The Republic of Kosovo has declared its independence. A decade after a bloody separatist war with Serbia that claimed thousands of lives, the Albanian enclave that was one of the last remnants of Yugoslavia has promised to create a "democratic, multiethnic state." The move, bitterly denounced by the Serb government, promises to drive a deep wedge between the West and Belgrade, as well as Moscow, which has strongly opposed the measure.
About 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million residents are ethnic Albanians. Virtually all of them are Muslims; most Serbs are Christian Orthodox. Exactly a decade ago, after the former state of Yugoslavia unraveled in a vicious bloodbath that shocked the conscience of the world, the government in Belgrade sent its military into Kosovo to battle an Albanian guerrilla uprising that demanded greater autonomy — independence, in the words of more radical members — for Kosovo.
For Serbs, Kosovo was sacred ground hallowed by blood sacrifices hundreds of years before; a fiery speech by the late Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic recalling that trauma is considered by many the starting point of the nationalist conflagration that ultimately consumed the country. The Serb attack was savage, killing thousands of civilians. Coming after severe international criticism of Western inaction while Yugoslavia disintegrated, NATO governments responded with a brutal bombing campaign that forced Serbia to capitulate. Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since Serb forces withdrew in June 1999.