CHAPTER
THREE
EXPULSIONS OF ALBANIANS
( 1944-1990 )
1. Intentions and Actions
of Chetniks and Partisans to Expel and Exterminate Albanians
Serbian and Montenegrin chauvinists made use of the political changes
on the eve of the Second World War to expatriate and exterminate as many
Albanians as possible. On the occasion of secret and general mobilisation
of Yugoslav military, the Albanians were not treated as equal citizens
of Yugoslavia. They behaved with the Albanians in the same way as with
the enemy. In the first days of the war many Albanian soldiers were killed
by Serbian military officers and soldiers.1 Instead of
concentrating itself in protection of the borders, Yugoslav military tried
to penetrate as deep as possible into the Albanian land.2
Such planning and actions were intended that at a convenient moment they
could exterminate as many Albanians as possible and so rarefy that population.
The Yugoslav army killed, persecuted and plundered many Albanians, especially
those heading some political-national association, such was the case with
Sherif Voca, a deputy and well-known patriot, who was killed on 13 April,
1941. Many Albanians were killed in the barracks of Mitrovica, the post
of Vushtria, in Gjakova, where soldiers burnt down the villages of Bec,
Gërgoc, Radoniq, Janosh, etc. The wave of persecutions and physical
exterminations of Albanians involved all the regions of Kosova. It stopped
only after the capitulation, namely, after the consolidation of the Italian
and German units in Kosova.
When a part of Kosova was uniting with Albania the chauvinist forces
of the Serbs and Montenegrins became disturbed. The government of Nedic,
chetniks and communists, openly and secretly, made their efforts to accomplish
their plans from long time ago for the ethnic cleansing of Kosova. The
government of Nedic requested from Germans to annex the Sanjac of Novi-Pazar,
Srem, Eastern Bosnia and Kosova to Serbia.4 It requested
from Germans to send away 100,000 Albanians from the district of Mitrovica.5
It concentrated armed forced, chetnik detachments and war refugees on the
border on Kosova, directing them to the Albanian land. In this way, parallel
to ethnic cleansing and genocide exerted on the Albanians, they caused
also an emigration in mass. Chetniks committed unprecedented massacres
at Albanian villages bordering on Kosova and Sanjac, and due to this the
population was forced to emigrate in mass from Kosova and elsewhere.6
Chetniks' intentions and plans for extermination of the Albanians during
the Second World War were very numerous, and projects were prepared in
this direction. One of such projects was prepared by the lawyer from Sarajevo,
Stevan Molevic, titled, ‘Homogenous Serbia' and was published in 1841.
According to this project, which is allegedly based on the ethnic principle,
homogenous Serbia would include to the east and south-east - Serbia, Kosova,
Macedonia, and being annexed by Vidin in Rumania and Custendil in Bulgaria;
to the west - the banovinas of Vrbas, North Dalmatia, Lika, Kordun, Bania
and a part of Slovenia; to the south - Montenegro and Herzegovina, including
Dubrovnik as well, and the last one would be assigned a special status,
and the northern part of Albania, if it would not gain its autonomy.7
Since in a large number of the regions anticipated for homogenous Serbia,
practically greater Serbia, the Serbs did not comprise the majority population,
in some of them they were even under the minimum, but the Croats, Muslims
or Albanians constituted the absolute majority, the project envisaged the
emigration of the Croats to Croatia, and of Muslims (the Muslims of Bosnia
and Sanjac, and Albanians) to Turkey or Albania. According to Molevic,
not only the regions where the Serbs were in majority should be included
in the bosom of greater Serbia, but without any exception, all the regions
where the Serbs lived, or where Stevan Molevic supposed the Serbs were
living, and to him the Macedonians and Montenegrins were considered Serbs,
too.8
The plans of chetniks were based on the project of Stevan Molevic.
In their official letters of 1941 was planned: “To create a large Yugoslavia
and greater Serbia in it, ethnically clean, within the borders of Serbia,
Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srem and Banat. All the territories
should be cleansed from the non-Serbian elements. Serbia should border
directly Montenegro and Slovenia, by cleansing Sanjac from the Muslims
and Croats.”9 The same policy was followed by chetniks
in 1942, deepening even more their chauvinist hatred toward non-Serbian
peoples, particularly the Albanians.10 To accomplish
their intentions they opened concentration camps in that time, at which,
besides others, 300 Albanians of the tribe of Kuç were interned,
but also of other tribes as well.11
Chetniks and other Serbian collaborators made their endeavours to accomplish
the plans and intentions for greater Serbia and its hegemony, from Salonika
to Arad and from Tirana to Split, also in 1943. Informing his Chetnik Supreme
Command, Zika Mitrovic, among others, wrote on 28 April, 1943: “On your
sign given, we shall depart with arms in our hands in the final clash against
all the enemies for sacred Kosova”.12 The means for
the accomplishment of this intention, were, thus, not hidden. To achieve
their aim, chetniks planned genocide in mass. The expulsion of the Albanians
and other non-Serbian people was not discussed at all. In an information
of the Command of II Chetnik Corpus sent to their commander, Draza Mihajlovic,
in the beginning of 1944, they wrote that they would “fight to the end,
as it has to do with the name of Kosovar (...), a real war against the
Turks and Albanians in general, a war without any compromise to extermination
(...).”13 In the same report, the Command of the corpus
underlined that its numerical situation depended on the organisation of
chetniks based on dissemination of chauvinism against the Albanians and
Turks, and such a policy attracted even the ‘fans' of communism. This statement
was, undoubtedly, true. The Serbian and Montenegrin communists also made
use of internationalism as a means to accomplish similar intentions. In
such waters fell all the bodies of YCP (Yugoslav Communist Party) and the
Yugoslav National-Liberation Army (YNLA) in Kosova. Their attitude in fact
did not differ much from the intentions of chetniks, when Kosova was in
question. They did not make any difference between the Serbs of Kosova
and colonists, who were settled forcefully on the land of ethnic Albanians.
