Answer these questions in relation to the Social and Economic impacts:
- What were the economic effects of the war on Kosovo and Serbia?
The war destroyed the human resource and infrastructures essential for economic stability and development. Mass casualty and migration (in question 2) caused shortage in work force. Destruction to important infrastructure, such as electric plant and transportation corridors, hampered local production of life necessities. As a consequence, Balkan region before 1998 was one of the least economically developed areas in Europe.
- How serious were they? What were the long term and short term impacts/effects?
The conflict caused mass casualty and considerable damage to people in the short term. In total, there were an estimated 10,000 ethnic Albanians deaths and 1000-2000 Serbs, with reported 200-300 Serbs killed for revenge. Following the killing, the scale of damage to property was also considerable. Significant more amount of people were raped, displaced, and robbed than the dead. Historians considered the struggle’s long-term consequence as the greatest mass movement in any areas since WWII.
Destruction to essential infrastructures was also very serious. Short-term effect was very visible: Airports, telecommunications and 70% of electricity generation was hit; 100% of petrol refinement plants were destroyed, removing the production capability of Kosovo; rail lines, bridges, and road damaged rate was over 50%, making transportation very inconvenient. In the long run, the destruction to infrastructure significantly contributed to challenges in distributing resources and commuting.
The economic destruction is also indicated by the ineffectiveness of the Stability Pact of Jully 1999. EU led the pact for economic reconstruction and democratic development. The organization donated 2 billion Euros for reconstruction, and 5 billion Euros from 1999-2005, with immediate effect of temporary boom. The ineffectiveness of these large investment was indicated by the dependence on food aid: Winter of 1999-2000 more than 900,000 people dependent on food aid. Ineffectiveness of investment therefore demonstrates the continuity and large scale of the economic destruction and Kosovo’s reliance on international aid.
- What were the social effects of the war on Kosovo and Serbia? How serious were they? What were the long and short term effects/impacts?
Ethnic conflict continued in both region despite the intervention of The Kosovo Force (KFOR) in the short term. The mediation made by KFOR was limited. Despite the 809,000 out of 848,000 refugees had returned by Nov 1999, signalling some success in refugee coordination, KFOR could not prevent revenge killings, robbery, abuse, and forced evacuation of Serb Kosovans. Furthermore, murder of opponents (700 Serbs by Feb 2000) by KLA showed the KFOR’s failure in its goal to bring ethnic peace to Kosovo, demonstrating continuity of ethnic violence. Therefore, in the long term, ethnic harmony in the region was still not achieved.
The war posed challenge in developing democratic government. The long term challenge is demonstrated by the failure of UN’s intervention in incorporating women and ethnic minorities into Kosovo government in 2000. UN imposed gender quotas on local elections in Nov 2000, specifying 33% of candidates required to be women. However, only 8% were women in 2001 as many resigned; Serbian political groups gained 22 seats of 120. The low percentage of seats of women and Serb as minority group revealed the continuity in enforcing democratic standards in Kosovo.
****In relation to the Impact of War Political -****Summarise the key points for impact for each of these countries:
Britain - supported NATO’s intervention campaign and reinforced its leading role in NATO
Russia - alerted and strongly opposed NATO action for bypassing UN security
USA - remained a powerful leader in NATO - used political leverage and economic pressure to enforce international justice
Serbia - politically weakened and isolated internationally - lost control over Kosovo - Milosevic’s arrest and collapse of his regime