BY GEORGES MEHRABIAN AND BOBBIS MISAILIDES
ATHENS, Greece - Tens of thousands of people mobilized in
Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, March 9 demanding an end to
the repression and massacres of ethnic Albanians in the
preceding days. Up to 200,000 people demonstrated throughout
Kosovo that day, in the largest outpouring in a decade in the
fight for national rights of Albanians in the Serb-occupied
province.
In the name of fighting "terrorists," the Serbian regime in Belgrade is attempting to use its police force and now army troops to crush the resistance of working people in Kosovo. Washington and other imperialist powers have seized on the events in Kosovo as a pretext to deepen their intervention in the Yugoslav workers state. A U.S.-led NATO occupation force has been in Bosnia for the last two years, and there are 1,000 United Nations "peacekeeping" troops in Macedonia. Washington has for years led the charge in maintaining an economic embargo against Belgrade. Nevertheless, the imperialists have not succeeded in their aim of reestablishing capitalist rule in any of the republics that made up Yugoslavia.
At a March 9 meeting in London that also included the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia, U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright argued for forceful action against the regime headed by Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. "We don't want a repeat of 1991, when the international community did not react with enough vigor and force," she declared, referring to the war in Bosnia among rival wings of the former ruling bureaucracy following the breakup of Yugoslavia. "The only kind of pressure that President Milosevic understands is the kind that imposes a real price on his unacceptable behavior."
The governments represented at the London meeting make up the "Contact Group" charged with monitoring the Dayton accords - the agreement signed on a U.S. military base that spells out the partition and occupation of Bosnia. Their conference ended in division. The representatives of Washington, Bonn, Paris, Rome, and London eventually agreed that new sanctions should be imposed on the government of Yugoslavia, though the French and Italian officials were reluctant. The proposed sanctions include a new arms embargo, denying visas to those deemed responsible for repression in Kosovo, and cutting financial credits to Belgrade. The Russian foreign minister agreed to the first two proposals, but rejected the third. The two proposals on which there was agreement are to be presented to the UN Security Council for a new council resolution. The group agreed to meet again on March 25 to assess further action.
Despite the hue and cry in the big-business press over human rights in Kosovo, most imperialist governments in Europe are trying to close their borders to Albanians fleeing the repression there. The German government has announced that deportations of Kosovo Albanians from its soil will continue.
Mass protests against Serb repression
The mass outpouring of protests in Kosovo March 9 came as
Serb troops entered their 10th day of a military operation
against supporters of independence for the region. Among other
slogans the tens of thousands who marched in Pristina chanted,
"Drenica! Drenica! Drenica!" That region in central Kosovo,
where there is strong support for the Kosovo Liberation Army
(UCK), was a particular target of Serbian military attacks.
Serbian cops and troops sealed off Drenica and pounded the
towns and villages there with artillery barrages. Serb police
faced armed resistance by fighters of the UCK.
A UCK statement published in Buikou daily in Pristina described resistance to Serbian attacks. "Units of the UCK fought the Serbian police and army for four days in 15 villages in the region of Drenica," the statement said, "killing dozens of enemy Serbs."
Reporting from Pristina in the March 7 Financial Times of London, Guy Dinmore wrote that armored personnel carriers and attack helicopters were involved in the operation by Serbian forces targeting the villages in Drenica. His report put the death toll at more than 50; the number has gone up considerably since.
Many of the dead are reportedly civilian men who have been shot in cold blood by Serbian cops. Women and children have also been executed. On March 10, Serbian police seized the bodies of 51 Albanians killed in the assaults and used bulldozers to bury them in mass graves, less than two days after their bodies had been turned over to local Kosovan officials. The week before, more than 50,000 people had turned out for the funeral of 24 victims of the police violence.
Up to 45,000 Serbian troops are reportedly now part of the occupation force, and the Serbian government is arming those of Serbian descent who live in Kosovo. Some Serbian refugees from Croatia and Bosnia who the Milosevic regime settled in Kosovo have been called to serve in the Serbian army. Serbian nationalism has been a hallmark of the Milosevic regime in its efforts to consolidate control over as much of Yugoslavia as possible.
Origin of the conflict in Kosovo
Kosovo was an autonomous region of the Serbian Republic
until 1989. This status was revoked by the Serbian government
following a wave of working-class resistance to austerity
conditions, led by miners and others in Kosovo. The autonomy
status had been won in 1974 following a series of protests
demanding a republic. Albanians constitute about 90 percent of
Kosovo's population; most other residents are Serbian. Faced
with mass resistance to the violation of the autonomy rights
at the start of the 1990s, Belgrade proceeded to impose police
terror, arbitrary arrests, and torture. Thousands of state
workers and teachers who refused to work and teach in Serbian
were fired. Albanian language schools and universities were
forced to close in 1991 and have remained shut since. In an
act of mass defiance, many residents have resorted to a system
of parallel schools (see accompanying article on page 13).
In 1992 elections, which were not recognized by the Serbian regime, Ibrahim Rugova of the Democratic League of Kosovo was elected president of the Republic of Kosovo. Rugova declared Kosovo independent and set up a parallel government to the one loyal to Belgrade.
