Conflict in the Balkans

March 8, 2001
Web posted at: 3:04 PM EST (2004 GMT)

Editor's note: If you are planning to use the news story that this lesson plan is based on for a homework assignment, please write the URL on the board and have your students copy it. CNNfyi.com updates the site in the early evening, so students may have difficulty finding it without the URL. You can find the lesson plan by going to the Subject Areas page and clicking PREVIOUS in the square for Today's Lesson Plan.

Objectives
Students will be able to:

• Describe the conflict in the Kosovo region.
  
• Create a timeline of important events in the Kosovo region.
  
• Write a story describing the war from the perspective of a Serbian or Albanian teen.
• Develop a plan for governing the "ground safety zone." (Challenge)
  

Standards Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning
Level 4 (grades 9-12)

Students understand how politics enable a group of people with varying opinions and/or interests to reach collective decisions, influence decisions and accomplish goals that they could not reach as individuals (e.g., managing the distribution of resources, allocating benefits and burdens and managing conflicts).

National Council for the Social Studies
VI Power, authority and governance
High school students should study the various systems that have been developed over the centuries to allocate and employ power and authority in the governing process.

National Council of Teachers of English
Standard 5: Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

Materials
CNNfyi.com article, "Security tightened on Kosovo border"
Internet access
World map
"Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo"
"The Diary of Anne Frank"
"The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon"
Cassettes and tape recorders

Suggested time
One class period

Procedure

1. Have students locate Kosovo and Macedonia on a world map. Background: Inform students that Kosovo was officially a Serbian province and was stripped of its constitutionally granted autonomy by Serb President Slobodan Milosevic in 1989. Until the 1999 exodus, about 90 percent of Kosovo's two million people were ethnic Albanians. Sporadic ambushes and guerrilla actions by the Kosovo Liberation Army were countered in 1998 by the Serb army and police. The conflict finally came to a head with NATO forces stepping in to launch strikes on Yugoslavia as a means of forcing Milosevic to accept a peace deal for Kosovo. Inform students that Macedonia was once a province of Yugoslavia and declared its independence in 1991. An estimated 40 percent of the population is Albanian.

2. Have students read the CNNfyi.com article, "Security tightened on Kosovo border" and ask the following:

• What is NATO? What is NATO's current role in Kosovo? In spite of NATO's presence, what is happening to many Serbs who remain there? What approval did NATO recently give to the Serbian forces? Who had previously controlled the five kilometer (three-mile wide) "ground safety zone"? Why were the ethnic Albanian forces able to occupy this Presevo region?
• What incident took place on the Macedonia border? Who is the KFOR? Richard Heffer, spokesman for the KFOR, stated, "We will not allow Kosovo to be a safe haven for armed groups. I think the incident today shows that where necessary KFOR will take robust action against illegal activity on our side of the border." What does he imply by this statement? What are some reasons that some fear a new Balkan war?

3. As a class, create a timeline of events in the Kosovo region. Brainstorm with the class why they think the region has been involved in armed conflicts. Invite students to share what they know about the history and impact of the Kosovo conflict.

4. Read excerpts from "Zlata's Diary," and explain that the book is a journal written by a young teen girl from Sarajevo between 1991-93. Discuss how her writing conveys her emotions, from boredom to fear to despair. You may also choose to use "The Diary of Anne Frank" as an example of a young teen living in a terrifying setting during World War II or "The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon," a collection of thoughts about war-torn Somalia by photojournalist Dan Eldon, who was stoned to death there at the age of 22. Discuss with students what day-to-day life would be like for students living in a war zone.

Assessment

Ask students to place themselves into the tense atmosphere of Kosovo, and direct them to write two journal entries describing the events surrounding the war, the liberation of Kosovo or the reconstruction of the province. One entry will be from the perspective of a Serbian teen, and the other, from the perspective of an ethnic Albanian teen. Have each student identify the background of the two students represented in his or her entries, and consider how the students' backgrounds would influence their perspectives. Have students share their entries and discuss.

Accommodations

Body/Kinesthetic
Students can create a taped monologue from the perspective of a Serbian or Albanian teen. Students should refer to specific events to include in their stories. Have students share their recordings with the class.

Challenge

Students can develop a proposal to govern the "ground safety zone." Students should present their proposal to the class in a three- to five-minute speech.

If you tape CNN NEWSROOM for use in your classroom, you may want to use Kosovo Isolation, which aired March 2, 2000.

CNN In-Depth Specials
Kosovo: Prospects For Peace
Lesson Plan: Return to Kosovo
May 8, 2000

KFOR Online Homepage
USAID: Kosovo -- Humanitarian Crisis

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