| The Emperor’s New Clothes
(TENC) * www.tenc.net Please send this link to a friend. You may post any TENC article on the internet as long as you credit TENC and the author(s). http://emperors-clothes.com/a/13.htm Subscribe to the TENC Newsletter – Receive articles from Emperor’s Clothes. To join, send a blank email to: join-emperorsclothes@pr2.netatlantic.com Then reply to the confirmation email; if you don’t receive it right away, please check your bulk mail screening filter. And please add the Newsletter address to your personal address book: emperorsclothes@tenc.net Our readers make TENC possible. Please donate! ============================================= Thirteen New York Times Articles on Kosovo, from 1981 to 1988 [Feb. 26, 2008] Table of Contents 1. April 20, 1981 ============================================= 1. April
20, 1981
Even in the cold, dreary rain, women
of Albanian ancestry with white headscarfs and long floral print skirts
or baggy trousers strolled along the main street pausing to admire the
window displays of modern dress shops, furniture stores and
supermarkets. Copyright 1981 The New York Times Company * Reprinted
for Fair Use Only ****************************************
2. April 21, 1981
Before daybreak on March 16, the
Patriarchate of Pec, which had survived invasion and occupation by the
Ottoman Turks, was heavily damaged by fire. Copyright 1981 The New York Times Company * Reprinted for Fair Use Only ******************************** 3. April 27, 1981
Nearly a month after the rioting in a
southern province of Yugoslavia, it is still unclear what the troubles
were all about. Copyright 1981 The New York Times Company * Reprinted for Fair Use Only ******************************************************* 4. June 14, 1981
Belgrade, Yugoslavia, June 13
(Reuters) - Yugoslavia has announced plans to strengthen the security
forces in Kosovo Province, the southern region jolted by nationalist
rioting in March and April by ethnic Albanians. Copyright 1981 The New York Times Company * Reprinted for Fair Use Only ******************
5. September
5, 1981
Two
high-ranking Government officials in Kosovo Province resigned today, and
provincial officials dismissed several executives of the
state-controlled news media, the official Tanjug press agency reported. Copyright 1981 The New York Times Company * Reprinted for Fair Use Only ******************************************************* 6. October 18, 1981
Tension has eased in this capital and
other parts of the troubled southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo, where
Albanian nationalist riots left nine people dead and scores injured last
spring. Copyright 1981 The New York Times Company * Reprinted for Fair Use Only *****************************
7. July 12, 1982 By MARVINE HOWE, Special to The New York Times Danilo Krstic and his family are hardworking wheat and tobacco farmers, Serbs who get along with their Albanian neighbors. "You have to love the place where you live to stay on the land here," Marko Krstic, the oldest son, told visitors to the farm at Bec, a few miles from the Albanian border. There have been no serious troubles between Serbians and Albanians in Bec, but Serbs in some of the neighboring villages have reportedly been harassed by Albanians and have packed up and left the region. The exodus of Serbs is admittedly one of the main problems that the authorities have to contend with in Kosovo, an autonomous province of Yugoslavia inhabited largely by Albanians. Rioting Brought Awareness Last year's riots, in which nine people were killed, shocked not only the troubled province of Kosovo but also the entire country into an awareness of the problems of this most backward part of Yugoslavia, which is made up of many ethnic groups. In June a 43-year-old Serb, Miodrag Saric, was shot and killed by an Albanian neighbor, Ded Krasnici, in a village near Djakovica, 40 miles southwest of Pristina, according to the official Yugoslav press agency Tanyug. It was the second murder of a Serb by an Albanian in Kosovo this year. The dispute reportedly started with a quarrel over damage done to a field belonging to the Saric family. The local political and security bodies condemned the murder as "a grave criminal act" that could have serious repercussions, according to the press agency. Five members of the Krasnici family have been arrested and investigations are continuing. The authorities have responded at various levels to the violence in Kosovo, clearly trying to avoid antagonizing the Albanian majority. Besides firm security measures, action has been taken to speed political, educational and economic changes. Past Errors Acknowledged Privately, some officials acknowledge that the rise of Albanian nationalism in a society that is based on the principle of the equality of nationalities is the result of past errors - at first neglect and discrimination, and more recently failure to act against divisive forces or even recognize them. "The [Albanian] nationalists have a two-point platform," according to Becir Hoti, an executive secretary of the Communist Party of Kosovo, "first to establish what they call an ethnically clean Albanian republic and then the merger with Albania to form a greater Albania. " Mr. Hoti, an Albanian, expressed concern over political pressures that were forcing Serbs to leave Kosovo. "What is important now," he said, "is to establish a climate of security and create confidence." The migration of Serbs is no ordinary problem becuase Kosovo is the heartland of Serbian history, culture and religion. Serbs have been in this region since the seventh century, long before they founded their own independent dynasty here in 1168. 