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Time Lines - Kosovo Background: 1980s to 1998
1998
October
Under the threat of NATO
airstrikes, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
reached accords with U.S. special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke to
end the conflict by sending 2,000 international inspectors to Kosovo
and scheduling regular overflights by NATO surveillance aircraft as
a deterrent to further violence.
September
NATO set in motion plans to launch airstrikes against Serbian targets,
while the U.N. Security Council issued a call for an immediate cease-fire
and the withdrawal of government forces from Kosovo. In a harrowing
massacre of civilians, 19 ethnic Albanians, mostly women, children
and elderly, are believed to have been executed by Serbian police units.
August
Serbian forces captured the rebel stronghold of Junik, driving ethnic
Albanian fighters from their logistical and weapons distribution center.
Meanwhile, a sweeping government offensive against the guerrillas begun
in mid-July displaced thousands more ethnic Albanians, who were forced
to
flee their homes.
June
U.S. special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke met with President Milosevic
in Yugoslavia and threatened use of NATO intervention in the conflict
in Kosovo, and also talked with the commander of the separatist Kosovo
Liberation Army. Holbrooke left after unsuccessfully brokering a cease-fire
agreement.
May
The "contact group" agreed to ease sanctions on Yugoslavia after President
Slobodan Milosevic began talks with ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova
on a political settlement. Rugova called off further negotiations June
6 as violence escalated.
April
In an effort to diffuse another Balkans war, the six-nation "contact
group," charged with implementing peace in the Balkans, announced they
will impose sanctions on Yugoslavia unless President Slobodan Milosevic
withdraws his security police and opens unconditional talks on Kosovo's
future.
February/March
Serbian police and special forces launched a massive assault on ethnic
Albanian rebels throughout Kosovo. Homes were burned in
Lausha and Donji Prekaz, as police continued raids on the
Drenica region that left 5,000 homeless and several dead.
1996
February/March
The Kosovo Liberation Army, a rebel group of ethnic Albanians fighting
for an independent Kosovo, claimed responsibility for a series of violent
attacks and triggered warfare with Serbian troops that forced thousands
to flee into neighboring Albania.
1995
The presidents of Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia initialed a U.S.-sponsored
peace settlement for Bosnia, pledging to bring to an end a fratricidal
three-year war that caused the deaths of nearly a quarter of a million
people.
1992
October
Ethnic Albanian and Serb leaders held peace talks for the first time
in three years.
May
Writer Ibrahim Rugova was elected president of Kosovo in semi-clandestine
elections.
April
Days after the European Community recognized Bosnia as an independent
state,
Bosnian Serbs announced the creation of their own independent state
within Bosnia. The ensuing three-year war between Muslims, Bosnian Croats
and Bosnian Serbs engulfed the region.
1991
October
The parliament of
Bosnia-Hercegovina adopted a declaration of sovereignty. Bosnian
Serbs boycotted a national referendum that approved the measure in 1992
and launched attacks on Muslim towns.
June
Driven by nationalist fervor that swept the region after the collapse
of communism,
Slovenia and Croatia formally declared themselves to be sovereign
and independent states. The declaration touched off the Croatian civil
war that pitted Croats against Serbs, backed by Yugoslavia's army, and
eventually spread into neighboring Bosnia by 1992.
1990
December
President Milosevic won a resounding victory and the former Communist
Party retained its power following Serbia's
first free election in half a century.
July
Serbia dissolved the Kosovo government after ethnic Albanian deputies
in Kosovo's parliament declared
independence.
1989
May
Milosevic was named president of Serbia, the largest of Yugoslavia's
six republics, including Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and
Slovenia.
March
The Serbian National Assembly ratified constitutional changes in March
that returned Kosovo's judiciary and police to Serbian control.
Rioting in the province followed, killing more than 20 people.
1987
Feeding off the resentment, political rising star
Slobodan Milosevic sparked nationalism by promising Serbs they would
reclaim Kosovo. In September, Milosevic became leader of the powerful
Serbian Socialist (formerly Communist) Party.
1980
Yugoslavia's Communist President Marshal Tito died. During his 35-year
rule, he granted self-rule to Kosovo, which is 90 percent ethnic Albanian,
and Vojvodina – Serbia's two provinces – a move that stirred resentment
among Serbs.
© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
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