NATO propaganda has portrayed the Serbs as Slavic Aryans who hate all non- Serbs and are determined to create an ethnically pure state. In Yugoslavia, reality collides with this warped mythology. Ivan Sedlak, minister of minorities for the Republic of Serbia, notes there are 26 national minorities in the country. Besides Albanians, there are 300,000 Hungarians and lesser numbers of Croats, Slovenes, Turks, Romanians and Gypsies. All are guaranteed education in their own language, support for their culture and political equality.
Minorities have their own newspapers and radio stations subsidized by the Yugoslav government.
Speeches in Vojvodina's regional assembly are simultaneously translated in five languages. Except for Kosovo's Albanians, all seem satisfied to be part of this multi-ethnic state, including the 100,000 Albanians residing in Belgrade. Sedlak, a lawyer skilled at presenting his case, looks at me over the rim of his glasses. The so-called autonomy of the 1974 constitution, he patiently explains, gave Kosovo a veto over legislation throughout Yugoslavia. The changes that were made in 1988 were ratified by the parliaments of both Kosovo and Vojvodina.