ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the fifth of Milosevic's goals the domination of Kosovo a project that began early in his tenure and, though it may have taken a backseat to conflicts in neighbouring states, continued throughout the 1990s. Efforts to achieve this goal became increasingly ineffective in the face of rising opposition from the majority ethnic Albanian population, leading to a full-scale war in 1999 and the commission of grave crimes against civilians. Milosevic claimed that deployment of the Kosovo Verification Monitors, the framing of the Racak massacre, and the Rambouillet talks were all parts of a plan to humiliate Serbia and the FRY. Batakovic argued that this would preserve the multiethnic composition of Kosovo while enforcing distinct rights for cantons with a Serb majority. In November 1992, the Serbian Assembly had issued a Declaration on the Rights of National Minorities, in which Albanian separatists were blamed for the human rights situation in Kosovo.
