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BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 85-4-101
TITLE:             Kosovo, One Year After the Riots
BY:                Zdenko Antic
DATE:              1982-3-17
COUNTRY:           Yugoslavia
ORIGINAL SUBJECT:  RAD Background Report/65

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RADIO FREE EUROPE Research

RAD Background Report/65
(Yugoslavia)
17 March 1982

KOSOVO: ONE YEAR AFTER THE RIOTS
By Zdenko Antic

Summary: The newly reported demonstrations in the
Yugoslav province of Kosovo indicate that very little
has been done in the year since the March and April 1981
riots to solve the province's political, social, and
economic problems. By using primarily coercive measures,
prosecuting nationalist elements, and purging the party
and administrative structures, calm has returned on the
surface while deep dissatisfaction, especially among the
younger generation, has remained. Only the future will
tell whether this tense and explosive situation might be
relieved or eliminated through the increased
financial aid that has been announced and a better and
more rational economic policy.

+	+	+

This material was prepared for the use of the staff of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

[page 2]

RAD BR/65

One year after the bloody April 1981 riots, Yugoslavia's
autonomous Province of Kosovo is again in the news. According
to Western and domestic reports, about 1,000 ethnic Albanian
students demonstrated in the streets of the provincial capital
of Pristina to mark the first anniversary of bloody anti-Yugoslav
riots, demanding republican status for Kosovo and unification with
Albania. [1]

Special riot police squads reportedly dispersed the students
before they reached the center of Pristina; and according to
Radio Pristina, law and order now prevail in the streets of
Pristina. No casualties have been reported. Later in the
afternoon, however, reports reaching Pristina said that similar
demonstrations had been held in several other towns in Yugoslavia's most
tumultuous province. [2] It is quite obvious that this fresh
turbulence, even if only a peaceful demonstration marking last
year's bloody riots, indicates that during the past year very little
has been done to find a solution to Kosovo's very complex problems
and to calm the population, especially the younger generation.

The riots last March and April in Kosovo, a southern Yugoslav
province where some 1,22 7,000 ethnic Albanians (77.5%
of the population) have seriously shaken the foundation of the
Yugoslav state, alarmed the communist leadership, shocked the
population, and discredited Yugoslavia's
 reputation throughout the world. As a result, relations with neighboring
Albania, which had been improving, have again become deeply
disturbed.

The riots last March, as in many similar cases, were quite
unexpected and seemingly not politically motivated. On 11 March
1981 everything was reportedly normal in Pristina and elsewhere
in Kosovo; but a minor protest against poor and inadequate food
in the university's student canteen incited several hundred students
to go to the streets. By the time they had reached the center of
Pristina, the group of demonstrators had increased to several
thousand. The huge mass of students was confronted by local militia
units, with which they inevitably clashed, resulting in 18
demonstrators being injured and about 100 arrested. Calm returned but only
for a very short period. On March 26, the day when a youth relay
in honor of Tito's birthday was expected in Pristina, several
thousand students again took to the streets and clashed with the
special federal police units, which had arrived in Pristina to
protect the open-air ceremony. On this occasion students reportedly
escalated their demands, requesting the release of the students
arrested earlier; and for the first time political slogans for a
republican status for Kosovo and unification with Albania were
voiced. On this occasion it has been said that the federal police

------------------------

(1) Tanjug (in English), UPI, and AP, 11 March 1982.

(2) UPI, 11 March 1982.

[page 3]

RAD BR/65

clashed brutally with demonstrators, and 32 participants in
demonstrations were reportedly injured.

The real explosion occurred on 1 April 1981. There were
contradictory reports about the number of demonstrators (later
estimates vary between 5,000 and 25,000) and the number of injured
and dead. According to official Yugoslav reports, however, a
huge group succeeded in reaching the center of Pristina, attacking
on its way several buildings and cars, while demanding republican
status for Kosovo and unification with Albania. This was reportedly
the first appearance of extreme leftist slogans such as "down
with the red bourgeoisie,'" and "we are Enver Hoxha's army!" On
April 2 similar demonstrations and clashes with the police took
place in almost all large cities in the province; there were
cases of attacks on official buildings and private property belonging
to Serbs. In the night from April 1 to 2 a state of emergency was
proclaimed in Kosovo; army units moved into all large cities.
The official reports said that altogether 9 demonstrators had been
killed and over 260 injured; but it is rumored that the number of
killed was at least 4 times as high.

Looking back at the origin of the riots and even taking into
consideration the well-known social, political, and economic
difficulties and a long-lasting mistrust between the native
Albanians and the Serbian population, the event with all its
violence, radical political demands, irredentism, and pro-Albanian
emphasis shocked the communist leaders and the population at large.