Those bodies blamed the Albanians of Kosova for the emigration of the Serbs
and Montenegrins, that was not so overwhelming.14
This shows the hypocritical policy of communists and partisans. Both
partisans and chetniks saw the solution of the question of Kosova within
Yugoslavia, namely, in greater Serbia. Based on such attitudes, many bodies
of YCL and YNLA , as well as chetniks on the border to Kosova awaited openly
the amnesty of 25 and 30 August, 1944. After this amnesty, both chetniks,
that changed their cockade for the star and Serbian partisans attacked
Kosova with their main intention to clean it from the Albanian element.
The ethnic cleansing of Kosova and other regions of ethnic Albanians
occupied by Yugoslavia became harsher in the period from October 1944 to
July 1945, justifying it allegedly as a fight against ‘counterrevolution'
and its remnants. It began in peripheral zones, but it spread quickly in
the whole regions of the Albanians. In such organised operations several
divisions with an effective of 40,000 soldiers took part.15
These military actions, apart from other forms, were led by a new anti-Albanian
project of Vasa Cubrilovic, ‘The Problem of Minorities in New Yugoslavia',
on 3 November, 1944. In his project, Cubrilovic admits the fact that the
Serbs gained one part of the territories with alien population after the
First World War, namely, after the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom (Yugoslavia)
was established in 1918,16 and they became dangerous
to Yugoslavia, not because of their counterweigh to Slavonic peoples, but
because of the territories where they live and geographical continuation
that these territories have with their motherlands - i.e., due to political
and strategic reasons.17
Vasa Cubrilovic proposed before the highest leadership of YNLW and
YNLA, without any hesitation, expatriation of millions of people in mass,
as, according to him, “the sole fair solution to this question is expatriation
of these minorities”. As his purport and example for such an action he
took the action of the Third Reich and expulsions and colonisation of peoples
in Europe. According to him, such an action would be approved by the Yugoslav
allies, after they were persuaded that minorities were to blame for millions
of Slavonic victims during the Second World War (sic!).
Based on the spirit of this project, the author suggested that they
should not wait long for the allies to agree, as it was the last chance
for the accomplishment of that intention, but “the people that made decisions
on the fate of our people” should be persuaded of this, and according to
Cubrilovic, they were the leadership of YCP and YNLW, headed by Josip Broz
Tito.19
The author of the project foresaw and proposed its accomplishment in
details. He proposed that first the Germans should be expatriated, then
the Hungarians, Albanians, Italians, Rumunias... Although the Albanians
were the first ones on the target of expatriation, this process should
not begin with them, not due to good relations between the Albanian National-Liberation
War and YNLA, but owing to the risk of a conflict between the two countries.
That is why Vasa Cubrilovic advised to act with great caution and tactics
during the expatriation of the Albanians. This would not mean that the
Serbs and Montenegrins were merciful to Albanians or that the latter ought
to be saved. Whereas it was spoken in general of the expatriation of other
nationalities, the Albanians and their territories were specified and it
seemed as if the project was intended particularly to them.20
Both the Albanians and other nationalities, in the project ‘The Problem
of Minorities in New Yugoslavia” were preferred to be forced to emigrate
first from the regions ethnically clean, and then from the mixed areas,
as ethnic postblocks were more dangerous, according to the author.21
For the accomplishment of his project, Cubrilovic anticipated the time
as well, that is undoubtedly from the arsenal of the outstanding Machiavelists,
racists and genocide-lovers. According to him, the most convenient time
for efficient expulsion was war, therefore, the best expulsion was the
physical and complete extermination of the people. According to Cubrilovic,
military had the decisive role, that is why he proposed that a special
section of this question should be formed in the General Command of YNLA.
