Kosovo Conflict on the Web

by David M. Durant -- Library Journal, 9/1/1999

Just as Vietnam was the first "television war," so the recent conflict in Kosovo might be called the first "Internet war." A vast number of official, nongovernmental, news media, and other web sites provided information on that war -- not to mention perspective on Bosnia and the rest of the former Yugoslavia.

Reviewed below are four wide-ranging sites that are particularly useful as sources of general information, plus alternate sites from official agencies and the news media; ones giving alternative perspectives, as well as those sites focused on the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and its aftermath. Keep in mind, though, that this topic engenders partisan perspectives.

WashingtonPost.com: Balkans Report
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/balkans.htm
Date Visited: 7/28/99
Developer/Provider: Washington Post
One of many news media sites on the Balkans situation, the Washington Post provides an excellent introduction to the topic for Balkan beginners. The main page contains the full text of the paper's most recent Balkans news story, with a set of navigation links-consistent throughout the site -- on the left side of the page. Select Background to access a brief discussion of the origins of the Yugoslav conflict, with links to more detailed accounts of the wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Time Lines is structured similarly, with separate sections for all three conflicts, plus links to several archived Post news stories about the conflict.

The site also includes photos, maps, documents, and links to other sites, while Key Players offers brief biographies of Slobodan Milosevic and other figures.

The Live Online section contains transcripts of online chat sessions in which Post correspondents and other experts answered user questions concerning various aspects of the Balkans situation. The Relief Agencies link lists agencies operating there.

Bottom Line: From the prestigious Washington Post, this easily navigable site provides a solid introduction to the conflict in the Balkans and is ideal for beginners.

FAS Military Analysis Network -- Target Kosovo
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/kosovo.htm
Date Visited: 7/26/99
Developer/Provider: Federation of American Scientists
This in-depth site provides a wide range of links and content on Kosovo. At the index-like main page click on News Reports for recent news articles and press releases. Shape News is a roundup of wire service and other reports -- though on the day visited the news was lagging by about ten days.

This page also contains a link to 1999 News, which offers an archive of past news reports, organized by month. Also useful is News Sources, which contains an exhaustive list of web links dealing with the conflict, including government, antiwar, nongovernmental organization, Kosovar, and Serbian sources.

Pages like the Kosovo Background Briefing and Serbian Security Forces provide extensive narrative analyses of NATO and Serbian forces and operations. The Art of War offers images of Serb and NATO propaganda posters and even drawings by Kosovar Albanian children.

The analytical narratives include a list of sources -- a mix of official and media reports -- at the bottom of each section. While most content is easily accessible, some pages require much scrolling. Also, the search engine was not functioning.

Bottom Line: More useful for the specialist, this in-depth site offers detailed information on military forces and operations in Kosovo, with a wide range of international sources.

Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs
http://www.mfa.gov.yu/
Date Visited: 7/27/99
Developer/Provider: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY)
Using the frames menu on the left side of the screen, the link to Kosovo and Metohija provides official Yugoslav perspective on events in that region. Though there's a link labeled NATO Aggression, the site also generates a second browser with some of that content. Material contained in these sections includes press statements, interviews, articles from Yugoslav news sources, selected articles from foreign news media, and essays.

Other useful sections include Facts About FRY (click on the Facts & Figures link, then scroll down to the Yugoslav Crisis), Current Topics (which provides the Yugoslav view of events in Bosnia, Croatia, and the rest of the Balkans), and Daily Bulletins.

The contents of this site must be used with care; note that items included from foreign sources mainly lend support to the official Yugoslav position. The site lacks a search engine.

Bottom Line: For the official Yugoslav position on Kosovo and other issues, go right to the source.

U.S. Information Agency: Balkan Issues
http://www.usia.gov/regional/eur/balkans/
Date Visited: 7/26/99
Developer/Provider: U.S. Information Agency
This site provides official U.S. government statements, press releases, and other documents, from both government sources and international organizations such as NATO and the United Nations.

Under Balkan Sites can be found links to pages focused on Bosnia and on Kosovo, while the links under Washington File lead to indexes of statements and other official texts.

The Kosovo section includes a link to the most recent texts on Kosovo, as well as an archive organized by month, dating back to September 1998. Recent or particularly important documents are linked to the main page. Links to audio and video items, background materials, and a sizable list of other resources can be found at the top of the page. A search engine is included in the lower left corner of the Kosovo section.

