KOSOVO:  It derives its name from the Serb word "kos" ("kosovo" - belonging to "kos") which means a blackbird. The site of the famous battle was therefore the Field of Blackbirds (Kosovo Polje). More than 90% of geographical names in today's Kosovo are of the Serb origin which proves the centuries long existence of the Serb people and its culture in this area. Albanians use the word KOSOVO which is derived from the Serbian word.

Albania                                                                        Yugoslavia

ALBANIA

Albania:  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea, between Greece and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

 YOGOSLAVIA

Kosova:  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea, between Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina  

HISTORY OF KOSOVO-ALBANIA CONFLICT

      After the Second World War, As a result of unbelievable demographic explosion Albanian population in Kosovo doubled by 1971. The official Yugoslav census for that year shows 916,168 Albanians living in Kosovo, while Serb and Montenegrin population reached only to number 259,819. This demographic trend clearly demonstrates that the theory of Serb repression over Albanians after the WWII is absolutely not correct. The truth is that the Communist authorities favored the Albanians on the expense of Serbs allowing uncontrolled settlement of Albanian immigrants and tolerating different methods of ethnic discrimination over the Serbs which made more and more Serbs leave the province and seek better life in Central Serbia. By 1990ies more than 800 settlements in which Serbs lived with Albanians became ethnically clean Albanian villages.

      In an attempt to prevent the secession of Kosovo and Metohija Serbian government in 1990 abolished Kosovo Albanian autonomy. A failure of Milosevic government to develop true democratic institutions instead and using the police methods to prevent Albanian secession even more increased ethnic Albanian wish to cut of from Serbia. When the KLA rebels began attacks on Serbs in 1998 the Government brought the army and police to put the rebellion down. In the course of the civil war - 1998-1999 which ended by the NATO intervention against Yugoslavia more than 500.000 Kosovo Albanians fled the province to Macedonia and Albania. After the war, despite the international presence, KLA organized persecutions of Serb population and more than 200.000 Serbs fled Kosovo and Metohija. Only 90.000 Serbs remained living in total isolation, dispersed in several KFOR protected Serb enclaves. 

 

        Under Muslim rule, many of the Albanians converted to Islam and attained dominance over the subordinated Serbian population. A dichotomy or division emerged between Christians and Muslims, between Serbs and Albanians. There was a further split between Roman Catholicism and Eastern or Greek Orthodoxy. The Serbian Orthodox population was discriminated against and Serbian peasants faced oppression under Albanian Muslim landlords and rulers.

 

   Jorge in Tirana, Albania

  1. In 1990 Albania ended 44 years of xenophobic communist rule and established a multiparty democracy. The transition has proven difficult as corrupt governments have tried to deal with high unemployment, a dilapidated infrastructure, widespread gangsterism, and disruptive political opponents. International observers judged local elections in 2001 to be acceptable and a step toward democratic development, but identified serious deficiencies which should be addressed through reforms in the Albanian electoral code.

  2. Population:
     ALBANIA:
    3,544,841 (July 2002 est.)

    KOSOVO:

    10,656,929 (YUGOSLAVIA)

    Religions:
     ALBANIA:
    Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%
    note: all mosques and churches were closed in 1967 and religious observances prohibited; in November 1990, Albania began allowing private religious practice.

    KOSOVO:

    Orthodox 65%, Muslim 19%, Roman Catholic 4%, Protestant 1%, other 11%

    Ethnic groups:

     ALBANIA:  Albanian 95%, Greek 3%, other 2% (Vlach, Gypsy, Serb, and Bulgarian) (1989 est.)
    note: in 1989, other estimates of the Greek population ranged from 1% (official Albanian statistics) to 12% (from a Greek organization)

    KOSOVO:  Serb 62.6%, Albanian 16.5%, Montenegrin 5%, Hungarian 3.3%, other 12.6% (1991)

    Languages:
     
    Albanian (Tosk is the official dialect), Greek....

    Servian, Albanian

3.jpg

With Kovosa Children

Orphan Children in Albania

 

  In this plane we were transported to Kosovo and ALbania by the Air Force.... Later on this same plane was taken down

DONATIONSDONATIONS, FOOD

We brought food, medicines and different staff

 

 

MAIN  PAGE

 

We invite you to visit our Missions Page for you to see the places we have been...
Browser Upgrades
 If you are using Netscape 4, you are not seeing this site as it is intended because older browsers cannot support all cascading style sheet data.  Netscape 4 is now more than 4 years old and was developed when CSS was in the planning stages, and it shows! That means that NN 4 does not correctly interpret or render many simple CSS styles.  Please Upgrade your browser to the newest versions:

Netscape Now

Attention!
If you want to help and support our Christmas Project please visit this link to obtain more information

CHRISTMAS PROJECT  

Seminars and Conferences
If you wish to invite us to your local church please fill this form:

Seminars and Conferences

 

FICMI PRODUCTIONS © 2003
Copyright 2003  Website Design by FICMI