If complete physical extermination would not be successful, he anticipated
additional measures, such as: denying all the rights to them, opening concentration
camps, plundering their ownership, extermination of intelligentsia and
social healthy classes, and then urgent colonisation of these regions with
Slavonic elements.22
Cubrilovic was aware at that time that funds, and trustworthy persons
were needed for its accomplishment, but also an organisation at an institutional
level. That is why he proposed formation of a special ministry, or at least,
a commissariat within the Ministry of Agriculture, as it had experience
in such things since the time of the Yugoslav Kingdom. Except for these
measures, Cubrilovic proposed that national-liberation committees should
be formed from the lowest to the highest instances, and colonists should
be selected out of the best warriors, and possibly the Serbs and Montenegrins
that had not been colonists before that. The carriers of this mission,
according to Cubrilovic, should be provided with high wages, more privileged
posts and high status in the society.23 The author has
no doubt about the success of the project. He said that news had come from
the regions where war operations took place “our people's masses have dealt
unmercifully with small national minorities who were against us in this
war. This enthusiasm of the population (that was characteristic for attacks,
hatred and revenge, editor's remark) ought to be channelled as soon as
possible...”24
The armed units of YNLA in Kosova and Macedonia, but also in other
areas of ethnic Albanians, acted in their operation as if they had read
the project of Cubrilovic. That is why the reply of military officials
was not accidental saying that “we have the order to kill 50% of the Albanians”.25
This is documented also by the cynic reply of Macedonian commanders, when
a group of Albanian patriots protested against the arrest of 10,000 people
and the punishment of 1,200 of them without any court procedure in Tetova,
saying “this is nothing, it is a cleaning”. This was strengthened by the
decisive order of Svetozar Vukmanovic - Tempo, “Clean fast the ones that
you have to clean”.26
Based on the chauvinist and extermination position of chetniks, as
well as on the action of many leaders and units of YNLA towards the Albanian
population, the crimes and massacres in Kosova and other regions of ethnic
Albanians were enormous. According to approximate evidence, above 47,300
Albanians were exterminated, in the areas of ethnic Albanians occupied
by Yugoslavia, between 1941 and 1945.27 Such extermination,
naturally, made these regions significantly vacant, and that was the intention
of Serbian chauvinists who made the Slavonic colonisation possible, opening
a new path for such a process. Except this, the exterminations and reprisals
of such a nature, that did not stop even in the years after the war, influenced
greatly further emigration of the Albanians.
2. Forms and Ways of
Pressure on Purpose of Expulsion and Assimilation
After the end of the Second World War, the Albanians of Kosova and other
parts in Yugoslavia, not only were prevented to unite with Albania, as
they had declared at Bujan Conference, but they were re-invaded and partitioned
into four federal units of Yugoslavia, in Kosova, Macedonia, Serbia and
Montenegro.28
The Serbian regime since the time of the occupation (November, 1944)
and annexation of Kosova (July, 1945), continuously implemented a policy
and propaganda prepared much earlier and based on greater Serbian projects,
assimilation and physical extermination of the Albanians. The Albanians
felt the annexation of Kosova to Serbia as the negation of their war and
betrayal of the leadership of NLW to them. That is why they began to organise
themselves in illegal groups and organisations and develope political activity
and offered resistance even with arms. Due to persecutions, terror, violence
and genocide exerted on them, many Albanians, between 3000 - 4000 people,29
were forced to flee abroad, particularly the members of political and democratic
organisations and groups with western orientation that did not accept the
new slavery in Kosova. They were directed to western countries through
Greece and Italy, and there they continued their patriotic activity. The
expulsion of the Albanians from Kosova was caused by the anti-Albanian
official policy. In this way, the issue of Kosova, of its independence,
political and state status, created new dissatisfactions of the Albanians
that had fought for self-determination.
Socialist Yugoslavia and Serbia continued the war against the Albanians
by putting them into prison, arresting, isolating, persecuting, and by
physical extermination and sending them away from their hearths. The Resolution
of Informative Bureau (1948) was used as a pretext to put many Albanian
intellectuals and political leaders into prison and liquidate them, accusing
them as spies of Albania. On this occasion, 436 Albanians were imprisoned,
and the pressure on them continued in other forms too, such as: closing
schools in the Albanian language, employing only the Serbs in administration,
nationalisation, colonisation, forbidding the use of their national flag,
closing their cultural institutions, etc. Another form of pressure against
the Albanians was exerted on the occasion of the census of population in
1953, changing even their national identity, and forcing them to declare
themselves as Turks.30
The expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey was perpetrated by methods
of pressure. The harshest form of pressure on purpose of expulsion of the
Albanians was the action of collecting arms during the period between 1955-56,
organised by the government and accomplished by state security organs.
During this action, 22,048 personal files were opened, including the files
of the officials of state bodies. Against a large number of the Albanians
measures of persecutions and eavesdropping police treatments were carried
out. Under the pretext of searching for arms, the state security organs
tortured around 30,000 Albanians. Some 100 persons died because of tortures.31
Another form of a drastic pressure exerted on the Albanians was fabrication
of false court processes, and punishment of illegal groups and organisations
on political grounds. Thus, in 1956, at the time of the action of searching
for arms and expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey, ‘the process of Prizren'
was fabricated, by which it was intended to frighten the people through
disqualification of the Albanian political leadership and compromising
of intellectuals.
