***** Anthropology of East Europe Review Vol. 11, Nos. 1-2 Autumn, 1993 Special Issue: War among the Yugoslavs
...Over the centuries of Turkish occupation of the Balkans, the Ottomans had encouraged the largely Muslim Albanians to settle in Serbian lands, and, when in 1926 an agreement was finally reached between Yugoslavia and Albania regarding their mutual borders, almost half a million Albanians remained within the areas of Kosovo and Metohija. Again during the Second World War, the migration of Albanians into Yugoslavia intensified. As part of the Axis partition of Yugoslavia, their ally Albania was enlarged to include much of western Macedonia and the plain of Kosovo. During this time, Albanian militia brutally expelled at least 70,000 Serbs from Kosovo and settled an equal number of Albanians in their place. In northeastern Kosovo, the Serbs remained relatively undisturbed until 1944 when the Skenderbeg Albanian Division massacred thousands of Serbs and forced other thousands to flee to German-occupied Serbia proper. After the war, one of the first acts of the Tito government, on March 6, 1945, was to prohibit the return to their homes of the Serbs expelled by the Albanians. This law voided all land deeds executed within prewar Yugoslavia, but not those put in force during the Axis occupation. During the period from 1945 to 1948 at least 100,000 Albanians were allowed to migrate from Albania into Kosovo and Macedonia. These numbers may actually be quite low. For instance, Dragnich and Todorovich (1984:158) estimate that during the twenty-year period 1961-1981 between 150,000 and 200,000 Serbs were forced out of Kosovo, and that in the postwar era over 200,000 Albanians were settled there from Albania. Moreover, they also note that the demographic balance has been further skewed by the very high birth rate of the Kosovo Albanians, the highest in Europe and equal to that of many Third World countries (32 per 1,000). This Albanian influx was encouraged by substantial welfare payments financed by the Republic of Serbia. Of course, this kindled great resentment on the part of the Serbs who regarded the Albanians as enemies, and former clients of the Turks. Gradually the Albanians took over almost all government organs and socialist enterprises in Kosovo, oppressing the Serbian minority who obtained little support or protection from the central government.
The process of Albanization was carried one step further when in 1974 Kosovo was granted virtual autonomy with only nominal ties to the Republic of Serbia. This was followed by more than a decade of discrimination and outright terror directed at the Serbs, Montenegrins, and other non-Albanian minorities. Thousands fled to Serbia and Montenegro as the Albanians tightened their hold on the region. It was these events which eventually propelled Slobodan Milosevic into power, and resulted in the strong reassertion of Serbian control over Kosovo. Admittedly, this did involve sometimes harsh repression of Albanian separatists and political movements. However, this must be understood as the inevitable result of years of patience and restraint on the part of the Serbs. Moreover, the reincorporation of Kosovo into Serbia had among its goals both the protection of ethnic minorities and the maintenance of the integrity of the Yugoslav state.
The Croatian, Bosnian, and Kosovo conflicts raise the question as to whether the rights of minorities in former Yugoslavia can ever be adequately guaranteed in independent states dominated by single ethnic groups. It has frequently been suggested that the only viable solution is a confederation similar to the canton system of Switzerland. But, the Balkans are not Switzerland, and such a resolution now appears unacceptable to the major players as evidenced by the current escalation of the warfare in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Thus, the only remaining possibilities appear to be the reestablishment of a centralized and authoritarian Yugoslav state, or the large-scale exchange of populations, both of which seem extremely unlikely....
Posted:12/24/96
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Also try the Yugoslav govenment site on demographic trends at <http://www.gov.yu/kosovo/demographic.html>.
Yoshie