fly zone."

Despite the NATO presence, the Serbs continued their offensive and began air attacks in November 1994 against Bosnian government installations and areas that the UN had earlier declared as safe. Following a NATO air raid on a Serb air base in Croatia, Bosnian Serbs seized nearly 450 UN peacekeepers as hostages. They also fired missiles at two British aircraft patrolling under the command of NATO. Despite these Serbian actions, UN undersecretary Kofi Annan (1938–) refused a request from NATO to intensify air attacks.

A short-lived ceasefire

In December 1994 the warring factions in Bosnia agreed to a temporary ceasefire. Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic (1945–) invited former U.S. president Jimmy Carter (1920–; served 1977–81) to meet with leaders of the warring sides. Carter agreed to attend as a private citizen, not as a representative of the U.S. government. Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic announced that Bosnia would agree only to a short ceasefire. A longer ceasefire agreement would appear as if his government was accepting the territorial gains made by the Serbs.

During the ceasefire in February 1995 a group of five nations proposed another peace plan for Bosnia. The group consisted of France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, and the United States. They requested that Milosevic recognize the international borders of Bosnia and Croatia and accept a division within Bosnia that would give 49 percent of Bosnia's territory to Bosnian Serbs. At that time, the Serbs held 70 percent of the country's land. In return for his cooperation, the group of nations assured Milosevic that international sanctions (formal restrictions) against Yugoslavia would be lifted. Milosevic rejected the offer.

Ethnic violence escalates

After lasting only four months the ceasefire negotiated by Carter was abruptly broken in March 1995 when the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina launched an offensive against Serb forces. Later that month, American newspapers revealed the contents of a report made by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The report concluded that 90 percent of the ethnic cleansing taking place in Bosnia was by the Serbs. Later that spring, Bosnian Serbs began seizing weapons from UN safe areas and once again taking peacekeepers as hostages.

In July 1995 the Muslim community of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina fell to the Serbs who then perpetrated horrible crimes against the people of that town. Nearly eight thousand men and boys were separated from their wives, sisters, daughters, and mothers and killed by Serb soldiers. Following the executions, the dead were buried in mass graves and later dug up and reburied in other graves in a futile attempt to cover up the crime. Even into the twenty-first century many Serb groups continued to deny this act of genocide ever took place.

Another bloody event also soon took place that summer in Croatia. In August 1995 Croats attacked the Serb-held Krajina region inside Croatia. They drove out approximately 170,000 Serbs in just three days. This action was said to be the greatest act of ethnic cleansing during the fighting in the former Yugoslavia at that time.

Violence continued. On August 28 a Sarajevo marketplace was the target of a bomb, killing thirty-seven people. In reaction to the bombing, on September 1 General Bernard Janiver of France, commander of UN forces in the former Yugoslavia, told the head of the Bosnian Serb military, General Ratko Mladic (1943–), that the Serbs must stop any further attacks and withdraw from Sarajevo. NATO declared this same order as an ultimatum (a final demand followed by a penalty if not met) and announced a deadline of September 4. On September 5, supported by an order from the UN Security Council, NATO planes began bombing Serbian-held positions. With this air cover, Bosnian Croat, Croatian, and Bosnian Muslim forces captured large areas of land previously held by Serbs.

Dayton Peace Accords

With the more intensive NATO air strikes, the Bosnian-Serb leadership quickly decided to give Milosevic authority to negotiate on their behalf at peace talks held in Dayton, Ohio, at the Wright-patterson Air Force Base in November 1995. Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, and Croats were all represented at the talks. Croatian president Franjo Tudjman (1922–1999) and Bosnian president Izetbegovic represented their interests. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke (1941–) represented the United States. The conference lasted three weeks.

The resulting Dayton Peace Accords led to an agreement on Bosnia and eastern Slovenia, and the remaining Serb holdings in Croatia. The borders of Bosnia were not changed. However, the republic was formally recognized as consisting of two parts—a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serbian republic.