Distrust and suspicion in intelligentsia were regular forms of pressure
on the Albanians. In the organs of state security the persons that bought
the daily paper ‘Rilindja' were evidenced, which was published by the Socialist
Alliance (a mass organisation formed by the communists on power). It was
the only newspaper in the Albanian language. The Albanians were permanently
treated as a distrustful element by the State Security of Kosova. In the
‘Handbook of UDB' (state security), all the Albaian population was considered
enemy in 1957. On this basis UDB opened above 170,000 personal files. Among
them there were four members of the Central Committee of YCL, 16 members
of the Provincial Committee of Communists, a large number of political-social
personalities, starting from secretaries of working enterprises to deputies
of all the levels of assemblies.32
All this anti-Albanian action that was based on violence and terror
was an institutionalised form of the Serbian regime with the intention
to force the Albanians to expatriate and to commit their extermination.
3. The Turkish-Yugoslav
“Gentlemen's” Agreement in 1953
The agreement on friendship and co-operation between Yugoslavia, Greece
and Turkey, signed in Ankara on 28 February, 1953, became known as a Balkan
Treaty. The agreement contained ten points and took a military character,
but without influence and obligation, that resulted from the North Atlantic
Contract of 4 April, 1949, dealing with Turkey and Greece. Its fourth point
foresaw conclusion of new agreements and formation of the bodies for their
application and solution to economic, technical and cultural problems.33
Based on this agreement, common parliamentary groups were formed and they
visited Turkey and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia wanted to establish as closer
links as possible with Turkey in order to expatriate the Albanians from
Kosova. The links should be established by activating the Yugoslav-Turkish
Convention of 1938 on the expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey. First
of all, Yugoslavia ought to fulfil some financial obligations of the Convention
that amounted to 90 million dollars. Turkey was interested in reactivating
this Convention. It was interested to use the Albanians in its war
against Curds, settling them on their border.
The question of expatriation of the Albanians was instigated by Yugoslavia
through the Turkish press. At the end of 1952, numerous talks were held
on the agreement between Yugoslavia and Turkey. Agreements on trade, floating,
air traffic, and many other matters were concluded during 1953. In this
spirit of collaboration between them the “Gentleman's” Agreement between
Yugoslavia and Turkey was signed.34
In case of a future Balkan conflict this agreement intended to secure
the Turkish friendship to Yugoslavia. On the other hand, emptying Kosova
and other regions of ethnic Albanians by means of this convention, the
danger on the part of the Albanians that requested financial compensation
from Yugoslavia, as well as from the funds provided for refugees and others
that had resettled, could be reduced. Turkey had also its needs to populate
its large vacant regions. The Government of Turkey requested from the Government
of Yugoslavia, on 4 October, 1951, to fulfil the Convention of 1938. It
requested that before the accomplishment of various agreements began, Yugoslavia
should fulfil its financial obligations. Due to them, Tito invited the
Turkish foreign minister, Fuad Khprili, to visit Yugoslavia. At a lunch
organised on that occasion in Split, at the end of January 1953, an agreement
on the requests of both parties was worked out, and it was to the detriment
of the Albanian population. They did not sign anything on this occasion,
and that is why it was called ‘Gentleman's Agreement'. By this convention
Tito could accomplish the dreams of the Serbs by expatriating of the Albanians
from Kosova, and Turkey would obtain vital inhabitants and financial funds.
The obligations of expatriation of the Albanians from Yugoslavia had
to be fulfilled as soon as possible, since at the very beginning Turkey
asked for expatriation of 250,000 inhabitants, out of a million inhabitants
that were anticipated to be resettled. In the official statement issued
on 29 January, 1953 on the talks in Split, neither delegation mentioned
the convention and refereed to parliamentary collaboration and the question
of the Balkan Treaty.35
At the population census of Yugoslavia in 1953 many Albanians were
forced to declare themselves Turks. This self-declaration would save Yugoslavia
and Turkey from public reactions to expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey.
An it happened so. Almost 260,000 Albanians declared themselves Turks.
4. Expatriation of
Albanians to Turkey (1944-1966)
At the end of 1944 and beginning of 1945, seeing that they had
been betrayed, the Albanians began to escape in mass to mountains.36
The government bodies made use of such actions of the majority population
of the Albanians in Kosova and justified every persecution of any Albanian
that opposed reoccupation by Yugoslavia. Due to this, military courts were
very busy with Albanians, and arrests, imprisonment, killing of the Albanians
became a daily phenomenon. Serbia intended to empty these territories as
soon as possible, or at least to leave as few Albanians as possible.