57,000 Serbs Have Left Region Some 57,000 Serbs have left Kosovo in the last decade, and the number increased considerably after the riots of March and April last year, according to Vukasin Jokanovic, another executive secretary of the Kosovo party. Mr. Jokanovic, former president of the Commission on Migration set up after last year's disturbances, said the cause of Serbian migration was "essentially of a political nature." The commission has given four basic reasons for the departures: social-economic, normal migration from this underdeveloped area, an increasingly adverse social-political climate and direct and indirect pressures. Mr. Jokanovic, a Serb, called the pressures disturbing and said they included personal insults, damage to Serbian graves and the burning of hay, cutting down wood and other attacks on property to force Serbs to leave. The 1981 census showed Kosovo with a population of 1,584,558, of whom 77.5 percent were ethnic Albanians, 13.2 percent Serbs and 1.7 percent Montenegrins. The population in 1971 of 1,243,693 was 73.8 percent Albanian, 18.4 percent Serbian and 2.5 percent Montenegrin. Ex-Defense Minister Concerned In a recent visit to Kosovo, Nikola Ljubcic, head of the Serbian Presidency and a former Minister of Defense, expressed particular concern about the continuing exodus of Serbs. "An ethnically clean Kosovo will always be cause for instability," Mr. Ljubicic said, adding that Yugoslavia "will never give up one foot of her land." Conversations with Serbs and Albanians in different parts of the province showed that that they were generally troubled about the Serbian migration but did not know what to do about it. Some people described it as "psychological warfare" but were at a loss to explain who was at fault. In Pristina, the provincial capital, with its skyscrapers and bustling streets, people said they felt relatively secure because the authorities maintained "a close watch." Although the army remains at a distance and has not had to intervene, there is a strong militia presence. Things appear relaxed on the Corso, Pristina's main street. As in other Yugoslav cities, every night from about 6 to 10 the main thoroughfare is closed to traffic and practically everyone turns out for a stroll, encounters and discussions. Different Sides of Street What is special about Pristina is that it has always been Serbs on one side of the street and Albanians on the other. Residents say Albanians have been encroaching on Serbian "territory" since the disturbances. After the crackdown on Albanian nationalists - about 300 have been sentenced - they are said to have changed tactics, moving to the villages, where there is less security control. In some mixed communities, there were reports of [Serbian] farmers being pressured to sell their land cheap and of Albanian shopkeepers refusing to sell goods to Serbs. "We don't want to go because we have a large farm," a Serbian farmer's wife said in a village near Pristina. "Our property hasn't been touched, but there are the insults and the intimidation, so we feel uncomfortable." Several neighbors have left, she said, and her own sons who were planning to build a new house have stopped "to see how things will turn out." There have been many changes since the riots, but most people in Pristina agree with Mr. Ljubicic that more could be done. The main thrust of the changes is economic. "We're going to change the economic structures with more emphasis on agriculture, the processing industry, small business and handicrafts," Aziz Abrashi, the Economics Minister, said in an interview. "Ninety-nine percent of the Albanians have no wish to live in Albania," Mr. Abrashi, an Albanian, said, "but they view the rest of Yugoslavia and are aware of the higher living standards. Our young people want the same good life, the nice houses and cars, and they can't get them if they can't get jobs." Copyright 1982 The New York Times Company * Reprinted for Fair Use Only * * * * 8. Nov. 9, 1982 By DAVID BINDER, Special to the New York Times DATELINE: PRISTINA, Yugoslavia In Belgrade, three muscular men in black windbreakers boarded a night train to Kosovo, the southern province where nearly all of Yugoslavia's more than 1.5 million ethnic Albanians live. In a conversation with a visitor in the aisle, the three men said in Serbian that they were headed for the provincial capital, Pristina, for a few days of what they called ''service work.'' On arrival near dawn, they were picked up by a van marked ''Militia.'' The three were plainclothesmen of the Yugoslav Federal Security Service, apparently sent here to help