Kosovo8

Kosovo Period 8

**1980** **1981**- Albanian student demonstrations turn violent and force Serbs and Montenegrins out of the province (SOCIAL)
 * 1945-1960s** - Repression of Albanians in Kosovo by the secret police. (SOCIAL)
 * 1946 -** The Yugoslav constitution does not grant territorial autonomy to Kosovo. (POLITICAL)
 * 1953** - The 1953 Yugoslavian constitution reduces autonomy for Kosovo with repression of Albanians taking place. (POLITICAL)
 * 1956** - A resurgence of Albanian nationalism occurs. (SOCIAL)
 * 1963** - The 1963 Yugoslavian constitution reduces the autonomy of Kosovo even further by placing it under Serbian rather than Federal authority. (POLITICAL)
 * 1967** – **Joseph Tito** (1892 – 1980) makes his first visit to Kosovo and purges Serbian centralist Alexander Rankovic from power. (POLITICAL)
 * 1968** - The first demonstrations for independence by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo occur. Many are arrested. (POLITICAL/SOCIAL)
 * 1974** - The Yugoslav constitution recognizes the autonomous status of Kosovo, giving the province de facto self-government. (POLITICAL)
 * 1978** - A centennial celebration of the first League of Prizren is held and causes a resurgence of Albanian nationalism and a reduction of loyalty to the unified Yugoslav state. (SOCIAL)
 * May 4 - Tito dies. (POLITICAL)
 * Albanian riots strike Kosovo. (SOCIAL)
 * 1989** - Serbia's new constitution limits Kosovo. (POLITICAL)
 * 1990**
 * July- Ethnic Albanian leaders declare independence from Serbia (SOCIAL)
 * 1992**- Albanian majority votes to separate from Serbia and Yugoslavia and wants to join with Albania (POLITICAL)
 * U.S. president George Bush warns that if Serbia attacks Kosovo they will use force (POLITICAL)
 * Ibrahim Rugova is elected president of the self-proclaimed republic (Kosovo) (POLITICAL)
 * 1995** - Kosovo's ethnic Albanians form the Kosovo Liberation Army. (POLITICAL)
 * 1997**- A small militant group, The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) starts killing Serb policemen and others that work with the Serbs. They ban Serbs from certain areas. (SOCIAL/POLITICAL)
 * 1998**
 * February- troops are sent into the areas controlled by the KLA, killing men, women and children and destroying property. Riots begin in the capital and turn into a guerrilla war and rioters want to have an ethnic cleansing of the Serbs (SOCIAL)
 * May- Talk of peace for the first time, Albanian side boycotts further meetings. (POLITICAL)
 * July & August- KLA seizes control of 40 percent of Kosovo, but is defeated by the Serbs (POLITICAL)
 * September- Serb forces attack central Kosovo, 22 Albanians found murdered. U.N. council calls for cease fire. (POLITICAL/SOCIAL)
 * December- Yugoslav troops kill 36 KLA rebels. Six Serbs killed in a cafe, Serbs start protests. (POLITICAL)
 * 1999**
 * January 29- Western allies demand both sides to attend Kosovo peace conference or face NATO airstrikes. (POLITICAL)
 * February 6-17- Serbs refuse NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo (POLITICAL)
 * March 13- Daytime bombs kill several people. Serbs and Albanians blame each other (SOCIAL)
 * March 15- Ethnic Albanians agree to talk of peace (POLITICAL)
 * March 18- Kosovo Albanians sign peace deal with NATO. Serbs refuse to sign (POLITICAL)
 * March 19- Talks suspended. (POLITICAL)
 * March 24- NATO launches airstrikes. (POLITICAL)
 * May 27- The United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal indicts Milosevic as a war criminal. (POLITICAL)
 * June 9- Yugoslav and NATO agree to withdrawal of Serb troops from Kosovo (POLITICAL)
 * June 10- Yugoslavia begins to withdraw its security forces from Kosovo. (POLITICAL)
 * June 12 - Russian troops arrive in Kosovo's provincial capital of Pristina to help the Serbs. (POLITICAL)
 * June 18- In an agreement signed in Helsinki, Finland, by Russian and U.S. leaders, Russian troops will take part in KFOR, serving with German, American and French Forces. (POLITICAL)
 * 2002**
 * February- **Ibrahim Rugova** is elected president (POLITICAL)
 * 2004**
 * March – worst case of violence between Ethnic Albanians and Serbs since 1999 (SOCIAL)
 * October- President Rugova's Democratic League wins 47 out of 120 seats in parliament. Serbs boycott vote (POLITICAL)
 * December- Parliament re-elects President Rugova (POLITICAL)
 * 2005**
 * February- Serbian President Boris Tadic promises to defend rights of Serbs in Kosovo. (POLITICAL/SOCIAL)
 * 2006**
 * January - President Rugova dies in Pristina to lung cancer and is succeeded in February by Fatmir Sejdiu. (POLITICAL)
 * July – In Vienna the first direct talks since 1999 take place between ethnic Serbian and Kosovan leaders on Kosovo (POLITICAL)
 * October- Voters in Serbia approve a new constitution that declares Kosovo a part of the country. Kosovo's Albanian majority boycotts (POLITICAL)
 * 2008**
 * February 17- Kosovo declares independence, Serbia calls the declaration illegal. (POLITICAL/SOCIAL)
 * April- Parliament adopts new constitution. (POLITICAL)