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What is the fighting in Kosovo about?

The war in Kosovo, like that in Bosnia, is based on conflicts dating back several centuries in Yugoslavia. By the end of the twentieth century Yugoslavia consisted of the republics (separate states joined under a single government) of Serbia and tiny Montenegro, which border the Adriatic Sea. Kosovo, a province at the southern end of Serbia, is a neighbor to Albania and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. Many Albanians still lived in Kosovo and saw themselves more closely aligned with Albania, to the southwest, than with Yugoslavia. Soon a separatist movement was causing tensions between the Albanians and Serbian authorities.

In 1998 Serbian forces and Yugoslav army units moved to suppress the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a guerrilla force (a fighting unit that stages unplanned attacks) that sought independence for Albanians. By this time the North Atlantic Treaty...

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