Persecution of non-Albanians, mostly Serbs, by Kosovo Albanian groups occurred during and after the 1998-1999 Kosovo War.[1][2][3]
The United Nations Special Representative for Kosovo and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Lamberto Zannier, has warned that a lack of reconciliation between the communities in Kosovo, coupled with economic difficulties, posed a "risk of social unrest".[4]
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Carla Del Ponte, a long-time ICTY chief prosecutor claimed in her book The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals that there were instances of organ trafficking in 1999. According to the book about 300 non-Albanians, mostly ethnic Serbs, were kidnapped and transferred to Albania in 1999 where their organs were extracted.[5] These allegations were denied by Kosovan and Albanian authorities. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had said of Del Ponte's allegations: "The Tribunal is aware of very serious allegations of human organ trafficking raised by the former Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, in a book recently published in Italian under her name. No evidence in support of such allegations was ever brought before the Tribunal's judges."[6]
The Human Rights Watch called Del Ponte's allegations "serious and credible" and issued a public call to Tirana and Pristina for cooperation.[7]
A Serbian newspaper, Večernje Novosti, published photos in 2003 of men in Kosovo Liberation Army uniforms holding decapitated heads. According to the paper, the crimes were committed in April 1999, during the Kosovo War.[8][9]
The notorious Gnjilane Group was active in Gnjilane, committing brutal crimes and murders against ethnic Serbs during June-October 1999, after the KFOR had arrived.
The Kosovo Organ Theft is an atrocity of systematic organ theft and killing of at least 300 ethnic Serbs during and after the Kosovo War in 1999, committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army.[10][11]
The 2008 unrest in Kosovo follows Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence on February 17, 2008.
The day after Kosovo's declaration of independence two bombs in the flashpoint town of Kosovska Mitrovica damaged several UN vehicles, though there were no injuries.[12] After several attacks in northern Kosovska Mitrovica an advance team of the EU administrative force withdrew over security concerns.[13] On March 3, 2008, a sniper fired two bullets at a UN office in the northern half of Kosovska Mitrovica without any injuries reported.[14]
On March 28, 2008, a police checkpoint manned by Serb officers came under fire in northern Kosovo apparently from a semi-automatic weapon fired from the ethnic Albanian village of Košutovo, north of the town of Kosovska Mitrovica and the officers returned fire. No injuries were reported.[15]
Several Serbian cultural and religious sites have been vandalized in 2010. Including:
Other incidents include:
