But. I repeat: I've seen too many wrecked mosques--in Doboj, in Srebrenica, in Konjevic Polje, in Kalesija, in Brcko, outside Sarajevo--to be much surprised. I also have seen too many wrecked Catholic churches covered by swastikas.
I also know how your people in Kosovx (where x = the vowel of your choice) treated the Albanians like s--t for decades before 1999 came waltzing along. Eventually the oppressed aren't going to take it any more.
But I also say this: what goes around, comes around. You guys started it. You had a chance to turn your back on this whole thing in 1990. But NOOOOOOOO. Your boys Martic and Karadzic and Milosevic lit the fuse of the bomb that went off in your own faces.
Like in 1981? Tell me, why kept so many Albanians pouring into Yugoslavia during the last decades when they were treated like sh+t there as you claim? Why didn't they stay in prosperous Albania?
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press.
October 23, 1981, Friday, PM cycle
ADVANCED-DATE: October 17, 1981, Saturday, PM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 607 words
HEADLINE: Minorities Leaving Yugoslav Province Dominated by Albanians
BYLINE: By KENNETH JAUTZ, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: PRISTINA, Yugoslavia
BODY:
Hundreds of Serbs and Montenegrins are leaving Kosovo Province in the aftermath of rioting that erupted last spring over demands of the ethnic Albanian majority for greater autonomy.
Nine people were killed and 260 others injured in the disorders, during which extremists proposed making Kosovo part of neighboring Albania, Eastern Europe's most-orthodox Communist nation.
Local officials say security has been restored to the province, but the minorities leaving are said to fear for their future in the area.
"We have the situation under full control, but this does not mean hostile activity has totally ceased," Azem Vlasi, president of the Kosovo Socialist Alliance, told visiting journalists recently.
Reports on the number of those leaving Kosovo vary widely. But the newspaper Politika of Belgrade, the national capital, estimated that as many as 4,000 people have left or are planning to leave the province, which has a population of about 1.5 million, 77 percent of whom are ethnic Albanians.
Officials here downplay the reports of departures, saying citizens have a right to move about the country as they please.
Nevertheless, a municipal commission, set up in this provincial capital after the rioting to help those moving obtain job transfers and new housing elsewhere, recently has been turning down requests for such assistance.
Enver Redzepi, deputy president of the provincial legislative assembly, said 882 Serbs and Montenegrins have formally applied to move from the area since the riots.
"There may have been some other cases of people leaving our area, perhaps nearly a thousand," he said.
Most of those asking to leave say new jobs, better living conditions and family considerations prompted their move, but Redzepi said 147 requests had been turned down.
"We will not assist in departures that are not justified," he said without elaboration.
Politika indicated that many do not give "true reasons," fearing they will not receive official help with their move.
The departures from the province could prove significant for Yugoslavia, since the nation is made up of areas inhabited by various ethnic groups with long histories of rivalry.
In Kosovo, relations have long been poor between the province's Albanian majority and the Montenegrins and Serbs, who used to hold the most important political and economic jobs.
The province is in the southern part of the Republic of Serbia, one of Yugoslavia's six constituent republics. In view of Kosovo's large non-Serbian population, however, the province enjoys a greater degree of autonomy than provinces in other constituent republics.
"It's a real worry for them," one Western diplomat said of the departing Serbs. "It's a part of Serbia, but over the years there's fewer and fewer Serbs."
Serbs have been gradually leaving the province for years. This trend, coupled with an ethnic Albanian birthrate three times the national average, could raise the likelihood of increased Albanian nationalism in the area.
Diplomatic analysts say the Pristina commission, although advertised as a government body to assist in moving, is a way of hindering people from leaving.
"The net effect is that it shows they want to keep Serbs there," one diplomat said in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital.
Authorities here emphasize the trouble-free reopening of Pristina University, where student unrest first sparked the demonstrations, but say there have been isolated cases of "nationalist-oriented grafitti."
"Nationalism is a state of mind, an ideology," said Vlasi. "One does not fight it quickly, with hostile measures, but over time and with education."
Facts on File World News Digest
September 10, 1982
SECTION: OTHER NATIONS; Yugoslavia
PAGE: Pg. 670 E3
LENGTH: 210 words
HEADLINE: Serbs in Kosovo Exodus
BODY:
Some 57,000 Serbs had left the Yugoslav autonomous province of Kosovo within the past decade, it was reported July 12. A great number had left after the riots of March and April 1981, according to local officials. The region's economic problems and the ethnic Albanian nationalism that had sparked the riots were mentioned as the principal reasons behind the Serbian migration. [See 1981, p. 261G1]
"The nationalists have a two-point platform, first to establish what they call an ethnically clean Albanian republic and then the merger with Albania to form a greater Albania," said Becir Hoti, a Kosovo Communist Party official and an ethnic Albanian.