Careful observers, however, had already noticed a deep
dissatisfaction under the surface in many Albanian regions of
Yugoslavia, among the younger generation in particular. There are
many reasons for this dissatisfaction. For many centuries Kosovo
has had a mixed population with Serbs and Albanians living side by
side. In the past, Serbs were predominant; this was the center
of their medieval state. In more recent times, owing particularly to
a birth explosion, the Albanian population has gained an
overwhelming majority and, on this basis, greater political autonomy.

Another important reason for Albanian dissatisfaction has
been the economic and social backwardness of the region and a very
low living standard. In 1980 the average annual income in
Yugoslavia was about 3,000 dollars per capita, while that of Kosovo
was about 800 dollars, pr a quarter as much. The same discrepancy
could also be seen between the monthly earnings of workers in
Kosovo and those in the northern, more industrialized parts of
Yugoslavia. Finally, the unemployment rate in Kosovo was the
highest in Yugoslavia with about 70,000, mostly younger workers,
unemployed. Furthermore, a tremendous yearly population growth
rate of 2.8%, among the highest in the world, has made, it difficult
to implement any comprehensive economic policy to transform
successfully an agrarian and backward society into a modern one.

An attempt has been made in the recent past to accomplish
this, and a great amount of federal aid was poured into Kosovo's
economy. Unfortunately, thousands of millions of dollars were
invested inefficiently and without appreciable results. Instead

[page 4]

RAD BR/65

of strengthening agriculture, ostentatious public buildings and
luxurious housing were constructed. Raw material extraction
was neglected, but a huge university with all necessary supporting
services was constructed, and more than 25,000 students were
studying, many in the humanities. As a result, a young
intelligentsia has been created without any good prospects of getting
adequate jobs. Part of them have been funneled into the
bureaucratic structures of the province, while the rest remained
jobless and frustrated, both socially and politically. Thus came
the explosion in March 1981.

The Yugoslav leaders' first reaction was rather confused.
For the first two weeks there was a real news blackout on Kosovo.
Stane Dolanc was the first Yugoslav leader to appear publicly (on
April 5) to answer the questions of domestic and foreign journalists.
He frankly admitted several shortcomings in Kosovo, but his
reasonable explanations were overturned later by the official 
press and radio, which put the blame for the Kosovo riots on an
inflamatory propaganda and subversion campaign by Albania. This
resulted, as was to be expected, in a serious deterioration of
relations with the Albanian government.

With the proclamation of a state of emergency in Kosovo and
significant re-enforcement of the local police forces, peace was
restored superficially, and the provincial and federal authorities
were able to hunt out and sentence severely about 280 participants
in, or organizers of, the demonstration. It was claimed that about
30 illegal nationalist and irredentist groups, composed mostly of
younger students and even pupils, had been uncovered and arrested.

The next step in the process of pacifying Kosovo was a
profound purge of the provincial party and administrative apparatus.
President of the League of Communists of Kosovo Mahmut Bakalli and
president of the provincial presidium Dzavid Nimani were ousted
together with about 1,000 party members holding important party
and governmental positions. At the same time, the staffs at the
University of Pristina and at several other schools in the province
were cleansed, since the schools were considered the hotbeds of
Albanian nationalism and irredentism.

The most recent demonstration shows, however, that all these
measures were not sufficient to bring about the needed peace
among the population of the province. It is true that in earlier
times several Yugoslav leaders had warned that coercive measures
alone could not be a long-standing solution to problems in Kosovo.
It must also be noted that the greater part of the Yugoslav press
has, with the exception of the first two weeks in March 1981, been
reporting fully about the developments in the province, with an
obvious attempt to analyze objectively the complex situation that
has emerged during the past year.

Finally, the Yugoslav leaders have recognized that despite
the huge economic aid of the past 10 years, the economy has not
developed according to the real needs of the population. It was
therefore decided that more money, about 4,000 million dollars,

[page 5]

RAD BR/65

would be put at the disposal of the province over the next 5 years,
but also that closer controls would be made on the investment
policy.

Kosovo's troubles have occurred at the most critical moment
in Yugoslavia's recent history. About one year after the death
of the uncontestable leader, Tito, the new leadership was
confronted with a problem that had been developing throughout the
century and cannot be resolved within a short period of time. The
problem of Albanian nationalism in Yugoslavia is all the more
dangerous because it affects not only the relations of the Albanian
population toward Serbs and the federal government, but also
relations with Macedonians and Montenegrins where a smaller number of
Albanians also live. Finally, since it is quite obvious that the
Albanians of Kosovo will insist on republican status for their
province, it is hardly imaginable that the Serbs would accept it.
All these questions, together with inevitable international
implications, suggests that the Kosovo problem or, better said, the
problem of Albanians in Yugoslavia, will continue for decades to
burden and disturb the internal balance of Yugoslavia at the same
time the country is undergoing a serious economic crisis.

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