Quick guide
How to use the archive
The archive has many pages but only four questions. Pick your question and you will land in the right place. Below, every part of the archive is explained in one sentence.
Start here
Four questions, four entrances
You don't need to read everything. Pick your question and start there.
- 01What happened?Seven chapters take you from Kosovo inside Yugoslavia to the war of 1998–1999 and the time after it.Read the history
- 02When and where did it happen?See the events date by date, find the places on the map or search for a name.Open the chronology
- 03What did the courts decide?Who was charged, with what, and where each case stands today: indictment, first instance or final judgment.See the trials
- 04Where is the evidence?Every claim links to a document you can open yourself: reports, judgments and studies.Open the documents
All pages in the archive
What is where
Every part of the archive, one sentence each. For a longer explanation open the quick guide.
Today in the archive
Every day: one event of the date from history, plus the day's news on the KLA and The Hague.
History
- HistoryThe history in seven chapters, from 1912 to after the war.Example: 1998: from Drenica to open war
- ChronologyEvery event date by date, with filters.
- MapPlaces of events, detention sites, refugee routes and memorials.
- KLAHow the KLA began, how it was organised, how it fought and what it left behind — in 20 chapters.
- DiplomacyFrom Dayton to Rambouillet and Resolution 1244.
- NATOThe 1999 bombing: what happened, whether it was lawful, how many civilians died.
People and remembrance
- RemembranceVictims, the missing and the places of remembrance.
- PeopleWho the people in this history were — every profile with its sources.Example: Adem Jashari
- TestimoniesPeople who lived through the war tell it themselves, from oral-history archives.Example: The 1981 demonstrations and the imprisonment of women
- Places and municipalitiesTowns, villages and sites — and what happened in each.Example: Prishtina
- OrganizationsParties, armies, police forces, international missions and institutions.Example: Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
Justice and sources
- JusticeEvery war-crimes trial and where it stands today.Example: Specialist Prosecutor v. Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi
- DocumentsReports, judgments, agreements and studies — all the sources.Example: Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo
- ResearchArticles that answer a hard question step by step, with evidence.Example: Reçak, 15 January 1999: what we know and how we know it
- LibraryBooks, a glossary, guides and reading lists for pupils, students and teachers.
- MethodologyHow we check sources and how we show when something is not known for certain.
What the labels mean
Every important claim carries a label. It shows how certain the claim is and how we know it.
How we work- Evidence status: Judicially established. Established in a final court judgment. It covers only what the court found, not every later interpretation.
- A court has established it in a final judgment.
- Established in a final court judgment. It covers only what the court found, not every later interpretation.
- Evidence status: Documented. Supported by contemporaneous documents, institutional reports or independent studies that corroborate one another.
- Independent documents and reports support it.
- Supported by contemporaneous documents, institutional reports or independent studies that corroborate one another.
- Evidence status: Personal testimony. An account by a witness or participant. Valuable as lived experience; factual details are compared with other sources.
- An account from someone who lived through it.
- An account by a witness or participant. Valuable as lived experience; factual details are compared with other sources.
- Evidence status: Disputed. Serious sources give different versions, figures or interpretations. The positions and their reasons are set out.
- Sources disagree; every position is shown.
- Serious sources give different versions, figures or interpretations. The positions and their reasons are set out.
- Evidence status: Historical interpretation. Analysis or assessment by researchers: an argued reading of the sources, not a single fact.
- An assessment by scholars, not a single fact.
- Analysis or assessment by researchers: an argued reading of the sources, not a single fact.
- Symbols
- Each label has its own shape — square, circle, half circle, diamond, triangle — so it can be told apart without colour. Hover over or focus a label for its explanation.