> Following the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the > Yugolsavian Communist Party was freed of restraints imposed by USSR > need to avoid entanglement in European war. Communists became leaders > in organizing resistance forces against Nazis. The party moved its > organizational apparatus into Serbian mountains and began the Partisan > campaign that changed the course of Yugoslavian history. Communists > developed a successful policy widely recognized to have been instrumental > in the victory over occupation forces. > > Communists had a difficult time persuading Albanians in Kosovo to join > Partisan ranks because the latter were chauvinistically inclined towards > the Serbs (whose nationalism could be a problem but who also comprised > the majority of both crack-unit Proletarian Brigades and regular Partisan > formations). Also, Albanian Communists supported the claims of Albania > to Kosovo but Yugoslavian Communists refused to consider any concessions > to Albanian nationalist sentiment in the province. > > The war years and their immediate aftertmath were marked by growing > hostility between Communists (who initially took measures to ensure > impartial treatment of minorities but later engaged in repressive > actions) and intransigent nationalist elements in minority populations > (of which Albanians were the most hostile). Imer Berisa, an advocate > "Greater Albania" led an open revolt against the Partisan movement in > 1944 that continued against the new Communist regime in 1945. Kosovo > Albanian separatist militias eventually went underground (and were > never completely eliminated), the Kosovo Albanian population remained > aliented from the government, and the post-war position of the > Communists was never secure in the region. > > Kosovo was designated as one of two autonomous regions in the Yugoslavian > federal system that was formally established in the fall of 1945. It > was not considered a homeland area for minorities but was considered a > place of mixed nationality requiring special status because of problems > associated with relations among different national groups. Early on, a > group of Kosovo Albanians tried to take advantage of the break with the > Soviet Union by provoking the police into arresting and killing innocent > Albanians in order to turn Albanian sentiment even more against the > Yugoslavians. Communist distrust of Kosovo Albanians (based on > perception that they were political unreliable) increased which in turn > heightened ethnic Albanian nationalist sentiment. The situation reached > a state of emergency in the mid-1950s. In 1959, the Yugoslavian League > of Communists enacted plans to improve the status of minorities and > initiated a program of economic development for Kosovo. Despite these > actions, there was an uprising of Kosovo Albanians in 1960 and an > aborted coup in 1964. > > Following the Yugoslavian gov't's 1966 forced resignation of the country's > vice-president (Aleksandar Rankovic, a Serb) and purge of the secret > police accused of mistreating ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the latter > staged violent demonstrations in late 1968 for improvement of poor > economic conditions and unjust political arrangements. In response, the > Yugoslavian gov't granted broad concessions allowing local economic and > social planning and financial control. Political upgrading emboldened > Kosovo Albanians which resulted in growing abuse of Serbs living in the > region and a subsequent increase in Serb emigration. > > A number of Albanian nationalist groups were active in Kosovo in the > 1970s. The decentralizing effect of the 1974 Constitution further > reduced oppression of the Albanians in the province but loosening state > control also led to increased scale and visibility of nationalist > disturbances. Nowhere in Europe were such far-ranging concessions to > nationalst rights granted in a region considered so potentially > separatist. Traditional Albanian culture was practiced more openly in > Yugoslavia than in Albania. However, Albanians were not recognized > as a nation under the constitution because, according to the Yugoslavian > government, their traditional homeland was outside Yugoslavia. By 1976, > reports were released about Kosovo Serbians forced to sell real estate > under duress and damage done to Serbian cultural and historical > monuments and cemetaries. > > Despite continuing investment and other economic programs intended to > improve Kosovo, the region remained the poorest and had the highest > unemployment rate (also the highest birth rates). Kosovo Albanians > again held large demonstrations to protest these conditions in 1981. > Moreover, demonstrators complained that the Yugoslav People's Army used > excessive force to quell the uprisings. Several factors contributed to > growing tension and irreconcilable difference: 1) separatist Kosovar > Albanians were receiving increasing support - including direct > interventions - from Albania which used economic discontent in the > region to discredit Yugoslavian economic and political innovations; > 2) Yugoslavia's affluent republics (Slovenia for example, had little > unemployment) were tiring of high rates of unproductive investments in > Kosovo (despite impressive mineral and fuel reserves); 3) rising > Albanian nationalism in Kosovo threatened to fuel similar sentiments > elsewhere in the multinational state. > > Economic conditions in Kosovo worsened throughout the 1980s even as > disproportionately high national investment in the region continued. > Serb emigration increased again, in part, because of the economy > (leading some Albanians to leave as well) but also because Albanians > drove them out. Meanwhile, differences between Kosovo Albanian > autonomists and separatists, both believing that internal security > forces were applied against them with unwarranted severity, began to > blur. Use of weapons and explosives against police, military personnel, > Kosovo Serbs, and ethnic Albanian 'collaborators' increased. > > the stage was set...Michael Hoover