The terms of the agreement called for peace to be enforced by sixty thousand NATO troops, known as IFOR (Implementation Force). The Dayton Peace Accords were initially agreed to on November 21 and the full, formal agreement was signed on December 14. The agreement formally ended the conflict in Bosnia.

War crimes tribunal

Ultimately two hundred thousand Bosnian Muslims, Croats, and Serbs were killed during these several years of ethnic conflict. Over one million had fled their homes. The world was dismayed to see a seemingly civilized region transformed into a bloody ethnic battlefield. The United Nations responded by establishing the first international tribunal or court in 1995 to prosecute war crimes. The UN War Crime tribunal was permanently located in The Hague, Netherlands. The tribunal indicted twenty-one Serbs for crimes against humanity for actions taken in the war in Bosnia. Only one of the twenty-one individuals indicted was then in custody. One of the accused faced an additional charge. Zeljko Meakic (1964–), a former commander of a concentration camp (large prison camp run by the Nazis where prisoners endured overcrowding, malnutrition, disease, and brutality), was accused of genocide in connection with the mass killing of Muslims and Croats during the war. This was the first time an international war crimes tribunal had formally charged an individual with genocide.

Because the Serbians agreed so quickly to peace terms after NATO air strikes, many in the West now saw Milosevic as a figure who would stabilize the region. U.S. president Bill Clinton (1946–; served 1993–2001) even supported Milosevic's presidency of Serbia despite a growing resistance in the general region to Milosevic's leadership. The reaction of Milosevic and the Serbs to peace also caused Western nations to wrongly assume that the reaction of Serbs would be the same when the powder keg that was Kosovo exploded in 1999.

Developing ethnic conflict in Kosovo

Serbia includes the once independent region called Kosovo. In Serbia's southwestern corner two million Albanians called Kosovo home in the 1990s. Serbs made up 10 to 15 percent of Kosovo's population. Immediately southwest of Kosovo is the independent country of Albania. Both Serbs and Albanians claimed ancestral rights to Kosovo. They each claimed their ancestors were the first to settle the area.

In the mid-1980s Albanians in Kosovo began a separatist (seeking to form a new nation from one currently existing) movement in response to growing religious and ethnic tension between Christian Serbs and Albanian Muslims. In 1989 Albanians tried to win greater governing rights of Kosovo. Milosevic, who had just risen to power as president of Yugoslavia of which Serbia was a member state, denounced these efforts. In retaliation he announced changes in the Kosovo government in March 1989. Most state employees who were Albanian were removed from their jobs. Approximately 115,000 Albanians were displaced from employment and replaced by Serbs.

After political changes proposed by the Serbs were ratified (formally approved) in a public referendum across the republic of Serbia, Kosovo's political institutions were disbanded altogether by Milosevic. In 1990 Milosevic completely abolished the autonomy of Kosovo. Milosevic ordered the Serbian military to close down Albanian businesses, hospitals, schools, and newspapers. The Albanian-language newspaper was banned from publishing, and television and radio broadcasts in Albanian were shut down. The university in Kosovo was purged (eliminated) of Albanian professors and Albanian students were expelled. He also imposed a curfew and declared a state of emergency due to violent demonstrations and the deaths of twenty-four people.

Resistance to Serb dominance grows in Kosovo

Resistance to Milosevic's actions grew in Kosovo. The Democratic League of Kosovo led by writer Ibrahim Rugova (1944–2006) advocated peaceful resistance to the disappearance of Kosovo autonomy. Rugova called for the boycott of public elections, resistance to the compulsory (required acceptance) Yugoslav military draft, refusal to pay taxes, and establishment of separate schools and other institutions for Albanians in Kosovo. A shadow Kosovo government (a government waiting to take over control from another government) was established and in a Kosovo referendum held in late 1991 Rugova was elected its president. Serbia declared the election illegal and voided the result.

