Kosovo: The Quest for Lasting Internal Security

Abstract

Abstract : In the spring of 1999, NATO conducted an eleven-week bombing campaign to end the repression in Kosovo. Since then, 1,300,000 refugees have returned to their homes and villages. The United Nations has established the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and NATO has deployed ground forces to establish a secure environment for the Kosovars to live. Given the legacy of violence in the region, it is not surprising that the situation in Kosovo is still far from settled and will most likely require long-term engagement from the international community. The Kosovo crisis has not yet 'gone away', though it no longer warrants front-page attention from the major television and newspaper networks in the United States. Kosovo endures under United Nations administration with an indefinite future as a United Nations protectorate. The Kosovo Albanians have resettled throughout the region and have driven thousands of Serbians who had resided in Kosovo out of the region. Today, the ethnic hatred still runs deep. This monograph answers the question of whether the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR) are capable of achieving a lasting stable internal security environment in Kosovo. This monograph will examine the three core systems that make up an internal security environment: the security force, the judicial system, and the penal system. The monograph will explore the security environment in Kosovo during its period of relative autonomy, and after the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic', imposed Serbian rule throughout Kosovo. The monograph will then examine the security environment in Kosovo that the United Nations and NATO imposed in June 1999 following NATO's successful Operation ALLIED FORCE to stop the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and return the Kosovo Albanians to their homes.