ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Yugoslavia. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Yugoslavia. Kosovo's first post-1999 elections for a provincial assembly were held in relatively peaceful circumstances in November 2001, raising hopes that a degree of normalcy was returning to the province. Control over the Yugoslav province of Kosovo has been a source of conflict between Albanians and Serbs in the Balkans for most of the twentieth century. Since international forces moved into Kosovo in mid-1999, a campaign of reverse ethnic cleansing has been taking place. The Albanian population in Kosovo on the whole enjoys freedom of belief and religious association.
