n that resulted in massacres and massive
expulsions of ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo by FRY forces and
Serb paramilitaries. The MILOSEVIC government's rejection of a
proposed international settlement led to NATO's bombing of Serbia in
the spring of 1999 and to the eventual withdrawal of Serbian
military and police forces from Kosovo in June 1999. UNSC Resolution
1244 in June 1999 authorized the stationing of a NATO-led force
(KFOR) in Kosovo to provide a safe and secure environment for the
region's ethnic communities, created a UN Administration Mission in
Kosovo (UNMIK) to foster self-governing institutions, and reserved
the issue of Kosovo's final status for an unspecified date in the
future. In 2001, UNMIK promulgated a constitutional framework that
allowed Kosovo to establish institutions of self-government and led
to Kosovo's first parliamentary election. FRY elections in September
2000 led to the ouster of MILOSEVIC and installed Vojislav KOSTUNICA
as president. A broad coalition of democratic reformist parties
known as DOS (the Democratic Opposition of Serbia) was subsequently
elected to parliament in December 2000 and took control of the
government. The arrest of MILOSEVIC by DOS in 2001 allowed for his
subsequent transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia in The Hague to be tried for crimes against
humanity. (MILOSEVIC died at The Hague in March 2006 before the
completion of his trial.) In 2001, the country's suspension from the
UN was lifted, and it was once more accepted into UN organizations.
In 2003, the FRY became Serbia and Montenegro, a loose federation of
the two republics with a federal level parliament. Violent rioting
in Kosovo in 2004 caused the international community to open
negotiations on the future status of Kosovo in January 2006. In May
2006, Montenegro invoked its right under the Constitutional Charter
of Serbia and Montenegro to hold a referendum on independence from
the state union. The referendum was successful and Montenegro
declared itself an independent nation on 3 June 2006. Two days
later, Serbia declared that it was the successor state to the union
of Serbia and Montenegro. In October 2006, the Serbian parliament
unanimously approved - and a referendum confirmed - a new
constitution for the country.

Geography Serbia

Location:
Southeastern Europe, between Macedonia and Hu