Oh, Kosovo…

When the land of Kosovo was given to the Kingdom of Serbia in 1917, it was immediately clear that the union of such ethnically diverse people was going to lead to internal conflict. The Albanian population of Kosovo was opposed to its union with the Slavic people and questioned why they were not permitted to join the independent Albanian nation. . The Serbs value the land of Kosovo because of its importance to them as their ancestral homeland and the region in which many Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries are located. In the 1980s the Serbs claimed that the Albanians in Kosovo were persecuting them and grew to resent the Albanian population. At the same time, Slovenes and Croats became irritated that money from tourism in their regions was being used to support the poorer Kosovo region. The Albanian people were oppressed by the Serbs beginning in the 1990s when the Albanian language was outlawed the ethnically Albanian citizens of Kosovo were denied basic human rights. The United States and most members of the European Union see this continued oppression of a legitimate justification of the Kosovo War as well as the eventual Kosovo declaration of independence in 2008.
The current situation in Kosovo has gained international attention and has necessitated the presence of peacekeeping forces. International military intervention is ongoing in Kosovo in an attempt to maintain a nonviolent coexistence between the Albanian majority and the Serbian minority at the ground level. Throughout 1998 to 1999 Yugoslavian forces and the Kosovo Albanian rebels were in conflict until NATO forces attacked Yugoslavia in 1999 with the main goal of eliminating the Serbian present and bringing peace to the region. In addition to ground level peacekeeping efforts, the majority of the international community seeks to promote international recognition of Kosovo independence.