But
all that started to change in the late 1980s, when Serb-Albanian relations
in Kosovo began to deteriorate. In the Yugoslavia of Marshal Tito,
Kosovo was a self-governing province, and Kosovars of all ethnicities
enjoyed substantial autonomy. Tito's brand of "socialism and brotherhood"
kept ethnic relations in the province relatively civil and peaceful.
After
Tito's death in 1980, and the rise of nationalism throughout the former
Yugoslavia, Kosovar Serbs began to protest discrimination at the hands
of the ethnic Albanian authorities. Albanians comprised approximately
85 percent of Kosovo's population. As Slobodan Milosevic climbed the
political ranks in the late 1980, from head of the communist party
in Belgrade to President of Serbia, he seized on these grievances,
as well as the centuries-old myth of Kosovo as the Serbian heartland,
to create an image of himself as the defender of Serbian minorities
throughout Yugoslavia. In 1989 Milosevic abolished Kosovo's autonomy,
re-asserted Serbian direct rule, and purged ethnic Albanians from
jobs in government and education. Kosovar Albanians were prohibited
from buying or selling property without permission and sales of property
to Albanians by departing Serbs were annulled. A powerful police presence
enforced Belgrade's control. Kosovar Albanians responded by declaring
an independent state and establishing their own parallel structures.
They elected a parliament, collected funds to pay for schools and
health care, and refused to take part in Serbian elections.
By
1997, Kosovo had become a tinderbox. The Serb police - MUP - were
responsible for serious human rights violations, including illegal
detentions, beatings, and torture. Political trials were commonplace.
Meanwhile, Albanians were growing increasingly restless and frustrated
that their peaceful resistance was not bearing fruit. A small militant
group called the Kosovo Liberation Army (Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves,
or UCK), formed in the early 1990s, began to attack police stations
with greater frequency. The police responded with indiscriminate and
excessive force, which swelled the ranks of the nascent insurgency.
By 1998, the KLA was gaining control in parts of the Kosovar countryside,
kidnapping and killing Serb civilians and ambushing Serb patrols.
The government's retaliation was fierce: the Serbian police and later
the Yugoslav Army swept through villages thought to be harboring KLA
guerrillas, destroying homes and burning crops. By mid-October 1998,
over 298,000 Kosovars - approximately fifteen percent of the population
- had been displaced within Kosovo or had left the province.
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