Deaths in Kosovo:
the morbid anatomy of a regime
THE AUTONOMOUS PROVINCE of Kosovo has "ratified" the constitutional changes that re-centralize all the Serbian territories. This vote was made possible only by a purge of all those in the provincial apparatus who were suspected of being "too Albanian," dozens of deaths, the presence of tanks and a curfew. In accepting the Serbian re-centralization at the expense of the Kosovo Albanians and
Vojvodina [an autonomous province distinguished by large non-Serbian national minorities], the federal apparatus hopes to
Croats and Slovenes. The Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic's shameful "victory" is going to lead the Serbian government down a blind alley and force the Yugoslav federation to make a choice.
The deplorable rejoicing of the Serbian population celebrating the bloody recentralization of the republic will turn sour when it becomes clear that the emperor Milosevic 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) - ployed, as opposed to less than 2% in Slovenia. But they are 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 popula-
Kosovo drama, the entire Yugoslav system is
Milosevic has drawn a motley, very fragile coalition behind him.
in crisis. CATHERINE VERIA CAINERINE 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 throttled, profoundly transforming the League of Communists and the state apparatus.
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
As for the federal apparatus, it has gotten caught up in a process that is rebounding against its objective of trying to avoid a its objective of trying to avoid a breakup through a rise of Serbian nationalism. The federal police forces that shed blood in 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. * tion 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 turn in the 1970s, which not only put an end to the Croatian nationalist movement International Viewpoint #161 • April 17, 1989 limit the Serbian demands. But behind the
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
Last straw for the Albanian people
OR YEARS, the autonomous province of Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians make up 90% of the 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.