Under pressure, Milosevic signed an agreement with Rugova in 1996 under which schools were supposed to reopen at the beginning of this year, with instruction in the Albanian language. "This agreement was not implemented," said Fehmi Agani, a leader of the Democratic League, which sparked a renewal of mass protests by Albanians. "Milosevic thinks that if the agreement was put into effect it would become a step for further demands especially for independence" of Kosovo, Agani stated.
Reflecting popular frustration with dead-end negotiations with Belgrade, independence forces such as the UCK have grown since then. A statement by the UCK broadcast over Radio Tirana vowed to "continue the struggle for Kosovo's independence," and appealed to the people of Serbia and Montenegro. "You are not threatened by the UCK. On the contrary, you are threatened by the terrorism" of the Belgrade regime, "which for its own interests is ready to sacrifice you." Edita Tahiri, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the parallel Kosovo government, has called on imperialist forces of NATO to send "a peacekeeping force in Kosovo in order to stop further bloodshed." These kinds of appeals by a layer of the leadership have been echoed by some in the demonstrations carrying signs stating "Where is NATO?"
Using anti-imperialist demagogy, Belgrade officials cite statements like those by Tahiri as a rationalization for the brutal repression of Albanians. Pavel Bulatovic, Minister of Defense in Belgrade, declared, "The future of Albanians in Kosovo can not be decided by NATO but only by the Yugoslav government." The Stalinist regime in Serbia also took punitive measures against five newspapers in Belgrade. The district attorney accused them and a TV channel with "false reporting" and "helping Albanian terrorists" in Kosovo, referring to the UCK. The censored newspapers reported on Serbian police killing unarmed Albanian civilians.
Support for Kosovo struggle in region
The brutal crackdown by the Milosevic government has not
only sparked a response by hundreds of thousands of Kosovo
Albanians, but also led to protests in neighboring countries.
In the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, more than 60,000
people demonstrated on March 6 in solidarity with the struggle
in Kosovo. The protesters gathered in Marshall Tito Square, in
the capital city Skopje, chanting "UCK! UCK! UCK!" and "We
will give our lives but we will never give up Kosovo." Some 20
percent of the 1.9 million people in Macedonia are Albanian,
mostly concentrated in the region of Tetovo. The Albanian
national minority there has also been fighting to extend its
rights to use the Albanian language, especially in educational
institutions, and has also faced the repression from the
regime in Skopje. A day before the large protest, the mayor of
Tetovo and the president of the municipal council of that city
were sentenced to two and a half years in jail for refusing to
lower the Albanian flag over municipal offices.
In the Albanian workers state itself, regular demonstrations have taken place in Tirana protesting Belgrade's terror in Kosovo. On March 8 Albanian president Rexhep Meidani addressed a demonstration of 20,000 in Tirana.
Albania was rocked by an eight-month armed rebellion in 1997. Hundreds of thousands of workers, farmers, and youth rose up against the procapitalist government of Sali Berisha. The armed forces of the state largely dissolved, as town after town in the south fell to the armed population. A brief coalition between Berisha's Democratic Party and the Socialist Party called for imperialist intervention to in order to restore state authority. Thousands of Italian, Greek, and other imperialist troops poured in to bring back order. Berisha was subsequently forced out in a general election held in July, and the current government is headed by the Socialist Party. While most of the imperialist troops have withdrawn, 250 Greek soldiers remain in Albania today.
Demonstrations in support of the struggle of Albanians in Kosovo have also taken place in Istanbul, Turkey; Vienna, Austria; Paris; and other cites of Europe.
In Greece, where close to 300,000 Albanian immigrants live, a demonstration of several hundred was held on March 8 in Athens demanding an end to Serb government terror in Kosovo. Albanian immigrants here are mostly undocumented and are relegated to the worst-paid jobs in agriculture and construction. Thousands are deported every year.
Fearing the regionalization of the conflict in Kosovo, the governments of the region have held emergency discussions. Officials of Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia have expressed support for a joint declaration whose chief aim is to call for respect of the current borders in the region along with a "peaceful resolution" of the crisis in Kosovo.
Meanwhile, the Albanian government placed its army on alert on March 7 and canceled leaves for troops stationed on the Yugoslav border.
Albanian prime minister Fatos Nano condemned "Serb repression" during a trip to Greece March 8. "From an historical point of view, [the Kosovo issue] is one of injustices imposed on the Albanian nation at the beginning of the century which, at the end of it, remain unresolved," he stated.
The Albanian government has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss measures against Belgrade.
Greek prime minister Constantinos Simitis likewise condemned fighters for Kosovo's independence and called for the respect of current borders. Meanwhile Athens has renewed its call for the formation of a multinational Balkan-based rapid deployment force that could be used in conflicts like in Kosovo. Greek imperialism would play a dominant role in such a force.
The government in the Republic of Macedonia has put its armed forces on alert as well, fearing actions by Albanians to demand national rights there.
The governments of Romania and Bulgaria, both workers states, are using the events in Kosovo to argue for their admission into NATO. Both proimperialist regimes have so far been excluded from the NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, the aim of which is to encircle the Russian workers state in preparation for eventually trying to restore capitalism there by force.
Meanwhile, the imperialist NATO alliance is planning two weeks of military exercises dubbed Strong Resolve involving the European and Atlantic commands. The maneuvers will take place in the Iberian peninsula and northern Europe simultaneously, involving 50,000 troops from 25 countries. Part of the scenario involves "crisis management," such as in Bosnia.