Transitional Housing for Returning Refugees: Kosovo 1999-2000
Below is a detailed timeline about the conflict in Kosovo up to the time of the competition.
1989
Serbian
leader Slobodan Milosevic takes away Kosovo's autonomy. Street violence
erupts when the Kosovo assembly approves the measure. Violence
escalates and more than 20 people are killed.
1990
January: Violent clashes between police and ethnic Albanian demonstrators continue. Police shoot dead at least 10.
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February:
Yugoslavia sends troops, tanks, warplanes and 2,000 more police to
Kosovo. By the end of the month more than 20 people have been killed
and a curfew imposed.
July:
Ethnic Albanian legislators in the province declare independence.
Serbia dissolves the Kosovo assembly. Strikes and protests continue.
1991
The Bosnian war begins Neighboring Albania's parliament recognizes Kosovo as an independent republic.
1992
May:
Writer Ibrahim Rugova is elected president of the self-proclaimed
republic after an election held in defiance of Serbian authorities.
October: Serb and ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo hold face-to-face peace talks for the first time in three years.
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1993
Police arrest more than 30 ethnic Albanians on suspicion of preparing an armed uprising.
1995
July:
A Serbian court sentences 68 ethnic Albanians for up to eight years in
prison for allegedly setting up a parallel police force.
August: Serbian authorities settle several hundred Croatian Serb refugees in Kosovo, drawing protests from ethnic Albanian leaders.
1996
Serbia
signs a deal with ethnic Albanian leaders to return Albanian students
to mainstream education after a six-year boycott of state schools and
colleges. The clandestine separatist group Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
emerges for the first time claiming responsibility for a series of bomb
attacks.
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1997
January:
The Serb rector of Pristina University is badly injured by a car bomb.
A suspected leader of the outlawed KLA is killed in a gun battle with
police.
March: Four people are injured when a bomb explodes in the center of Pristina.
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September:
Armed men stage simultaneous night attacks on police stations in 10
Kosovo towns and villages. As the number of guerrilla incidents
increase, clashes also continue sporadically between police and
peaceful protesters.
October-December:
A grenade and machine-gun raid is made on a Serb refugee camp, but
there are no casualties. Separatists claim to have shot down a Yugoslav
Airlines training aircraft.
1998
January: An ethnic Serb politician is killed in apparent retaliation for the reported killing of an ethnic Albanian by the police.
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February/March:
Dozens are killed in Serbian police operations against suspected
Albanian separatists in the Drenica region of Kosovo. Houses are burned
and villages evacuated. Tens of thousands protest in the Kosovo
capital, Pristina, against the violence, and street clashes erupt.
Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, disregarding Western calls for
compromise, demands outright independence for Kosovo. Ethnic Albanians
vote for a president and parliament in elections which are considered
illegal by Belgrade.
April:
95% of Serbs vote against international intervention in Kosovo, in a
referendum. The Contact Group for the Former Yugoslavia agree, with the
exception of Russia, to impose new sanctions against Yugoslavia over
Kosovo.
May:
US envoy Richard Holbrooke begins a round of shuttle diplomacy which
results in Yugoslav President Milosevic inviting Ibrahim Rugova for
peace talks. Ethnic Albanian and Serb negotiators start talks in
Pristina as fighting continues.
June:
The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, warned Nato that it must seek a
Security Council mandate for any military intervention in the Serbian
province.
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July:
France and Britain draft a UN Security Council resolution to try to
bring about a ceasefire. August - A massive month-long offensive
severely weakens the KLA until a significant stronghold - the village
of Junik - falls into Serb hands on the 16th of the month. The UN calls
for a cease-fire.
September:
The Serbian army continues to attack villages in the Drenica region of
Kosovo. United Nations Security Council votes in favor of a resolution
calling for a ceasefire in Kosovo, and warning the Yugoslav Government
of "additional measures" if it fails to comply. Nato takes the first
formal steps towards military intervention in Kosovo. Heavy fighting
continues despite Serbian assurances that the offensive is over. At
least 36 ethnic Albanian civilians are reported to have been massacred
in three separate incidents.
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October:
Western nationals are advised to leave Yugoslavia as Nato prepares for
air strikes. Nato countries give the go-ahead for military action
against Yugoslavia if President Milosevic does not comply with United
Nations resolutions on Kosovo. Following intensive diplomatic efforts
by US envoy Richard Holbrooke, Yugoslavia agrees to allow a
2,000-strong monitoring force into Kosovo to ensure it complies with UN
demands, averting the immediate prospect of Nato airstrikes.
November:
The United States special envoy for Kosovo, Christopher Hill, says the
humanitarian and security situation in the Serbian province has
improved significantly in the few weeks after the Belgrade ceasefire
agreement. But later in the month Nato and the US accuse both the
Belgrade government and the ethnic Albanian rebels of endangering the
cease-fire in Kosovo. Dozens of international monitors begin training
in Kosovo before going into the field to verify October's ceasefire
agreement.
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December: The
Serbian authorities say their forces killed at least 30 ethnic
Albanians in the worst clash since October's ceasefire agreement. US
special envoy Richard Holbooke warns differences between Serbs and
ethnic Albanians over the future of Kosovo remain very grave. Fresh
fighting breaks out in northern Kosovo, jeopardizing international
efforts to renegotiate a truce.
1999
January:
The bodies of almost 40 ethnic Albanians are found at a scene of recent
fighting in southern Kosovo, in what appears to have been a mass
execution. In response, Nato sends two senior military officers to
Belgrade to warn the Yugoslav authorities that they face air strikes if
they do not end the violence.
February: The
Yugoslav army moves 4,500 troops, more than 60 tanks and other military
equipment to the Kosovo border amid stern warnings from Nato and the
US. Thousands of ethnic Albanians flee their homes as a result of
fighting, many crossing into Macedonia. The major powers welcome the
progress made at the Kosovo peace talks in Paris, but both the Serbs
and ethnic Albanians stress many obstacles still stand in the way of a
definitive deal.
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March:
Nato carries out its threat to bomb Serbia over Kosovo, attacking a
sovereign European country for the first time in the alliance's
history. US envoy Richard Holbrooke flies to Belgrade to try to get
Slobodan Milosevic to agree to a peace plan, but there is no immediate
sign of progress. An offensive by Serb forces in Kosovo, meanwhile,
continues. International monitors are ordered out of Kosovo as the
peace talks break down following Serbia's continued refusal to sign up
to the proposed peace deal.
As Serb forces intensify their
offensive, driving hundreds of thousands of refugees into neighboring
countries and into hiding in Kosovo, NATO intensifies its bombing
campaign.
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June: Belgrade
agrees to withdraw its troops under NATO's pressure. NATO
Secretary-General Javier Solana announces an official end to the
alliance air campaign against Yugoslavia after receiving word that all
Serbian forces have left Kosovo. Nato and the Kosovo Liberation Army
sign an accord providing for the demilitarization of the KLA,
effectively ending its existence as a military force. The flood of
ethnic Albanian refugees crossing the border back into Kosovo
escalates. Serbs flee Kosovo as more evidence emerges of atrocities
committed by Serb forces against Kosovo Albanians. Thousands of Nato
troops deploy across Kosovo to take control of the province.
According
to latest UNHCR estimates, up to half of the homes in Kosovo may have
been destroyed and up to 70% damaged since 24 March. Wells are said to
be polluted, crops have either failed or were never planted in time and
Nato has bombed much of the province's electricity supply. The
reconstruction of Kosovo will cost a lot more than the $70M needed to
keep refugees in camps for another three months - an international
reconstruction deal is said to be in the pipeline.
