© Yannis Kontos/Getty ImagesBuilding ablaze after the NATO bombing on April 2, 1999, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
On the evening of March 24, 1999, student Elena Milincic was at home with her sister and a friend in Belgrade. Suddenly, the quiet evening was interrupted by an air-raid siren. The girls quickly hid under the table. It wasn't the safest place, but they got lucky - their part of the city wasn't attacked. Over the next 77 days, these girls and other Belgrade residents got a lot better at hiding from the bombs which threatened to kill them every day. The bombing was part of NATO's military operation against Yugoslavia - the campaign that shook up the world order, and not just in the Balkans.
Preconditions for bloodshedThe Kosovo problem goes back many centuries. Located in the southwest of Serbia on the border with Albania, the Kosovo region was historically inhabited by two Balkan peoples: Serbs and Albanians. The Serbs consider the region a major part of the country's history and culture. However, Albanians have also lived there for centuries.
By the mid-19th century, there were about as many Albanians as Serbs in Kosovo. Ethnic strife was a common problem in the Balkans. Retaining their particular cultural characteristics, Serbs, Albanians, Croats, Gypsies, and Muslim Serbs lived side by side for centuries. Conflicts between them, nonetheless, resulted in brutal massacres.
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