Reconciliation in Kosovo: A Few Steps Taken, a Long Road Ahead
Publisher: ECMI Volume: 21 pages, pdf Description: It has been over a decade since the 1999 conflict in Kosovo, which is estimated to have cost around 10,000 lives (Judah, 2008: 91), with around 3,000 Albanians and 800 Serbs and Roma subject to enforced disappearances and abductions (Amnesty International, 2009: 3).A staggering 848,100 Albanians were expelled from the country and many more were internally displaced, while an estimated 180,000 Serbs and Roma left Kosovo in the immediate aftermath of the bombing campaign by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (UNHCR, 1999: 11). Since then, unprecedented international attention and funds have gone into “solving” the dispute in order to prevent a repetition of past mistakes in Europe’s backyard. Efforts have been made to reconcile the conflicting parties and thus to break the cycle of violence and hatred.