The Kosovo (Yugoslavia) VS NATO War?

Question

I am doing a case study for Geography on Migration. I have researched, and found out that many refugees from Kosovo are fleeing to Canada and other nearby countries due to the war against NATO.
My question is.. that I do not understand the war itself. Why are they fighting? "Who" exactly is fighting against who? That is waht is confusing me. NATO is made up of a lot of countries, and apparantly so is Yugoslavia and it's republics.
Could anyone clarify this for me?

I am talking about the genocide, and the war versus Kosova pretty much. And serbia, albanians.. etc.

Answer 1

The problem with explaining this is that I have no idea how much you know already. The issue is quite complicated and is a matter of critical judgment, for example of how genocide is defined, etc., since it is a political term, specially with several factors in the cause and effect form escalating the situation in Kosovo.

The good old Yugoslavia is composed today of six countries.

Imagine Kosovo, part of Serbia, where you have Muslim, Serb and some minorities population.

The Muslims are Albanians who had come from Albania, Muslims of Albanian origin who have lived in Kosovo since longer, and Serbs who have converted in Muslims (under Turks) and consider themselves Albanians.

The Serbs are Orthodox.

The Serbs are constitutive nation of Serbia. They are the constitutive majority, while the Albanians are constitutive minority, despite demographic numbers.

Kosovo is province of Serbia, but it has had too many constitutive rights which were given during the reign of president Tito. The Serbs have revoked this autonomy into an autonomy existing before 1974.

There has been a demographic shift between the Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. At the beginning of the XX century the population was roughly 50% - 50%. This was due to several factors.

Because of historical reasons, the Albanian and Serb population have not been friendly to each other, besides being of different religion. The secession movement was growing, specially being nourished by Tito who wanted weak Serbia and wanted to drive Kosovo toward Albania. When Tito died, the Kosovo Albanians intensified the independence activity and there were terrorist acts aimed toward policemen, pro Serbian Albanians and Serbs. In 1989 the autonomy of 1974 was revoked by Milosevic. The Albanian independence movement was becoming more popular amongst Albanian population, which was followed by police repression which then again escalated the situation into an independence movement supported pretty much by the entire Albanian population.

At one point, the Albanian terrorist movement, which became supported by NATO at one point, grew so strong that the Yugoslav Military came in. The YM was coordinating with OSCE, but the OSCE was pushing the situation into war and this drew the NATO bombing.

The international OSCE which was monitoring the hostilities prior to NATO bombing, was biased against the Serb government. Basically, USA was manipulating the international political streams. Head of OSCE was CIA agent in Honduras some decades prior to Kosovo. He scened the famous Racak incident upon which NATO gave an pre war ultimatum to Serbia.

In the meantime, there was civilian displacement because of the war between terrorist KLA and Yugoslav Military, but the NATO bombing intensified the flow of refugees and the appearance of atrocities as result of the escalation of the war.

Thus, there as no genocide, but there were certainly war crimes on both sides like in every war.

Milosevic was a brutal leader. The Albanian leaders wanted independence. Still, the two nations could have found a way to coexist if it hadn't been for outer factors pushing these two nationalities into war. The outer factor was and still is USA. It all comes up to their agenda. They are the ones who control the relevant streams in the political world, except for Security Council, Russia and some other countries…

Must be said that the Albanian lobby in USA, which has gotten rich from the heroin business, has been financing into the USA senators in congress, where all the decisions are made…That is what makes the world go round…

It is political judgment whether the people ran away from war caused by NATO or they ran away from the bombing of NATO. People just run away from death.

Depleted uranium brought to the innocent Albanian and Serb population by NATO warheads, will bring many more deaths in the following decades, perhaps longer...

Btw. there is no such thing as "war against NATO." It's NATO against those who oppose it. No one wants to fight NATO, just that at times (rather say frequently) NATO crosses the political line.