One of the most efficient methods to accomplish such a policy in Kosova
against the Albanians after they had been occupied by the detachments of
YNLA, and especially after the establishment of military administration,
was forceful mobilisation. In that time, 50,000 Albanians were mobilised
in Kosova. When one bears in mind the number of those that were held in
prisons or in exile, thousands lost and killed, it can be seen that Kosova
had remained without the required forces to defend itself. In these circumstances,
the Yugoslav regime intended to create conditions that colonisation should
take place in the regions of ethnic Albanians. Confiscation of real estate,
requisition, nationalisation and ‘solidarity aids' that were implemented
by force and that intended to knee down the people economically, in addition
to perpertration of repression influenced the expulsion of the Albanians
from their homeland. These measures of the Yugoslav regime were directed
to the Albanians only; the Serbs and Montenegrins were saved. The opponents
of the YCP were in the most difficult position, and also those with western
democratic viewpoint, that were deported from Kosova, and their movable
property and real estate was confiscated. Their families were forced to
leave the country too. As a consequence of such an attitude, the Albanians
had to emigrate to Turkey, or Albania, or elsewhere.
Recolonisation of Kosova by the Serbs and Montenegrins in the spring
of 1945, as well as the Law on the revision of agrarian reform worsened
further the economic position of the Albanians. A part of the land of Albanian
farmers was given to colonists. The interest of colonists to usurp the
Albanians' land was great. Only in 1945, 10,054 families applied for it,
who could get up to 5 hectares of the land of Albanian farmers.37
Forceful collectivisation of a part of farming land in Kosova, then
mistreatments and perfidious abuse of the Albanians by the Serbs, touched
deeply the national tradition and dignity of the Albanians.
The Law on five-year plan (1947-1951) was also in the function of expulsion
of the Albanians. This plan provided more accelerated economic development
for the undeveloped republics of Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro),
in order to smooth down the existing economic differences, but it left
Kosova on the side, despite its being the most undeveloped region in Yugoslavia
and its having a great economic and natural potential. Apart from this,
the largest part of the plan in Kosova was anticipated to be implemented
by ‘voluntary' work, such as: to construct and renovate and restore houses
of colonists, to till the soil for them, to provide them with food, etc.
Therefore, not only that the regime did not invest anything, but it also
worsened the lives of the people here by such measures.38
The Yugoslav regime, parallel to violence and economic kneeling, attacked
deeply the national feelings of the Albanians, their past and historical
tradition. Very few schools and educational and cultural institutions were
opened for the Albanians and the origin of the Albanian population was
denied.39
In conformity with the intentions of unitary national-chauvinist policy,
State Security perpetrated great repression in order that as many as possible
Albanians should declare themselves as members of Turkish nationality.
Before this action, 1,315 inhabitants of Turkish nationality were recorded
in Kosova in the census of 1948, and 97,954 inhabitants in Yugoslavia.
However, according to the census of 1953 the number of Turks in Kosova
amounted to 34,583 and 259,535 in Yugoslavia.40 The
Albanians that opposed to this policy ended in prisons or were forced to
leave the country. Thus, during 1953, as a result of this repression, 37,000
Albanians emigrated to Turkey.41 In 1953 the Yugoslav
regime ‘took care' of creating special administrative ‘facilities' for
the Albanians wanting to emigrate to Turkey, no matter whether they had
declared themselves Turks or not. According to official evidence, 19,300
Albanians were expatriated in 1953, and 17,500 others in 1954.42
To achieve the emigration of the Albanians to Turkey in great mass,
the first condition was to create a psychosis of unbearable life. The state
machinery exerted pressure of various forms on the Albanians, such as arrests,
persecutions, inhuman tortures, physical exterminations, etc. The organs
of State Security made use of the action of searching for arms in order
to accelerate the expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey.
This punishing activity of the organs of State Security and other organs
of the regime, was expressed drastically in the field of culture and education
too. The government took measures to close down middle schools in the Albanian
language, to reduce the net of elementary schools and to close the sole
scientific institution, the Institute of Albanology in Prishtina.
Here is the table of the expatriation of the Albanians during the period
1952-1965.45
Year
|
No. of persons
|
Year
|
No. of persons
|
1952
|
37000
|
1959
|
32000
|
1953
|
17300
|
1960
|
27980
|
1954
|
17500
|
1961
|
31910
|
1955
|
51000
|
1962
|
15910
|
1956
|
54000
|
1963
|
25720
|
1957
|
57710
|
1964
|
21530
|
1958
|
41300
|
1965
|
19821
|
|
The expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey continued also in the period
between 1955-1957. In this period, from Kosova and other regions of ethnic
Albanians in Yugoslavia emigrated 16,200 Albanians to Turkey.43
In 1958, around 41,300 Albanians were sent away to Turkey, and the
year after it another 32,000. According to official evidence of Yugoslavia,
27,980 Albanians emigrated from Kosova to Turkey in 1960.44
The expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey amounted to 115,000 in the
period between 196-1965.
The process of expatriation of the Albanians from Kosova and other
regions of ethnic Albanians was replaced by the so-called economic emigration
in the political circumstances created in Yugoslavia after the Plenum of
Brione.
5. Serbian and Yugoslav
Policy of Segregation and Apartheid (1981-1989)
Dissatisfied with the position of the subjugated, the Albanian students
and youth organised demonstrations in 1981 with the main mobilising slogan
- Kosova Republic. The whole Albanian population joined the youth and students.
