Gjakovë/Gjakova (Albanian indefinite/definite form) or Djakovica/Ðakovica (Serbian) is a city located in Kosovo at 42.39° North, 20.43° East. The town bore the name Jakova well into the 19th century in remembrance of Jak Vula, the catholic that donated the land for the building of the first mosque that started the town. Serbs claim that its name may derive from the word djakon ("deacon") in Serbian, most likely a reference to the Serbian Orthodox Monastery of St. Joanikije at Devic, an unlikely event considering that Devic is located 50 miles away. Kosovo (disambiguation). ... Deacon is a role in the Christian Church which is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. ... The Serbian language or Serb language is one of the standard versions of the Central-South Slavic diasystem, formerly (and still frequently) called Serbo-Croatian. ... Early history The Serbs migrated to the Balkans during the reign of Byzantine emperor Heraclius (610-641). ...

The name is also given to the surrounding administrative district, which covers an area of about 586 km². Before the Kosovo War it had a population of about 131,700. Kosovo Albanians constituted 93 per cent of this community. The post-war population is now estimated to be about 115,000 people. [1] (http://www.sok-kosovo.org/pdf/population/Kosovo_and_its_population.pdf)

Gjakova in the Kosovo War

Gjakova town had a pre-war population estimated by the OSCE to be some 61,400 people, of whom 89% were Kosovo Albanian, 4 per cent were Serb and 7 per cent from other national communities. The town was extremely badly affected by the war and its aftermath, suffering great physical destruction and large-scale human rights abuses. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is an international organization for security. ...

Yugoslav units stationed in and near the town were attacked on several occasions by NATO forces. In one incident, NATO aircraft misidentified a convoy of Albanian refugees and attacked it, killing dozens of civilians. The flag of NATO NATO 2002 Summit The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), sometimes called North Atlantic Alliance, Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance, is an international organisation for defence collaboration established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, D.C., on April 4, 1949. ...

Actions on the ground had a devastating effect on the town and the surrounding area. According to the ICTY, OSCE, and international human rights organisations, about 75% of the population was forcibly expelled from the town by Serbian police and paramilitaries as well as Yugoslav forces, with many civilians being killed in the process. [2] (http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/undword-06.htm)[3] (http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/p5dja.htm) The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is a body of the United Nations established to prosecute war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. ...

Destruction in the old town

Large areas of the town were destroyed, chiefly through arson and looting but also in the course of localised fighting between government security forces and members of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The actions of the government forces in Gjakova formed a major part of the United Nations war crimes indictment of the then-President Slobodan Milosevic. [4] (http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/milu-3ai020905e.pdf) Download high resolution version (1024x682, 96 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1024x682, 96 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The KLA insignia The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA or UÇK; Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës) was an Albanian guerrilla group which operated in Kosovo during the late 1990s. ... The United Nations, or UN, is an international organization established in 1945 and now made up of 191 states. ... Slobodan Milošević. ...

Most of the Albanian population returned following the end of the war, and most of the non-Albanian population fled or was forced to leave. Acts of revenge against Serbs and other non-Albanians occurred after the war's end, the most notable case being the destruction of the unfinished Holy Trinity Cathedral.

External links

Pro UN

• OSCE Profile of Gjakovë / Dakovica (http://www.osce.org/documents/html/pdftohtml/1002_en.pdf.html)
• The official website of the Municipality of Gjakova (http://www.gjakova-komuna.org/), in Albanian