prevent acts of violence by Albanian nationalists. An official in Belgrade, 150 miles to the north, said that since the rioting in March 1981 when nine people were killed, the Yugoslav Government had spent more than $30 million to maintain order in the Kosovo Autonomous Province, which abuts Albania. The province, which is dominated by ethnic Albanians, contains only about 180,000 Slavs. Both the Yugoslav Army and the militia maintain a large visible presence here. Yet acts of violence, mostly attacks on Kosovo Serbs or their property, continue to be reported every week in the Belgrade press. Non-Albanians Flee Area A few days ago a newspaper reported that a young Albanian had splashed gasoline in the face of a 12-year-old Serbian boy and ignited it with a match. The boy avoided serious injury by pulling his sweater over his head, extinguishing the flames. Such incidents have prompted many of Kosovo's Slavic inhabitants to flee the province, thereby helping to fulfill a nationalist demand for an ethnically ''pure'' Albanian Kosovo. The latest Belgrade estimate is that 20,000 Serbs and Montenegrins have left Kosovo for good since the 1981 riots. The hatred that has developed between ethnic Albanians and the Slavic inhabitants is reflected in slogans painted overnight on walls here. In an interview, Ismaili Bajra, a husky 53-year-old ethnic Albanian who is a member of the province's Communist Party presidium, spoke with pride of progress in the industrialization of the province, but he spoke scornfully of the Kosovo nationalists as ''traitors.'' Terming the political situation good, he said it was getting ''more stable'' every day. ''Now the school year has begun,'' he said, adding that, with ''500 000 youngsters enrolled,'' there have been ''no hostile actions, though of course you do find slogans painted here and there.'' The ethnic turmoil in Kosovo has origins that go back more than five centuries when the Serbian nation developed in this region and created a brief-lived empire that was ended by the Ottoman Turks in 1389. As the Turkish grip tightened, Serb peasants gradually migrated northward, and Albanians moved in. Tito Ruled With Strong Hand After Serbia became independent again in the 19th century, Belgrade asserted dominance over the Albanians of Kosovo. After Marshal Tito's Communists took power in the 1940's, Kosovo's Albanians were ruled with an iron hand by the Serbian authorities of Belgrade for nearly 21 years. A minority in Serbia as a whole, the Albanians were already a majority in Kosovo. Copyright 1982 The New York Times Company * Reprinted for Fair Use Only *************** 9. April 28, 1986 By HENRY KAMM, Special to the New York Times DATELINE: PRISTINA, Yugoslavia The ethnic Albanian majority in the autonomous province of Kosovo is feared by the minority population of Serbs and Montenegrins, who believe the Albanians are seeking to drive them out of the province. A 1981 fire that gutted the medieval nunnery of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate in Pec, a center of Serbian national feeling, has been officially ascribed to bad construction. An aged nun at the Patriarchate said she and her sisters were convinced that the fire had been set to chase them from Kosovo. But she said the nuns would never leave, and three Serbian or Montenegrin visitors agreed with her. The provincial leadership, dominated by ethnic Albanians, has said it believes that a Serb grossly mutilated last May by a broken bottle inflicted his injuries himself while performing an auto-erotic act. The maiming of Djordje Martinovic, a 56-year-old farmer and father of three, has become the most widely discussed Yugoslav criminal case in years, debated in Parliament and covered in full detail by television and the press. Yugoslavs Blame the Albanians The case remains unsolved, but Yugoslavs' minds seem mainly made up on both incidents. They blame ethnic Albanians. They also blame them for continuing assaults, rapes and vandalism. They believe their aim is to drive non-Albanians out of Kosovo. ''A legitimized genocide against the Serbian people is being carried out in Kosovo,'' said Dobrica Cosic, a dissident novelist published here and in the United States, in an interview in Belgrade. ''More than 200,000 Serbs have been forced to leave their home in the last 10, 20 years.'' A steady exodus continues. Since Albanian nationalists went on a rampage in 1981, leaving at least nine people dead, the level of violence has declined. But enough agitation continues, punctuated by acts of violence, to make a burning issue of the antagonism between the 1.4 million ethnic Albanians and the little more than 200,000 Serbs. Under the federal Constitution, Kosovo is part of the Serbian Republic. In effect, it is as self-governing as the six republics of the nation. It is also the poorest region of Yugoslavia. Men in their 20's line the main street of Pristina - a stretch of grandiose modern buildings that separates near-slums on either side - offering to shine the shoes of passers-by who can hardly afford such luxury. Begging children accost diners in restaurants. Use of Funds Criticized The