The Yugoslav leadership valued that the demonstrations organised by
the Albanian students and youth, as well as the slogans used in them “threatened
the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Yugoslavia”.46
In order that whole Yugoslavia should fight against the right requests
of the Albanian people, “The Political Platform on the action of YCL for
socialist self-management, unity and brotherhood and common life in Kosova”
was compiled and approved.47 This document with greater
Serbian intentions was supported by the other republics and the leadership
of the Communist League of Kosova. The Platform requested that the Albanians
should break the cultural and scientific relations with Albania, abandon
their national aspirations, and the request for the Republic of Kosova
was evaluated as a reactionary one that intended to destroy Yugoslavia
and unite Kosova with Albania.48 Due to this reason,
state organs of Kosova, Serbia and Yugoslavia were requested to undertake
measures for reduction of curricula of history, literature and other social
subjects taught at schools.49 To apply this Platform,
the mobilisation of all political-social organisations and state structures
was requested. In this way began the isolation of Kosova within Yugoslavia
and in relation to the world too.
The first attacks were organised against the institutions of national
character, such as University of Prishtina, Institute of History, Institute
of Albanology, National University Library, then mass media, museums, secondary
schools, elementary schools and even kindergartens, cultural and professional
associations and many other organisations.
The first attacks of Serbia, that took the character of segregation
and apartheid, were provoked on the shops of Albanians and individuals
in Serbia in 1981. In Pozarevac, in Serbia, an Albanian child was taken
out his eyes by civilian Serbs. Many physical attacks and ill-treatments
were organised, by both Serbian individuals and state bodies, particularly
in Belgrade, Kragujevac, Pozarevac, Paracin, NiS and other cities, where
Albanians lived.50 Since that time, Serbia began to
apply open segregation, seeking only clean institutions consisting of Serbian
workers alone, such as schools, cinemas, theatres, cafJs, hotels, even
kindergartens, sports fields, swimming pools, etc. To implement the
intentions for segregation and discrimination, Serbia applied the policy
of apartheid. It passed laws to rule over the Albanian majority, depriving
them of their political and citizen rights, human rights, freedom of movement,
living, jobs, juridical and social protection.
In the period of ten years (1981-1990), more than 1,100 Albanian soldiers
were sentenced to many years of prison in political fabricated processes,
and 63 Albanian soldiers were killed in the Yugoslav Army.
The Assembly of Serbia approved some changes to the Penal Law of Serbia,
in 1986, by which new delinquencies were incriminated for pursuing the
Albanians, as if for the penal-legal protection of the Serbian people in
Kosova. Such actions were: violation of citizens' equality, violation of
the equal use of language and script, violations that threatened the rights
and liberties of members of other nations, and threats of security of citizens
of other nationalities, attacking the sexual freedom too. These had only
one political and legal intention - to exert persecution and repression
on the Albanians.
The Serbian regime treated Albanian peaceful demonstrations, requests,
political manifestations as severe political acts, but also the cultural
and scientific works of the Albanians. In this way, 3,348 Albanians were
sentenced by civilian and military courts. In the period between 1981-1990
Serbian police and military killed 183 Albanians by fire arms, 16 of whom
were children, and 616 Albanians were wounded by fire arms, 49 of whom
were children.51 The former Yugoslav National Army (YNA)
organised killing of Albanian soldiers in Paracin and gave the action a
political character so that the Albanian soldiers could be treated as badly
as possible by military and police organs of Serbia, that had the absolute
majority in YNA.
In 1981, Serbia isolated Albanian intellectuals and kept them in prison
for several months. The isolation of Albanian intellectuals took place
in 1989, when the most draconic measures of torture and repression against
254 Albanian intellectuals were taken, and they were sent to prisons in
Vranje, Leskovac, Prokuplje and Belgrade.
The police of Kosova and Serbia had worked out files for 600,000 Albanians;
it means that every third Albanian was called to the police. Further on,
both in Yugoslav regions of the Albanians and in Kosova around 100,000
Albanians were dismissed from work until 1989.52
6. The Memorandum of
Serbian Academy - a Platform on Expulsion of Albanians
Expatriation of the Albanians by force from Kosova and their ethnic
land has remained the chief intention of Serbian hegemonic policy. Parallel
to state organisms, Serbian academicians of the Academy of Sciences and
Arts of Serbia compiled projects on ethnic cleansing of the Albanians'
land. In 1986, the Serbian Academy, that has always been in service of
hegemonic politics of Serbian nationalists, compiled the Memorandum on
the political, economic and constitutional position of Serbia in the former
Yugoslav federation. The Memorandum did not leave aside Kosova either.53
The Memorandum is penetrated by wild hatred and falsifications of the
past and present time of the Albanians.