Answer 2

There is no Yugoslavia. Montenegro declared its independence, so there is Serbia and the other nations whih made up the Yugoslav Federation are all independent of the government in Belgrade.
In 1989, Slobodan Milosevic, the President of Yugoslavia, visited a site which is considered "holy soil" by the Serbs. It is called Kosovo Pole and it is on the outskirts of Pristina, the provincial capital of Kosovo. His visit coincided with the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo Pole. A battle from which the Serbs mark their nationality. During his speech he said that the government in Belgrade was ending the semi-autonomous status of Kosovo. This led to unrest in the province and manifested itself in genocidal actions being taken by Serb against ethnic Albanians (who made up the bulk of Kosovo's population) and vice versa.
At the urging of the United States, NATO began offensive military operations against Serbia, including a bombing campaign in and around Belgrade, designed to topple the Milosevic regime. That regime did collapse and Milosevic was spirited off to the Hague in the Netherlands to stand trial for war crimes. He died of natural causes before his trial could be completed.
NATO forces remain in Kosovo under authority of the UN Security Council which passed a resolution of peace enforcement under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter. The UN has also brokered an arrangement whereby Kosovo will become independent of the rest of Serbia. That agreement is set to take place this month. There are fears that Serbia may launch military actions designed to stop that agreement from coming into force. Especially if the sanctity of Kosovo Pole cannot be guaranteed.
Because of the ongoing tensions, many Albanians have fled the Balkans (including Kosovo). In so doing they have taken advantage of liberal asylum laws in Western Europe and Canada. This is placing strains on the social assistance programs in many of those nations. In addition, the demographics of Western Europe are changing with the influx of people from the east who are predominantly Muslim and settling in Catholic Europe.
I recommend you check out the below web site for the BBC World Service. You can keep up-to-date on the whole situation.

Answer 3

NATO vs Yugoslavia and Serbia, and some other Ex Soviet block states.

If the war you are talking about is the Balkans war then yeah Serbia wants control of Kosovo.
Albania and Bosnia want to be free of Serbia.

the Serbs were committing an ethnic cleansing aka genocide in the 90s.

clarify on which war you are talking about and i can help more.

Answer 4

It is the same thing that is going on in Iraq right now and what has been happening in Isreal forever. It is about religion and who was there first! They were characterised by bitter ethnic conflicts between the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats, Bosniaks or Albanians on the other; but also between Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia and Macedonians and Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia. The conflict had its roots in various underlying political, economic and cultural problems, as well as long-standing ethnic and religious tensions.

That is what it was originally about!

Answer 5

I'm a retired military officer and was there during that time working with NATO and trust me...this would require a lot of time to answer each part of your question.

It wasn't a "NATO VS Yugo" war, per se...there was more to it than that. There was torture and ethnic cleansing happening to a certain extent but I recommend you go to the below link for a "quick read". I wouldn't use wiki as the basis for your report however.

If you need some links to historically accurate information coming from both sides then feel free to email me from my profile page.

Good luck with your studies.

Answer 6

they are fleeing to Canada because of Canada's high quality of life and its open immigration politics.

originally the Kosovan Albanians formed the UCK /or in english KLA/ to fight against Serbs. Hard to say who shot the first shot of that war, but eventuall the Serbs got p****d and tried to push Albanians out of Kosovo.

For some reason, Kosovo is valuable for Serbs, like Gettysburg or the battlefields of the war on Liberty for Americans. Serbs once defeated a large scale turkish raid there and are proud of their history. that is why they will never let that piece of land to predominantly muslim population.

Answer 7

Most refugees, came out of the Former Yugoslavia long before the Nato Yugoslavia spat, years before when Serbia was ethnicly cleansing the Balkans there was a massive migration of people from the Balkans to Western Europe, the USA and Canada.

That particular war is long over, however in the case of the Serbian / Kosovo refugees who were granted the right of Asylum in G.B., seems the Home Office and the Department of Immigration managed to lose all 135,000 of them, many I believe headed to work in the potato fields of bonnie Scotland, and no doubt where the accents would blend in better with the locals hence the fact they never returned to their own country as life in the UK was to good for them.!!!!

Answer 8

This is how it all started:The Albanians started to develop ultra nationalist ideas about greater Albania.Which means that (among other territories) they want to take Kosovo from Serbia.So,they formed a rebel group-the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) which is actually a terrorist group.They even cooperated with Al Quaeda and the Mujaheddin.Anyway,they started commencing "hit&run" attacks on Serbian policemen and Serbian civilians on Kosovo.They burned many Serbian homes and churches.

