"Yugoslavia, February 1989. Albanian miners from the Trebca zinc and lead mine in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo are striking underground--if necessary to death--in defence of their national and political rights. In the narrow corridors, the miners sit so closely packed that it is difficult to pass. Damp and draught. Darkness of the earth. Lead dust so dangerous to human health fills the air. Oxygen is scarce. The men are pale and exhausted, they lack sleep. Some are on hunger strike. Even the gravely ill are nevertheless refusing to surface, so long as they have a minimum of strength. Their endurance sorely tried, the men's mood changes fro reasoned argument to nervous passion. Thanks to the Yugoslav leadership's obscurancy, the miners are clocking up a world record for staying underground....The miners say they are not nationalists, beg us to write only the truth about them, say that Tito used to come down to speak to them so why not his heirs? They are trapped. They cannot give up. They dignity has been trampled by the unbelievable indifference of a leadership with which socialist government has finally lost the last remnant of its already badly dented class legitimacy. We fear for them; pride is strong among the miners, it will overpower reason. Now they are left to themselves. Many are holding hands. THey say there is no greater comradeship than that forged in the darkness and dangers of the earth."
" ..The whole of Kosovo has risen--desperate frightened and angry. During the last two days, its Albanian population has practically been on general strike, since only installations supporting vital systems have been working--a kind of Albanian intifada has begun. Thousands of solidarity meetings are taking place, supporting and expanding the miners demands...The strike is exclusively political and national.
The demands formulated by the Trepca miners have thus spread throughout Kosovo. On thursday 23 February, they cam up with a list of 10 points: 1 No retreat from the fundamentals of the 1974 constitution: any change in he constitutions of Serbia and Kosovo must be such as to allow further development of brotherhood and equality. 2. Those who proposed the law prematurely retiring teachers failing the notorious "test of moral and political suitability" must be called to account. 3. Rahman Morina, Azemi and Shukria (provincial and regional party chiefs) must resign:if they wish to know why, they must come down to the pits where the miners will tell them face to face. 4. Stipe Suvar, Slobodan Milosevic and a representative from each of the central committees of the socialist republics and the socialist province of Vojvodina, must come to talk with the miners. 7. The Kosovo leadership must be elected by the Kosovo base and not by the bureaucracy of other republics. 8. The U.N. must examine the state of Kosovo Albanians. 9. The discriminatory policies of Slobodan MIlosevic must be condemned, since they deviate from the correct path traced by Tito. 10. The miners inform all leaderships and the public at large that they will not leave the pit until their demands are satisfied."
"The miners determination and solidarity were awesome. They told journalists that they were determined to 'come out in coffins' unless their demands were met...The furnace men talked about committing collective suicide if the pit was stormed. Below the ground, a strict guard was kept over two tons of dynamite to prevent desperate action...Overground there was equally tight discipline maintained by miners wearing red arm bands. Children and women wait anxiously at the edge of the pit awaiting news...In November 1987 the average wage in Trepca was $55 a month, barely enough to keep a family from starvation. During the strike all miners refused their wages..."
"The Trepka miners may (and indeed will) enter Albanian legend; but in reality they represent the break that establishes the Yugoslav Albanians as independent political subjects...Albanians have made it clear to everybody in Yugoslavia that it is impossible to make decisions without them, that they are an inescapable subject of the Yugoslav political community."