The Memorandum, which became the national programme of Serbia, deals
with the engagement for creation of a greater Serbia. Serbia is presented
as ‘threatened and harmed' by the Constitution of 1974. By such constructions,
mobilisation of the population for destroying the autonomies of Kosova
and Vojvodina and the establishment of Serbian hegemony in former Yugoslavia
was aimed at. The principal thesis of the Memorandum was the allegedly
degrading and inferior, unequal and discriminated position of the Serbian
people in Yugoslavia.54 Serbian academicians manipulated
with the figures of the Serbs migrated from Kosova, although according
to the Serbian scientist, Cvijic, there have never been more than 5% Serbs
in Kosova.55 The structure of population changed after
1912, after the occupation of Kosova by Serbia and its colonisation. According
to the census in 1948, there were 170,000 Serbs, or 18.9%, in Kosova, and
in 1981 there were 209,488 Serbs, or 13.2%.56 Accordingly,
there was no migration of the Serbs from Kosova, much the less, when it
is known that Serbia controlled the whole policy in Kosova.
These manipulations from the arsenal of greater Serbian politics, based
on fine fabrications, try to justify their policy of colonisation and denationalisation
in Kosova, by means of their propagandistic machinery. Serbian propagandistic
machinery, attempting to alarm the opinion, goes to its absurdity, confirming
that “Kosova will not have any Serb in ten years”.57
The Serbian official policy, led by the spirit of the memorandum of the
ASAS, requested the destruction of the federal system of Yugoslavia established
by the Constitution of 1974. The processes proceeding in Kosova after 1966
made the accomplishment of independence of Kosova possible to a certain
degree. The Memorandum of Serbian academicians treated the process of the
independence of Kosova as its Albanisation.58 They requested
that Kosova should be deprived of all the rights to and possibilities for
constitutional, juridical, economic and cultural-educational self-organisation,
by all possible means. This practically took place in 1990, after the Serbian
attacks against Kosova.
Notes
1.
Dr Ali Hadri, Politika Narodnog fronta i Aprilski odbrambeni rat 1941.
godine na Kosovu i Metohiji,(The Policy of National Front and April Defensive
War in 1941 in Kosova and Metohia), Bulletin of Faculty of Philosophy in
Prishtina, V, p. 440.
2.
Dr Ali Hadri, Lëvizja Nacionalçlirimtare në Kosovë
1941-1945 (Nationa-Liberation War in Kosova, 1941-1945), Prishtina, 1971,
p. 80.
3.
The Archives of the Military Historic Institute in Belgrade (further AMIB),
fund of Treca armijska oblast (III Army Zone), card No. 4, doc. No. 10.
4.
Milan Borkovic, Milan Nedic, Centar za informacije i publicitet, Zagreb,
1985, p. 229.
5.
Mitrovica dhe rrethina (Mitrovica and Its Environs), Mitrovica, 1979,
p. 270.
6.
The Archives of Kosova, Archives of Provincial Committe of YCP for Kosova
and Metohia in Prishtina (further AK, APC of YCP for KM), card no.
5, reg. no. 220; Zbornik dokumenata i podataka o NOR-u i revoluciji, I&19
(Bulletin of documents and evidence on NLW in Revolution, 1&9), doc.
no. 3; Pavle Jovicevic, Kosovo i Metohija i odluke II zasedanja AVNOJ-a
(Kosova and Metohia and Decisions of II Session of AVNOY), Sloboda, novembar,
1944.
7.
Rexhep Qosja, {ështje shqiptare, historia dhe politika (Albanian Question,
History and Politics), Institute of Albanology, Prishtina, 1994,
p. 171.
8.
Ibid.
9.
Gojko Medenica, Cetnicki pokret na Kosovu i Metohiji u vreme II svetskog
rata (The Movement of Chetniks in Kosova and Metohia during World War II),
Godisnjak - Vjetari (Annual), no. X-XI, Archives of Kosova, Prishtina,
1979, pp. 374-375.
10.
The Archives of Central Committe of the Yugoslav Communist League in Belgrade
(further Archives of CC of YCL), 1942, p. 328.
11.
Archives of CC of YCL, fund of Communist Internationale, 1942, p.122.
12.
Archives of CC of YCL, fund of CC YCL, 1943, p. III.
13.
The archives of Historic Institute of Kosova, microfilms e AMIB, fund of
Archives of Chetniks, C-V-17099.
14.
AK, APC of YCP for KM, fund of Regional Committees, card no. 15. reg. no.
557.
15.
Dr Ali Hadri, Këshillat Nacionalçlirimtare në Kosovë
(National-Liberation Councils in Kosova), Prishtina, 1974, p. 168.
16.
Akademia e Shkencave e RPS të Shqipërisë, Instituti i Historisë,
E vërteta mbi Kosovën dhe shqiptarët në Jugosllavi
(The Truth on Kosova and the Albanians in Yugoslavia), Tirana, 1990, pp.
546-555.
17.
As note 7, p. 174.
18.
As note 16.
19.
Ibid.
20.
Ibid.
21.
Ibid.
22.
Ibid.
23.
Ibid.
24.
Ibid.
25.
AK, APC of YCL for KM, card no. 10/29, doc. no. 1305.
26.
