Kosovo became the latest addition to the European map, already highly fragmented after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, sparking unambiguous reactions across the region and throughout the world.

Its declaration of independence on February 17 2008 had been expected for years, given that it had been de facto independent from Belgrade since Nato intervened to stop Serbian ethnic cleansing in 1999, and surprised no one.

In February 2007, special envoy to the province, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, proposed independence under close supervision from the European Union. Effective independence would not change the situation on the ground, merely legalise it, he argued. Russia’s opposition, however, scuppered any chance the UN Security Council would reach consensus on the issue.

Moscow’s support merely strengthened Belgrade’s resolve in fighting Kosovo’s independence, although it plans to do so using only diplomatic and economic means. The strong feelings in Serbia on the issue meant the government also had public support.

But the government’s official stance did not stop rioting breaking out at border checkpoints between Serbia and Kosovo, manned by UN personnel. Foreign embassies also came under attack, forcing Serbian police to use tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds, Belgrade radio station B92 reported. The embassies of the US and Slovenia, holder of the rotating EU presidency, were the targets of the most vicious attacks, which resulted in dozens of people injured.

President Boris Tadic called for an end to the rioting. “Only peace and reasonable moves give us an opportunity to defend our Kosovo with good arguments. Any violence is taking those arguments from our hands and damaging us,” he said, as quoted by B92.

Tadic, re-elected last month, after he promised to do his utmost to keep the province Serbian, and prime minister Vojislav Kostunica have already vowed never to recognise a Kosovar state, recalling Serbia’s ambassador to the United States and promising to do the same with every country that followed Washington’s example. Britain, France and Germany have also officially recognised the new state.

Understandably, on the other side of the border, the pronouncement had already caused mass celebration in the build-up to the extraordinary session of parliament that adopted the declaration of independence. Official festivities were planned for later this month.

After two decades of uncertainty, few neighbours have remained neutral on the issue. Romania, which has traditionally had close ties with Serbia and is worried that Hungarians – who form the majority in three of its central regions – could follow suit, said that it would not recognise the province’s independence. The Romanian parliament adopted a motion in that sense. It also recalled the small diplomatic mission it had in Prishtina. Other EU member states have signalled they would react in a similar manner, among them Spain, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus. On the other side was Bulgaria, which offered a guarded welcome to the new state, but urged it to implement democracy and uphold the rights of ethnic minorities.

The division in the EU was wide enough that no common position on the issue was adopted. At a scheduled meeting of foreign ministers on February 18 2008 on whether to recognise Kosovo’s independence, the ministers agreed on a declaration that every member state would decide its own stance on the issue.

The split within the EU was mirrored in the international community as a whole and showed no signs of imminent resolution, especially after China became the second UN veto-holding country to express its concerns over the implications of recognising an independent Kosovo.

The end of World War 2 saw the last major re-drawing of borders in the world, and it has become taboo among politicians and legal experts since then. Although certain exceptions have been allowed – Bangladesh splitting from Pakistan and Eritrea from Ethiopia – similar movements elsewhere were frowned upon. The sanctity of state borders was made paramount and Kosovo’s high profile case threatens to overthrow that world order.

Already Republica Srpska, the Serbian entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Northern Ossetia in Georgia have threatened to follow Kosovo’s example and go for independence, the EU’s declaration that the province should not be treated as a legal precedent notwithstanding. Basque regional authorities have praised the declaration as an example to follow in Spain and Corsican separatists were “delighted”, B92 reported.

The number of groups clamouring for wider-ranging autonomy from central government in Europe is not insignificant, although few of them are at this time demanding full independence in the way Basques do. From Scotland in the UK to Sardinia in Italy, the EU could face similar demands within its own borders in the not-so-distant future. Kosovo’s status has long elicited feelings of mutual loathing between parts of Serbia and Kosovo’s population, but with the province breaking away in such highly publicised fashion, it could still become the spectre haunting governments across the world, proving right those critics that warned that Kosovo would end up as Pandora’s box – better left unopened.

KOSOVO – A TIMELINE

13th century – Serbian Kingdom seizes Kosovo, then inhabited by Serbians, Albanians and Vlachs
1389&1448 – Ottoman armies defeat Serbs in two separate battles as the empire expands into Europe
1918 – Serbia takes control of the entire province after World War 1, having held parts of it since 1912
1941 – Kosovo becomes part of Albania and thousands of Serbs are killed or driven out
1946 – Incorporated in Yugoslavia as a province of Serbia
1974 – New constitution gives Kosovo wide autonomy
1981 – Separatist riots in the province, after the death of Josip Broz Tito, are harshly quelled
1989 – Kosovo autonomy curtailed when Slobodan Milosevic becomes president of Serbia
1990 – Albanian leaders in the province declare its independence, only for Belgrade to dissolve local government and sack tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians
1992 – Ibrahim Rugova is elected president of Kosovo, although Serbia does not recognise its results
1998 – Clashes between Serbian police and the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) cause a crackdown by Serb forces, with Nato intervening and asking Belgrade to back down
March – June 1999 – Nato air strikes reduce Serbia’s infrastructure to rubble, while fleeing Albanians talk of ethnic cleansing in the province. In the end, Serbia gives in and agrees to Nato peacekeepers, but tension remains high with Albanians launching retaliation attacks on Kosovar Serbs.
2003 – UN sets out conditions for Kosovo status talks
2004 – Rugova is re-elected president of Kosovo
2005 – Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, a former KLA guerrilla leader, is indited by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He steps down and turns himself in.
2006 – Talks between Belgrade and Prishtina finally resume. In Serbia a referendum approves the country’s new constitution, which declares Kosovo an integral part of Serbia. The referendum is boycotted by ethnic Albanians
2007 – UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari presents his plan for the future of Kosovo, which calls for independence supervised by the EU. Belgrade rejects it and is backed by Russia, while Kosovar authorities embrace it.
2008 – Serbian president Boris Tadic is re-elected and promises to do everything to keep the province in Serbia. New Kosovar prime minister Hashim Thaci, another former KLA leader, actively pushes for unilateral independence, which is declared on February 17.