This is how it continued:In answer to growing terrorist activity among Albanians,Serbian president,Slobodan Milosevic,sent special police and military units to Kosovo to estabilish peace and destroy the terrorists.Unfortunately,Albanians started drafting women and children into rebel ranks and they had no uniforms quite often,so they managed to present to the world how Serbs are actually killing albanian civilians.The Albanians also used to kill Serbian civilians,film them and then show them to the world as their own...On the other hand,Clinton,the american president of that time,was in problems with Lewinsky incident and he needed a war to turn the public attention from it.So,by March 1999. NATO (under constant insisting of the US) started a bombing campaign against Serbia.At first,they thought they will need 3 days to force Serbia to pull it's troops out of Kosovo,but three days came and passed and Serbs still didn't pull out.In fact,it turned out that Serbian army was a much greater force than expected.Between 65 and 80 NATO planes have been shot down by Serbian AA defenses,some helicopters also and around 300 cruising missiles.3 US soldiers have been captured and their humvee was captured by the Serbian army.The campaign was a disgrace for NATO and the US,because on the other hand Serbian army lost 3 or 2 tanks and less than 200 soldiers.About 2% of Serbian military potentials were destroyed in those 3 months of fighting,and NATO command expected to totally annihilate the Serbian army and (as someone said) "return it into medieval".

The end of the war:As the campaign didn't bring any harm to Serbian army,NATO changed tactics.They started bombing Serbian civilians,and by the end of the 3 month war,around 3500 Serbian civilians died.That forced Serbia to sign a peace treaty called resolution 1244.It said in the resolution that Serbian army will be allowed to return to Kosovo after some period,but now the whole west denies it.That shows that it was better for Serbs to keep fighting than sign a peace treaty that nobody respects.

CONCLUSION:The 1999. Kosovo war is armed conflict between Serbian armed forces on one side and NATO adn Albanian Kosovar rebels on the other side,that lasted from late March to 11. June 1999.


P.S.As for the ethnic cleansing and genocide,it is quite different than the western media likes to present.Before the 1999. Kosovo war the population of Kosovo was consisted of around 60% Albanians and 35% Serbs.However,after the war,the population is consisted of 90% Albanians and 10% Serbs.It is obvious who committed genocide over who.Albanians managed to finish their terrorist acts only because NATO and the US helped them.

Answer 9

Kosovo from ancient time was populated by Albanians, living in compact area, being always big majority of Kosovo population.Kosovo was a witness of lot of wars that are made in Kosovo himself or nearby, 'cause it was a crossroad of old Europe.Through Kosovo was passing famous road Via Egnatia, which connected Europe with Middle East.Romans, Kelt's, Slavs, Turks, Germans, Italians, Bulgarians... at some stages of history ruled with Kosovo, but even so Albanians were always BIG majority of Kosovo population. Nothing could change that, not even serbian very primitive genocide, Albanian roots were just too strong and too deep for any conqueror. Now, from all those conquerors, serbians think that Kosovo should belong to them (for reason known to them), while population of Kosovo think opposite, that Kosovo belongs to his inhabitants.Who is right and who is wrong in this matter? serbians showed to the world who they really are : primitive people who should change rapidly their behavior or be isolated from rest of the mankind. If you hate someone that much that you can't show it with your own words, just wish to him to have a serbians for first neighbor and believe me you wished his live to be like hell.

Answer 10

Yugoslavia was the strongest in the Balkan but no where near to the world's best. Now it's Serbia who has a lot of that Yugoslavian power since military equipment stayed in possession to them while the other's didn't really get anything. NATO only fought with planes, so we really can't say that the Serbs were much stronger. I thank the U.S. for helping Kosovo with independence but it's no BS that NATO targeted more buildings and companies in their own favor than actually fighting the army; which is why Serbs forces didn't have much losses after they were leaving Kosovo. If you think that those camouflaged tanks tricked NATO, then you really shouldn't, because I don't think a camouflaged tank would waste hundreds of bombs just like that.