A valuable feature is the Public Diplomacy Query (PDQ) archive, accessible by selecting the Archives link just underneath the banner at the top of the main Balkan Issues page. The PDQ archive is a searchable database containing a wide variety of documents, from 1990 to the present, concerning Bosnia, Croatia, and other Balkans issues.

However, the Bosnia section of this site isn't nearly so useful. It links only to several recent texts and to Yahoo's Bosnia news coverage. Selected Readings links to two essays describing U.S. policy.

Bottom Line: This site not only offers official U.S. government information but also a rich section on Kosovo and a searchable text archive.

Alternate Sites

• International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
  http://www.un.org/icty/index.html
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
  http://www.nato.int/
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
  http://www.unhcr.ch/

The ICTY is responsible for prosecuting war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia. Its web site contains regular updates, as well as texts of all public indictments brought by the tribunal. For the case against Slobodan Milosevic, select the Tribunal Cases link on the main page, then Trial Chambers. For Kosovo information at the NATO site, the main page has several links within the text, plus links for Operation Allied Force (the bombing campaign) and Operation Joint Guardian (the peacekeeping operation) at the top of the page. For information on NATO forces in Bosnia, scroll down to the Sub-sites pulldown menu at left and select the IFOR/SFOR option. The UNHCR site offers a Kosovo Crisis Update, accessible through a link from the What's New section, which includes news and statistics on the Kosovo refugee situation. Information on other refugees is available by choosing the World link at left.

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1998/kosovo/
• Cable News Network (CNN)
  http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/10/kosovo/
• Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
  http://www.iwpr.net/

The BBC offers an annotated list of recent news articles on Kosovo and, on the right side of the page, a list of various interactive background features. Many articles are accompanied by audio. CNN's Kosovo site includes an archive of news stories, organized by month, and a wide variety of articles and documents, even an archive of video news reports. The IWPR site features articles written by independent Balkan journalists. They offer a perspective generally opposed to that of the Serb regime, though they also criticize NATO and the Kosovo Liberation Army The site includes regular updates on the activities of the ICTY in the Hague. There is a search engine for the Kosovo reports, while Tribunal and other reports are archived in browsable form back to 1996-97.

• Balkan Action Council
  http://www.balkanaction.org/
• Balkan Institute
  http://www.balkaninstitute.org/
• Diaspora Net: Bombing Yugoslavia
  http://diaspora-net.org/food4thought/bombing_yugoslavia.htm
• Free Serbia
  http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeserb/e-index.html
• Hellenic Resources Network: Sources on the Balkan Peninsula
  http://www.hri.org/nodes/balkans.html

The Balkan Institute was founded in May 1995 by two former U.S. diplomats who sought to foster opposition to Serb aggression in Bosnia. Though the organization closed in July 1998, its web site is still extant, offering annotated lists of archived institute publications as well as a still updated list of Balkan Internet resources. Many of the institute's functions were taken over by the Balkan Action Council, founded in June 1998, which features publications, news, and analysis. It includes a search engine for 1999 publications. Diaspora Net: Bombing Yugoslavia provides access to a wide variety of antiwar opinion pieces and analyses from both Left and Right. The Free Serbia site offers independent news and opinion from inside Serbia, with a perspective critical of both the Milosevic government and NATO. Hellenic Resources Network serves as a gateway to sites about the Balkans, organized alphabetically by country. Sites dealing specifically with the Kosovo conflict can be found at the beginning of the Yugoslavia (Serbia & Montenegro) section.

• Bosnia Home Page
  http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~bosnia/bosnia.html
• Human Rights Archives on the Genocide in Bosnia
  http://www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/reports.html
• Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina
  http://www.ohr.int/
• Republika Srpska Official Home Page
  http://www.suc.org/Republic_of_Srpska/
• The World's Most Wanted Man
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/karadzic

The Bosnia Home Page, which generally reflects the Bosnian Muslim perspective, provides a good source of information about the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and events afterward. Human Rights Archives on the Genocide in Bosnia, created to provide documentation for Michael Sells's The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia (Univ. of California, 1996), is an annotated list of links to human rights reports. The Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the international body responsible for overseeing the implementation of peace in Bosnia. This site includes articles, press statements, reports, and summaries of Bosnian television. Republika Srpska -- the Serbian political entity created within Bosnia as a result of the war -- offers a history of Bosnia from the Serb perspective in the About Srpska section. The World's Most Wanted Man is Radovan Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the war and an indicted war criminal. This companion site to the PBS Frontline documentary of the same name includes articles and essays, interviews, and a transcript of the television program.

David M. Durant (DurantD@mail.ecu.edu) is Assistant Professor/Reference Librarian, Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC