Districts of Kosovo

Kosovo

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Kosovo

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A District (Albanian: Qark or Rajon, Serbian: Дистрикт/Distrikt/Okrug or Region) is the highest administrative division level of both the Kosovo (UNMIK) protectorate and the partially recognized Republic of Kosovo, over the territory of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija having been an administrative unit in the latter. The districts of Kosovo are based on the Serbian Districts of Kosovo and Metohija.

UNMIK reform of 2000

UNMIK's districts of Kosovo

The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) introduced the following changes to the districts and municipalities of Kosovo (UNMIK) in 2000:^{[citation needed]}

• on the territory of the Kosovska Mitrovica District it made new District of Kosovska Mitrovica.
• on the territory of the Peć District it made new District of Peć and District of Đakovica and additionally:
  • it transferred the municipality of Orahovac to the District of Đakovica.
• it split the Kosovo District in two - the new District of Pristina and District of Uroševac.
• it renamed the Kosovo-Pomoravlje District as the District of Gnjilane.
  • it transferred the municipality of Novo Brdo to the District of Pristina.
• it reformed the Prizren District into District of Prizren by the following:
  • it merged the municipalities of Gora and Opolje into the new municipality of Dragaš
  • it formed new municiaplity Mališevo by taking territories from the municipalities of Orahovac (Prizren District/District of Đakovica), Suva Reka (District of Prizren), Klina (District of Peć) and Glogovac (Kosovo District/District of Priština).
  • it transferred the bigger part of Orahovac municipality that is outside of the new municipality of Mališevo to the District of Đakovica.

Serbia protested about the new territorial division and does not see it as legitimate, but by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo administration implemented it regardless of Serbia's protests, because it has such authority^{[citation needed]} established by virtue of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. Similarly the local authorities of Kosovo objected the Serbia nominal sovereignty over Kosovo (also confirmed by the UNSCR 1244) and in 2008 declared unilateraly indepence, but it is not yet recognized by the UN and thus the Kosovo (UNMIK) protectorate continues to function according to UNSCR 1244.

The UNMIK administration (established in 1999), replaced the Districts of Kosovo and Metohia with new districts of Kosovo (UNMIK). The new districts are^{[citation needed]}:

District	Capital	Area in km²	Population in 2002 (rank)	Population per km²	Municipalities
District of Đakovica (Đakovički okrug/Qarku i Gjakovës)	Đakovica	1042	242,077	232	Đakovica Dečani Orahovac
District of Gnjilane (Gnjilanski okrug/Qarku i Gjilanit)	Gnjilane				Gnjilane Kosovska Kamenica Vitina
District of Kosovska Mitrovica (Kosovskomitrovački okrug/Qarku i Mitrovicës)	Kosovska Mitrovica				Kosovska Mitrovica Leposavić Srbica Vučitrn Zubin Potok Zvečan
District of Peć (Pećki okrug/Qarku i Pejës)	Peć				Peć Istok Klina
District of Pristina (Prištinski okrug/Qarku i Prishtinës)	Pristina				Pristina Glogovac Kosovo Polje Lipljan Novo Brdo Obilić Podujevo
District of Prizren (Prizrenski okrug/Qarku i Prizrenit)	Prizren				Prizren Dragaš Suva Reka Mališevo
District of Uroševac (Uroševački okrug/Qarku i Ferizajit)	Uroševac				Uroševac Štimlje Kačanik Štrpce

See also

• Districts of Kosovo and Metohija
• Subdivisions of Kosovo

Notes and references

Notes:

a.	^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, while Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory. Its independence is recognised by 86 UN member states.

References: