MikeL,that was sheer fantasy. First of all, the United States Establishment had been encouraging ethnic Albanian secessionist forces since the mid-1980s. For example, when U.S. Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Warren Zimmerman, staged a commercial fair in Kosovo in 1990, the only leaders he met with were the secessionists – he publicly snubbed officials of the Serbian government. For a diplomat, this was like taking out a full page advertisement: “We Are Backing the Secessionists!”
And indeed the U.S. did support secessionists such as the so-called moderate, Ibrahim Rugova, who coercively organized Albanians to boycott culturally autonomous institutions (schools, hospitals) precisely in order to be able to tell the world the lie that “the Serbs” were not allowing ethnic Albanians to have culturally autonomous institutions. This is fully documented. When Washington decided it was time to launch an all-out terrorist attack on Kosovo, it simply created a more ‘extreme’ proxy force, the gangster-terrorist KLA.
If one were to compare Kosovo to the American south during the period of segregation, then it was the Serbs and ‘Gypsies’ who were in a position similar to that of black people; that is, they were victims of racism. The secessionists, whether ‘moderate’ or terrorist, were tied to the U.S. and Germany. They had the goal of breaking up Serbia. Their appeal was rooted in a) notions of ‘Greater Albania’ which had been especially fostered during World War II when their political forebears ruled Kosovo under German Nazi patronage and b) hatred of Serbs and ‘Gypsies’ which had also been fostered by the Nazis.
Sources quoted here are American scholars: Bernd Fischer, Julie Mertus (from her book: Kosovo: how Truths and Myths started a War) and Kosovar Riza Sapunxhiu: the highest ranking Yugoslav Albanian, ex-president of the SFRJ rotating presidency and ex-president of SFRJ’s economy, as well as US and UK newspaper & magazine articles, Serbia Telekom’s telephone directory and other secondary sources. In addition to the book, Albanian Identities: Myth and History, Mertus’ book, Kosovo: how Myths and Truths started a War.
The position taken here is that Communist Yugoslavia was a Croat/Slovene group-strategy that enlisted the help of Albanian and Bosnian Muslims as well as disloyal and opportunistic Serbs, from its founding in 1945 until the Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution of 1989 that saw Milosevic purge the League of Communists of Serbia and Montenegro of such members. In this section, we will address the ludicrous claims by Albanian nationalists that Communist Yugoslavia ever oppressed Albanians, either during Tito’s lifetime or any time afterwards.
I jump to post-1960 Kosovo and consult American scholar Julie Mertus:
…while the number of Serbs in Kosovo with jobs (26% of the total employed) was 12% higher than their share of the population. On the other hand, because more Serbs were seeking jobs, the Serbs share of the UNEMPLOYED in Kosovo was consistently higher relative to their share of he population. In sum, the economic situation in Kosovo was bad for everyone.
Julie Mertus
Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War
Page: 27
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_mertus_27.jpg
One of the major complaints of Kosovo Albanians is that they were economically ‘oppressed’ within the Yugoslav economic system, while the Serbs allegedly had all the power. While one would expect that such claims by Albanian nationalists would awaken them to how badly Albanians had treated Serbs within the Ottoman power structure – it does not. The Albanian historical memory is deliberately conditioned by Albanian Muslim elites to be selective (see: Perpjekja 3). The evidence cited will show that Albanians were not only NOT oppressed within the Yugoslav Communist system – they were the oppressors.
It is necessary to consult Albanian experts in order to understand how the Kosovo economy really functioned and who really suffered from whatever forces shaped it and what those forces were:
The highest-ranking Kosovar economist, Riza Sapunxhiu, who in 1981 was vice-president of the economy, contends that any criticism of the state economy in 1981 was unwarranted. “We were doing everything we could” he says. “People were impatient.”
Julie Mertus
Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War
Page: 27
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_mertus_27.jpg
Not only is Mr. Sapunxhiu a Kosovo Albanian and president of the SFRJ economy: he was also president of SFRJ for a year when he served on Yugoslavia’s rotating presidency in the 1980s. Sapunxhiu’s colleague, Dragomir Vojnic elaborates:
Vojnic attributes much of the developmental difficulties between the regions to a historical inheritance that could not easily disappear. The people who lived in Kosovo looked for a target for their frustrations.
