2023 marks 25 years since the conflict started in February 1998

By Payton Davis

That the Kosovo War left a lot of loose ends is an understatement.

This year marks 25 years since the beginning of the conflict, and the ramifications of the war are still impacting some of today’s international skirmishes. These include the current situation in Serbia and Kosovo, where shots were fired as recently as December 2022, according to Celeste Beesley, an assistant professor of political science at BYU.

Tyler Pack, University of Utah political science traveling professor, called the legacy of the war “very present” in the region.

“There’s a lot of mistrust,” Pack said. “The war’s legacy flares up when political actors use it to make a point.”

Beesley said the war and its aftermath have been impactful for Russia and President Vladimir Putin, in particular.

“Putin has cited this war as justification for Russia’s actions in Ukraine, in 2014, more so than 2022,” Beesley said. “Since NATO and the U.S. could use force to help Kosovo gain independence, he argues that it is also permissible and precedented for Russia to help Crimea and the Donbas to separate from Ukraine.”

So what happened from February 1998 to June 1999 in Serbia and its then autonomous province of Kosovo? And what do the events mean for today?

Here are the answers to common questions about the Kosovo War.

Where did the war happen?

By early 1998, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia included just the republics of Serbia and Montenegro. This situation followed a decade that saw former Yugoslav republics Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia leave Yugoslavia and become sovereign nations.

Kosovo was a province in the southwest of Serbia. Kosovo was based on administrative lines drawn during the Yugoslav era and is majority ethnic Albanian, Beesley said.

Kosovo is located in the center of the Balkan region of southeast Europe.

What were causes of the war?

Amid repression by the Yugoslav government, ethnic Albanians comprising a majority of Kosovo’s population sought the independence of the province. Serbia opposed this push for independence.

https://www.deseret.com/2023/2/25/23590279/kosovo-war-anniversary-what-happened