overambitious buildings, such as a recent, prematurely rundown, 300-room hotel with 3 restaurants in a little-visited town of 100,000, sustain criticism of the provincial leadership a a misuse of federal development funds. To many, the aid represents a futile effort to solve an intractable problem through financial bounty. Mohammed Mustafa, director of the Provincial Economic Planning Instititute, said there were 115,000 registered unemployed out of a potential work force of 804,000. The economic growth rate has been 1.5 percent a year since 1980, while the population is growing at 2.5 percent, he said. The average wage is 20 percent below the national average. ''Kosovo is Yugoslavia's single greatest problem,'' said a Western diplomat. ''They can pay off their huge debt, but Kosovo defies solution.'' Serbs and Montenegrins feel beleaguered. Communists and non-Communists express distrust of the provincial leadership and chagrin over the federal and Serbian authorities who in their opinion do nothing to halt increasing Albanian domination over a multi-national population and lands that are historically inseparable from Serbian national identity. Restrictive Atmosphere Non-Albanian Yugoslav residents and visitors characterize the atmosphere of Kosovo as frighteningly restrictive and its Communist leadership as so dogmatic as to resemble the rigorously Stalinist regime that holds power in nearby Albania. In contrast to officials elsewhere in Yugoslavia, who readily acknowledge problems and errors and de-emphasize ideology in favor of pragmatism, a leading Kosovo official, Ekrem Arifi, offered an entirely ideological explanation of Kosovo's problems. In prepared statements that took the place of replies to questions, he blamed outside forces for all difficulties -agents of Albania and emigres in the West. Mr. Arifi, executive secretary of the provincial party, spoke in Albanian and in stock phrases long out of use in Yugoslavia, such as ''proletarian internationalism,'' ''the class enemy'' or ''the solidarity of the working class.'' They are not echoed by the non-Albanian population. Asked whether the nuns felt safe in their rebuilt convent, the old nun replied, ''Yes, with God's help.'' Copyright 1986 The New York Times Company * Reprinted for Fair Use Only * * * *
10. July 27, 1986 By HENRY KAMM, Special to the New York Times DATELINE: BELGRADE, Yugoslavia The Yugoslav Government is keeping a watch on Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo Autonomous Province to prevent them from staging protest marches on Belgrade. The two groups charge that the region's Albanian ethnic majority is trying to force them from their ancestral homes. The Serbs and Montenegrins of Kosovo began agitating during a Communist Party convention in June. The police blocked roads to forestall planned marches to dramatize the issue. But even without marches, ethnic tension in Kosovo was a topic of debate at the convention. Speakers said that Albania was fomenting agitation in the autonomous province with the intent of detaching it from Yugoslavia. The convention also heard an attack on Bulgaria and Greece over the longstanding issue of Macedonian nationality. Macedonians, a Slavic group with historical links both to Bulgaria and to Greece, form one of the constituent republics of Yugoslavia. Turkish Minority in Bulgaria Along with the persecution of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria and resentment among ethnic Hungarians in Rumania, ethnic issues that have marked Balkan history are returning to the fore. ''We have to say how dangerous the Kosovo problem is to the integrity of our country,'' said Ivan Stambolic, President of the Serbian Republic, which includes Kosovo Autonomous Province. Kosovo's population of 1.6 million is 78 percent ethnic Albanian. ''It is the most delicate problem we have ever had,'' said Mr. Stambolic in a meeting with Western reporters at the convention hall. ''It is a problem of long duration that cannot be solved overnight.'' Since earlier this year, hundreds of Serbs living in Kosovo have staged marches in Belgrade to protest what they consider the failure of the Government to protect them from attacks and threats by Albanians against them and their property. 'Unfavorable Trends' Vidoje Zarkovic, head of the party's collective presidency, spoke at the convention about ''continuing unfavorable trends in the province'' and said, ''We have not succeeded in stabilizing the disturbed interethnic relations and in developing trust.'' In a resolution, the convention accused Albania of fomenting ethnic conflict. ''Albania has continued to openly and blatantly interfere in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia,'' the resolution declared. ''Irredentist and nationalist indoctrination of our citizens by Albania constitutes a serious threat to peace and security in the Balkans and beyond.'' Despite a perceptible thawing of Albania's isolationist attitude since the death last year of Enver Hoxha, the Albanian leader, its hostility to Yugoslavia has grown. ''Albania is intensifying its anti-Yugoslav campaign,'' said Dobrivoje Vidic, a member of the Yugoslav