According to numerous ICTY verdicts and indictments, Serb and Croat forces performed ethnic cleansing of their territories planned by their political leadership to create ethnically pure states (Republika Srpska and Republic of Serbian Krajina by the Serbs; and Herzeg-Bosnia by the Croats).

In the report, the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina was singled out and described as a political objective of Serb nationalists who wanted to ensure control of territories with a Serb majority as well as “adjacent territories assimilated to them”.

Milosevic was a leader who deliberately created conflict between Serbians, Croatians and Muslim Bosniaks (the three main ethnic groups in the region). Milosevic, also called “The Butcher of the Balkans” took advantage of the ethnic tensions that would be the cause of the Bosnian War.

Starting in April 1992, Serbia set out to “ethnically cleanse” Bosnian territory by systematically removing all Bosnian Muslims, known as Bosniaks. Serbia, together with ethnic Bosnian Serbs, attacked Bosniaks with former Yugoslavian military equipment and surrounded Sarajevo, the capital city.

Examples of ethnic cleansing understood in this sense include the Armenian massacres by the Turks in 1915–16, the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews in the 1930s and ’40s, the expulsion of Germans from Polish and Czechoslovak territory after World War II, the Soviet Union’s deportation of certain ethnic minorities from …

Izbica massacre – Serbian forces killed about 93 Albanian civilians. Drenica massacre – there were 29 identified corpses discovered in a mass-grave, committed by Serbian law enforcement. Gornje Obrinje massacre – 18 corpses were found, but more people were slaughtered.

The dispute over Kosovo is centuries-old. Serbia cherishes the region as the heart of its statehood and religion. Numerous medieval Serb Orthodox Christian monasteries are in Kosovo. Serb nationalists view a 1389 battle against Ottoman Turks there as a symbol of its national struggle.

Why is Kosovo important for the Serbs? The land of Kosovo is where the Serbian nation started its existence. Some of the holiest shrines of the Serb Orthodox Church are there. The Serbs were defeated by the Ottoman Sultan Murad I in 1389, a battle which is still widely commemorated in Serbia.

Still, Gallup surveys revealed that 75% of Kosovo Albanians would prefer to live unified with Albania in a single country. In May 2019, president Hashim Thaçi suggested a referendum on the unification of Kosovo and Albania, if the slow integration process by the European Union does not accelerate.

Indeed, for the Serbs, Kosovo has long been the symbol of the moral apotheosis of the Serbian people, chosen by God as “the new Israel.” The Battle of Kosovo, on June 28, 1389, which precipitated the conquest of Serbia by the Ottoman Turks, came to be seen as the source of all the misfortune Serbia was to suffer during …

Kosovo conflict, (1998–99) conflict in which ethnic Albanians opposed ethnic Serbs and the government of Yugoslavia (the rump of the former federal state, comprising the republics of Serbia and Montenegro) in Kosovo.

The immediate cause of the conflict in Kosovo was Slobodan Milosevic, and his oppression of the ethnic Albanians there for the preceding decade. There, Serb forces attempted to fend off the invading Turks, with ethnic Albanians probably fighting on both sides of the battle.

On March 24, 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commences air strikes against Yugoslavia with the bombing of Serbian military positions in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

NATO’s intervention was prompted by Yugoslavia’s bloodshed and ethnic cleansing of Albanians, which drove the Albanians into neighbouring countries and had the potential to destabilize the region. The NATO bombing killed about 1,000 members of the Yugoslav security forces in addition to between 489 and 528 civilians.

Both Serbs and Albanians were killed in 90 Human Rights Watch-confirmed incidents in which civilians died as a result of NATO bombing. It reported that as few as 489 and as many as 528 Yugoslav civilians were killed in the NATO airstrikes.

Battle of Kosovo, Kosovo also spelled Kossovo, (June 28 [June 15, Old Style], 1389), battle fought at Kosovo Polje (“Field of the Blackbirds”; now in Kosovo) between the armies of the Serbian prince Lazar and the Turkish forces of the Ottoman sultan Murad I (reigned 1360–89) that left both leaders killed and ended in a …

For 78 days in 1999, NATO forces led by the United States bombed Yugoslavia, killing hundreds of its civilians and devastating its infrastructure. NATO spokesmen justified the bombardment as “humanitarian intervention” aimed at halting President Slobodan Milosevic’s “ethnic cleansing” of non-Serbs in Yugoslavia.

In the early 20th century Kosovo was incorporated into Serbia (later part of Yugoslavia). By the second half of the century, the largely Muslim ethnic Albanians outnumbered the predominantly Eastern Orthodox Serbs in Kosovo, and interethnic tensions frequently roiled the province.

While Serbia is pursuing European Union (EU) membership, unlike other Western Balkan partners, it does not aspire to join the Alliance. NATO fully respects Serbia’s policy of military neutrality.

NATO troops were subsequently deployed on the ground and remain there to this day. It should be noted, however, that the bombing was illegal. It was done without the authorisation of the UN Security Council.

The principle most frequently cited as a justification for NATO’s intervention is that there was an imminent ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ (Wheeler, 2000: 265), and that such serious and widespread oppression of Kosovar Albanians rendered external assistance necessary.

After attempts at a diplomatic solution failed, NATO intervened, justifying the campaign in Kosovo as a “humanitarian war”. This precipitated a mass expulsion of Kosovar Albanians as the Yugoslav forces continued to fight during the aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia (March–June 1999).

NATO has been leading a peace-support operation in Kosovo – the Kosovo Force (KFOR) – since June 1999. KFOR was established when NATO’s 78-day air campaign against Milosevic’s regime, aimed at putting an end to violence in Kosovo, was over.

Military. The United Kingdom participated in the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, which resulted in a UN administration of Kosovo. The United Kingdom currently has 84 troops serving in Kosovo as peacekeepers in the NATO led Kosovo Force. Originally there were 19,000 British troops in KFOR.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Britain will recognise the independence of Kosovo, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Monday. “The British government has decided to recognise Kosovo,” Miliband said following talks among EU foreign ministers in Brussels, a day after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.

In 1999, British soldiers deployed as a peacekeeping force to Kosovo in the western Balkans. Today, a small detachment still serves in the disputed country as part of a multi-national force helping to ensure security and stability.