Lefter Nasi, Tetë muaj nga historia e popullsisë shqiptare në
Jugosllavi (nëntor 1944 - korrik 1945) (Eight Months of the History
of the Albanians in Yugoslavia (November 1944 - July 1945)), Akademia e
Shkencave e RPS të Shqipërisë, E vërteta mbi Kosovën
dhe shqiptarët në Jugosllavi (The Truth on Kosova and the Albanians
in Yugoslavia), Tirana, 1990, p. 417.
27.
Tahir Zajmi, Lidhja e Dytë e Prizrenit (The Second League of Prizren),
Bruxelles, 1964, p. 93.
28.
Historia e Popullit Shqiptar (History of Albanians), Tirana, 1994,
p. 221.
29.
Sinan Hasani, Kosovo, istine i zablude (Kosova, Thruths and Errors), Zagreb,
1986, p. 130.
30.
Historia e Popullit Shqiptar (History of Albanians), Tirana, 1994, p. 234.
31.
Ibid., p. 235.
32.
Ibid.
33.
Official Registar of FNRY, no. 12. Belgrade, 1953.
34.
Dr Fehmi Pushkolli, Shpërnguljet e shqiptarëve në Turqi
dhe Marrëveshjet jugosllave-turke (Expatriation of Albanians to Turkey
and Yugoslav-Turkish Conventions), Fjala, March, 1994.
35.
Ibid.
36.
Dr Izber Hoti, Format dhe mënyrat e pushtimit dhe të nënshtrimit
të Kosovës në fund të vitit 1944 dhe fillim të
vitit 1945 (Forms and Ways of Invasion and Subjugation of Kosova at the
End of 1944 and Beginning of 1945), “Bujku”, 6/II/ 1995.
37.
Dr Milovan Obradovic, Poljopriveda Kosova 1944-1953 (Agriculture of Kosova
in 1945), “Kosova”, no. 16, Prishtina, 1987, pp. 249-250.
38.
Dr Fehmi Pushkolli, Fronti Popullor - Lidhja Socialiste e Kosovës
(1935-1975) (National Front - Social Alliance of Kosova (1935-1975), Prishtina,
1983, pp. 154-155.
39.
Dr Sulltane Kojqini - Ukaj, Format e diskriminimit e të gjenocidit
të politikës së shtetit serb në vitet e pasluftës
(Forms of Discrimination and Genocide of Serbian Regime Policy in the Post-war
Years), “Shkëndija”, September, 1994.
40.
Ferit Shehu, Sevdije Shehu, Pastrimet etnike të trojeve shqiptare
1953-1957 (Ethnic Cleansing of Albanian Regions, 1953-1957), Prishtina,
1994, p. 24.
41.
Albanian Newspaper in Istanbul “Besa” (1950-1974).
42.
Jusuf Kelmendi, Plenumi i KK të LKJ të Kosovës më 1971
(The Plenum of CC YCL of Kosova in 1971).
43.
Zamir Shtylla, Shpërngulja e shqiptarëve në Jugosllavi pas
Luftës së Dytë Botërore 1950-1966, E vërteta mbi
Kosovën dhe shqiptarët në Jugosllavi (Expulsion of Albanians
from Yugoslavia after World War II, 1950-1966; The Truth on Kosova and
the Albanians in Yugoslavia), Tirana, 1990, p. 442.
44.
VUS, Zagreb, 7/VI/1971.
45.
As note 40.
46.
Ibid., p.216.
47.
Platformë politike për aksionin e LKJ në zhvillimin e vetëqeverisjes
socialiste, të bashkimit e vëllazërimit dhe të bashkësisë
në Kosovë (Political Platform on the Action of YCL in the Development
of Socialist Selfmanagement, Unity and Brotherhood and Common Life in Kosova),
Belgrade, 1982, pp.5-6.
48.
Ibid.
49.
Ibid.
50.
As note 46, p. 217.
51.
Mr. Xhemajl Ademaj, Ndjekja dhe politika ndëshkrimore për delikte
politike në Kosovë në periudhën 1981-1990 (Persecutions
and Punishing Policy for Political Delicts in Kosova in the Period 1981-1990),
Bota e Re, Prishtina, 1995.
52.
Dr Esat Stavileci, Largimi nga puna i punëtorëve shqiptarë
(Dismissal of Albanian Workers from Work), Përparimi, 1991,
p.25.
53.
Milorad Vucelic, Da li je Memorandum srpski nacionalni program (Is Memorandum
a Serbian National Programme), “Duga”, June, 1989, p.6.
54.
Memorandum of ASAS, Belgrade, 1986, published by ”Duga”, June, 1989,
p. 39.
55.
Jovan Cvijic, Balkansko poluostrvo (Balkan Peninsula), Belgrade 1966,
p. 469.
56.
Nacionalni sastav stanovnistva po opstinama, konacni rezultati (National
Structure of Population in Communes, Final Results) , Statisticki Bilten
-1295, Belgrade, 1982.
57.
As notes 55, 57.
58.
Ibid.
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