party's presidency. ''It unrelentingly attacks all the values of our society, expresses unconcealed territorial aspirations, flagrantly interferes in the internal affairs of our people and extends open support to the counterrevolutionary goals of the Albanian separatists in Yugoslavia.'' Copyright 1986 The New York Times Company * Reprinted for Fair Use Only ***** 11. June 28, 1987 BYLINE: Special to the New York Times DATELINE: BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, June 27 The police clashed here early today with about 1,000 Serbs and Montenegrins protesting what they called terrorism against them by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo Province. The clash occurred shortly after a meeting of the country's Central Committee during which there were 16 hours of debate on ways to ease tension between Kosovo's 1.7 million ethnic Albanians and 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins. Witnesses said squads of policemen seized demonstrators and forced them into buses to be driven back to their homes in Kosovo. Some protesters were detained for several hours. The Central Committee meeting was the first in six years dedicated solely to Kosovo problem. Tensions have been high in the province in southwestern Yugoslavia since the Albanians rioted there in 1981 to back demands for higher status as a republic. Since then, more than 22,000 Serbs and Montenegrins have fled Kosovo. The Government asked people from Kosovo not to come to Belgrade during the Central Committee meeting, but hundreds came here overnight. Published excerpts from the debate showed continued splits in the party ranks, and no decisive action was considered likely. The police also prevented large groups of Belgrade residents from joining the protesters by cordoning of the entire center of the city. Serbs have said the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have committed atrocities against them, including murder, rape, desecration of graves and churches and blinding of cattle. Copyright 1987 The New York Times Company * Reprinted for Fair Use Only ****
12. Nov. 1, 1987 BYLINE: By DAVID BINDER, Special to the New York Times DATELINE: BELGRADE, Yugoslavia Portions of southern Yugoslavia have reached such a state of ethnic friction that Yugoslavs have begun to talk of the horrifying possibility of ''civil war'' in a land that lost one-tenth of its population, or 1.7 million people, in World War II. The current hostilities pit separatist-minded ethnic Albanians against the various Slavic populations of Yugoslavia and occur at all levels of society, from the highest officials to the humblest peasants. A young Army conscript of ethnic Albanian origin shot up his barracks, killing four sleeping Slavic bunkmates and wounding six others. The army says it has uncovered hundreds of subversive ethnic Albanian cells in its ranks. Some arsenals have been raided. Vicious Insults Ethnic Albanians in the Government have manipulated public funds and regulations to take over land belonging to Serbs. And politicians have exchanged vicious insults. Slavic Orthodox churches have been attacked, and flags have been torn down. Wells have been poisoned and crops burned. Slavic boys have been knifed, and some young ethnic Albanians have been told by their elders to rape Serbian girls. Ethnic Albanians comprise the fastest growing nationality in Yugoslavia and are expected soon to become its third largest, after the Serbs and Croats. Radicals' Goals . The goal of the radical nationalists among them, one said in an interview, is an ''ethnic Albania that includes western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, part of southern Serbia, Kosovo and Albania itself.'' That includes large chunks of the republics that make up the southern half of Yugoslavia. Other ethnic Albanian separatists admit to a vision of a greater Albania governed from Pristina in southern Yugoslavia rather than Tirana, the capital of neighboring Albania. There is no evidence that the hard-line Communist Government in Tirana is giving them material assistance. The principal battleground is the region called Kosovo, a high plateau ringed by mountains that is somewhat smaller than New Jersey. Ethnic Albanians there make up 85 percent of the population of 1.7 million. The rest are Serbians and Montenegrins. Worst Strife in Years As Slavs flee the protracted violence, Kosovo is becoming what ethnic Albanian nationalists have been demanding for years, and especially strongly since the bloody rioting by ethnic Albanians in Pristina in 1981 - an ''ethnically pure'' Albanian region, a ''Republic of Kosovo'' in all but name. The violence, a journalist in Kosovo said, is escalating to ''the worst in the last seven years.'' Many Yugoslavs blame the troubles on the ethnic Albanians, but the matter is more complex in a country with as many nationalities and religions as Yugoslavia's and involves economic development, law, politics, families and flags. As recently as 20 years ago, the Slavic majority treated ethnic Albanians as inferiors to be employed as hewers of wood and carriers of heating coal. The ethnic Albanians, who