Largely thanks to the civil disobedience practiced by Rugova's followers, Kosovo avoided the violence that at the time characterized Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina even though many Albanians within Kosovo were extremely frustrated. Frustration increased when the 1995 Dayton Accords, which ended the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, did not address the political status of Kosovo. Rugova had lobbied the United Nations and the West for a peacekeeping force in Kosovo, but was largely ignored.

The Kosovo Liberation Army

Continuing ethnic repression and systematic violence at the hands of Serbs motivated many Albanians to conclude that armed resistance was necessary to change the situation. In 1993 Kosovo Albanians formed the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). KLA members began attacks against the Serbian police called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia police (FRY). KLA activities continued through the following years including four attacks against Serbian civilians in April 1996. Serbs accused the KLA of terrorism. Despite the growing violence, nations outside of the region remained little concerned and did not come to the aid of the ethnically oppressed Albanians. The notion that the Dayton Accords had solved the region's problems was widespread and believed by many foreign governments in the West.

The situation grew dire in 1997 as both sides became embroiled in what amounted to a guerilla war (irregular hostilities) against one another. Serbian authorities decided to deploy Serb armed forces against not only the KLA, but Albanian citizens. The result was more bloodshed and continuous reprisals. By the summer of 1998 over 300,000 Albanians had fled Kosovo for Macedonia. This threatened Macedonia's tranquility and the peace of its surrounding neighbors. A ceasefire was attempted in Kosovo, but it failed as Serbs ignored international pleas to stop the violence. The FRY had begun an ethnic cleansing of Albanians remaining in Kosovo.

NATO forces take action again

NATO decided to take action in 1999 when it became clear that genocide and other atrocities were being committed in Kosovo. The organization attempted to set up a military peacekeeping force to forcibly contain both sides while scheduling a peace treaty conference at Rambouillet outside of Paris. NATO also threatened to launch air strikes should the Serb forces continue their violence against Albanians. The talks at Rambouillet saw little success. On March 18, 1999, the Albanian, American, and British delegations signed the Rambouillet Accords. This agreement called for NATO to administer Kosovo as an autonomous province of Serbia, place thirty thousand troops on the ground, and operate with immunity (protected from legal requirements) from Serbian law. Serbia and Russia, which also participated in the international conference, refused to sign the accords.

Following the Rambouillet conference, the genocide campaign in Kosovo intensified. From March 24 to June 20, 1999, the FRY murdered thousands of Albanians. The precise number may never be known; however, 3,000 Albanians were still missing in 2006. Thousands more Albanians fled to Macedonia and Albania. By April 1999 it was estimated that over 800,000 people had left Kosovo.

In reaction to the violence, NATO began air strikes in Kosovo in late March targeting Serb encampments in Kosovo and other strategic locations. The United States was the primary member of the NATO air force. Some 38,000 combat missions were flown by mid-June. The goal of the air strikes was to remove the Serb forces from Kosovo and make it possible for the displaced Albanians to return.

Kosovo fighting ends

By early April Milosevic saw that NATO air power was too much to overcome. In addition, the nations of NATO began seriously contemplating a ground invasion of Kosovo to finish the campaign. Finally, Finnish and Russian peace negotiators convinced Milosevic to end the violence and accept a military presence in Kosovo under UN leadership but administered by NATO.

NATO casualties during the campaign were extraordinarily limited. No deaths were recorded as a result of combat operations. The alliance lost only three helicopters, thirty-two unmanned vehicles, and five aircraft, all of them American. Similarly, the Serbian armed forces sustained few deaths and loss of vehicles and planes. However, around 1,500 civilians were killed during the NATO air raids and other operations.

By the end of 1999 nearly all of the over 800,000 Albanian refugees (people who flee in search of protection or shelter) had returned to Kosovo. However, much of the Serb population fled in fear of reprisal attacks. The number of Albanians killed by the Serbs remained unknown. Apparent mass graves were found on Serbian military bases. Many bodies were also found in the Danube River. The largest mass grave was found in the nearby Bulgarian village of Dragodan. It became evident that many of the bodies in the mass graves were earlier removed in an attempt to cover up the atrocities.

