Political situation

The 1999 Rambouillet Agreement
The international community that had long refrained from engaging itself in a credible response to the crisis started its direct involvement in 1998 with the creation of a monitoring task-force led by the OSCE. However the presence of international observers did not constitute an obstacle to the escalation of violence.

The 1999 Rambouillet Agreement urged the parties to immediately stop the conflict, imposed a series of limitations to the Serbian authority on the region and threatened military action in case of refusal. Rejections of the terms of the agreement were in fact followed by NATO forces� air-strikes. After almost three months of bombardments, the Yugoslav army and police were ordered to withdraw from the province.

The Agreement imposed on Belgrade a considerable surrender of sovereignty over the region and substantially subtracted Kosovo from its sphere of control. What the Serbian authorities mostly feared was that decision over the fate of the province would be depending on a referendum to be held in a region for the great majority populated by Albanians.

It is not yet clear whether the diplomatic proposal constituted a fair solution to both parties involved, yet it was deemed unacceptable by the Serbian authorities.

The intervention put an end to the widespread campaign of violence carried out against the Albanian population and allowed their return to Kosovo: this in turn caused a reverse flow of Serb and Roma � refugees.

Civil administration: international and domestic authorities

In June 1999 the Kumanovo Agreement in accordance with the dictates of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 recognized the continued authority of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on Kosovo, but at the same time called for �substantial autonomy and meaningful self-determination�.

The UN Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), headed by the Special Representative of the Security General (SRSG), was entrusted with the administration of Kosovo. For the purpose of fulfilling this task it established in February 2000 the Joint Interim Administrative Structure (JIAS). The JIAS officially replaced all the local quasi-governmental bodies in providing public services and collecting revenues operating both at Kosovo-wide level and at municipal level.

Resolution 1244 assigned to the UNMIK a broad mandate: the administration is responsible for "organizing and overseeing the development of provisional institutions for democratic and autonomous self-government pending a political settlement" and "transferring, as these institutions are established, its administrative responsibilities while overseeing and supporting the consolidation of Kosovo's local provisional institutions and other peace-building activities.�
The full transfer of governmental responsibilities to Kosovan people should take place with the completion of the international mission mandate.

Elections

Since 1999, democratic structures have been established in Kosovo, in accordance with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and the provisional Constitutional Framework.

At the end of October 2004, the second general elections were held to adjudicate the 120 seats of the local Assembly. A quota system provides for the attribution of 20 seats to the minority groups present in Kosovo (10 for Serbs and 10 more for the remaining ones). Despite many calls from local and international bodies for participation in the election process, only a small number of Serbs took part thus leaving themselves out of political processes for more than five months when they decided to actively participate.

These elections for the first brought an opposition in the Kosovo parliament. LDK (Kosova Democratic League) won 45.42 percent, PDK (Kosova Democratic Party) 28.85 percent, the Citizens� List �ORA� 6.23 percent and AAK (Alliance for the Future of Kosova) 8.39 percent, PSHDAK (Albanian Demo Christian Party) had 1.80 percent, while percentage of other competing parties and independent candidates took 13 percent.

A coalition was established between LDK, AAK and from other non-Serb parties, whiles the second biggest PDK and new political force �ORA� remained the two strongest opposition parties in force.