now number 2 million, were officially deemed a minority, not a constituent nationality, as they are today. Were the ethnic tensions restricted to Kosovo, Yugoslavia's problems with its Albanian nationals might be more manageable. But some Yugoslavs and some ethnic Albanians believe the struggle has spread far beyond Kosovo. Macedonia, a republic to the south with a population of 1.8 million, has a restive ethnic Albanian minority of 350,000. "We've already lost western Macedonia to the Albanians,'' said a member of the Yugoslav party presidium, explaining that the ethnic minority had driven the Slavic Macedonians out of the region. Attacks on Slavs Last summer, the authorities in Kosovo said they documented 40 ethnic Albanian attacks on Slavs in two months. In the last two years, 320 ethnic Albanians have been sentenced for political crimes, nearly half of them characterized as severe. In one incident, Fadil Hoxha, once the leading politician of ethnic Albanian origin in Yugoslavia, joked at an official dinner in Prizren last year that Serbian women should be used to satisfy potential ethnic Albanian rapists. After his quip was reported this October, Serbian women in Kosovo protested, and Mr. Hoxha was dismissed from the Communist Party. As a precaution, the central authorities dispatched 380 riot police officers to the Kosovo region for the first time in four years. Officials in Belgrade view the ethnic Albanian challenge as imperiling the foundations of the multinational experiment called federal Yugoslavia, which consists of six republics and two provinces. 'Lebanonizing' of Yugoslavia High-ranking officials have spoken of the ''Lebanonizing'' of their country and have compared its troubles to the strife in Northern Ireland. Borislav Jovic, a member of the Serbian party's presidency, spoke in an interview of the prospect of ''two Albanias, one north and one south, like divided Germany or Korea,'' [the phrase 'two Albanias' must be an editing/typographical error; he probably said "two Serbias." - J.I.] and of ''practically the breakup of Yugoslavia.'' He added: ''Time is working against us.'' The federal Secretary for National Defense, Fleet Adm. Branko Mamula, told the army's party organization in September of efforts by ethnic Albanians to subvert the armed forces. ''Between 1981 and 1987 a total of 216 illegal organizations with 1,435 members of Albanian nationality were discovered in the Yugoslav People's Army,'' he said. Admiral Mamula said ethnic Albanian subversives had been preparing for ''killing officers and soldiers, poisoning food and water, sabotage, breaking into weapons arsenals and stealing arms and ammunition, desertion and causing flagrant nationalist incidents in army units.'' Concerns Over Military Coming three weeks after the ethnic Albanian draftee, Aziz Kelmendi, had slaughtered his Slavic comrades in the barracks at Paracin, the speech struck fear in thousands of families whose sons were about to start their mandatory year of military service. Because the Albanians have had a relatively high birth rate, one-quarter of the army's 200,000 conscripts this year are ethnic Albanians. Admiral Mamula suggested that 3,792 were potential human timebombs. He said the army had ''not been provided with details relevant for assessing their behavior.'' But a number of Belgrade politicians said they doubted the Yugoslav armed forces would be used to intervene in Kosovo as they were to quell violent rioting in 1981 in Pristina. They reason that the army leadership is extremely reluctant to become involved in what is, in the first place, a political issue. Ethnic Albanians already control almost every phase of life in the autonomous province of Kosovo, including the police, judiciary, civil service, schools and factories. Non-Albanian visitors almost immediately feel the independence - and suspicion - of the ethnic Albanian authorities. Region's Slavs Lack Strength While 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins still live in the province, they are scattered and lack cohesion. In the last seven years, 20,000 of them have fled the province, often leaving behind farmsteads and houses, for the safety of the Slavic north. Until September, the majority of the Serbian Communist Party leadership pursued a policy of seeking compromise with the Kosovo party hierarchy under its ethnic Albanian leader, Azem Vlasi. But during a 30-hour session of the Serbian central committee in late September, the Serbian party secretary, Slobodan Milosevic, deposed Dragisa Pavlovic, as head of Belgrade's party organization, the country's largest. Mr. Milosevic accused Mr. Pavlovic of being an appeaser who was soft on Albanian radicals. Mr. Milosevic had courted the Serbian backlash vote with speeches in Kosovo itself calling for ''the policy of the hard hand.'' ''We will go up against anti-Socialist forces, even if they call us Stalinists,'' Mr. Milosevic declared recently. That a Yugoslav politician would invite someone to call him a Stalinist even four decades after Tito's epochal break with Stalin, is a measure of the state into which Serbian politics have fallen. For the moment, Mr. Milosevic