Time for eULeX To prioriTize war crimes - Amnesty International ...

Kosovo: Time for EULEX to prioritize war crimes 7
3. BACKGROUND: WAR IN KOSOVO
In 1999 Kosovo was a province of the Republic of Serbia, which was then a republic within
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). 2 The majority of the population were Kosovo
Albanians, while Kosovo Serbs made up only between 5-8 per cent; other smaller minority
groups included Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, Turks, Bosniaks and Gorani.
In 1989, the Serbian government had revoked Kosovo’s autonomous status, but in 1991,
following a referendum, boycotted by Kosovo Serbs and not recognized by the FRY
authorities, Kosovo Albanians declared independence. There followed almost a decade of
systematic human rights violations against Kosovo Albanians primarily by the Serbian police. 3
By the mid-1990s the Kosovo Albanians’ strategy of non-violent resistance and parallel
institutions, under the leadership of Ibrahim Rugova, was increasingly challenged by some
Kosovo Albanians who began to take up arms against Serbian forces. In 1998 the frequency
and intensity of human rights violations perpetrated by FRY and Serbian security forces and
paramilitaries primarily against Kosovo Albanians increased.
By March 1998 a non-international armed conflict had erupted in Kosovo, between members
of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and other armed groups that had formed to fight for an
independent Kosovo, and FRY forces, Serb police and paramilitary groups. During this period
ethnic Albanian civilians were subjected to arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment,
unlawful killings and other deliberate and indiscriminate attacks. By June 1998 an estimated
60,000 ethnic Albanians had fled or been forced from their homes and were either internally
displaced in Kosovo or seeking international protection. Kosovo Serb civilians were also
abducted, and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment and deliberate killings by armed
ethnic Albanian groups including the KLA.
In early 1999, the international community, including the US authorities, facilitated a series
of meetings that aimed to broker an agreement on resolving the conflict. Following the failure
of talks in early 1999 at Rambouillet in France, which sought agreement between the FRY
and representatives of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians, NATO commenced a bombing campaign
against FRY forces, Serb police and paramilitaries with the declared aim of preventing a
humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo. From 24 March to 10 June 1999 the NATO air
campaign against the FRY, codenamed Operation Allied Force, conducted over 38,000
combat sorties, including 10,484 strike sorties, against targets in Serbia proper, the
provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina and the Republic of Montenegro, then part of the FRY. 4
The military intervention of NATO meant there was an international armed conflict between
NATO members and FRY forces, alongside the non-international armed conflict between FRY
forces and the KLA.
Human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law by FRY military
forces, Serb police and paramilitary groups increased during the NATO bombing campaign,
and hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians and members of minority communities fled
Kosovo into Albania and Macedonia, or were displaced inside Kosovo.
Index: EUR 70/004/2012 Amnesty International April 2012