From: malenovi@plains.NoDak.edu (Malenovic Nikola V.)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: The Kosovo Mosaic ( VREME NDA 15 Sep 1992 )
Date: 15 Sep 92 22:03:42 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.20378
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                  No. 51, September 14, 1992
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    The Kosovo Mosaic
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                            INQUISITIVE FOREIGNERS


                    What does Seselj want from journalists?

    "If  the excuse  for not  opening secondary  schools for  lessons in the
    Albanian language  is the disregard  for the plans  and programs of  the
    Republic of Serbia, why the opposition to the opening of the University,
    which  works under  a uniform  program?" -  was the  question put to the
    Serbian Radical Party president, Vojislav  Seselj, at a recent talk with
    journalists in the  Kosovo capital. In the absence  of a logical answer,
    Seselj  in  his  usual  style  attacked  the  "inquisitive" journalists,
    deducing that such a question could  only have been commissioned by none
    other than Tirana,  and repeating that an intelligence  test should be a
    condition for  employment as a journalist.  Nevertheless, Mr. Seselj has
    "evolved" somewhat  in some of  his attitudes. From  the standpoint that
    Albanians don't need  schools at all, to the  announcement that he would
    give them primary education. Secondary and  tertiary - no way! The chief
    of the  Radicals a few days  ago received the title  of professor of the
    University  of Pristina  and has  announced that  he will  be moving  to
    Kosovo  permanently,  and  this  is  interpreted  by  the  witty  as his
    determination to  prevent Prime Minister  Milan Panic from  carrying out
    his promise to "open the University  and all schools for Albanians". How
    and with what  methods he will do this  remains to be seen. In  spite of
    everything, Albanian  secondary school children will  try on Monday 14th
    September,  along with  their Serb  and Montenegrin  peers, to move into
    their classrooms at  last. At the same time, it  has been announced that
    this  will be  energetically opposed.  All in  all, the determination of
    both  sides  is  what  joins  them,  but  also  what could separate them
    forever. Federal Prime Minister, Milan Panic, has postponed his visit to
    Pristina and thus, so they say  here, proved that he hasn't the strength
    to change anything in this crisis zone. However, there is still a chance
    that he will meet again with  Rugova, leader of the Kosovo Albanians, on
    neutral  territory. Maybe  in Geneva,  to where  a delegation  of Kosovo
    Albanians has also been invited.

    Since  the  last  issue  of  VREME,  a  considerable  number  of foreign
    diplomats  have  been  in  Pristina.  The  Norwegian Minister of Foreign
    Affairs,  Thorvald Stoltenberg,  talked to  the Albanian  side about the
    installation  of  a  CSCE  mission  in  Kosovo  which  would be led by a
    representative from his country, and the Charge d'Affaires of the German
    Embassy  in Belgrade,  in his  meeting with  the provincial authorities,
    showed great interest in the reasons for the lack of medicines and, with
    regard to  this, asked where  Serbian hard currency  was going. He  left
    without an  answer! Another subject of  interest is the reasons  for the
    dismissal of Albanians.  We relayed to the vice-president  of the Kosovo
    Union of  Independent Trade Unions, Aziz  Abrassi, the officials' answer
    that  it was  a matter  of voluntary  resignation: "That statement could
    possibly  stand for,  say, 100,  500, or  even 1000  people, but  do you
    really think that 128,635 workers and professionals of various profiles,
    in  these  times  of  financial  and  economic crisis, would voluntarily
    choose hunger?" asked Abrassi, continuing, "There are thirty reasons why
    Albanian workers are thrown out of  work, and the most frequent are: the
    Trepca miners' strike in 1989; participation  in the general strike on 3
    September  1990; refusal  to cooperate  with the  police and likewise to
    give written recognition  of the emergency measures and  laws of Serbia;
    leaving the communist trade union  and joining the Union; boycotting the
    elections  for the  Serbian parliament...."  To our  comment that a good
    number of workers had been proclaimed technologically redundant, Abrassi
    replied using  the example of  "Foronikla" in Glogovac:  while Albanians
    were sent home  under this excuse, Serbs and  Montenegrins were accepted
    in their  places, and not only  in Kosovo. At the  same time this (until
    recently) most  lucrative giant in  not only the  economy of Kosovo,  is
    being  "integrated"  with  the  biggest  Serbian  losers.  Is this not a
    conscious effort  to ruin our  economy and at  the same time  change the
    ethnic structure, first in companies,  and then in the entire population
    of Kosovo?
                                                       V. Orosi, S. Dzezairi


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                  No. 51, September 14, 1992
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