A Neglected Perspective: Adolescent Girls' Experiences of the Kosovo Conflict of 1999

Abstract

After nearly a decade of non-violent opposition to repression by the Serbian administration, an armed wing of the Albanian Kosovar liberation movement was formed. With both ethnic groups claiming right to Kosovo's territory and administration, Kosovo was plunged into violence. In March 1999, after negotiations for peace broke down, NATO intervened and began strategic bombing raids on Serbian targets. Serbian offensives in Kosovo subsequently intensified, leading eventually to thousands of Albanian Kosovars fleeing into Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia as refugees. This chapter focuses on the experiences of adolescent girls who lived through this period of conflict both as civilians within Kosovo and as refugees in Albania. In this chapter I argue that the wartime experiences of adolescents can only be understood and validated by recognising their status as a specific social category requiring specific humanitarian, policy and research attention.

Keywords: girls, armed confllict, violence against women and girls, kosovo, adolescents, children and war