Profile of disputed Kosovo province

The breakaway province of Kosovo holds its third postwar parliamentary election on Saturday, ahead of showdown with Serbia over the ethnic Albanian majority’s demand for independence.Here is a brief profile of Kosovo, an ethnic crossroads for millennia in the heart of the Balkans and the cause of NATO’s first “humanitarian war” in 1999.

HISTORY

* Kosovo is a southern province of Serbia, about the size of Connecticut or Qatar. It was first inhabited by Illyrian and Thracian tribes, ruled by the Romans then populated by Slavs in the 6th century. It became part of the Kingdom of Serbia in the early 13th century, with a mixed population of Serbs, Albanians and Vlachs. The Nemanjic dynasty made it the spiritual heartland of Serbia, giving lands to the Orthodox Church and building monasteries that stand today.

ETHNIC MAKEUP

* Serbs were a majority until they were defeated by the Ottoman Empire at the 1389 Battle of Kosovo. Over the next 500 years many left while the Albanians, converts to Islam, grew in number. Mutual expulsions and migration from Albania in the early 20th century changed Kosovo’s makeup. Today, two million Albanians form 90 percent of the population. Some 100,000 Serbs remain in Kosovo, many in scattered enclaves protected by NATO.

POLITICS & ECONOMY

* Landlocked and poor apart from mineral deposits, Kosovo was an autonomous region of the Socialist Yugoslav Federation and had effective self-government in 1974. But ethnic tensions escalated in the 1980s as Yugoslavia began to crumble and economic conditions deteriorated. Populist Slobodan Milosevic used Serb nationalism as a springboard to power in 1989, restricting Albanian rights in education and local government. Strikes, protests and violence led to Belgrade declaring a state of emergency in 1990, sending in the Yugoslav army and police.

WAR

* Albanians have officially demanded independence since renegade elections in 1992 made pacifist leader Ibrahim Rugova president of a self-declared republic. The demand was ignored as Serbs fought for pieces of Croatia and Bosnia, and support shifted to armed struggle by the Kosovo Liberation Army, a guerrilla force. Serb forces hit back so hard in 1998 that 100,000 Albanians fled to the hills and NATO powers warned Milosevic they would not tolerate another round of “ethnic cleansing” in the Balkans. Peace talks in France failed and in March 1999 NATO started bombing to force Serbia to withdraw. Some 800,000 Albanians fled or were expelled to Macedonia and Albania before Milosevic gave in 78 days later. As his forces pulled out, an estimated 180,000 Serbs left as well.

LIMBO

* Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations with NATO peacekeeping since June 1999. Unemployment is more than 50 percent among the overwhelmingly young population. Kosovo’s uncertain future status virtually precludes outside investment. Spasms of ethnic violence, mostly by Albanians against Serbs, together with criminal gangs trafficking in contraband and people, have tarnished its image with the West. Albanian leaders say only independence from Serbia can cure these ills.