Milosevic's
Speech, Kosovo, 28 June 1989 BBC Translation
Source:
SECTION: Part 2 Eastern Europe; B. INTERNAL AFFAIRS; YUGOSLAVIA; EE/0496/B/
1; LENGTH: 2224 words HEADLINE: SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC ADDRESSES RALLY AT
GAZIMESTAN;
SOURCE: Belgrade home service 1109 gmt 28 Jun 89;
Text of live relay of speech delivered at 28th June rally celebrating the
600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo Polje (EE/0495 i)
========================================================
Comrades, comrades. At this place, at this place [repeats himself] in the
heart of Serbia at the Field of Kosovo, six centuries ago, a full 600
years ago, one of the greatest battles of the time took place. As (?all
great events) [words indistinct] many questions and secrets [words
indistinct]. By the force of social circumstances this great 600th
anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo is taking place in a year in which
Serbia, after many years, after decades, has regained its state, national
and spiritual integrity. Therefore, it is not difficult for me to answer
today the old question with whom [words indistinct]. Throughout the game
of history and life, it seems as if Serbia has, precisely in this year, in
1989, (?gained) its state and its dignity and thus has celebrated an event
of the distant past which has a great historical and symbolic significance
for its future. Today, it is difficult to say what is the historical truth
about the Battle of Kosovo and what is legend. (?Today) this is no longer
important. Oppressed by pain and filled with hope, the people (?used to
suffer and forget), as, after all, all people in the world do, and [word
indistinct] and glorified heroism. Therefore, it is difficult to say today
whether the Battle of Kosovo was a defeat or a victory for the Serbian
people, whether thanks to it we fell into slavery or whether thanks to it
we [word indistinct] in this slavery. The answers to those questions will
be constantly sought by science and the people. What has been certain
through all the centuries until our time today is that disharmony struck
Kosovo 600 years ago. If we lost the battle, then this was not only the
result of (?social) superiority and the (?geographical) advantage of the
Ottoman Empire, but also of the disunity in the leadership of the Serbian
state at that time.
In that distant 1389, the Ottoman Empire was not only stronger than that
of the Serbs, but it was [word indistinct] than the Serbian kingdom. The
lack of unity and betrayal in Kosovo will continue to follow the Serbian
people like an evil (?fate) through the whole of its history. Even in the
last war, this lack of unity and betrayal led the Serbian people and
Serbia into agony, the consequences of which in the historical and moral
sense exceeded fascist aggression. Even later, when a socialist Yugoslavia
was set up, in this new state the Serbian leadership remained divided
[words indistinct] to the detriment of its own people. The concessions
that many Serbian leaders made at the expense of their people could not be
accepted historically and ethically by any nation in the world, especially
because the Serbs have never in the whole of their history conquered and
exploited others. Their national and historical being has been
liberational throughout the whole of history and through two world wars,
as it is today. They liberated themselves and when they could they also
helped others to liberate themselves. The fact that in the region (?they
are in the majority) is not a Serbian sin or shame; this is an advantage
which they have not used against others, but I must say that here, in this
big, legendary field of Kosovo, the Serbs have not used the advantage of
being in a majority for their own benefit either.
Thanks to their leaders and politicians and their vassal mentality they
felt guilty beforethemselves and others. Disunity among Serbian
politicians made Serbia lag behind and the inferiority of those
politicians humiliated Serbia.
This situation lasted for decades, it lasted for years and here we are now
at the field of Kosovo to say that this is no longer the case. Therefore,
no place in Serbia is better suited for saying this than the field of
Kosovo and no place in Serbia is better suited than the field of Kosovo
for saying that unity in Serbia will bring prosperity to the Serbian
people [words indistinct] and each one of its citizens, irrespective of
his national or religious affiliation.
Serbia of today is united and equal to other republics and should do
everything to improve its financial and social position and that of all
its citizens. If there is unity, co-operation and seriousness, it will
succeed in doing so. This is why the optimism that is now present (?in all
the republic these) days is realistic, also because it is based on
freedom, which makes it possible for all people to express their positive,
creative and humane abilities aimed at furthering social and personal
life.
Serbia has never had only Serbs living in it. Today, moe than in the past,
members of other peoples and nationalities also live in it. This is not a
disadvantage for Serbia. I am truly convinced that it is its advantage.
The national composition of almost all countries in the world today,
particularly developed ones, has also been changing in this direction.
Citizens of different nationalilties, religions and races have been living
to gether more and more frequently and more and more successfully.
Socialism in particular, being a progressive and just democratic society,
should not allow people to be divided in the national and religious
respect. The only differences one can and should allow in socialism are
between hard working peole and idlers and between honest people and
dishonest people. Therefore, all people in Serbia who live from their own
work [words indistinct] respecting other people and other nations in their
republic. After all, our entire country should be set up on the basis of
such principles.
Yugoslavia is a multinational community and it can survive only under the
conditions of full equality for all nations that live in it. The crisis
that hit Yugoslavia has brought about national divisions, but also social,
cultural, religious and many other less important ones. Among all these
divisions, nationalist ones have shown themselves to be the most dramatic.
Resolving them will make it easier to remove other divisions and mitigate
the consequences they have created.
For as long as multinational communities have existed, their weak point
has always been the relations between different nations. The threat that
the question of one nation being endangered by the others can be posed one
day and this can then start a wave of suspicions, accusations and
intolerance, a wave that invariably grows and is difficult to stop has
been hanging like a sword over their heads all the time. Internal and
external enemies of such communities are aware of this and therefore they
organise their activity against multina tional societies mostly by
fomenting national conflicts. At this moment, we in Y ugoslavia are
behaving as if we have never had such an experience and as if in our
recent and distant past we have never experienced the worst tragedy of
national conflicts that a society can experience and still survive.
Equal and harmonious relations among the Yugoslav peoples are a necessary
condition for the existence of Yugoslavia and for it to find its way out
of the crisis and, in particular, they are a conditions for its economic
and social prosperity. In this respect Yugoslavia does not stand out from
the social milieu of the contemporary, particularly the developed, world.
This world is more and more marked by national tolerance, national
co-operation and even national equality.
Modern economic and technological, as well as political and cultural
development, has guided various peoples towards each other, has made them
interdependent and increasingly and mutually equal [Serbo-Croat medjusobno
ravnopravni]. Equal and united people can above all become a part of the
civilisation towards which (?we are) moving. If we cannot be at the head
of the column leading to such a civilisation, there is certainly no need
for us to be at its tail.
At the time when this famous historical battle was fought in Kosovo, the
people were looking at the stars, expecting aid from them. Now, six
centuries later, they are looking at the stars again,(?waiting) to conquer
them. On the first occasion, they could allow themselves not to be unified
and to have hatred and treason because they lived in smaller, weakly
interlinked (?worlds). Now, as people on this planet, they cannot conquer
even their own planet if they are disunited, let alone other planets,
unless they live in mutual harmony and solidarity.
Therefore words devoted to unity, solidarity and co-operation among people
(?have no greater significance) anywhere on the soil of our homeland than
they have here in the field of Kosovo, which is a symbol of disunity and
treason. In the memory of the Serbian people, this disunity was decisive
in causing the (?loss) of the battle and in bringing about the fate which
Serbia suffered for a full six centuries. Even if it were not so from (?a
historical) point of view, it remains certain that the people regarded
disunity as its greatest disaster. Therefore, it is the obligation of the
people to remove disunity, so that they may protect themselves from
defeats, failures and stagnation in the future.
This year, the people in Serbia achieved [words indistinct] their mutual
harmony as the indispensable condition for their present life and further
development. I am convinced that this awareness of harmony and unity will
make it possible for Serbia not only to function as a state, but to
function as a successful state. Therefore I think that it makes sense to
say this here in Kosovo, where that disunity is a tragic [words
indistinct] and that renewed unity may advance it and may return dignity
to it. [Words indistinct] constitutes an elementary necessity for
Yugoslavia, too, for its fate is in the joined hands of all its peoples.
The Kosovo battle contains another great symbol. This is the symbol of
heroism. Poems, dances, literature and history are devoted to it. The
Kosovo heroism has been inspiring our creativity for six centuries [words
indistinct] and does not allow us to forget that at one time we were [word
indistinct] brave and [word indistinct], one of the few that entered the
battle undefeated.
Six centuries later, now, (?we are engaged in) battles and (?quarrels).
They are not armed battles, although such things cannot be excluded yet.
However, regardless of what kind of (?battles) they are, they cannot be
won without resolve, bravery and sacrifice, without the noble qualities
that were present here in the field of Kosovo in the days past. Our chief
battle now concerns implementing the economic, political, cultural and
general social prosperity, finding a quicker and more successful approach
to a civilisation in which people (?will enter the 21st century). For this
battle, we certainly need heroism, of course, of a somewhat different
kind, but that courage without which nothing serious (?and worthy) can be
achieved remains unchanged and remains urgently necessary.
Six centuries ago, Serbia defended itself in the field of Kosovo, but it
also defended Europe. Serbia was at that time the bastion that defended
the European culture, religion and European society in general. Therefore,
today it appears not only unjust, but even unhistorical and completely
absurd to talk about Serbia's belonging to Europe. Serbia has been a part
of Europe incessantly, now just as much as it was in the past, of course,
in its own way, but in a way that in the historical snse never deprived it
of dignity.
In this spirit we now endeavour to build society in an equal and
democratic way, and thus to contribute to the prosperity of this beautiful
country, this unjustly suffering country, but also to contribute to the
efforts of all the progressive people of our age that they make for a
better and happier world.
Six centuries ago, Serbia defended itself in the field of Kosovo, but it
also defended Europe. Serbia was at that time the bastion that defended
the European culture, religion and European society in general. Therefore,
today it appears not only unjust, but even unhistorical and completely
absurd to talk about Serbia's belonging to Europe. Serbia has been a part
of Europe incessantly, now just as much as it was in the past, of course,
in its own way, but in a way that in the historical sense never deprived
it of dignity.
In this spirit we now endeavour to build society in an equal and
democratic way, and thus to contribute to the prosperity of this beautiful
country, this unjustly suffering country, but also tocontribute to the
efforts of all the progressive people of our age that they make for a
better and happier world.
g
[Note Tanjug reported (in Serbo-Croat 1300 gmt 28 Jun 89), that about
2,000,000 people had attended the Gazimestan rally.
The Federal delegation had included President of the SFRY Presidency Janez
Drnovsek and several members of the Presidency; LCY Presidium President
Milan Pancevski; SFRY Assembly President Slobodan Gligorijevic; FEC
President Ante Markovic; Col-Gen Veljko Kadijevic, Federal Secretary for
National Defence; Budimir Loncar, Federal Secretary for Foreign Affairs;
Petar Gracanin, Federal Secretary for Internal Affairs, and Serbian LC
President Bogdan Trifunovic. In the afternoon, Tanjug reported (in English
1854 gmt 28 Jun 89), Patriarch German had officiated at a requiem in
memory of those who had fallen in the battle.]
Copyright 1989
The British Broadcasting Corporation * Posted for Fair Use Only |