Foreword
On February 17, 2008, Kosovo — a poor, predominantly Muslimregion of the former Yugoslavia— declared its independence from Serbia. The move marked a turningpoint in a long and bloody struggle for self-determination that escalated afterYugoslavia’scollapse and the death of its communist ruler, Josip Broz Tito, in 1980. Kosovo’spopulation of 2 million is 90 percent ethnic Albanian and 6 percent ethnicSerbs. The Albanians do not want to be a part of Serbia, a predominantly ChristianOrthodox nation; yet Serbians view Kosovo as their ancestral heartland and thecradle of their civilization. In 1989,Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic revoked Kosovo’s autonomy as a…
