yugoslavias implosion

had been used to serve the ruling ideology. Its contents and purpose
squared with the concept of the Memorandum and a speech made by
Milošević at Kosovo Polje on April 24, 1987, that set the tone for Politika’s
future popular rostrum. Milošević said that “any and every issue
is up for discussion: justice, freedom, culture, language and script.
Any and every issue is up for discussion, from the media to constitutional
amendments, from nurseries to courts of law.” 352 Milošević took
up the media’s argument that the Albanians’ birth rate, said to be the
highest in Europe, was to blame for the fact that Serbs had become
a minority in Kosovo. “As is well-known,” he said in an interview,
“the birth rate of Kosovo is among the highest in the world … This
taboo topic has only recently been raised as a subject for debate. The
socio-political aspects of the birth rate are also becoming increasingly
pronounced. The peoples living with the Albanians are becoming
minorities and are losing territory and living space.” 353
The Belgrade regime’s attitude presented the Kosovo Albanians
with a bleak future. As the Serbian politician and diplomat
Koča Popović observed, “The Kosovo Albanians cannot relate their
national and political identity to Serbia alone. There must be a Yugoslav
option open for them … Because, to put it this way, they can
be both Albanians and Yugoslavs, but they can hardly be Albanians
and Serbs.” The Albanian people, forecast Popović, will be “forced
into armed conflict with Serbs and Serbia, which regards the demographic
expansion of the Albanian minority in itself (which I don’t
believe is ‘intentional’, ‘planned’) as an intrusion on its historical and
other intimate interests. In this way, instead of calming things down,
one is causing ever greater exacerbation.” 354
Belgrade’s tirades and actions inevitably provoked an outburst
of Albanian anger. A revolt occurred in Kosovo in November 1988 in
352 Slobodan Milošević, Godine raspleta, BIGZ, Beograd, 1989
353 NIN, 3 . July 1988
354 Aleksandar Nenadović, Razgovor sa Kočom, Zagreb 1989
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ChApter 3