Julie Mertus
Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War
Page: 27
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_mertus_27.jpg
In other words, Kosovo was poorer than any part of Yugoslavia because it was the longest under Ottoman rule. This is something that the Muslim Kosovo Albanians were directly responsible for because of their complicity and support of the Ottoman system and their earlier resistance to secular Serbian education (see: section 1 above). Kosovo remained poor in spite of earlier Serb efforts to modernize the backward Albanian population.
Albanian bureaucrats who took control of Kosovo in 1968 caused most of the problems, after Tito gave the province near republic status, after Rankovic was accused of corruption on trumped up charges.
…many Serbs pointed to the waste, inefficiency and incompetence of the Albanian bureaucrats who took over in the 1970s, as well as the large Albanian family structure that greatly taxed social resources.
Julie Mertus
Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War
Page: 27
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_mertus_27.jpg
After Tito removed Rankovic as Serbian president under trumped up charges, a policy of ‘affirmative action’ was instituted in Kosovo. As is usual with such policies that mask discrimination under the smokescreen of a petty euphemism: inefficiency resulted. Unqualified Albanians were promoted to posts held by qualified Serbs. This failed and worsened Kosovo’s economy because the Muslim Albanians had consistently shunned secular education during the inter-war period. Few Albanians were educated. The new Albanian leadership was responsible for the problems in Kosovo from 1968 to 1989.
Julie Mertus gives insight into how the situation was viewed by both sides:
Commentators on both sides said the situation was made worse by the exodus of experts from Kosovo, mainly Serbs and Montenegrins…
Serbs… contend that the experts had been forced out due to the discriminatory policies of Kosovo Albanians.
Albanians contend that the emigration resulted from “the loss of privileges they had enjoyed and their reluctance to accept equality with Albanians”
Julie Mertus
Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started a War
Page: 27
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_mertus_27.jpg
Let us examine the Albanian POV:
“Albanians contend that the emigration (of Serbs from Kosovo) resulted from ‘the loss of privileges they had enjoyed and their reluctance to accept equality with Albanians’”
The only privileges Serbs enjoyed in Rankovic-era Kosovo was nominal equality with an Albanian population that had just collaborated with Adolph Hitler (see: Perpjekja 5) and had expelled 200 000 Serbs from Kosovo which Tito did not allow to return (see: Miranda Vickers: Between Serb and Albanian), participated in a 400 year oppression of Serb and other Balkan Christians, including Albanians, during the Ottoman era and shunned attempts by Serbia at multi-cultural, secular education in the interwar period (see: section 1 above).
As far as Serbs contending that “the Serbian experts had been forced out due to the discriminatory policies of Kosovo Albanians,” we have 30+ newspaper and magazine articles from such sources as: New York Times, The Herald-Tribune, the Sun-Times and other American and UK media pieces from the 1980s, that chronicle the ethnic cleansing and expulsion of 150 000 Serbs from Kosovo under the Kosovo Albanian leadership:
http://www.geocities.com/aia_skenderbeg/……
Finally, regarding Kosovo’s economy: in reality Kosovo and Slovenia experienced the highest PROPORTIONAL growth compared to any republic in Yugoslavia:
http://www.photius.com…
As to allegations that Serbs will not accept equality with Albanians, one only need to examine Serbia Telekom’s telephone directory and search for common Albanian last names in bigger cities like Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis in order to see that Albanians live so freely within Serbia that they are not afraid to list their names, address and telephone numbers:
http://www.telekom.yu…
Kosovo’s economy was mismanaged by unqualified Albanian authorities (installed by Tito after ’68) and that these authorities pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing against the Serb population that had survived Albanian oppression in Ottoman Times and WWII. Albanian claims of “oppression” in the Yugoslav communist system and under the Serbian monarchy are baseless and are nothing more than a smokescreen for the Muslim Albanian nationalist elites to promote Serbophobia, instability and separatism in order to maintain their grip on power (also see: Perpjekja 1 & 3).
