Trading with the enemy in Mitrovica, Kosovo. - RUhosting

Albanians reacted to these new policies in several ways. First, as we've seen, there were mass protests but
these did not lead to anything. A political reaction soon followed: they formed a parallel state. “...on 2 July
[1990] 114 out of the 123 Albanian members of the assembly did meet, gathering in the street outside the
locked-up assembly building, and passed a resolution declaring Kosovo 'an equal and independent entity
within the framework of the Yugoslav federation'” -Malcolm, 2002
When Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence of Yugoslavia this aim for a republic was dropped
and changed into an aim for an independent state. This shadow state was well organised, and managed to
receive voluntary taxes from most Albanians and even held elections in private houses creating a new
republican assembly and government. Dr. Ibrahim Rugova from the 'Democratic League of Kosovo' became
the president of this movement and its policies were threefold: to prevent violent revolt, to seek international
political involvement and to systematically deny the legitimacy of Serbian rule (Malcolm, 2002).
Meanwhile a war was raging in Bosnia, with heavy involvement from Serbia. This war affected Kosovo in
several ways. Milošević economic mismanagement - including printing money to pay his troops - led to an
extreme inflation. The international economic boycott against Serbia and Montenegro made the economic
situation even worse. As a result of this, a criminalisation of the economy took place, with trade in foreign
goods and hard money taken over by Mafia-style gangs (Malcolm, 2002).
When the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina ended, no solution was found for Kosovo yet, despite Rugova's
international efforts. This was severely damaging to Rugova's reputation because he promised his people for
years they had to be patient until the international community would impose a final settlement on the former
Yugoslavia. One year after Dayton the first Albanian attacks on Serbs begun.
“For many years the Serb media had referred to Albanian 'terrorism', usually meaning students throwing
stones; now, for the first time since the Serb clampdown of 1989-90, there were signs of genuine terrorist
activities. Several attacks took place from the summer of 1996 onwards, including the shooting of two
policemen in Mitrovica, a bomb blast in Podujevo and an attack on the Serb Rector of Prishtina University”
-Malcolm, 2002
At first, no one claimed responsibility but a year after the first attacks an organisation that called itself the
'Kosovo Liberation Army' (KLA) claimed to have been behind some of the recent attacks on Serbian
policemen. The KLA was at first a very small organisation formed by Kosovo Albanian radicals 5
but as the
conflict developed it expanded and also gained more popular support (field notes).
5
International Crisis Group. Conflict History: Kosovo. visited on 05-08-2009.
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?action=conflict_search&l=1&t=1&c_country=58
34