and his supporters appear to be staking their careers on a strategy of confrontation with the Kosovo ethnic Albanians. Other Yugoslav politicians have expressed alarm. ''There is no doubt Kosovo is a problem of the whole country, a powder keg on which we all sit,'' said Milan Kucan, head of the Slovenian Communist Party. Remzi Koljgeci, of the Kosovo party leadership, said in an interview in Pristina that ''relations are cold'' between the ethnic Albanians and Serbs of the province, that there were too many ''people without hope.'' But many of those interviewed agreed it was also a rare opportunity for Yugoslavia to take radical political and economic steps, as Tito did when he broke with the Soviet bloc in 1948. Efforts are under way to strengthen central authority through amendments to the constitution. The League of Communists is planning an extraordinary party congress before March to address the country's grave problems. The hope is that something will be done then to exert the rule of law in Kosovo while drawing ethnic Albanians back into Yugoslavia's mainstream. Copyright 1987 The New York Times Company * Reprinted for Fair Use Only * * * * 13. September 23, 1988 About 70,000 Serbians braved a steady rain and fields of mud after the factories closed in this Serbian industrial town this afternoon to cheer speakers and shout slogans. It was perhaps the largest of a rash of rallies held since July over the ethnic conflict in Kosovo, an autonomous province of Serbia south of here. Serbs contend that Kosovo's ethnic majority of 1.7 million Albanians has terrorized a minority of 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins with the aim of driving them out of Kosovo and turning it into a purely Albanian province. The plight of the Kosovo Serbs was the official subject of the demonstration. But much of the speeches, and many of the slogans that were chanted throughout the meeting, made evident why the rallies are viewed with great unease by the authorities. Leaders Under Fire In a country with an annual inflation rate approaching 200 percent, a sinking standard of living and rising unemployment, economic problems are as prominent as the deeply emotional ethnic problem of Kosovo. The speeches and slogans today reflected that. ''We don't want imposing villas, planes, yachts and private beaches,'' said Vojislav Radunovic, the union leader at the railroad car factory that is this town's main industry, alluding to recent disclosures of high living among Government and Communist Party leaders. ''You are not our comrades because you do not line up at dawn to buy 'people's bread,' '' he continued. He was referring to the low-quality bread that bakeries must provide at low cost to cushion the shock of repeated increases in the price of better bread. ''You don't share our destiny on the first, second or third shift,'' he said. ''You don't go down in the mine shafts; you don't climb high to build bridges. You are not our comrades.'' ''The people should judge them!'' was a shout that rose from the crowd, which responded enthusiastically throughout the meeting. ''Thieves!'' the crowd roared. ''Down with those who sit in armchairs.'' One of the hundreds of homemade posters being held high proclaimed, ''Down with the socialist bourgeoisie!'' Yugoslavia is composed of six republics and two provinces, each with parallel government and party bureaucracies. Because of its federal governmental and party system, this nation of 23 million people has an extraordinarily high density of bureaucrats, and government and party officials have become targets of particular ire. ''Return all you have taken from the working class!'' the union leader continued. ''You with your privileged pensions, which are bigger than the pay of entire brigades of steelworkers, do you ever blush when you collect them?'' A Shift in Emphasis Yugoslavs who have attended several of the rallies over the Kosovo conflict noted a shift of emphasis today, with speeches and slogans paying greater heed to Yugoslavia's economic plight than at earlier meetings. They explained this by Kraljevo's working-class character. Nonetheless, the crowd's nationalist anger was equally evident. Serbs are Yugoslavia's largest population group, numbering more than eight million. Increasingly, they are expressing frustration over a perception that because of a distrust among fellow Yugoslavs based on their numbers they do not enjoy the share of national power that they feel should be theirs. The mounting agitation over Kosovo is the clearest expression of the sense of Serbian frustration. ''Down with those who betray the Serbian people!'' a poster proclaimed. And many in the crowd burst into an old patriotic song: ''Who says, who lies, that Serbia is small?'' Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia's party chief, commands mass support for his demand that the two autonomous provinces, Kosovo and Vojvodina, be stripped of much of their autonomy and more fully integrated into Serbia. Copyright 1988 The New York Times Company * * * The Emperor’s New Clothes (TENC) * www.tenc.net
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