20th-century History of Kosovo - Socialist Yugoslavia (1945-1989)

Socialist Yugoslavia (1945-1989)

The province was first formed in 1945 as the Autonomous Kosovo-Metohian Area to protect its regional Albanian] majority within the People's Republic of Serbia as a member of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia under the leadership of the Partisan leader. This was to be the first time in history that the name of Kosovo came to espouse its current borders; prior to this, its borders, along with its status had fluctuated with time. These borders were drawn carefully so as to incorporate an area with a heavy concentration of Albanians. One such explanation for Kosovo's lines of demarcation never having been properly defined is that its Slavic and Albanian populations have even disputed the origins of the name. As such, the imaginary borders have also been disputed; for example, Albanians are of the belief that the Preševo Valley constitutes eastern Kosovo, whilst Serbs have rendered regions within today's Republic of Macedonia to be traditional Kosovo, such as Skopje, once capital of the Ottoman province, and with a Serb/Bulgarian (Slavic) ethnic majority. Josip Broz Tito initiated this new internal entity, however, in its first years, it was symbolic as it had no factual autonomy. After Yugoslavia's name change to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia's to the Socialist Republic of Serbia in 1953, Kosovo gained inner autonomy in the 1960s.

In the 1974 constitution, the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo's government received higher powers, including the highest governmental titles — President and Premier and a seat in the Federal Presidency which made it a de facto Socialist Republic within the Federation, but remaining as a Socialist Autonomous Province within the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Tito had pursued a policy of weakening Serbia, as he believed that a "Weak Serbia equals a strong Yugoslavia". To this end Vojvodina and Kosovo became autonomous regions and were given the above entitled privileges as defacto republics. Serbo-Croatian, Albanian were defined as official languages on the provincial level marking the two largest linguistic Kosovan groups: Albanians and Serbs. In fact, the Albanian people were able to open independent Albanian-speaking schools and universities.

In the 1970s, an Albanian nationalist movement pursued full recognition of the Province of Kosovo as another Republic within the Federation, while the most extreme elements aimed for full-scale independence. Tito's arbitrary regime dealt with the situation swiftly, but only giving it a temporary solution. This combined with a very high birth rate of Albanians, and emigrations of Serbs to other parts of Yugoslavia further tilted the ethnic balance of Kosovo. Their number tripled gradually rising from almost 75% to over 90%, but the number of Serbs barely increased and dropped in the full share of the total population from some 15% down to 8%.

Beginning in March 1981, Kosovar Albanian students organized protests seeking that Kosovo become a republic within Yugoslavia. Those protests rapidly escalated into violent riots "involving 20,000 people in six cities" that were harshly contained by the Yugoslav government. During the 1980s, ethnic tensions continued with frequent violent outbreaks against Serbs and Yugoslav state authorities resulting in increased emigration of Kosovo Serbs and other ethnic groups. The Yugoslav leadership tried to suppress protests of Kosovo Serbs seeking protection from ethnic discrimination and violence. Although they were many reports of genocide and rape against the Serbian population in Kosovo, some civil rights groups dismissed them as untrue and that economical situation (with Kosovo being the poorest area) was the catalyst for many Serb and Albanian migrations:

" There were genuine grievances by both Serbs and Albanians in Kosova, and both groups felt threatened. But Serb independent journalists and human rights workers found the more inflammatory charges to be total fabrications. A study of police records in Kosova showed only one rape of an ethnic Serb by an Albanian in an entire year. Similarly, the alleged destruction of Serb shrines turned out to involve isolated cases of vandalism, graffiti, and cutting of trees on church property -- hate crimes, perhaps, but surely not the organized, genocidal annihilation that was claimed. "

In fact crime and especially rape was lower in Kosovo than in the rest of Serbia.

In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) was working on a document which later would be known as the SANU Memorandum, a warning to the Serbian President and Assembly of the existing crisis and where it would lead. An unfinished edition was filtered to the press. In the essay, SANU criticised the state of Yugoslavia and made remarks that the only member state contributing at the time to the development of Kosovo and Macedonia (by then, the poorest territories of the Federation) was Serbia. According to SANU, Yugoslavia was suffering from ethnic strife and the disintegration of the Yugoslav economy into separate economic sectors and territories, which was transforming the federal state into a loose confederation. On the other hand, some think that Slobodan Milošević used the discontent reflected in the SANU memorandum for his own political goals, during his rise to power in Serbia at the time,

Milošević was initially sent there as a member of the Communist party. Initially Milošević did not talk to the Serbian nationalists who were at that point demonstrating for rights and freedoms that had been denied to them. During these meetings he agreed to listen to their grievances. During the meeting, outside the building where this forum was taking place police started fighting the locals who had gathered there, mostly Serbs eager to voice their grievances. After hearing about the police brutality outside of the halls, Milošević came out and in an emotional moment promised the local serbs that "Nobody would beat you again." This news byte was seen on evening news and catapulted then-unknown Milošević to the forefront of the current debate about the problems on Kosovo.

In order to save his skin, Milošević fought back and established a political coup d'état. He gained effective leadership and control of the Serbian Communist party and pressed forward with the one issue that had catapulted him to the forefront of the political limelight, which was Kosovo. By the end of the 1980s, calls for increased federal control in the crisis-torn autonomous province were getting louder. Slobodan Milošević pushed for constitutional change amounting to suspension of autonomy for both Kosovo and Vojvodina.

Milosevic capitalized on this discontent to consolidate his own position in Serbia. In 1987, Serbian President Ivan Stambolić sent Milošević to Kosovo to "pacify restive Serbs in Kosovo." On that trip, Milošević broke away from a meeting with ethnic Albanians to mingle with angry Serbians in a suburb of Pristina. As the Serbs protested they were being pushed back by police with batons, Milošević told them, "No one is allowed to beat you." This incident was later seen as pivotal to Milošević's rise to power.

One of the events that contributed to Milošević's rise to power was the Gazimestan Speech, delivered on 28 June 1989 to 100,000 Serbs attending the celebration in Gazimestan to mark the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, though this battle was not only Serbian battle against Turks but Albanian too. Many think that this speech helped Milošević consolidate his authority in Serbia.

In 1989, Milošević, employing a mix of intimidation and political maneuvering, drastically reduced Kosovo's special autonomous status within Serbia. Soon thereafter, After being pushed out of their jobs, out of the parliament, schools, TV, hospital and all other important institutions, Kosovo Albanians organized a non-violent separatist movement, employing widespread civil disobedience, with the ultimate goal of achieving the independence of Kosovo. Kosovo Albanians boycotted state institutions and elections and established separate Albanian schools and political institutions. On 2 July 1990, an unconstitutional Kosovo parliament declared Kosovo an independent country, although this was not recognized by Belgrade or any foreign states. Two years later, in 1992, the parliament organized an unofficial referendum which was observed by international organizations but was not recognized internationally. With an 80% turnout, 98% voted for Kosovo to be independent.