Kosovo

Kosovo

Kosovo Map

Many people have only heard about Kosovo because of the 1999 conflicts in this region. In short, the United Nations decided to interfere in these conflicts in order to find a permanent solution for the (humanitarian) crisis in this region. Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan stated:

"The task before the international community
is to help the people in Kosovo to rebuild
their lives and heal the wounds of conflict."

Other aspects of these conflicts were the economical sanctions against Serbia and the bombing of strategic targets by NATO in Serbia.

Finally the UNMIK, United Nations Interim Administration Kosovo, was established after adoption of security council resolution 1244.

Both the UNMIK and the Serbian Government have websites with information about their policy regarding the future status of Kosovo. In short the question is, will Kosovo remain an autonomous part of the Republic of Serbia or will it become an independant country.

Website UNMIK
Website Serbian Government, Kosovo and Metohija

These pictures of Pristina, the Capital of the Kosovo region, were made recently. You can see that Pristina and the rest of Kosovo are recovering from above mentioned conflicts. Over the past 7 years the city grew very fast because many people resettled in the city. The infrastructural development could not keep up with this speed. Therefore Pristina deals with several problems like power shortages, environmental pollution and traffic jams in some of the smaller streets. The economic development is not going very fast and the unemployment rate is very high.

Pristina, Kosovo, center view

Pristina, Kosovo, right side new parlement building

Cigarettes, one Republic Serbia, other UNMIK tax seal

Orthodox church in Serbian enclave outside Pristina

Pristina traffic jams, not always a problem

Sunday evening, again no traffic in Pristina

Previous cultural youth center in Pristina, now under renovation

More info about Kosovo:

Kosovo-Metohija covers 10,849 square kilometres of the territory in the south-west of Serbia, with Pristina as its administrative, economic and cultural seat. There are 29 municipalities and five districts:

Pristina, Pec, Prizren, Kosovska Mitrovica and Gnjilane.

Landscape

There are some mountains, canyons and wide valleys. The rivers Binacka Morava, Lab and Beli Drim are crossing these valleys. The mountains on the Kosovo - Albanian borders are called the massif of Prokletije, on the Macedonia border you can find the Sar Planina mountain with the highest mountain peaks in Serbia (Djeravica and Crni Vrh). The countryside is mainly hilly and agricultural.

Population

In 1991, 1,956,196 people were living in Kosovo-Metohija, this is less than 20 percent of the total population on the Serbian territory. Besides from Albanians, there are Serbs, Rumanians, Montenegrins, Turkish, Croats and other ethnic minorities living in Kosovo-Metohija.