Kosovo Serb Enclaves - History

History

According to the 1991 census in Yugoslavia, there were five municipalities with a Serb majority in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. Those were: Leposavić, Zvečan, Zubin Potok, Štrpce and Novo Brdo. The remaining municipalities had an Albanian majority. Other significant ethnic minority in Kosovo were Muslims by nationality (today mostly identify as Bosniaks), and Roma who did not form majority in any of the municipalities. The 1991 census was boycotted by most Albanians., and is generally seen as unreliable.

Prior to the 1999 Kosovo War, there were many more Serbs living in the territory of Kosovo. Many of them left in 1999, and some more left during the 2004 unrest, when cultural and architectural heritage of the Serb people was targeted, and as a result 35 churches, including 18 monuments of culture, were demolished, burnt or severely damaged. Estimates of the number of Serbs thus displaced range from 65,000 to 250,000 Only about 3.000 of them have returned since. Based on Serbian former Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija, 312 of 437 towns and villages in which Serbs lived were completely ethnically cleansed, and in the ensuing violence, more than 1.000 Serbs were killed, while 841 were kidnapped and 960 wounded.

Between 2000 and 2008, the UNMIK administration created eight new municipalities on the territory of Kosovo. Three of those new municipalities have ethnic Serb majority: Gračanica, Klokot-Vrbovac and Ranilug. This move is not recognized by the Government of Serbia. In 2008, the Community Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija was created to coordinate the efforts of the Serbian minority in Kosovo. There are some 120,000 Serbs in Kosovo, of whom about a third are in the north. They believe that if Kosovar government officials are deployed on the border, Kosovo will eventually take control of the north, which is now a de facto part of Serbia. Kosovo's Serbs, especially in the north, reject its independence.