Deaths in Kosovo:
YUGOSLAVIA
T ties struck a highpitched note, accusing ing to carry out a "counterrevolutionary secession" and
"genocide" against the Slavic
Croats and Slovenes. The Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic's shameful "victory" is going to lead the Serbian govemment down a blind alley and force the Yugoslav federation to make a choice.
anatomy of a minorities in Kosovo. But neither of these accusations can be taken seriously. If the Albanians really wanted to secede, that would be their right. But they have never wanted that up
The deplorable rejoicing of the Serbian population celecentralization of the republic will turn sour when it becomes clear that the emperor Milosevuntil now.
Quite simply, Albania is not attractive for them, neither economically, nor politically nor
THE AUTONOMOUS PROVINCE of Kosovo even culturally (in particular has "ratified" the constitutional changes that since religious rights are denied in Albania but not in Yugoslavre-centralize all the Serbian territories. This ia). But it is clear that if this vote was made possible only by a purge of all anti-Albanian repression continues, those in the provincial apparatus who were that attitude could change, with every justifisuspected of being "too Albanian," dozens of cation.
deaths, the presence of tanks and a curfew.
As for the use of the term
"genocide," this is a scandalous
In accepting the Serbian re-centralization at device for camouflaging the real reason for the exodus of the expense of the Kosovo Albanians and
Slavic families from Kosovo.
Vojvodina [an autonomous province
They are leaving mainly for distinguished by large non-Serbian national economic reasons. For example, Kosovo has 40% unemminorities], the federal apparatus hopes to ployed, as opposed to less than limit the Serbian demands. But behind the
2% in Slovenia. But they are
Kosovo drama, the entire Yugoslav system is also leaving for cultural reasons. The province, which they no longer dominate, has in reality been Albanianized. Wanting to forcibly bring back the
Serbian past today means oppressing a nationality that makes up 90% of the population of this territory, and which has every reason to demand full control of it.
Yugoslavia is suffering from an accumulation of the evils of the market (increasing unevenness between regions) and of bureaucracy (waste of the resources redistributed). Thus, every nationality, rich or poor, feels "exploited" and hard done by the others. The rise of chauvinist nationalism was stimulated, moreover, by the repressive
8
, turn in the 1970s, which not only put an end to the Croatian nationalist movement
International Viewpoint #161 • April 17, 1989 in crisis.
### CATHERINE VERLA but also to the rise of internationalist movements hostile to the market reform and which supported working-class demands against it. The possibility of a democratic and socialist alternative to the regime was League of Communists and the state
However, Tito combined this repression with increased national rights, which the Serbs resent as unjust but which are supported by the Albanians, along with the ic has no clothes. What program, what solutions does he offer, except anti-Albanian racism and populist verbiage, except the primrose paths of the free markets?
The "national unity" that has formed behind him is profoundly heterogeneous, and will undoubtedly break up in the first tests, as soon as the
Albanian bogeyman is no longer there to unite the ranks.
From neo-Stalinism to the primitive anti-Communism of the pro-royalist Great Serbian nationalist currents, including populist attempts to tap the struggle against the bureaucracy (of the other republics) -
Milosevic has drawn a motley, very fragile coalition behind
As for the federal apparatus, it has gotten caught up in a process that is rebounding against its objective of trying to avoid a breakup through a rise of Serbian nationalism. The federal police forces that shed blood in
Kosovo are not going to moderate but rather spur on the reactionary Serbian demands.
Moreover, any repressive "solution" to the real danger of an explosion threatens to lead to a civil war that will go beyond the frontiers of Kosovo. Only a radical democratization of Yugoslavia, putting all its nationalities on equal footing and respecting their differences, can prevent a breakup today, or else a military coup d'état that would impose the "arbitration" of the only
"Yugoslav" institution, the army. *
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the morbid regime
Last straw
for the
Albanian
people
- Abortion theres are of serial OR YEARS, the autonomous
province of Kosovo. where ethni population (the rest are of Serbian and Montenegrin origin), has been a focus of tensions between Serbs and Albanians. In recent years, the Albanians have been treated like second-class citizens and have faced growing repression resulting from Serbian attempts to reduce Kosovo's autonomy, which was guaranteed by the 1974 constitution. The constitutional changes proposed by the Serbs were the last straw.