ABSTRACT
Kosovo was an autonomous region in the southwestern part of Serbia. The region’s area is 10,900 square miles. In 1989, when the last general census was conducted, the country’s population was 1.9 million, of which 1.2 million were Albanians (mostly Muslims). The tension between the ethnic groups and religions, and the change in Serbia’s approach to the region’s autonomy (which was declared in 1974 and annulled in 1990) are the main reasons for the chain of events that led to the war. However, the problem’s roots-like the roots of most problems in the Balkan Peninsula-are embedded farther back in the past.1