Officials cited widespread harassment of Serbs by Albanians, including two recent murders, personal insults, defacing of graves, burning of hay and other attacks on property.
Economic problems in the country's poorest region were also stressed. "Ninety-nine percent of the Albanians have no wish to live in Albania," Aziz Abrashi, the economics minister, was quoted as saying. "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," Aziz added.
The US draws up a document which it presents to the KLA and the Yugoslav government. There are no negotiations. Both sides are told to "take it or leave it." The document requires Yugoslav withdrawal from Kosovo, the introduction of a NATO occupying force with total powers, and a plebiscite to decide on independence for Kosovo. What the American people aren't told is that the document also gives NATO forces free rein throughout Yugoslavia, including Serbia itself, even Belgrade. It grants NATO forces free use of airports, roads, rails, and ports; free telecommunication services; and total immunity throughout Yugoslavia. In essence, this "agreement" would allow NATO to occupy all of Yugoslavia, not just Kosovo. Members of the US "negotiating" team bragged that they intentionally set the bar too high for Milosevic to accept. "He needs a good dose of bombing, and that's what he's going to get."
Amazingly, Milosevic accepted all the Rambouillet demands except for NATO occupation of Yugoslavia itself. He wanted the troops to be under UN command. (NY Times 4/8/99) Dan Goure, Deputy Director, CSIS and a Pentagon official under Bush said, "Rambouillet was not a negotiation, it was a setup, a lynch party." (Institute for Public Accuracy 5/4/99)[source]
Or this, um, "fantasy" interpretation:
Let's see how the American people might like it if their government was asked to sign the Rambouillet Agreement. Imagine that in Ten years, the people of Mexican descent in Texas had decided that they had enough of the discriminatory treatment they often receive. The Texas Liberation Army (TLA) takes up arms against their oppressors. China, the last remaining superpower, decides that the human rights violations in Texas must stop. Mexico and the other Latin American countries in North America, outraged by the United States' treatment of persons of hispanic descent, have formed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in North America.The Chinese government drafts an "agreement" and summons President Hillary Clinton and the TLA to Rambouillet. The Chinese government informs President Clinton that she must either sign the agreement or China will bomb the United States.
I have taken the text of the Rambouillet agreement and substituted China for Nato, Texas for Kosovo, Austin for Pristina, etc.
The US draws up a document which it presents to the KLA and the Yugoslav government. There are no negotiations. Both sides are told to "take it or leave it." The document requires Yugoslav withdrawal from Kosovo, the introduction of a NATO occupying force with total powers, and a plebiscite to decide on independence for Kosovo. What the American people aren't told is that the document also gives NATO forces free rein throughout Yugoslavia, including Serbia itself, even Belgrade. It grants NATO forces free use of airports, roads, rails, and ports; free telecommunication services; and total immunity throughout Yugoslavia. In essence, this "agreement" would allow NATO to occupy all of Yugoslavia, not just Kosovo. Members of the US "negotiating" team bragged that they intentionally set the bar too high for Milosevic to accept. "He needs a good dose of bombing, and that's what he's going to get."
Amazingly, Milosevic accepted all the Rambouillet demands except for NATO occupation of Yugoslavia itself. He wanted the troops to be under UN command. (NY Times 4/8/99) Dan Goure, Deputy Director, CSIS and a Pentagon official under Bush said, "Rambouillet was not a negotiation, it was a setup, a lynch party." (Institute for Public Accuracy 5/4/99)[source]
Or this, um, "fantasy" interpretation:
Let's see how the American people might like it if their government was asked to sign the Rambouillet Agreement. Imagine that in Ten years, the people of Mexican descent in Texas had decided that they had enough of the discriminatory treatment they often receive. The Texas Liberation Army (TLA) takes up arms against their oppressors. China, the last remaining superpower, decides that the human rights violations in Texas must stop. Mexico and the other Latin American countries in North America, outraged by the United States' treatment of persons of hispanic descent, have formed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in North America.The Chinese government drafts an "agreement" and summons President Hillary Clinton and the TLA to Rambouillet. The Chinese government informs President Clinton that she must either sign the agreement or China will bomb the United States.
I have taken the text of the Rambouillet agreement and substituted China for Nato, Texas for Kosovo, Austin for Pristina, etc.
There's a nice little story how 'mistreated' the albanian minority really was. Maybe branicap can tell us the story about an Albanian, who almost became president of Yugoslavia. But there was just one problem. He had no valid ID card.