Choose a category to read more about the people, the politics and places to visit [...]]]> I went to Kosovo in April 2008 and spent several weeks journeying to all corners of this newly independent state. You can read about my experiences there and more about the history, culture and politics of Kosovo on the following pages.

Choose a category to read more about the people, the politics and places to visit in Kosovo, or read on for a quick introduction to the country …

Kosovo sits at the heart of the Balkans, a tiny nation of around 2 million people. The territory has long been subject to invading armies and occupying powers sweeping across the land -from the Ottomans in the 15th century to the Germans, Italians and Bulgarians during the Second World War.

The history and fate of its people is inextricably linked with Serbia to the North and Albania to the South. Today, the vast majority of the population identify themselves as Albanian Kosovans, but there are sizeable communities of Serbs along with smaller groups of Roma, Ashkali and Gorani.

As part of communist Yugoslavia the region was neglected economically and many ethnic Albanians faced discrimination from the Serbian dominated government. Throughout the 1990s Yugoslavia broke apart in a series of bloody conflicts. Kosovo became engulfed in war in 1999 as the self declared ‘Kosovan Liberation Army’, or KLA, emerged as the focus of resistance to the Serbs and waged guerrilla war against the police and army.

Atrocities were committed by both sides but it was the Albanian Kosovans who were driven from their homes in the hundreds of thousands. The Western powers responded with a NATO bombing campaign against Serbia designed to force Serbian troops out of Kosovo. A ceasefire was declared after 78 days.

For the last decade the territory has been run as an autonomous province under the auspices of the UN Mission in Kosovo, or UNMIK. International workers and money poured into the country to repair the shattered infrastructure.

In Feb 2008, the Kosovan parliament took the step of unilaterally declaring the country independent – a move cautiously welcomed by many western states and widely celebrated on the streets of the capital, Prishtina.

Today as you travel round Kosovo its impossible to miss the scars of conflict – from the photos of the missing and dead pinned to the parliament gates to the shells of buildings studded with bullet holes dotted across the countryside. Entire communities remain segregated in those areas where the Serb population did not flee en masse, such as the Northern city of Mitrovica. A plethora of international bodies are pouring billions into rebuilding infrastructure, but the electricity supply remains erratic and the railways derelict. The economy is moribund, especially in the more remote villages, and tens of thousands of young people have crossed the borders in search of work elsewhere.

Despite all this there’s a real sense of optimism about the future. A wave of nationalistic euphoria swept across the country with the unilateral decleration of independence on Febuary 17th. On the day I arrived in Prishtina the Marshall Islands became the 36th country to officially recognise the independent state of Kosovo (the UK was the 7th). By the time I left three more had been added to the list. There’s a growing educated class as people gradually return after years abroad, many armed with degrees from Western European countries. Crucially, more and more of the work rebuilding the country is being done by local people rather than international bodies, with the UN‘s mandate to govern Kosovo now coming to an end.