Albania/Kosovo

Category: Genocide

The first incident of genocide occurs with he Balkan Wars (1812-1813), which led Albania to desire freedom and Independence. King Peter of Serbia did not approve and thus issued a decree to all Serbians that if Albania could not be controlled it should be exterminated. Tens of thousands were killed, butchered, or raped. All the while, the rest of Europe was silent. A cease-fire was eventually made, and national borders were restrctured. Albanians condemned the Serbain government for their brutal assaults. Even afterward, Albanians continued to receive discriminatory treatment from Serbs in shared regions.

The second was not exactly in Albania, but ethnic Albanians were targeted because they were the majority in the region. Other causes were territorial disputes and the formation of an Albanian separatist movement in Kosovo. This occurred in 1999 in Kosovo, where at least 2,000,000 people (half were Albanian) were displaced and 200,000 killed. An estimated 10,000-12,000 ethnic Albanians were killed. About 2,500 Albanians are still missing. Slobodan Milosevic was eventually charged for his war crimes. In fact, the Racak Incident (where Albanian civilians in Kosovo were massacred) was featured in the war crimes charges for which he was indicted and put on trial by the International Criminal Tribunal.