Serbia: Declaration of independence by Kosovo - timeline
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Timeline
- January 2008. Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the extreme nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), who had campagined against granting independence to Kosovo, won the first round of presidential elections. The elections are seen as a test of Serbians' readiness to put integration with the EU ahead of sovereignty over the disputed province of Kosovo. Incumbent president Tadic had advocated pursuing EU integration even at the cost of losing Kosovo.
- December 2007. Aleksandar Simic, an adviser to Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, in a reference to Kosov, warns that Serbian interests would be "defended by war". The UN diplomatic initiative announces that it has failed to broker a compromise settlement between Kosovan separatists and the Serbian government.
- November 2007. The Kosovan electorate gives a slim electoral victory to the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), led by former ethnic Albanian guerrilla leader Hashim Thaci, who promises to declare full independence immediately.
- October 2007. After talks in Vienna (the capital of Austria), Serbian negotiators achieve a UN-brokered independence plan that does not mention Kosovo as a sovereign nation; Kosovan negotiators condemn the omission.
- August 2007. Envoys from the EU, Russia, and the USA (the so-called troika) launch a new diplomatic effort to forge a compromise agreement on the disputed Serbian province of Kosovo.
- November 2006. The Assembly of Serbia (the legislature) adopts a controversial new constitution that defines Kosovo as "an autonomous province of Serbia with significant autonomy", despite its status as a UN-run protectorate.
- September 2006. Kole Berisha, speaker of Kosovo’s Assembly (the legislature), threatens "citizens’ revolts" if the disputed region’s aim of independence is not realised.
- June 2006. Montenegro secedes from its union with Serbia, becoming an independent country. The Serbian legislature approves the move.
- March 2006. Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic dies in his cell at the detention centre of the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands.
- February 2006. Serbian and ethnic Albanian negotiators attended a first round of "final status talks" on Kosovo.
- May 2005. A mass grave is discovered, thought to contain the bodies of Serbs killed by ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
- June 2004. Pro-western former Minister of Defence Boris Tadic wins presidential elections held in Serbia.
- March 2003. Pro-western Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is assassinated in Belgrade (the capital of Serbia).
- February 2003. The former Yugoslav republics of Serbia and Montenegro adopt a new constitution. The Kosovo Assembly opposes the new union and instead prepares to declare Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state.
- February 2002. The trial of Milosevic opens at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. Milosevic stands trial for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes
- April 2001. Milosevic is arrested and imprisoned in Belgrade to stand trial for war crimes.
- May 2001. The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) unveils a constitutional framework for self-government in Kosovo.
- November 1999. Attacks on Kosovo's Serb population continue.
- June 1999. The UN Security Council passes Resolution 1244, under which Kosovo becomes an autonomous region within Serbia under EU and UN administration.
- June 1999. President Milosevic accepts a ceasefire and allows the entry into Kosovo of an international peacekeeping force (K-For).
- May 1999. NATO forces continue a series of air strikes against Serbian targets as Milosevic refuses to accept NATO's demands. China protests after its embassy in Belgrade is struck, killing 4, by mistake by US forces.
- May 1999. The International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague indicts Milosevic on charges of war crimes in Kosovo.
- April 1999. Milosevic accepts a peace plan brokered by President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY--the so-called "rump" Yugolsavia comprising only Serbia and Montenegro, following the secession of the other former Yugoslav republics) and NATO sign Military Technical Agreements.
- March 1999. NATO begins 78-day bombing campaign on military targets within FRY.
- January 1999. The bodies of 45 ethnic Albanian civilians are discovered in the village of Racak.
- October 1998. After weeks of intense diplomatic pressure and threats of NATO military action, Milosevic agrees to allow an unarmed Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) observer force into Kosovo.
- September 1998. The UN Security Council approves Resolution 1199, insisting that "security units used for civilian repression" should be withdrawn by FRY.
- July 1998. FRY armed forces launch a successful battle for control of Orahovac, a town 60 km south of Pristina (the capital of Kosovo), defeating the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK).
- April 1998. FRY military units begin a campaign of ethnic cleansing with mass shootings, razing of villages, and the expulsion of Albanians from the environs of Mitrovica and the Drini Valley.
- March 1998. The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1160, imposing an arms embargo against FRY.
- February 1998. Four Serbian police officers are shot dead in Likosane by the UCK; Serbian paramilitary forces launch a violent crackdown in response to the Likosane killings.
- December 1995. The leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Croatia sign "the Peace Agreement on Bosnia-Hercegovina" (the Dayton accords), agreeing to end the war that had lasted over 3 years.
- December 1993. Six EU member states recognise the independence of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). At Greek insistence, the country is not allowed to call itself simply Macedonia.
- September 1993. Albanian-language schools in Kosovo are closed.
- October 1992. The UN Security Council votes unanimously to establish a war crimes commission to examine evidence of "grave breaches of international humanitarian law" in the former Yugoslavia.
- April 1992. The FRY is formed from the only two remaining Yugoslav republics: Serbia and Montenegro, acknowledging the independence of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia.
- August 1991. Slovenia’s and Croatia’s declarations of independence spur fighting between the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) and the armed forces of the new proclaimed republics.
- December 1990. Elections in Yugoslav republics clear the way for negotiations on a new configuration of powers among the parts of the country.
- August 1990. Serbia's new constitution abolishes most attributes of statehood which the 1974 Yugoslav federal constitution had granted to the provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina.
- July 1990. In a referendum mainly boycotted by non-Serbs, a majority of Serbs approve proposals for a new constitution for Serbia, which would downgrade Kosovo’s autonomous status within Serbia. A group of 114 ethnic Albanian delegates to the Kosovo Assembly assert they will declare independence from Serbia.
- May 1990. The Collective State Presidency of Yugoslavia issues a warning directed at Slovenia and Croatia that a "serious breakdown of the system established by the Constitution" and "disregard for existing federal laws" meant that Yugoslavia had entered a critical period of instability.
- March 1989. The Serbian constitution is altered to give the central authorities control over the internal affairs of Kosovo; almost 30 people are killed in subsequent riots and unrest.
- March 1988. The demographic balance in Kosovo shifts towards the ethnic Albanian population. The Albanian birthrate is three times higher than Yugoslavia as a whole and thousands of Serbs and Montenegrins flee the province, claiming they have been chased out.
- September 1982. Mass arrests of ethnic Albanians are made for alleged activities against the state.
- March 1981. Severe civil disturbances break out between ethnic Albanians and Serbian security forces. The Yugoslav authorities attribute the riots to foreign influence, while the Albanian authorities criticise the Yugoslav government’s policies towards ethnic minorities.
- September 1980. President Tito dies at the age of 87.
- March 1975. Student demonstrators in Pristina are arrested after calling for unification with Albania.
- January 1974. Kosovo gains some autonomy under a new Yugoslav constitution.
- July 1948. The Cominform expels the Yugoslav communist party after accusing Marshal Tito's government of "anti-Soviet" ideology, and of issuing "slanderous propaganda" about the degeneration of the Soviet Union.
- August 1945. Josip Broz Tito rejects the monarchy led by King Peter II.
- August 1941. Yugoslavia is partitioned by the Axis Powers. Italy annexes territory including Slovenia and Kosovo.
- April 1941. Nazi Germany captures Croatia and grants it independence.
- October 1934. Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia, and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou are killed by a Croat assassin in Marseilles, France.
- November 1920. In the aftermath of World War I, Yugoslavia (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes) is formed out of constituent parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia.
