[6] The demonstrations started on 11 March 1981, originally as a spontaneous small-scale protest for better food in the school cafeteria and improved living conditions in the dormitories.
[7][8] The student protests resumed two weeks later on 26 March 1981, as several thousand demonstrators chanted increasingly nationalist slogans, and the police used force to disperse them, injuring 32 people.
[13] On 2 April 1981 the Presidency of Yugoslavia under the chairmanship of Cvijetin Mijatović declared a state of emergency in Pristina and Kosovska Mitrovica, which lasted one week.
On 3 April, the last demonstrations happened in Vučitrn, Uroševac, Vitina and Kosovska Mitrovica, which were soon suppressed by the additional police deployment.
[23] During the year of 1991, a group of ethnic Kosovars would flee to Albania where they would complete a secret military training course with help from the Albanian army and government.
[24] On 29 December, Adem Jashari received a call from a trusted friend warning him of an approaching MUP convoy with armored vehicle's and helicopters.
In response, Adem and his brother Hamëz gathered four friends and relatives and sought refuge in the neighboring village of Kodra.
[25][26] Believing it was safe, Adem and Hamëz returned home in the early hours of December 30, but they were met with gunfire from Serbian policemen.
During the ensuing shootout, a mob of both armed and unarmed Albanians converged on the Jashari home, effectively breaking the siege and forcing the MUP unit to retreat and subsequently declare Prekaz a "no-go area".
[27][28][29] Between the years of 1991-1994, Adem Jashari led multiple attacks on Yugoslav police stations and patrols in the towns of Skenderaj and Drenas.
[24] In May 1993, a politically motivated attack took place in Drenas, carried out by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) under the leadership of Hashim Thaçi and his associates.
[33] During Autumn 1994, the Serbian Secret Service arrested Besim Rama, an Albanian from Prekaz who was very close to Adem Jashari.
In January 1997, Serbian security forces assassinated KLA commander Zahir Pajaziti and two other leaders in a highway attack between Pristina and Mitrovica, and arrested more than 100 Albanian militants.
Human Rights Watch subsequently described the trial, in which fourteen other Kosovo Albanians were also convicted, as "[failing] to conform to international standards.
[49][50][51] On 25 November 1997, the Yugoslav police and army were supposed to conduct a raid on the village of Rezalla but were ambushed by KLA forces led by Adem Jashari which had previously hid in the woods.
After retreating, Yugoslav forces reorganized and started crossing the Skenderaj-Klina road whilst helicopter scanned ahead.
[52] On 28 November, after the battle ended, the KLA made their first public appearance at the funeral of one of the teachers killed by Serbian forces, giving a speech surrounded by a crowd consisting of hundreds of ethnic Albanian civilians.