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Human Rights in Kosovo

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Abstract

The emotions surrounding the question of Kosovo’s future owe their intensity to the long history of human rights abuses in the province. The years 1945–1966 and 1987–1999, in particular, saw harsh repression of local Albanians and a systematic favoring of local Serbs. Since June 1999, the province has been under international supervision, and, in this period, Serbs complain that they have been the victims of repeated acts of violence at the hands of Albanians. This article provides an overview of human rights abuses since 1945 and closes with a brief assessment of the international plan presented by UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari in February 2007.

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Notes

  1. Sabrina P. Ramet, Nationalism and Federalism in Yugoslavia, 1962–1991, 2nd Edition (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1992), p. 76.

  2. Paul Shoup, “The Government and Constitutional Status of Kosova: Some Brief Remarks,” in Arshi Pipa and Sami Repishti (eds.), Studies on Kosova (Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1984), p. 233.

  3. Sabrina P. Ramet, Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the War for Kosovo, 3rd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999), p. 304; and Tom Gallagher, The Balkans in the New Millennium: In the Shadow of War and Peace, (New York: Routledge, 2005), p. 23.

  4. Ramet, Balkan Babel, p. 304.

  5. Gallagher, Balkans in the New Millennium, p. 23.

  6. Ibid., p. 24.

  7. Shoup, “The Government and Constitutional Status of Kosova,” pp. 234–235.

  8. Gallagher, Balkans in the New Millennium, p. 24.

  9. Ramet, Balkan Babel, p. 306.

  10. Louis Sell, Slobodan Milošević and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002), pp. 79–80.

  11. Ramet, Balkan Babel, p. 306; and Miranda Vickers, Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo, (London: Hurst & Company, 1998), p. 225.

  12. Sell, Slobodan Milošević, p. 79.

  13. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Serbia and Montenegro Country Profile, 2005, p. 7.

  14. Gallagher, Balkans in the New Millennium, p. 26.

  15. Julie Mertus and Vlatka Mihelić, Open Wounds: Human Rights Abuses in Kosovo, (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1993), p. 1.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Ibid, pp. 3–12, 25–37.

  18. Ibid, p. 2.

  19. Ibid, p. 14.

  20. Ibid, p. 17–25.

  21. Ibid, p. 61.

  22. Ibid, p. 62.

  23. Ramet, Balkan Babel, p. 16.

  24. Sell, p. 93.

  25. Mertus and Mihelić, Open Wounds, p. 107.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Ibid., p. 108.

  28. Noel Malcolm, Kosovo: A Short History (New York: New York University Press, 1998), pp. 352–353.

  29. Gallagher, Balkans in the New Millennium, p. 47.

  30. Mertus and Mihelić, Open Wounds, p. 112.

  31. Vickers, Between Serb and Albanian, p. 275.

  32. Mertus and Mihelić, Open Wounds, 112–114.

  33. Vickers, Between Serb and Albanian, p. 275.

  34. Mertus and Mihelić, Open Wounds, pp. 126–128.

  35. Vickers, Between Serb and Albanian, p. 274.

  36. Mertus and Mihelić, Open Wounds, pp. 129–130.

  37. Sell, Slobodan Milošević, pp. 284–285, 294.

  38. Ibid, pp. 304–306.

  39. Gallagher, Balkans in the New Millennium, p. 61.

  40. Malcolm, Kosovo, p. 352.

  41. Gallagher, Balkans in the New Millennium, p. 39.

  42. Mertus and Mihelić, Open Wounds, p. 2.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Sell, Slobodan Milošević, pp. 79–80.

  45. International Crisis Group (ICG), “Kosovo Spring,” ICG Balkans Report #1 (20 March 1998), available at http://www.crisisgroup.org, p. 29.

  46. Ibid, p. 2.

  47. Ibid, p. 30.

  48. International Crisis Group (ICG), “Kosovo Report Card,” ICG Balkans Report # 100 (28 August 2000), at http://www.crisisgroup.org, p. 14.

  49. Ibid, p.16.

  50. International Crisis Group (ICG), “Finding the Balance: The Scales of Justice in Kosovo,” ICG Balkans Report # 134 (12 September 2002), at http://www.crisisgroup.org, p. 24.

  51. ICG#100, “Kosovo Report Card,” p. 16.

  52. International Crisis Group (ICG), “The Policing Gap: Law and Order in the New Kosovo,” ICG Balkans Report # 74 (Priština), 6 August 1999, at http://www.crisisgroup.org, p.4.

  53. ICG#134, “Finding the Balance,” pp. 25–26.

  54. Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), “Ethnic Minorities in Kosovo in 2005,” available at www.hlc.org.yu., p. 28.

  55. International Crisis Group (ICG), “Kosovo: The Challenge of Transition”, Europe Report No 170 (17 February 2006), available at http://www.crisisgroup.org, p. 8.

  56. Shkelzen Gashi, “The Situation of the Serb Minority in Kosova,” Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms (Prishtina), March 2006, pp. 4, 6; and HLC, p. 45.

  57. Gallagher, Balkans in the New Millennium, p. 158.

  58. ICG#74, “The Policing Gap,” p. 2.

  59. International Crisis Group (ICG), “Violence in Kosovo: Who’s Killing Whom?” ICG Balkans Report # 78 (2 November 1999), available at http://www.crisisgroup.org, p. 14.

  60. Human Rights Watch (HRW), “Failure to Protect: Anti-Minority Violence in Kosovo, March 2004,” available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/kosovo0704/.

  61. HLC, “Ethnic Minorities in Kosovo,” p. 40.

  62. Human Rights Watch (HRW), “Failure to Protect: Anti-Minority Violence in Kosovo, March 2004,” at http://www.hrw,org/reports/2004/kosovo0704/.

  63. Ibid.

  64. ICG#134, “Finding the Balance,” pp. 3–4, 8–10.

  65. HLC, “Ethnic Minorities in Kosovo,” p. 46.

  66. ICG#134, “Finding the Balance,” p. 5.

  67. Gallagher, Balkans in the New Millennium, p. 159.

  68. ICG#134, “Finding the Balance,” p. 25.

  69. Gashi, “Situation of the Serb Minority,” pp. 4, 15.

  70. HLC, “Ethnic Minorities in Kosovo,” p. 45.

  71. EIU, Serbia and Montenegro Country Profile 2005, p. 4.

  72. HLC, “Ethnic Minorities in Kosovo,” p. 45.

  73. Gashi, “Situation of the Serb Minority,” p. 15.

  74. Ibid, p. 4.

  75. ICG #170 “Kosovo: The Challenge,” pp. 14–16.

  76. EIU, Serbia and Montenegro Country Profile 2005, p. 10.

  77. Martin C. Sletzinger and Nida Gelazis, “Kosovo: Mission Not Yet Accomplished,” in The Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 29, Issue 4 (Autumn 2005), p. 35.

  78. ICG#170, “The Challenge of Transition,” p. 10.

  79. Ibid, pp. 17–19.

  80. Ibid, pp. 20–21.

  81. Ibid, p. 21.

  82. Ibid.

  83. “A Plan for the Political Solution to the Situation in Kosovo and Metohija” (2004), at http://www.srbija.sr.gov.yu.

  84. ICG#170, “The Challenge of Transition,” pp. 27–28.

  85. Associated Press Worldstream (APW), “U.N.’s Kosovo Mediator Says Minority Rights Needed Before Discussion of Final Status,” 21 April 2006, in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe.

  86. Agence France Presse (AFP), “Talks on Kosovo Serb Communities End Without Accord,” 5 May 2006, in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe.

  87. APW, “Fourth Round of Kosovo Talks Ends Without Progress,” 5 May 2006, in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe.

  88. Nicholas Wood, “Kosovo May Soon Be Free of Serbia, but Not of Supervision,” in New York Times (2 November 2006), in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe.

  89. David Vujanovic, “Serbia, Kosovo Brace for UN Envoy’s High-Stakes Plan,” AFP (1 February 2007), from topic@afp.com.

  90. Ismet Hajdari, “UN Envoy to Deliver Kosovo Plan to Serbs, Albanians,” AFP (23 January 2007), from topic@afp.com.

  91. “Serbian Press Bid ‘Farewell’ to Kosovo,” AFP (3 February 2007), from topic@afp.com.

  92. BBC News, “Kosovo ‘Should Split from Serbia,’” 2 February 2007, at http://news.bbc.co.uk.

  93. BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, “Prospects for Serbia, Kosovo Albanians to Find Solution “Zero” - news agency,” 15 February 2007, in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe.

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  1. Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies, Georgetown University, P.O. Box 915, Alexandria, VA, 22313, USA

    Kurt Beurmann

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  1. Kurt Beurmann
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Correspondence to Kurt Beurmann.

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The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Department of Defense, the United States Army, or any other agency or component of the US government.

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Beurmann, K. Human Rights in Kosovo. Hum Rights Rev 9, 41–54 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-007-0028-0

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