legislative concessions,
Albanian nationalism increased in the 1980s leading to nationalist
riots and calls for Kosovo's independence. Serbs in Kosovo
complained of mistreatment and Serb nationalist leaders, such as
Slobodan MILOSEVIC, exploited those charges to win support among
Serbian voters many of whom viewed Kosovo as their cultural
heartland. Under MILOSEVIC's leadership, Serbia instituted a new
constitution in 1989 that drastically curtailed Kosovo's autonomy.
Kosovo Albanian leaders responded in 1991 by organizing a referendum
that declared Kosovo independent from Serbia. The MILOSEVIC regime
carried out repressive measures against the Albanians in the early
1990s as the unofficial government of Kosovo, led by Ibrahim RUGOVA,
tried to use passive resistance to gain international assistance and
recognition of its demands for independence. In 1995, Albanians
dissatisfied with RUGOVA's nonviolent strategy created the Kosovo
Liberation Army and launched an insurgency. In 1998, MILOSEVIC
authorized a counterinsurgency campaign that resulted in massacres
and massive expulsions of ethnic Albanians by Serbian military,
police, and paramilitary forces. The international community tried
to resolve the conflict peacefully, but MILOSEVIC rejected the
proposed international settlement - the Rambouillet Accords -
leading to a three-month NATO bombing of Serbia beginning in March
1999, which forced Serbia to withdraw its military and police forces
from Kosovo in June 1999. UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999)
placed Kosovo under a transitional administration, the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), pending a determination of
Kosovo's future status. Under the resolution, Serbia's territorial
integrity was protected, but it was UNMIK that assumed
responsibility for governing Kosovo. In 2001, UNMIK promulgated a
Constitutional Framework, which established Kosovo's Provisional
Institutions of Self-Government (PISG). In succeeding years UNMIK
increasingly devolved responsibilities to the PISG. A UN-led process
began in late 2005 to determine Kosovo's future status. Negotiations
held intermittently between 2006 and 2007 on issues related to
decentralization, religious heritage, and minority rights failed to
yield a resolution between Serbia's willingness to grant a high
degree of autonomy and the Albanians' call for full independence for