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Effects of the Kosovo Conflict

The terms Kosovan War and Kosovan Conflict are used interchangeably to represent two wars which happened very close to each other, at times in parallel. From 1998 to 1999, there was war between Serbia and Kosovo. The first conflict started in 1996 as a result of Slobodan Milocevic making a statement that Kosovo would to remain a part of Serbia. The result of this statement was the violent response of the people of Albania. In 1999 Serbian troops reportedly killed 45 Albanians in Racak, a village in in Kosovo. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) intervened. NATO spent four months bombing Serbia in response to the massacre in Racak.

  1. Environmental

    • According to the Global issues website, in March 2000, Nato admitted to bombing Kosovo using 10 tonnes of depleted uranium in the form of shells. The bombing of oil refineries and factories lead to large clouds of toxic chemicals being released into the atmosphere. According the the Global Issues website, a UN report claims that bombing in Kosovo had had a "devastating impact" on the environment. Public health, agriculture, essential services, employment, rivers, lakes and the food chain are among a number of factors that were affected by the air strikes. Environmental hot spots that have been named by the UN include Belgrade, Pancevo, Kragujevac, Novi Sad and Bor.The article goes on to say that the long-term environmental impact is difficult to ascertain at this stage.

    NATO Civilian Losses

    • The Human Rights Watch has counted that at least 488 civilians were killed mostly by cluster bombing by Nato in 90 different attacks. Yugoslavia claims that between 1,200 and 5,700 civilians were killed in the attacks.

    Yugoslav Civilian Losses

    • The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) recovered 2,788 bodies from graves in Yugoslavia. Whether or not the deaths were the result of war crimes has not been disclosed. There have been a number of different estimates as to how many civilians were killed as a result of the actions of the Yugoslavian militia, however, the US State Department has estimated that the number is likely to be around 10,000. The US cites that its reasons for attacking Yugoslavia were in response to human rights abuses.

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