International tribunal at The Hague formed

In 1993 the UN Security Council established an international tribunal at The Hague in the Netherlands to prosecute war crimes allegedly committed during the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The tribunal was known as the International Court Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It had jurisdiction (legal authority) over crimes committed in Yugoslavia since 1991. The maximum sentence the court could impose was life imprisonment.

The court began its operation on November 7, 1993. It first indicted (formal criminal charges) a former Serb commander of a detention camp located in Bosnia. The commander was indicted for crimes against humanity. Milosevic was indicted in May 1999 for crimes against humanity in Kosovo. He was the first sitting head of state in history to be indicted for war crimes. Milosevic's Bosnian Serb army commander Mladic was also indicted. Later indictments were issued for violating the customs or laws of war, breaches of the Geneva Convention (international law addressing humanitarian concerns) in Croatia, and genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Milosevic attempted to gain another term as president of the much-reduced Yugoslav Federation in September 2000 but lost. He contested the election result, but a mass demonstration in Belgrade on October 5, 2000, eroded Milosevic's remaining authority. The newly elected president took office the next day. The Serbian government arrested Milosevic in April 2001 on charges of corruption and handed him over to the ICTY, an act Milosevic and his supporters claimed was illegal.

Trial of Milosevic

The trial of Milosevic began in February 2002. Because of Milosevic's position as a head of state, his war crimes trial received a great deal of world attention. Milosevic accused the tribunal of attacking him in an evil and hostile manner. He refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the tribunal, a claim that gained support among many Serbs in his homeland. They viewed the indictment as a violation of national sovereignty. During the trial, however, Milosevic sat and listened to testimony from Bosnians and Croats that supported the indictments.

The prosecution case took two years to review the wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. During the presentation of the prosecution's case, Milosevic became increasingly ill, suffering from high blood pressure and serious bout of influenza that worsened his heart condition. The trial was delayed periodically due to his declining health. Finally, in 2004 it was time for Milosevic to present his defense. His defense attorneys, however, attempted to resign because Milosevic was uncooperative with them.

After numerous delays Milosevic's trial ended abruptly on March 11, 2006, when he was found dead in his jail cell. The Hague tribunal at the time was reviewing his request to further delay the trial in order for him to travel to Russia for medical treatment to relieve high blood pressure and heart difficulties. Some on the tribunal were not convinced that Russian officials could prevent Milosevic from escaping once he arrived there.

Following his death questions arose as to whether Milosevic was poisoned as he often suggested he would be. However, medical examination of his body found no irregularities in his bloodstream. It appeared that Milosevic died solely from complications resulting from his deteriorating heart condition.

The ICTY handed down its final indictment in 2005. The ICTY had indicted 161 people since it began in 1993. It planned to conclude all trials in 2008 and all appeals of its rulings by 2010.

For More Information

BOOKS

Bell-Fialkoff, Andrew. Ethnic Cleansing. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999.

Cohen, Lenard J. Serpent in the Bosom: The Rise and Fall of Slobodan Milosevic. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2002.

Judah, Tim. Kosovo: War and Revenge. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.

Lieberman, Benjamin. Terrible Fate: Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe. New York: Ivan R. Dee, 2006.

Naimark, Norman M. Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 2002.

Sell, Louis. Slobodan Milosevic and the Destruction of Yugoslavia. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002.

Weine, Stevan M. When History Is a Nightmare: Lives and Memories of Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999.

Woodward, Susan L. Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution after the Cold War. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1995.

WEB SITES

"A Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing." http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19930601faessay5199/andrew-bell-fialkoff/a-brief-history-of-ethnic-cleansing.html (accessed on November 22, 2006).

"The Dayton Peace Accords on Bosnia." University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/icty/dayton/daytonaccord.html (accessed on November 22, 2006).

"Milosevic Trial Public Archive." http://hague.bard.edu/ (accessed on November 22, 2006).