Serb projects

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IMPLEMENTATION OF SERBIAN PROJECTS ON EXPULSIONS OF ALBANIANS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY




1.Albanian Ethnic Territories in Nineteenth Century
To the majority of the peoples in the Balkans the nineteenth century presented a period of endeavours and struggles for national freedom, independence and emancipation. However, in that time, in the minds of some of these peoples greater state aspirations began to be born and were manifested to the detriment of the being and territories of their neighbours. The Albanians and the land where they lived were the target of such invading intentions for quite a long period. These aspirations became stronger particularly during and after the Eastern Crisis (1875-1878) through propagandistic campaigns, and later through occupations and ethnic cleansing of these territories. This is witnessed by historical sources of the time, various ethno-graphic documents and special historiography documents.
The very important geostrategic position, abundant in natural resources, fertile soil and other favourable climate conditions of the Albanian land made them an object of permanent interests of Serbian and Greek circles.
The Albanian coast, one of the most attractive in this region, that was about 500 kilometres long, had many isles, ports and cities with developed crafts and economy.
In addition to it, the continental part of the Albanian land had fertile soil in Dukagjin and Kosova, and the regions of Toplica, Kosanica, Presheva, Kumanova, Shkup (Skopje), Tetova, Kërçova, Arta and Janina

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According to the facts presented by Lord Broughton (1809), the Albanian land extended between 39 and 43 (geographical parallels) and between 17 and 20 (geographi-cal meridians), covering in this way a surface of 62,500 square kilometres.

By some students of Balkan questions, the extension of the Albanians was witnessed to have been up to Niš, Leskovac and Vranje in the north; to Kumanova, Përlep and Manastir in the east; to Konitza, Janina and Preveza in the south.

This region, according to Sami Frashëri, embraced a surface of 70,000 km2, and according to an Italian study it was 80,000 square kilometres.

5.Within this space (in the vilayets of Shkodra, Kosova, Manastir and Janina), the population, consisting of the Albanians in the greatest majority, lived under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, that had a character of an ethnically compact territory, and was fairly called Albania (Arnavutluk) by many authors writing about their travels, and by some scholars and diplomats of the time. That Albania, although without any special political or administrative character, maintained its simple Albanian and compact physiognomy and opposed to the Slavonic and Greek intentions and threats. However, the space of the Albanian land was not threatened by the Slavonic and Greek aspirations only. After the Eastern Crisis, the Ottoman Empire experienced its natural collapse. Facing its multiple internal contradictions and pressures exerted by big powers from outside, it made its efforts in vain to avoid its decomposition by various new administrative reforms. In this way, many forms of military, political and administrative organisation took place on the Albanian land. Administrative divisions and revisions, undoubtedly harmed the interests of the Albanian people heavily, since the political and ethnic unit of Albania was denied in that way.

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The well-known scholar and albanologist, Georg von Hahn, when writing on the natural (geographic and ethnic) border of Albania, claimed that the border extended from Montenegro in the north to the bay of Arta in the south, i.e., from north of Tivar (Bar) to the cape of Preveza, pointing out that the Albanians inhabited the whole central region that extended from the north end of the Lake of Shkodra up to Niš.
The same author, in a later work of his (1866), underlined that the River of Morava was the one that divided the Albanian land from the Slavonic one, emphasising that the Albanians had an incontestable majority in Fusha e Kosovës and along the river of Vardar in Shkup.11 Gabriel Louis Jaray also admitted that the Albanian element fulfilled a large space in the Vilayet of Manastir, and the whole Vilayet of Kosova, to the bank of Vardar in Shkup. He said of Shkup that “it is one of the vanguard castles of the Albanians and one of their main cities�. According to the facts that he refers to, it comes out that Shkup had 45,000 inhabitants, of whom 25,000 were Muslims, almost all Albanians, 10-15,000 Bulgarians, 3,000 Serbs and 2,000 Jews. Whereas, he qualified Peja, Gjakova and Prizren as fully Albanian cities.

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The Greek consul in Shkodra, Epaminondas Mavro-matis (1879-1881), in his published reports (1884) said that Albania included these parts - regions seen from the ethnographic aspect:
1. South Albania, that extended to Parga;
2. Central Albania, extending between Shkumbin and Mat;
3. Upper Albania, extending between Mat and Montenegro;
4. The north-eastern Part and 5. Western Macedonia.
The north-eastern region extended to the part that was given to Serbia by the Congress of Berlin, as well as to Prizren, Gjakova, Peja, Kalkandelen (Tetova), Luma, Prishtina, Gjilan, Vushtria, Mitrovica, Novi-Pazar, Shkup and Kumonaova. Western Macedonia inhabited by the Albanians included: Prilep, Ohri, Kërçova, Kostur, Follorina, Kolonja and Korça, that had a population of 220,000 inhabitants, of whom 140,000 were of the Islamic and 80,000 of Orthodox religion.

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Ethnic Structure in the Occupied Regions of Albanians in 1912
The First Balkan War brought about great changes on the geographic map of the Balkans. The Albanian state was established in less than half of its ethnic territory. The Balkan allies: Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria came out of war with great benefits in territory and population. Bulgaria gained 29% in territory and 3% in population; Greece 68% in territory and 67% in population. It took {amëria and Aegean Macedonia from the Albanian territory; Montenegro gained 62% in territory and 100% in population; and Serbia 82% in territory and 55% in population.1
From that time the governments of Serbia, Montenegro and Greece made use of all the means and measures available for ethnic cleansing in the occupied regions. According to Turkish statistics, 912,902 inhabitants lived in the Vilayet of Kosova, out of whom 743,040 were Albanians, 53,396 Bulgarians, 106,209 Serbs, 20,009 Jews and 5,043 Romanies.

Consequences Resulting from the Conference of London (1913) for Expulsion of Albanians
On the eve of outburst of the First Balkan War, the Balkan allies knew quite well the position and force of Turkey, that had almost capitulated before the Albanian forces, who took the centre of the Vilayet of Kosova - Shkup (Skopje) at the uprising in the summer of 1912.
The Balkan allies, being aware that the Albanians and the small forces of Turkish military were not able to confront them, made an agreement by which they planned to partition the Albanian land. Despite the military interventions of the Balkan allies, the Albanian patriots who had carried the heaviest burden of the movement for liberation of their homeland, came together in Vlora on 28 November, 1912, and proclaimed Albania an independent state. The National Assembly nominated a temporary government, that engaged a committee to protect the Albanian question before the great powers. The National Assembly of Vlora addressed a telegram to the great powers, in which, among others, was said, “the Albanians that had entered the family of the peoples of Eastern Europe, of whom they feel proud of being the oldest nation, maintain solely one intention: to live in peace with all the Balkan states and become an element of equlibrium.�

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The Greek government, apart from the occupation of {amëria, made requests for other Albanian territories. In the list of its requests, the Greek government included the regions of Dukagjin Plain, Kosova and Macedonia; whereas Montenegro, apart from the occupied territories, such as Plava, Gucia and the Dukagjin Plain, wanted Shkodra with its environs and the territory to the river Mat. The Albanian delegation requested that the legitimate right and full independence within its ethnic borders should be recognised to Albania, but the Conference of Ambassadors in London did not accomplish the requests of the Albanians. It took the side of the governments of the Balkan Alliance, whose protector was Russia. As a consequence of these decisions, the Albanian state was formed in less than half of the territory of ethnic Albanians. The Albanian land was partitioned for the second time.

[The Journeyman]

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After having been occupied by Serbia, the territory of Kosova was organised in these administrative centres: the districts of Prishtina, Prizren, Novi-Pazar, Kumanova and Shkup. In November 1913, the district of Zveçan was also established with its centre in Mitrovica. 8 Out of the territory of Kosova under the Montenegrin occupation up to 1915 were Deçan, Peja and Istog with a part of Drenica. By the Montenegrin military breaking into Dukagjin, state-military-police organs were established. Montenegro, as well as Serbia, organised it territorially and administratively in regions, but similar to the model in Montenegro. Peja was made the centre of it. Every region was administratively divided into 10 captainships, and a captainship was divided into five administrative communes.
9 Montenegro, apart from the genocidal crimes it committed during the First Balkan War, converted more than 1,703 Albanians into the Orthodox religion of the East in the region of Gjakova by March 1913 .

In the region of Peja, another 20 Albanian villages were converted by 22 June, 1913, and 200 persons only in the city of Peja. This genocide continued till 1915, when Montenegro was destroyed in the First World War. On 1 December, 1918, the Serbian-Croatian-Slo-venian Kingdom was pro-claimed. Kosova, as far as the territorial aspect is concerned, remained as it had been before the First World War. In 1920, a new territorial organisation of it took place, into these regions: Zveçan, Kosova, Dukagjin, Prizren and Shkup. These regions included 18 districts, 180 communes and 1,439 villages with 549,871 inhabitants.
11 In 1929, the Yugoslav Kingdom made a new territorial organisation in banovinas. The territory of Kosova, according to this new organisation, was divided into three banovinas: the banovinas of Vardar with its centre in Shkup, of Zeta with its centre in Cetinje and of Morava with its centre in Niš. This partition was done on purpose of exerting more pressure for Albanian expulsion, ethnic cleansing of their land.
Legalisation - Expulsion Through Legal Acts
In the First Balkan War, Serbian and Montenegrin military, apart from the genocide exerted upon the Albanian population, carried out also their forceful expulsion. Thus in the territories of the Albanians villages were burned down and the frightened population ran away pursued by Serbian military, and those who remained there were shot or sent to concentration camps, such as Niš and other places. Only in Prishtina, more than 5,000 Albanians were killed by Serbian military on 22 October, 1912.12 On 27 October, 650 Albanians were sent to the camp in Niš, and on 30 October, 1912, another 700 of them.
This genocide continued all the time till 1915, when Serbian military and government moved to Corfu as they were defeated in the First World War.
During the period between 1912-1915, parallel to expatriation of the Albanians, their land was populated by Serbian colonists: officials, policemen and others. On 20 February, 1914, Serbian government passed the Law-decree on Agrarian Reforms and Colonisation in the occupied regions.
The minister of Economy and Forestry formed respective bodies for colonisation. That decree was in effect until 1919.
In the period between 1912-1915, Serbian government colonised the Albanian regions; they took the houses of the Albanians that had been resettled by force; then new colonies were erected, such as the village-colony Tankosic, in the territory of the villages Sllatina, Mirosala, etc. They changed the names of settlements: the town of Ferizaj was named Urosevac (1914). Montenegro acted in a similar way in Dukagjin. The government of Montenegro formed a committee (November, 1912), that was authorised to recognise the ownership of the property to the Albanians only in cases they had papers of more than fifty years ago, verified by the Register (Defterhane) in Istanbul; otherwise their real estate was ordered to get registered as state ownership. The committee was obliged to fix 55,000 acres of land to 5,000 Montenegrins for their colonisation in Dukagjin, by December 1913. On 27 February, 1914, the government passed a law on colonisation of the land ‘annexed' to Montenegro, which was in effect until 1915, when Montenegro was destroyed.
After the end of the First World War and the creation of the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom (SCSK), forceful colonisation in the Albanian land continued. On 25 February, 1919, the government of SCSK passed the Decree ‘Preliminary Regulations on Settlement of Agrarian Relations'
which was in effect until 1931, when ‘the Law on Agrarian Reform and Colonisation' was passed. This law intended the colonisation of Kosova, expropriation of the Albanians' ownership, ethnic cleansing, forceful emigration and serbianisation of the Albanian regions.
Various genocidal measures were used for the expulsion of the Albanians. In the period between 1913-1939, ‘flying detachments' of military and policemen acted to punish and massacre the population. From 1918 to 1938, the military burned and destroyed 320 villages with Albanian population. Only between 1918-1921, it killed 12,346 persons, put 22,160 people into prison, plundered 50,515 houses and burned down 6,125 houses.

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These facts and others prove of expropriation, plundering the Albanians and expatriating them from their land, on the basis of discriminating laws and a continuous campaign for their extermination.
Expulsion of Albanians (1912-1941)
The forceful expulsion of the Albanians from Kosova, the Sanjac and Macedonia began during the First Balkan War (October, 1912). According to the documents of Serbian diplomacy, 239,807 people were expatriated until March 1914, without accounting the children up to six years old. Albanian families from Kosova, Sanjak and Macedonia were deported through Cavalo of Greece and by the land road to Turkey. This forceful emigration continued. According to the evidence on this matter, the number of the expatriated people amounted to 281,747, without accounting the children up to six years old, till August 1914.17
In the property of the expatriated families, the government of the Serbian Kingdom settled more than 20,000 Serbian families, and Montenegro planned to colonise 5,000 families.18 The emigration caused by violence continued also after the end of the First World War and to the Second World War. According to the evidence of Serbian diplomacy, it was a mass forceful expatriation of the Albanians without the right to return, as the following table can show:
Year Persons Year Persons
1919 23500 1930 13215
1920 8532 1931 29807
1921 24532 1932 6219
1922 12307 1933 3420
1923 6389 1934 4500
1924 9630 1935 9567
1925 4315 1936 4252
1926 4012 1937 4234
1927 5197 1938 7251
1928 4326 1939 7255
1929 6219 1940 6729
Albanians: 215,412
Turks: 27,884
Bosnians from Sanjak: 2,582
Total: 255,878
A number of Albanians from Kosova emigrated forcefully to the territory of reduced Albania of 1912. According to military documents of the Yugoslav Kingdom, from the Albanian territories that Serbia occupied, 4,046 Albanian families from Kosova, Macedonia, Sanjac and Montenegro, emigrated to Albania between 1919-1938. The Albanian government settled those families in the environs of Shkodra, Durrës, Kruja, Kavaja, Berat, Saranda, Koplik, Lushnja, Fier, Tirana, Leskovik and Kukës.20 Besides Turkey and Albania, the Albanians had to emigrate forcefully to other countries of Europe and the world too. In this way the Albanian Diaspora was formed in Europe and America.
Colonosation of Kosova (1912-1941)
The occupying regime, parallel to the expulsion of the Albanians from their land, carried out the colonisation with Serbs and Montenegrins there. During the First Balkan War, after Serbian military massacred and displaced the population, the hordes came and took forcefully the land and houses of the Albanians. After the end of the First World War and the establishment of SCSK, the expulsion of ethnic Albanians from their land and colonisation of it by Slavs continued.
From 1912 to 1914, Serbia and Montenegro (according to Serbian documentation) plundered 381,245 hectares of land in Kosova and Macedonia. Only in Kosova 228,000 hectares of land were taken for colonists, and it was settled by 15,943 families of colonists.21 Since 1914 Serbian colonies were erected in Kosova. Colonists were settled at many Albanian villages and settlements that had been forced to become vacant. In addition, the colonies and settlements of colonists in Kosova in the period between 1919-1927 are presented in a table.
These facts indicate clear enough the intention of Serbia for the accomplishment of a Serbian Kosova. On the basis of the evidence provided by Dr Vasa Cubrilovic, 11,273 family houses were built in the territory of Kosova for colonists till 31 December, 1935. However, quite a large number of colonists were settled in the houses of the Albanians that were sent away by force, and a number of Serbian colonists moved into a part of Albanian houses, sharing so the houses with them. That is why it is estimated that 13,938 families of colonists were settled in Kosova.
1919-1927
Districts Colonies New settlements
Prishtina 24 22
Llap 20 35
Vushtrri 15 67
Gjilan 10 22
Ferizaj 7 23
Pejë 11 34
Drenicë 9 25
Gjakovë 10 17
Total 106 245
Colonisation intended to destroy the Albanian compactness, who comprised more than 75% of the population. In addition to this, Serbia and Montenegro tried to secure calm for themselves by forcing colonisation along the Albanian border and along the main roads. The ‘serbianisation' of Kosova continued until 1941. In this way the territory for the Serbian national element was created.

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Anti-Albanian Projects - Genocidal Acts
The monarchy dictatorship of 6 January, 1929 anticipated, apart from others, extermination of national minorities, particularly the Albanians. The Yugoslav Kingdom intensified the endeavours for ethnic cleansing. This role was taken over by ‘The Serbian Cultural Club', that was purported by the whole state administration.

In the activity of the Club against the Albanians were distinguished Slobodan Jovanovic, Gojko Perina, Orestije Krstic, Dragisa Vasic and Nikola Stojanovic. They were joined by Vasa Cubrilovic with his project ‘The Expulsion of Albanians'.
Cubrilovic (one of the assassins in Sarajevo) engaged himself in the project that state authorities should force all the Albanians to emigrate. He criticised harshly the Serbian regime why it had not exterminated the Albanians entirely as in the time of the Eastern Crisis. He requested that the Albanians should be expatriated forcefully to Turkey or Albania. He gave Anatolia advantage, from where their return was impossible. Cubrilovic proposed details on the manner of expatriation. He emphasised that Muslim masses may come very easily under the influence of religious propaganda. Another device for the implementation of the project was state terror. He insisted that the life of the Albanians should become as difficult as possible by means of laws, creating a situation of anarchy. To accelerate the process of expatriation he proposed an order to be issued for delivering as many arms as possible to colonists.

Cubrilovic requested to stimulate the old action of chetniks and to instigate the Montenegrins in order to cause conflicts in mass with the Albanians in the Plain of Dukagjin. The conflict should be interpreted as an intention for uprising of the Albanians and be explained as a conflict among Albanian brothers and neighbours. He requested that Serbia should use its military force against the Albanians, accomplishing the most efficient method of 1878, burning secretly Albanian villages and their quarters in towns.
All the Albanian regions, according to Cubrilovic, should be colonised without any hesitation. On this purpose, Serbia received international loans in 1880, in order to accomplish the policy of ethnic cleansing without any hindrance. This is a testimony for manipulation with international factors in genocidal actions against the Albanian population. Cubrilovic suggested this form of action as well. In order to accomplish ethnic cleansing of the Albanian element and carry out colonisation, he suggested that all the competencies should be concentrated in the had of the military headquarters. All the plans of actions should be prepared by experts also with the intervention of the Parliament. This indicates that this antihuman action involved all the instances of the Serbian regime and military.
At the end of his project, Cubrilovic confirmed that the Albanians were impossible to exterminate by forceful emigration and expatriation and gradual colonisation, therefore, “the sole way and device for the expatriation of the Albanians is the brutal force of the state organised machinery... ruining villages by guns, by punishments, imprisonment, application of police brutal measures, cutting their forests, denying their ownership papers, extraloading them with taxes, forbidding them to sell live cattle, and by brutal behaviour with their children and women.

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The Yugoslav-Turkish Convention of 1938 - an Intention for Ethnic Cleansing
The first state contacts between Yugoslavia and Turkey about the expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey were made in 1926. These contacts produced a new platform in 1933 on the preparation of grounds for general ethnic cleansing.
The Yugoslav-Turkish Convention on the expatriation of the Albanians to Anatolia is one of the original documents that presents permanent genocide exerted on the Albanian population in general., Although this document was not ratified and implemented in the way it was planned, it had hard consequences for the future of the Albanian population.
Consequences of Expulsion and Colonisation between the Two Word Wars
The expatriation and assimilation of the Albanians and colonisation of the land of ethnic Albanians by the Serbian hegemonist regime was considered as a Serbian national sacred mission. To accomplish this mission, the Serbian invading regime made use of all possible means, starting from arbitrary laws, killing, burning villages and whole regions, up to forceful conversion of Islamic and Catholic population into the Serbian Orthodox religion.
As a consequence of the implementation of these measures the relations between ethnic groups became tense, particularly between Albanian villagers and Slavonic colonists that had been settled in their land. Besides many other state measures that were taken, the government organised chetnik bands, such as those of Kosta Pecanac, Milic Krstic, Jovan Babunski, Vasilije Trbic, etc., who organised punishing expeditions exerting violence, terror and organising plunder.
Mass expropriation of Albanian villagers resulted to great poverty. As a consequence of ethnic cleansing and colonisation of the Albanian land, a significant change of the ethnic structure of population resulted. While the Albanians comprised 90% of population in these regions in 1912, they came down to 70% in 1941.
This was also the consequence of liquidation of the Albanian leadership and Islamic and Catholic clergymen.
Settling the Serbs and Montenegrins in the villages and houses of the Albanians and the erection of Serbian colonies in their property had negative influence on their psychological viewpoint and security perspective. The settlement of the Serbs in the whole quarters in cities among Albanians and the life in the proximity of Serbs resulted to emigration of the Albanians and closing elementary religious schools, and that influenced reduction of the educational level of the Albanians.

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EXPULSIONS OF ALBANIANS ( 1944-1990 )
1. Intentions and Actions of Chetniks and Partisans to Expel and Exterminate Albanians
Serbian and Montenegrin chauvinists made use of the political changes on the eve of the Second World War to expatriate and exterminate as many Albanians as possible. On the occasion of secret and general mobilisation of Yugoslav military, the Albanians were not treated as equal citizens of Yugoslavia. They behaved with the Albanians in the same way as with the enemy. In the first days of the war many Albanian soldiers were killed by Serbian military officers and soldiers.1 Instead of concentrating itself in protection of the borders, Yugoslav military tried to penetrate as deep as possible into the Albanian land.2 Such planning and actions were intended that at a convenient moment they could exterminate as many Albanians as possible and so rarefy that population. The Yugoslav army killed, persecuted and plundered many Albanians, especially those heading some political-national association, such was the case with Sherif Voca, a deputy and well-known patriot, who was killed on 13 April, 1941. Many Albanians were killed in the barracks of Mitrovica, the post of Vushtria, in Gjakova, where soldiers burnt down the villages of Bec, Gërgoc, Radoniq, Janosh, etc. The wave of persecutions and physical exterminations of Albanians involved all the regions of Kosova. It stopped only after the capitulation, namely, after the consolidation of the Italian and German units in Kosova.
When a part of Kosova was uniting with Albania the chauvinist forces of the Serbs and Montenegrins became disturbed. The government of Nedic, chetniks and communists, openly and secretly, made their efforts to accomplish their plans from long time ago for the ethnic cleansing of Kosova. The government of Nedic requested from Germans to annex the Sanjac of Novi-Pazar, Srem, Eastern Bosnia and Kosova to Serbia.4 It requested from Germans to send away 100,000 Albanians from the district of Mitrovica.5 It concentrated armed forced, chetnik detachments and war refugees on the border on Kosova, directing them to the Albanian land. In this way, parallel to ethnic cleansing and genocide exerted on the Albanians, they caused also an emigration in mass. Chetniks committed unprecedented massacres at Albanian villages bordering on Kosova and Sanjac, and due to this the population was forced to emigrate in mass from Kosova and elsewhere.6
Chetniks' intentions and plans for extermination of the Albanians during the Second World War were very numerous, and projects were prepared in this direction. One of such projects was prepared by the lawyer from Sarajevo, Stevan Molevic, titled, ‘Homogenous Serbia' and was published in 1841. According to this project, which is allegedly based on the ethnic principle, homogenous Serbia would include to the east and south-east - Serbia, Kosova, Macedonia, and being annexed by Vidin in Rumania and Custendil in Bulgaria; to the west - the banovinas of Vrbas, North Dalmatia, Lika, Kordun, Bania and a part of Slovenia; to the south - Montenegro and Herzegovina, including Dubrovnik as well, and the last one would be assigned a special status, and the northern part of Albania, if it would not gain its autonomy.7 Since in a large number of the regions anticipated for homogenous Serbia, practically greater Serbia, the Serbs did not comprise the majority population, in some of them they were even under the minimum, but the Croats, Muslims or Albanians constituted the absolute majority, the project envisaged the emigration of the Croats to Croatia, and of Muslims (the Muslims of Bosnia and Sanjac, and Albanians) to Turkey or Albania. According to Molevic, not only the regions where the Serbs were in majority should be included in the bosom of greater Serbia, but without any exception, all the regions where the Serbs lived, or where Stevan Molevic supposed the Serbs were living, and to him the Macedonians and Montenegrins were considered Serbs, too.8
The plans of chetniks were based on the project of Stevan Molevic. In their official letters of 1941 was planned: “To create a large Yugoslavia and greater Serbia in it, ethnically clean, within the borders of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Srem and Banat. All the territories should be cleansed from the non-Serbian elements. Serbia should border directly Montenegro and Slovenia, by cleansing Sanjac from the Muslims and Croats.�9 The same policy was followed by chetniks in 1942, deepening even more their chauvinist hatred toward non-Serbian peoples, particularly the Albanians.10 To accomplish their intentions they opened concentration camps in that time, at which, besides others, 300 Albanians of the tribe of Kuç were interned, but also of other tribes as well.
11 Chetniks and other Serbian collaborators made their endeavours to accomplish the plans and intentions for greater Serbia and its hegemony, from Salonika to Arad and from Tirana to Split, also in 1943. Informing his Chetnik Supreme Command, Zika Mitrovic, among others, wrote on 28 April, 1943: “On your sign given, we shall depart with arms in our hands in the final clash against all the enemies for sacred Kosova�.
12 The means for the accomplishment of this intention, were, thus, not hidden. To achieve their aim, chetniks planned genocide in mass. The expulsion of the Albanians and other non-Serbian people was not discussed at all. In an information of the Command of II Chetnik Corpus sent to their commander, Draza Mihajlovic, in the beginning of 1944, they wrote that they would “fight to the end, as it has to do with the name of Kosovar (...), a real war against the Turks and Albanians in general, a war without any compromise to extermination (...).�
13 In the same report, the Command of the corpus underlined that its numerical situation depended on the organisation of chetniks based on dissemination of chauvinism against the Albanians and Turks, and such a policy attracted even the ‘fans' of communism. This statement was, undoubtedly, true. The Serbian and Montenegrin communists also made use of internationalism as a means to accomplish similar intentions. In such waters fell all the bodies of YCP (Yugoslav Communist Party) and the Yugoslav National-Liberation Army (YNLA) in Kosova. Their attitude in fact did not differ much from the intentions of chetniks, when Kosova was in question. They did not make any difference between the Serbs of Kosova and colonists, who were settled forcefully on the land of ethnic Albanians. Those bodies blamed the Albanians of Kosova for the emigration of the Serbs and Montenegrins, that was not so overwhelming.14
This shows the hypocritical policy of communists and partisans. Both partisans and chetniks saw the solution of the question of Kosova within Yugoslavia, namely, in greater Serbia. Based on such attitudes, many bodies of YCL and YNLA , as well as chetniks on the border to Kosova awaited openly the amnesty of 25 and 30 August, 1944. After this amnesty, both chetniks, that changed their cockade for the star and Serbian partisans attacked Kosova with their main intention to clean it from the Albanian element. The ethnic cleansing of Kosova and other regions of ethnic Albanians occupied by Yugoslavia became harsher in the period from October 1944 to July 1945, justifying it allegedly as a fight against ‘counterrevolution' and its remnants. It began in peripheral zones, but it spread quickly in the whole regions of the Albanians. In such organised operations several divisions with an effective of 40,000 soldiers took part.
15 These military actions, apart from other forms, were led by a new anti-Albanian project of Vasa Cubrilovic, ‘The Problem of Minorities in New Yugoslavia', on 3 November, 1944. In his project, Cubrilovic admits the fact that the Serbs gained one part of the territories with alien population after the First World War, namely, after the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom (Yugoslavia) was established in 1918,
16 and they became dangerous to Yugoslavia, not because of their counterweigh to Slavonic peoples, but because of the territories where they live and geographical continuation that these territories have with their motherlands - i.e., due to political and strategic reasons.
17 Vasa Cubrilovic proposed before the highest leadership of YNLW and YNLA, without any hesitation, expatriation of millions of people in mass, as, according to him, “the sole fair solution to this question is expatriation of these minorities�. As his purport and example for such an action he took the action of the Third Reich and expulsions and colonisation of peoples in Europe. According to him, such an action would be approved by the Yugoslav allies, after they were persuaded that minorities were to blame for millions of Slavonic victims during the Second World War
(sic!). Based on the spirit of this project, the author suggested that they should not wait long for the allies to agree, as it was the last chance for the accomplishment of that intention, but “the people that made decisions on the fate of our people� should be persuaded of this, and according to Cubrilovic, they were the leadership of YCP and YNLW, headed by Josip Broz Tito.
19 The author of the project foresaw and proposed its accomplishment in details. He proposed that first the Germans should be expatriated, then the Hungarians, Albanians, Italians, Rumunias... Although the Albanians were the first ones on the target of expatriation, this process should not begin with them, not due to good relations between the Albanian National-Liberation War and YNLA, but owing to the risk of a conflict between the two countries. That is why Vasa Cubrilovic advised to act with great caution and tactics during the expatriation of the Albanians. This would not mean that the Serbs and Montenegrins were merciful to Albanians or that the latter ought to be saved. Whereas it was spoken in general of the expatriation of other nationalities, the Albanians and their territories were specified and it seemed as if the project was intended particularly to them.
20 Both the Albanians and other nationalities, in the project ‘The Problem of Minorities in New Yugoslavia� were preferred to be forced to emigrate first from the regions ethnically clean, and then from the mixed areas, as ethnic postblocks were more dangerous, according to the author.
21 For the accomplishment of his project, Cubrilovic anticipated the time as well, that is undoubtedly from the arsenal of the outstanding Machiavelists, racists and genocide-lovers. According to him, the most convenient time for efficient expulsion was war, therefore, the best expulsion was the physical and complete extermination of the people. According to Cubrilovic, military had the decisive role, that is why he proposed that a special section of this question should be formed in the General Command of YNLA. If complete physical extermination would not be successful, he anticipated additional measures, such as: denying all the rights to them, opening concentration camps, plundering their ownership, extermination of intelligentsia and social healthy classes, and then urgent colonisation of these regions with Slavonic elements.
22 Cubrilovic was aware at that time that funds, and trustworthy persons were needed for its accomplishment, but also an organisation at an institutional level. That is why he proposed formation of a special ministry, or at least, a commissariat within the Ministry of Agriculture, as it had experience in such things since the time of the Yugoslav Kingdom. Except for these measures, Cubrilovic proposed that national-liberation committees should be formed from the lowest to the highest instances, and colonists should be selected out of the best warriors, and possibly the Serbs and Montenegrins that had not been colonists before that. The carriers of this mission, according to Cubrilovic, should be provided with high wages, more privileged posts and high status in the society.23 The author has no doubt about the success of the project. He said that news had come from the regions where war operations took place “our people's masses have dealt unmercifully with small national minorities who were against us in this war. This enthusiasm of the population (that was characteristic for attacks, hatred and revenge, editor's remark) ought to be channelled as soon as possible...�24
The armed units of YNLA in Kosova and Macedonia, but also in other areas of ethnic Albanians, acted in their operation as if they had read the project of Cubrilovic. That is why the reply of military officials was not accidental saying that “we have the order to kill 50% of the Albanians�.25 This is documented also by the cynic reply of Macedonian commanders, when a group of Albanian patriots protested against the arrest of 10,000 people and the punishment of 1,200 of them without any court procedure in Tetova, saying “this is nothing, it is a cleaning�. This was strengthened by the decisive order of Svetozar Vukmanovic - Tempo, “Clean fast the ones that you have to clean�.26
Based on the chauvinist and extermination position of chetniks, as well as on the action of many leaders and units of YNLA towards the Albanian population, the crimes and massacres in Kosova and other regions of ethnic Albanians were enormous. According to approximate evidence, above 47,300 Albanians were exterminated, in the areas of ethnic Albanians occupied by Yugoslavia, between 1941 and 1945.27 Such extermination, naturally, made these regions significantly vacant, and that was the intention of Serbian chauvinists who made the Slavonic colonisation possible, opening a new path for such a process. Except this, the exterminations and reprisals of such a nature, that did not stop even in the years after the war, influenced greatly further emigration of the Albanians.
2. Forms and Ways of Pressure on Purpose of Expulsion and Assimilation
After the end of the Second World War, the Albanians of Kosova and other parts in Yugoslavia, not only were prevented to unite with Albania, as they had declared at Bujan Conference, but they were re-invaded and partitioned into four federal units of Yugoslavia, in Kosova, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro.28
The Serbian regime since the time of the occupation (November, 1944) and annexation of Kosova (July, 1945), continuously implemented a policy and propaganda prepared much earlier and based on greater Serbian projects, assimilation and physical extermination of the Albanians. The Albanians felt the annexation of Kosova to Serbia as the negation of their war and betrayal of the leadership of NLW to them. That is why they began to organise themselves in illegal groups and organisations and develope political activity and offered resistance even with arms. Due to persecutions, terror, violence and genocide exerted on them, many Albanians, between 3000 - 4000 people,29 were forced to flee abroad, particularly the members of political and democratic organisations and groups with western orientation that did not accept the new slavery in Kosova. They were directed to western countries through Greece and Italy, and there they continued their patriotic activity. The expulsion of the Albanians from Kosova was caused by the anti-Albanian official policy. In this way, the issue of Kosova, of its independence, political and state status, created new dissatisfactions of the Albanians that had fought for self-determination.
Socialist Yugoslavia and Serbia continued the war against the Albanians by putting them into prison, arresting, isolating, persecuting, and by physical extermination and sending them away from their hearths. The Resolution of Informative Bureau (1948) was used as a pretext to put many Albanian intellectuals and political leaders into prison and liquidate them, accusing them as spies of Albania. On this occasion, 436 Albanians were imprisoned, and the pressure on them continued in other forms too, such as: closing schools in the Albanian language, employing only the Serbs in administration, nationalisation, colonisation, forbidding the use of their national flag, closing their cultural institutions, etc.
The expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey was perpetrated by methods of pressure. The harshest form of pressure on purpose of expulsion of the Albanians was the action of collecting arms during the period between 1955-56, organised by the government and accomplished by state security organs. During this action, 22,048 personal files were opened, including the files of the officials of state bodies. Against a large number of the Albanians measures of persecutions and eavesdropping police treatments were carried out. Under the pretext of searching for arms, the state security organs tortured around 30,000 Albanians. Some 100 persons died because of tortures.31
Another form of a drastic pressure exerted on the Albanians was fabrication of false court processes, and punishment of illegal groups and organisations on political grounds. Thus, in 1956, at the time of the action of searching for arms and expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey, ‘the process of Prizren' was fabricated, by which it was intended to frighten the people through disqualification of the Albanian political leadership and compromising of intellectuals.
Distrust and suspicion in intelligentsia were regular forms of pressure on the Albanians. In the organs of state security the persons that bought the daily paper ‘Rilindja' were evidenced, which was published by the Socialist Alliance (a mass organisation formed by the communists on power). It was the only newspaper in the Albanian language. The Albanians were permanently treated as a distrustful element by the State Security of Kosova. In the ‘Handbook of UDB' (state security), all the Albaian population was considered enemy in 1957. On this basis UDB opened above 170,000 personal files. Among them there were four members of the Central Committee of YCL, 16 members of the Provincial Committee of Communists, a large number of political-social personalities, starting from secretaries of working enterprises to deputies of all the levels of assemblies.32
All this anti-Albanian action that was based on violence and terror was an institutionalised form of the Serbian regime with the intention to force the Albanians to expatriate and to commit their extermination.
3. The Turkish-Yugoslav “Gentlemen's� Agreement in 1953
The agreement on friendship and co-operation between Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey, signed in Ankara on 28 February, 1953, became known as a Balkan Treaty. The agreement contained ten points and took a military character, but without influence and obligation, that resulted from the North Atlantic Contract of 4 April, 1949, dealing with Turkey and Greece. Its fourth point foresaw conclusion of new agreements and formation of the bodies for their application and solution to economic, technical and cultural problems.33 Based on this agreement, common parliamentary groups were formed and they visited Turkey and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia wanted to establish as closer links as possible with Turkey in order to expatriate the Albanians from Kosova. The links should be established by activating the Yugoslav-Turkish Convention of 1938 on the expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey. First of all, Yugoslavia ought to fulfil some financial obligations of the Convention that amounted to 90 million dollars. Turkey was interested in reactivating this Convention. It was interested to use the Albanians in its war against Curds, settling them on their border.
The question of expatriation of the Albanians was instigated by Yugoslavia through the Turkish press. At the end of 1952, numerous talks were held on the agreement between Yugoslavia and Turkey. Agreements on trade, floating, air traffic, and many other matters were concluded during 1953. In this spirit of collaboration between them the “Gentleman's� Agreement between Yugoslavia and Turkey was signed.34
In case of a future Balkan conflict this agreement intended to secure the Turkish friendship to Yugoslavia. On the other hand, emptying Kosova and other regions of ethnic Albanians by means of this convention, the danger on the part of the Albanians that requested financial compensation from Yugoslavia, as well as from the funds provided for refugees and others that had resettled, could be reduced. Turkey had also its needs to populate its large vacant regions. The Government of Turkey requested from the Government of Yugoslavia, on 4 October, 1951, to fulfil the Convention of 1938. It requested that before the accomplishment of various agreements began, Yugoslavia should fulfil its financial obligations. Due to them, Tito invited the Turkish foreign minister, Fuad Khprili, to visit Yugoslavia. At a lunch organised on that occasion in Split, at the end of January 1953, an agreement on the requests of both parties was worked out, and it was to the detriment of the Albanian population. They did not sign anything on this occasion, and that is why it was called ‘Gentleman's Agreement'. By this convention Tito could accomplish the dreams of the Serbs by expatriating of the Albanians from Kosova, and Turkey would obtain vital inhabitants and financial funds.
The obligations of expatriation of the Albanians from Yugoslavia had to be fulfilled as soon as possible, since at the very beginning Turkey asked for expatriation of 250,000 inhabitants, out of a million inhabitants that were anticipated to be resettled. In the official statement issued on 29 January, 1953 on the talks in Split, neither delegation mentioned the convention and refereed to parliamentary collaboration and the question of the Balkan Treaty.35
At the population census of Yugoslavia in 1953 many Albanians were forced to declare themselves Turks. This self-declaration would save Yugoslavia and Turkey from public reactions to expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey. An it happened so. Almost 260,000 Albanians declared themselves Turks.
4. Expatriation of Albanians to Turkey (1944-1966)
At the end of 1944 and beginning of 1945, seeing that they had been betrayed, the Albanians began to escape in mass to mountains.36 The government bodies made use of such actions of the majority population of the Albanians in Kosova and justified every persecution of any Albanian that opposed reoccupation by Yugoslavia. Due to this, military courts were very busy with Albanians, and arrests, imprisonment, killing of the Albanians became a daily phenomenon. Serbia intended to empty these territories as soon as possible, or at least to leave as few Albanians as possible.
One of the most efficient methods to accomplish such a policy in Kosova against the Albanians after they had been occupied by the detachments of YNLA, and especially after the establishment of military administration, was forceful mobilisation. In that time, 50,000 Albanians were mobilised in Kosova. When one bears in mind the number of those that were held in prisons or in exile, thousands lost and killed, it can be seen that Kosova had remained without the required forces to defend itself. In these circumstances, the Yugoslav regime intended to create conditions that colonisation should take place in the regions of ethnic Albanians. Confiscation of real estate, requisition,nationalisation and ‘solidarity aids' that were implemented by force and that intended to knee down the people economically, in addition to perpertration of repression influenced the expulsion of the Albanians from their homeland. These measures of the Yugoslav regime were directed to the Albanians only; the Serbs and Montenegrins were saved. The opponents of the YCP were in the most difficult position, and also those with western democratic viewpoint, that were deported from Kosova, and their movable property and real estate was confiscated. Their families were forced to leave the country too. As a consequence of such an attitude, the Albanians had to emigrate to Turkey, or Albania, or elsewhere.
Recolonisation of Kosova by the Serbs and Montenegrins in the spring of 1945, as well as the Law on the revision of agrarian reform worsened further the economic position of the Albanians. A part of the land of Albanian farmers was given to colonists. The interest of colonists to usurp the Albanians' land was great. Only in 1945, 10,054 families applied for it, who could get up to 5 hectares of the land of Albanian farmers.37
Forceful collectivisation of a part of farming land in Kosova, then mistreatments and perfidious abuse of the Albanians by the Serbs, touched deeply the national tradition and dignity of the Albanians.
The Law on five-year plan (1947-1951) was also in the function of expulsion of the Albanians. This plan provided more accelerated economic development for the undeveloped republics of Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro), in order to smooth down the existing economic differences, but it left Kosova on the side, despite its being the most undeveloped region in Yugoslavia and its having a great economic and natural potential. Apart from this, the largest part of the plan in Kosova was anticipated to be implemented by ‘voluntary' work, such as: to construct and renovate and restore houses of colonists, to till the soil for them, to provide them with food, etc. Therefore, not only that the regime did not invest anything, but it also worsened the lives of the people here by such measures.38
The Yugoslav regime, parallel to violence and economic kneeling, attacked deeply the national feelings of the Albanians, their past and historical tradition. Very few schools and educational and cultural institutions were opened for the Albanians and the origin of the Albanian population was denied.39
In conformity with the intentions of unitary national-chauvinist policy, State Security perpetrated great repression in order that as many as possible Albanians should declare themselves as members of Turkish nationality. Before this action, 1,315 inhabitants of Turkish nationality were recorded in Kosova in the census of 1948, and 97,954 inhabitants in Yugoslavia. However, according to the census of 1953 the number of Turks in Kosova amounted to 34,583 and 259,535 in Yugoslavia.40 The Albanians that opposed to this policy ended in prisons or were forced to leave the country. Thus, during 1953, as a result of this repression, 37,000 Albanians emigrated to Turkey.41 In 1953 the Yugoslav regime ‘took care' of creating special administrative ‘facilities' for the Albanians wanting to emigrate to Turkey, no matter whether they had declared themselves Turks or not. According to official evidence, 19,300 Albanians were expatriated in 1953, and 17,500 others in 1954.42 To achieve the emigration of the Albanians to Turkey in great mass, the first condition was to create a psychosis of unbearable life. The state machinery exerted pressure of various forms on the Albanians, such as arrests, persecutions, inhuman tortures, physical exterminations, etc. The organs of State Security made use of the action of searching for arms in order to accelerate the expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey.
This punishing activity of the organs of State Security and other organs of the regime, was expressed drastically in the field of culture and education too. The government took measures to close down middle schools in the Albanian language, to reduce the net of elementary schools and to close the sole scientific institution, the Institute of Albanology in Prishtina.

[Arbonit]

Serbian and Yugoslav Policy of Segregation and Apartheid (1981-1989)
Dissatisfied with the position of the subjugated, the Albanian students and youth organised demonstrations in 1981 with the main mobilising slogan - Kosova Republic. The whole Albanian population joined the youth and students.
The Yugoslav leadership valued that the demonstrations organised by the Albanian students and youth, as well as the slogans used in them “threatened the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Yugoslavia�.46 In order that whole Yugoslavia should fight against the right requests of the Albanian people, “The Political Platform on the action of YCL for socialist self-management, unity and brotherhood and common life in Kosova� was compiled and approved.47 This document with greater Serbian intentions was supported by the other republics and the leadership of the Communist League of Kosova. The Platform requested that the Albanians should break the cultural and scientific relations with Albania, abandon their national aspirations, and the request for the Republic of Kosova was evaluated as a reactionary one that intended to destroy Yugoslavia and unite Kosova with Albania. Due to this reason, state organs of Kosova, Serbia and Yugoslavia were requested to undertake measures for reduction of curricula of history, literature and other social subjects taught at schools. To apply this Platform, the mobilisation of all political-social organisations and state structures was requested. In this way began the isolation of Kosova within Yugoslavia and in relation to the world too.
The first attacks were organised against the institutions of national character, such as University of Prishtina, Institute of History, Institute of Albanology, National University Library, then mass media, museums, secondary schools, elementary schools and even kindergartens, cultural and professional associations and many other organisations.
The first attacks of Serbia, that took the character of segregation and apartheid, were provoked on the shops of Albanians and individuals in Serbia in 1981. In Pozarevac, in Serbia, an Albanian child was taken out his eyes by civilian Serbs. Many physical attacks and ill-treatments were organised, by both Serbian individuals and state bodies, particularly in Belgrade, Kragujevac, Pozarevac, Paracin, NiS and other cities, where Albanians lived.50 Since that time, Serbia began to apply open segregation, seeking only clean institutions consisting of Serbian workers alone, such as schools, cinemas, theatres, cafJs, hotels, even kindergartens, sports fields, swimming pools, etc. To implement the intentions for segregation and discrimination, Serbia applied the policy of apartheid. It passed laws to rule over the Albanian majority, depriving them of their political and citizen rights, human rights, freedom of movement, living, jobs, juridical and social protection. In the period of ten years (1981-1990), more than 1,100 Albanian soldiers were sentenced to many years of prison in political fabricated processes, and 63 Albanian soldiers were killed in the Yugoslav Army.
The Assembly of Serbia approved some changes to the Penal Law of Serbia, in 1986, by which new delinquencies were incriminated for pursuing the Albanians, as if for the penal-legal protection of the Serbian people in Kosova. Such actions were: violation of citizens' equality, violation of the equal use of language and script, violations that threatened the rights and liberties of members of other nations, and threats of security of citizens of other nationalities, attacking the sexual freedom too. These had only one political and legal intention - to exert persecution and repression on the Albanians.
The Serbian regime treated Albanian peaceful demonstrations, requests, political manifestations as severe political acts, but also the cultural and scientific works of the Albanians. In this way, 3,348 Albanians were sentenced by civilian and military courts. In the period between 1981-1990 Serbian police and military killed 183 Albanians by fire arms, 16 of whom were children, and 616 Albanians were wounded by fire arms, 49 of whom were children.51 The former Yugoslav National Army (YNA) organised killing of Albanian soldiers in Paracin and gave the action a political character so that the Albanian soldiers could be treated as badly as possible by military and police organs of Serbia, that had the absolute majority in YNA.
In 1981, Serbia isolated Albanian intellectuals and kept them in prison for several months. The isolation of Albanian intellectuals took place in 1989, when the most draconic measures of torture and repression against 254 Albanian intellectuals were taken, and they were sent to prisons in Vranje, Leskovac, Prokuplje and Belgrade.
The police of Kosova and Serbia had worked out files for 600,000 Albanians; it means that every third Albanian was called to the police. Further on, both in Yugoslav regions of the Albanians and in Kosova around 100,000 Albanians were dismissed from work until 1989.52
6. The Memorandum of Serbian Academy - a Platform on Expulsion of Albanians
Expatriation of the Albanians by force from Kosova and their ethnic land has remained the chief intention of Serbian hegemonic policy. Parallel to state organisms, Serbian academicians of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Serbia compiled projects on ethnic cleansing of the Albanians' land. In 1986, the Serbian Academy, that has always been in service of hegemonic politics of Serbian nationalists, compiled the Memorandum on the political, economic and constitutional position of Serbia in the former Yugoslav federation. The Memorandum did not leave aside Kosova either.53 The Memorandum is penetrated by wild hatred and falsifications of the past and present time of the Albanians.
The Memorandum, which became the national programme of Serbia, deals with the engagement for creation of a greater Serbia. Serbia is presented as ‘threatened and harmed' by the Constitution of 1974. By such constructions, mobilisation of the population for destroying the autonomies of Kosova and Vojvodina and the establishment of Serbian hegemony in former Yugoslavia was aimed at. The principal thesis of the Memorandum was the allegedly degrading and inferior, unequal and discriminated position of the Serbian people in Yugoslavia.54 Serbian academicians manipulated with the figures of the Serbs migrated from Kosova, although according to the Serbian scientist, Cvijic, there have never been more than 5% Serbs in Kosova.55 The structure of population changed after 1912, after the occupation of Kosova by Serbia and its colonisation. According to the census in 1948, there were 170,000 Serbs, or 18.9%, in Kosova, and in 1981 there were 209,488 Serbs, or 13.2%.56 Accordingly, there was no migration of the Serbs from Kosova, much the less, when it is known that Serbia controlled the whole policy in Kosova.
These manipulations from the arsenal of greater Serbian politics, based on fine fabrications, try to justify their policy of colonisation and denationalisation in Kosova, by means of their propagandistic machinery. Serbian propagandistic machinery, attempting to alarm the opinion, goes to its absurdity, confirming that “Kosova will not have any Serb in ten years�.57 The Serbian official policy, led by the spirit of the memorandum of the ASAS, requested the destruction of the federal system of Yugoslavia established by the Constitution of 1974. The processes proceeding in Kosova after 1966 made the accomplishment of independence of Kosova possible to a certain degree. The Memorandum of Serbian academicians treated the process of the independence of Kosova as its Albanisation.58 They requested that Kosova should be deprived of all the rights to and possibilities for constitutional, juridical, economic and cultural-educational self-organisation, by all possible means. This practically took place in 1990, after the Serbian attacks against Kosova.
THE EXPULSION OF ALBANIANS AND COLONISATION OF KOSOVA DURING 1990-1995
1. Destroying Kosova Autonomy - an Instigation for Emigration of Albanians
By the Constitution of Yugoslavia and the Constitution of Kosova, approved in 1974, the autonomy of Kosova was advanced to a higher degree of sovereignty and Kosova became one of eight constituent subjects of Yugoslav Federation. Serbia was not satisfied with this, and in 1976 it compiled ‘the Blue Book', by which it intended to reduce the autonomy of Kosova drastically.
After the mass demonstrations of the Albanians in 1981, a significant polarisation between the Albanians of Kosova and the unitary and chauvinist forces of Serbia began. The former ones requested advancement of their statehood, and the latter ones destruction of the autonomy of Kosova. Serbia carried out the destruction of the autonomy of Kosova step by step. It began it by establishing the state of emergency and sending the police and army to subjugate and occupy Kosova in 1981. Serbia took the demonstrations as a pretext to take over the competencies from the state organs in Kosova. The 13th Congress of the Yugoslav League of Communists (YLC) in 1986, passed ‘the Resolution on Constitutional Changes in the Republic of Serbia', by which destroying the autonomy of Kosova was intended. The memorandum of the ASAS, compiled on nationalistic basis, gave an instigation to Serbian plan for destruction of the autonomy that ought to be accomplished by Serbian state bodies.1 In this spirit was developed the public discussion on the amendments of Serbian Constitution. It was the first phase of destruction of the autonomy of Kosova, and later by special measures Serbia abrogated violently all the governmental bodies of Kosova. In this way the autonomy of Kosova was destroyed completely.
The Albanian people, not accepting the subjugated position and the destruction of the autonomy of Kosova, began to organise themselves. The delegates of the Assembly of Kosova, after many endeavours and handicaps made by Serbia, passed the Declaration of the Independence of Kosova (2 July, 1990). The Assembly of Kosova, purported by the Albanian population, approved the Constitution of the Republic of Kosova at Kaçanik, on 7 September, 1990.
Out of what was said here, it results that they destroyed the autonomy of Kosova in order the subjugate the population of Kosova and force it to emigrate.
2. Approval of Serbian Acts and Laws as a Means for Acceleration of Emigration
Serbia and Montenegro made their efforts in different ways to contest the elements of sovereignty of Kosova, that were determined by the Constitution of Kosova and the Constitution of SFR Yugoslavia in 1974. Due to this they requested from the other republics of Federation to support them and they received their agreement to reduce the autonomy of Kosova. In this way they opened the way to destroy completely the autonomy by approving Serbian acts and laws, that were used to exert Serbian police and military violence. These measures influenced the acceleration of emigration of the Albanians from Kosova and their ethnic territories. The consequences were destructive not only for the constitutional position of Kosova, but also for the economy, health, education, science, culture, mass media,2 as well as the life of the Albanians in general. They accelerated particular emigration of the Albanians. Serbia requested from Yugoslavia to proclaim state of emergency in Kosova, and it did so. These measures created real bases for exertion of violence upon the Albanians. Instead of state bodies, a total supervision of Serbian police and military was established.
The discussions on the changes of the Constitution of Serbia began with amendments. The population of Kosova did not accept the proposals of Serbia. In public discussion organised in Kosova, the absolute majority of meetings and participants declared themselves in favour of maintenance of the autonomy and its advancing. Facing this, Serbia perpetrated violence on the delegates of the Assembly of Kosova. At the time of voting the amendments, the building of the Assembly of Kosova was surrounded by tanks, military and police, and members of the secret police were present in the hall too. In conditions of state of emergency, without the required quorum, without numbering the votes, and by voting of persons that were found in the hall but were not delegates, the then president of the Assembly of Kosova who was a Serb, on 23 March, 1989, proclaimed the approval of the constitutional amendments, and in addition to them some amendments that had not been in public discussion. The Assembly of Serbia approved amendments 9-49 to the Constitution of Serbia on 28 March, 1989. While Serbia was celebrating its victory, the police was killing Albanian demonstrators in Kosova that were protesting throughout Kosova.
The delegates of the Assembly of Kosova approved the Declaration of the Independence of Kosova on 2 July, 1990, that preceded to the Constitution of the Republic of Kosova, approved on 7 September, 1990 at Kaçanik. By these acts a new period in the history of struggles for independence of the Albanian people in Kosova began.
Serbia has made its efforts to prevent the formation of the state of Kosova by extraordinary measures, namely, by a state of emergency.
Serbia approved the law on the action of Republican bodies in special circumstances in Kosova, on 26 June, 1990, by which was destroyed the structure for directing the institutions of social and economic activities. Almost 300 Albanians directors were discharged by compulsory imposing measures.3 It was a hard attack against the Albanian people.
Serbia passed the law on abrogation of the activity of the Assembly of Kosova and its government on 5 July, 1990. By that law Kosova was deprived of legislative and executive power, that presented a classic occupation and it has continued to the present day.
Serbia passed the law on labour relations in special circumstances in Kosova, on 26 July, 1990, which is an act of national discrimination of the Albanians. By that law 135,000 Albanian workers were expelled from their jobs, and so their material base became very difficult to keep their families, the whole activity in the Albanian language was banned: education, culture, science and mass media. Then followed stoppage of financial support of institutions of national character, apart from others, of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosova.
Serbia approved the Constitution of Serbia on 27 September, 1990. This act reduced the autonomy of Kosova still more, and the Albanian people did not take part in its approval. By that Constitution Kosova is called ‘Kosova and Metohia'. The Albanians consider that as a constitution of Serbian occupier.
Serbia passed the law on stoppage of activity of the Presidency of Kosova on 18 March, 1991, that was an act by which the autonomous status of Kosova was denied. Serbia discharged the member from Kosova in the Presidency of Yugoslavia and chose another one instead. The election of that member was decided by the Assembly of Serbia and not the Parliament of Kosova, and so he was not the representative of Kosova.
After the abrogation of the government bodies of Kosova, the governmental organs of communes to local communities were abrogated as well. Except this, all the institutions on Kosova level and in its communes lost their competencies. Serbia formed new communes and divided Kosova into districts. Some parts of Kosova have been linked to districts outside Kosova. On the other hand, the courts of Kosova were abrogated and courts of Serbia have been installed in Kosova. The prisons have became institutions under Serbia as well. Changes have been made in the names of cities, villages, streets, quarters and settlements; all of them have taken Serbian names. Serbia has passed above 200 laws that are valid in Kosova as well. Besides laws, many other acts have been approved that are valid in Kosova only. On all the exit roads from Kosova police stations have been placed, even on those going to Serbia.
All of these devices have their basic intention to accelerate the expulsion of the Albanians from their ethnic land. The call of Albanian youngsters to draft boards of Serbian military has influenced greatly their exodus. All of these acts, laws and measures of violence against the Albanians in Kosova are unprecedented in Europe now at the end of twentieth century and influence the exodus of the Albanians from Kosova and other ethnic regions of the Albanians.
3. Closing of Institutions of Education, Science, Culture and Health
After the abrogation of the autonomy ((1989) and occupation of Kosova (1990) violence against the Albanians was intensified by the Serbian regime. Serbia closed institutions, dismissed workers from their jobs, moved the Albanians from their apartments, isolated, imprisoned and killed them without giving any responsibility and without any legal basis.4 Education of the Albanian population has always caused pains to Serbia.
In March 1990, Serbia organised poisoning of more than 7,000 Albanian school children and other children of the pre-school age.
In 1991 it closed all middle schools (65) and a number of elementary schools and stopped financing education in the Albanian language, from kindergartens to university. In this way, about 25,000 teachers remained without any pay.5 The Assembly of Serbia imposed emergency measures to Prishtina University, creating in this way the possibility for dismissal of more than 1000 Albanian university professor and assistants from work. In October 1991, it usurped all the room-space of faculties, higher schools, university students hostels and secondary school pupils hostels. It expelled from their jobs all the Albanian teaching and administration personnel.5
The Serbian occupying regime imposed emergency measures at Kosova Institute of History in 1990, and closed it up in 1992. At the same time were closed the ‘INKOS' (Kosova Institute of Economy), Mining Institute in Mitrovica, Institute of Albanology, etc.
In July 1992, the Serbian government closed the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosova, that was a hard attack to the Albanian science and culture and raised a great indignation in Kosova. It had assisted the development of scientific and social mind and had been engaged in social trends, giving justification and scientific support to the actual problems in Kosova, particularly in the development of democratic relationships and self-determination. It had influenced profoundly the internationalisation of the question of Kosova.6
The destruction of health institutions was also carried out in unticonstitutional and illegal way. The clinics of the Medical School in Albanian were closed. The Albanian personnel (doctors, nurses and others) was expelled from most of health institutions. Serbia brought Serbian doctors, nurses etc. instead of Albanian ones, even though without professional experience. This was done with strategic intentions of re-colonisation of Kosova.
Institutions of culture in Kosova experienced the same fate as those of education and health. In 11 institutions of national level, the activity of presentation of cultural values in Albanian was forbidden. At the same time, activity was banned in above 110 objects and institutions of culture (with space-room amounting to 125,000 m2), then it was banned to more than 420 societies, associations, artistic and cultural groups. Organisation of more than 70 manifestations, reviews, festivals, fairs, expositions and other traditional meetings that had been active in Kosova, was banned.
Publishing activity has, in fact, been stopped since 1990. Periodicals, reviews, newspapers, and even the sole daily newspaper in the Albanian language in Yugoslavia, ‘Rilindja', were forbidden to be published. The name of the Publishing House ‘Rilindja' was changed into ‘Panorama', and the printing house is called ‘Gracanica'. The school texts publishing house was closed. In 1991, the whole troop of Ballet Ensemble that had acted at the National Theatre of Kosova was dismissed, and the work at regional theatres was banned, such as in Prizren, Peja, Gjilan, Mitrovica, Gjakova, etc. Then the Institution of producing, distributing and performing films, ‘Kosovafilm', was closed; also the work of Kosova troupe of folk songs and dances, ‘Shota', and the Musician Association ‘Collegium Cantorum' was banned.
Prishtina Radio-television was closed, and 1,300 Albanians workers in it were left jobless.7 The National and University Library of Kosova was closed for the Albanians, as well as 207 national libraries throughout Kosova, with a fund of books of 1,272,000 units, and in addition 103 special libraries were closed. In the Archives of Kosova, the Albanian experts were expelled from their jobs after imposed measures were applied, and a part of documentation was plundered and sent to Belgrade. All of these measures can serve as a testimony of Serbian violence and terror exerted on the Albanian population and Albanian national institutions of education, culture, science, health and mass media, perpetrating real culturocide on the Albanian being.
4. Mass Exodus - a Consequence of Serbian Repression and Terror
Depending on historical circumstances, the Albanians have been forced to emigrate from their ethnic land occupied by Yugoslavia. The intensity of emigration resulted from state repression. Since 1981, especially after 1990, violence and terror have increased. In fact, that was a period of the wild, totalitarian military-police regime, and the unprotected population suffered harshly.8 Serbian policy isolated Kosova and its citizens totally. The borders on Albania and Macedonia have actually been closed to the Albanians.
Individual and collective rights of the Albanians in Kosova have been violated systematically. Since 1981 onwards, almost half of the Albanian population has passed through police treatment in various forms. In the last two years, especially in 1994, a significant increase of violation of human and national rights and liberties was evidenced. This can be proved by cases of killing and ill-treating in different forms by the Serbian regime.
Below is presented a table of the cases evidenced by the Kosova Council of Human Rights and Liberties (KCHRL), for the period 1993, 1994 and six months in 1995. The KCHRL, with its seat in Prishtina, registered 19,000 heavy cases of violation of human rights and liberties in 1994. It must be emphasised that many cases could not have been evidenced. The last year (1995) shows a significant acceleration of Serbian repression.
Taking the members of family as pledge for a wanted person has become very frequent. The member of the family is held as a pledge until the wanted person presents himself at the police. Serbia implements another form of repression in order to bring the Albanian population to poverty. The financial police organises plundering of Albanian citizens, craftsmen and traders in all the settlements of Kosova.
Type of violation 1993 1994 1995
1. Killing by fire arms 11 11 5
2. Killing by police torture 4 6 3
3. Suicide as a result of torture - 1 2
4. Persons harshly tortured - 11 -
5. Physical ill-treatment 1721 2157
of them: women - 22
children - 28
6. Raids of houses 1994 2157
7. Ill-treatment under pretext of searching for arms 3396 6394
8. Arbitrary imprisonment 2305 2963
of them: women - 7
children - 3
9. Informative talks 849 2729
10. Punishment with political motives - 90
11. Persons in temporary arrest - 490
12. Imprisonment or punishment due to desertion or refusal to military service - 685
13. Imprisonment of a family member instead of the required persons: - 62 women - 10 children - 5
14. Forceful eviction out of the flat 53 54
15. Confiscation of passports9 - 127
Poverty that has prevailed over the whole population of Kosova makes life harder and more difficult. Mass unemployment has created poverty of all the classes of population. Expulsion of the Albanians from their jobs has not come to its end.
The charitable and humanitarian organisation ‘Mother Teresa' was asked for aid by 43,320 families in 1992, 45,835 ones in 1993, and 57,353 ones in 1994. Serbian regime has banned work to humanitarian organisations as well.10
After 1990, the Serbian regime intensified its violence, and particularly in educational system in the Albanian language. The Serbian police has continuously intervened in the educational process and ill-treated Albanian teachers before their students, and also the parents and students themselves. The Serbian regime has undertaken all these measures on purpose to create a feeling of uncertainty and to cause the process of emigration of the Albanians from Kosova and re-colonisation of it by Serbs. Political, psychological and economic pressure that has been exerted through state terror, is exerted by a plan and programme and all possible mechanisms of violence. Youngsters, men, women with their children, pupils, students, workers of different professions, intellectuals, and even academicians have emigrated.11 The Albanians have been forced to emigrate for different motives: Albanian soldiers that fled from the Yugoslav front of war, other youngsters that did not accept being recruited in the Serbian military, citizens and political activists that were wanted and persecuted by the Serbian police, and others.12
As a consequence of repression exerted by the Serbian police, 45,972 school children and 1,123 teachers emigrated from Kosova in 1993, and 50,000 school children and above 2,000 teachers of primary and secondary schools, and more than 60 university professors emigrated in 1994. Desertion of Albanian young men (soldiers) from the so-called former Yugoslav National Army (YNA), and later from the Serbian-Montenegrin military, since the beginning of armed conflicts in Yugoslavia was in mass. According to the evidence of Belgrade, about 18,000 Albanian soldiers were in the army in 1991. It is supposed that in 1992, when YNA was decomposed and the Serbian-Montenegrin army was formed, around 30,000 Albanian soldiers of Kosova deserted the army. In the later years, 1993-1995, Albanian young men did not reply to military obligation. According to some calculations, some 80,000 young men seem to have fled from Kosova, not wanting to serve in Serbian army.
