The conflicts in Kosovo started 40 years ago, what has changed since then?

Printxrin - Kosovo online

Today's conflict in northern Kosovo has provoked numerous reactions from all sides involved in the incident, and it is just one of many such incidents between Kosovo and Serbia in recent years. 

Even 40 years ago, Kosovo was rocked by unrest 

Today's riots in Kosovo come forty years after the first riots in 1981 shook the then-socialist Yugoslavia.  

A lot has changed in those four decades, Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbs have changed positions when it comes to positions of power and powerlessness, but it has not changed that Kosovo remains an unstable area, just as explosive as it was then. 

The reason for the Albanian protests in 1981 was the poor food in the student canteens in Pristina, the capital of the poorest part of SFRY. Student protests against poor learning and living conditions since the end of the winter of 1981 escalated into mass demonstrations in the streets of Kosovo cities, sparking a strong and violent police response that led to a state of emergency and several weeks of curfew.  

This was followed by the arrest of numerous participants in the riots and the dismissal of the leadership of the Communist League of Kosovo party. 

Fear of Kosovo Albanians after Tito's death  

The reasons for the unrest in Kosovo were complex. Tito's death in May 1980 raised the question of possible constitutional changes. Kosovo Albanians, who made up the absolute majority of Kosovo's population (77,4 per cent), began to spread fears that Tito's death could allow Serbia to regain power over Kosovo. According to the 1974 Constitution, Kosovo became an autonomous province within the SFRY.  

There was an opinion that Kosovo should become a republic within the SFRY, which later became the slogan of the first major demonstrations in 1981. The radicalization of the situation in Kosovo was also contributed by the great economic crisis that hit the former Yugoslavia, which had a serious impact on the already poorest province of Kosovo, and which experienced the consequences of the demographic explosion, ie a large number of young people facing unemployment and lack of serious life prospects. 

Josip Broz Tito / Profimedia

Brutal reaction of the militia and the arrival of the JNA in Kosovo 

The protests began on March 11, 1981, in a dormitory canteen, where poor food quality was just an excuse. Initially, only slogans of a social nature were chanted, and then slogans began to be chanted indicating Kosovo's position in Yugoslavia ("Trepca works, Belgrade is being built").  

Provincial authorities responded by sending police to the students overnight. Dozens of students were detained, and the provincial government later condemned the protests at an emergency meeting, and the crisis seemed to be over.  

But that was only the beginning of the unrest in Kosovo. The Yugoslav leadership described the protests, as well as their slogan, as "a threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Yugoslavia".  

On April 2, the then SFRY Presidency declared a state of emergency in Kosovo and sent the JNA, including armored units, to restore order. The demonstration of force was enough to quickly calm the riots, although in some cities in Kosovo they were calmed down on April 30th, and the last one on May 17th. 

During the crisis, the Yugoslav authorities persistently tried to cover up or conceal the true state of affairs in Kosovo. Such efforts are linked to the anecdote that one of the party officials, listening to the Reuters news agency to inform the international public that something was happening, shouted "Stop Reuters!"  

Dozens of people were killed 

Federal authorities acknowledged the uprising just days after the crackdown, when then-Federal Secretary of the Interior Stane Dolanc announced at a news conference that nine people had been killed in the riots.  

Albanian sources, on the other hand, stated that the number of killed was far higher, ie several dozen people, most of whom were killed by the JNA. The bloody crackdown on protests in Kosovo in 1981 was in fact the beginning of a long struggle by Kosovo Albanians for their rights. 

With the rise of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, an oppressive policy came to power, which only made matters worse. Milosevic abolished Kosovo's autonomy, which was a prelude to new conflicts, followed by the break-up of the Yugoslav war, which in fact culminated in the Kosovo war in the late 1990s.  

What has changed in Kosovo in 40 years  

Under the pretext that Serbia was carrying out ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, the FR of Yugoslavia suffered several months of NATO bombing and lost power in Kosovo, which in turn declared independence in 2008. With Milosevic and later other leaders, Serbia did its best to make Kosovo lose, although it still does not recognize its independence and considers it part of its state territory.  

Forty years after the 1981 riots, Kosovo emerged from an autonomous province within the SFRY as an oppressed and oppressed region within Milosevic's Serbia, which was part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, an international protectorate and an internationally recognized independent state.  

Many things have changed, some for the worse, such as the status of Serbs and Albanians in the area. In the early 1980s, militia beat Albanians, today Kosovo police beat Serbs.  

At the same time, many things remained the same. There are still riots, brutal treatment by law enforcement, ethnically motivated violence, threats of war, nationalism and Kosovo as a potential Balkan powder keg. Today's incident warns of this again.  

As the famous Italian writer Giuseppe di Lampedusa would say in his famous novel Cheetah: "Things change to stay the same." 

VIDEO: Tear gas and shock bombs Kosovo police raid in North Mitrovica, citizens block streets

Dear reader,

Our access to web content is free, because we believe in equality in information, regardless of whether someone can pay or not. Therefore, in order to continue our work, we ask for the support of our community of readers by financially supporting the Free Press. Become a member of Sloboden Pechat to help the facilities that will enable us to deliver long-term and quality information and TOGETHER let's ensure a free and independent voice that will ALWAYS BE ON THE PEOPLE'S SIDE.

SUPPORT A FREE PRESS.
WITH AN INITIAL AMOUNT OF 60 DENARS

Video of the day