All of this said above confirms that the consequences of the Albanian exodus are overwhelming. One could distinguish among them: a)
the demographic aspect, which indicates that disproportion of age and sex of the population is observed in the space of emigration. Bearing in mind that the Albanian population is quite young (50% is under 20 years old), only old population, women and children, has remained in Kosova. In this way, the number of marriages and birth-rate have been reduced; b) the economic aspect, in the absence of young population, the contingent of population capable for labour and labour force have been reduced, the economic structure and the structure of people's qualification have changed, the economic activity and standard of living have been decreased; c) the psychological aspect, special problems in the psychological life of emigrants and their families, and many other problem have occurred.14 By its anti-Albanian position, Serbia refuses the return of the Albanians to Kosova, such as to: a) those who have requested asylum; b) those who do not possess a certificate for their passport identity; c) those that do not have a pass issued by Yugoslav representatives; d) those who posses passports issued in other republics in former Yugoslavia now independent states (Croatia, Bosnia, etc.).15 Recently, Belgrade had conditioned the return of Albanian refugees by material compensation. All of this indicates clearly that the general situation in Kosova has become very difficult in all the spheres of life in the recent years. The invading regime has deprived the Albanians of their elementary rights. Accordingly, silent ethnic cleansing by special programming has taken place in Kosova.
5. Serbian-Montenegrin Short-term and Long-term Intentions of Resettling Albanians
The aim of the Serbs and Montenegrins has been to occupy the land of the Illyrians-Albanians from north to south since they colonised a part of the Balkan Peninsula. They have carried out ethnic cleansing wherever they happened to live. The South Slavs, on the whole, and Serbs in particular, accepted all the conditions that the Byzantine Empire imposed them and only requested permission to colonise the Balkans. In twelfth century, when a tribal state was formed known by the name Ras, then Zeta, the Serbs began to populate the land of the Albanians in an organised way. The Serbian ruler, Tzar Dusan, expanded his state on the else's land and by invading the land of the Albanians and Greeks. Even after Ottomans occupied the Balkans, The Serbs, despite their being under the Ottoman Empire, received the blessings of the Orthodox Church and Russia and organised two uprisings in the beginning of nineteenth century and won their local autonomy. Since that time, the Serbian Orthodox Church and intellectuals and leaders have intended to form their state on the land that once Tzar Dusan invaded. This means that they had to invade the land of the Albanians, that was under the Ottoman Empire. Due to this intention, national projects and programmes were compiled, determining the strategy and tactics. The Balkans was ruled by two empires: Ottoman and Austrian. But the vital interests of Russia, England and France, and later of Germany, were intertwined here. In these circumstances, ‘Nacertanija’ was compiled by Ilija Garašanin, in 1844.
‘Nacertanija’, as a Serbian national programme, had genocidal character and had to be perpetrated upon the Albanians, as it anticipated the invasion of their land and their ethnic cleansing. In shortage of immediate force, the project determined: “Serbia should make its utmost efforts to take out stone by stone from the building of the Turkish state and so take whatever possible from that good material... and so be able to erect a new Serbian state...�.16 This project was based on a long-term programme of action and occupation of the land of ethnic Albanians. The same intention continued to be carried out also by the New Programme of Mihailo Obrenovic in 1862, which, parallel to liberation of the Balkans from the Ottoman Empire, anticipated the emigration of the Albanians from here and access of Serbia to the sea. The project planned that the Albanians should be expatriated bit by bit, and their land be occupied by military forces. This, in fact, happened on the eve of the Congress of Berlin, when Serbia occupied Niš, Prokuplje, Toplica, Kursumlia, Jablanica, Leskovac and Vranje, and resettled the Albanian population forcefully from those territories. In the same period, Montenegro became expanded, occupying new regions of the Albanians and forcing them to emigrate. During the Balkan Wars, the Serbs and Montenegrins invaded the largest part of Albanian land, but after the proclamation of the independence of Albania, they withdrew from those regions, and have held another part of it occupied ever since (Kosova, Western Macedonia, Plava, Gucia, Great Malësia, Kraja, Tivar and Ulqin). The majority of Albanian population has forcefully emigrated from all these territories.
Summarising: Serbian and Montenegrin long-term intentions towards the Albanians and their territory can be divided into two periods: First, their intentions until the independence of Albania (1912), and second, after the establishment of the Albanian state to the present day. In the first period they had the intention:
- to ban the establishment of an Albanian independent state;
- to occupy Albanian territories;
- to force the Albanians to emigrate from their ethnic land;
- to colonise the land of ethnic Albanians by Serbs and Montenegrins;
- to convert the Muslim and Catholic Albanians into the Orthodox religion and assimilate them;
- to partition Albania between Serbia and Greece, giving the latter a part in the south;
In the second period their intentions have been:
- to occupy and partition Albania among Serbia, Montenegro and Greece, and later with Italy as well.
- to isolate the Albanian state from western states in order that it should remain under the Yugoslav dependency;
- to turn Albanian forces as weak as possible, so that it could not defend itself in cases of its future subjugation by Yugoslavia;
- to make it possible for the communist ideology to rule and become disseminated in Albania, and it should become the sphere of interests of Yugoslavia and Russia;
- to isolate Albania and the Albanians as much as possible politically, economically, diplomatically.
These have been permanent intentions of Serbia and Montenegro towards Albania and the Albanians. They have aspired that the Albanians should be left without real friends and separated from Europe, with which they had been linked for centuries.
6. Re-colonisation of Kosova - Erection of Kibbutzes on Albanians' Land 1990-1995
Serbia and Montenegro aimed at changing the structure of ethnic population of Kosova by means of its re-colonisation by Serbs and Montenegrins. The self-called Yugoslav Federation as well the Serbian occupying bodies in the communes in Kosova have passed different legal acts by which they have defined the manner, form, and space for settlement of Serbian colonists in the property of the Albanians. On purposes of accelerated colonisation, the Serbian regime has built kibbutzes on the land of the Albanians. During the last five years, 500 laws, drafts, orders, regulations and other acts dealing with re-colonisation have been approved. These laws, decrees and acts of genocidal character confirm that the authorities of this state not yet recognised by the world, competed with those who would offer more funds and facilities to colonise Kosova forcefully, although it is a region with the densest population in Europe.
Starting in 1990, the self-called ‘Federal Republic of Yugoslavia' (FRY), except for the YU-programme, passed some seven more legal acts, that are chiefly laws and programmes ‘on providing flats for officials and for coming of all those who like to live in Kosova'. In three such acts solely, that cover the period 1989-1993, was planned erection of 2,000 flats with a surface of 115,272 m2 and 711 sites in addition for building individual houses, on a surface of 284,400 m2, that amounted to above 7,1 million DEM. There were also provided 10,2 million DEM for individual loans for construction. Later on followed ‘The Decree on the way and conditions for renting and using flats', then ‘The Decision on pointing the federal body of administration that would carry out the right and duties of the investor'. Serbia also passed ‘The Law on providing flats', which anticipates the erection of 1,564 flats with a surface of 88,773 m2, and 91.1 million DEM were planned for it. FRY passed a law in 1995 on colonisation of 100,000 Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosova. The law defines that sites for houses, erected houses, fertile land, flats and large financial funds would be provided gratis for Serbian colonists.
The Serbian regime has brought to Kosova many Serbian families from Croatia and Bosnia, and even from Serbia itself as colonists . They have been settled in primary and secondary schools, kindergartens, students hostels, children and workers resorts and libraries. The Serbian government considers the colonisation of Kosova by Serbs and expulsion of the Albanians as an urgent national action. This colonisation by force is considered by the Albanians as an action on purpose of forcing them to emigrate and turning Kosova into a clean Serbian land, namely, the consider it as an act of genocide.
The government in Belgrade approved a Decision on 15 November, 1994, by which the return of Albanian refugees that have sought asylum in western Europe is conditioned by financial compensation (as if for their registration). Serbia has planned to re-colonise Kosova by Serbs and Montenegrins with those funds.
To return Albanian refugees from Europe to Kosova, western countries should work out an agreement with the legitimate representatives of the Albanians and not with the Serbian occupiers of Kosova. Serbia and the so-called Yugoslavia have made their efforts to re-colonise Kosova in a classic way and force the Albanians to emigrate from their ethnic land. To have a clear picture of what the occupier has done to colonise Kosova, evidence of the places where houses, flats and whole colonies have been erected in different communes for Serbian colonists are provided below.
7. Colonisation of Kosova with Croatian Serbs from 10 to 31 August, 1995
A new action of Serbian regime for recolonisation and serbianisation of Kosova began with the wave of Serbian refugees coming from Croatian Kraina. The recolonisation wave began on 10 August, 1995 and continued further on. The number of Serbian refugees from Croatia, according to Serbian sources, arrived to around 8,000 on 31 August, 1995. However, the data leave the possibility to assert that half of the Belgrade plan for the settlement of 20,000 Serbian colonists from Croatia to Kosova has been fulfilled.
Despite the reactions of Albanian and international state and political subjects, particularly of the USA, the Serbian regime continued with settling the Serbian refugees from Croatia to the territory of Kosova. It brought about 500-700 new Serbian colonists to Kosova during the summer of 1995, settling them even by force in the objects and property of the Albanians. In spite of Serbian pompous propaganda that the action had a humanitarian character, it is clear that the main intention of this action is to change the ethnic structure of the population and to colonise Kosova. Based on Serbian relying facts, we provide with the number of Serbian colonists settled in some centres of Kosova.
In Prizren 1,280, in Prishtina 2,040, in Peja 1,000, at Istog 667, in Gjilan 500, in Gjakova 420, in Mitrovica 318. In Vushtria, at Suhareka and Zubin Potok 250 colonists were installed. At Shtërpce 232, Leposavic 220, Lipjan 200, Vitia 174, at Kamenica 121, at Zveçan and Obiliq 120 each, in Ferizaj and at Rahovec 100 each, at Klina 7, at Kaçanik 70, at Gllogoc 6o, at Fushë-Kosova 20, at Skenderaj 15, etc.
Serbian state bodies, both earlier and this time too, settled a large number of colonists at Presheva, Bujanoc and Medvegja, as well as in Ulqin, Tivar and at Plava and Gucia, etc. Therefore, they colonised all the Albanian settlements what indicates clearly the political character of this campaign for colonisation of the regains of ethnic Albanians. These colonists are being secured jobs and means for jobs, land, houses and apartments free of charge and on permanent property basis.