yugoslavias implosion

On June 28, the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo was
commemorated at Gazimestan. The speech which Milošević presented,
as we saw previously, was bristling with minatory rhetoric,
hinting broadly at the prospect of a new war. In the same speech,
Milošević sent a message to Europe that Serbia was defending
Europe from Islam:
Six centuries ago, Serbia heroically defended itself in the field of
Kosovo, but it also defended Europe. Serbia was at that time the bastion
that defended European culture, religion, and European society in
general. Therefore today it appears not only unjust but even unhistorical
and completely absurd to talk about Serbia’s belonging to Europe.
Serbia has always been a part of Europe now just as much as it was in
the past, of course, in its own way, but in a way that in the historical
sense never deprived it of its dignity. 358
Dobrica Ćosić said at the time that “Kosovo is an unsolvable
problem” and that the “Albanian movement is above all nationalistic.”
He made the following suggestion: “We shall either give [the
Albanians] territory, which means the loss of half of Macedonia
and the break-up of Serbia as a consequence, or we shall use force as
Israel does. That is a painful course to take, one that causes enormous
damage.” 359
After Slovenian and Croatian delegates walked out of the Congress
on January 25, 1990, leading to the break-up of the League of
Communists of Yugoslavia, the Serbian regime tried to provoke an
uprising in Kosovo in order to create a pretext for imposing a state
of war. At precisely that moment, however, the Kosovar Albanians
called off their demonstrations at the urging of Ibrahim Rugova
(1944–2006), president and the leader for many years of Kosovo in
its struggle for independence, and a grassroots movement based on
358 http://www .slobodan-milosevic .org/spch-kosovo1989 .htm
359 Il Tempo, June 27, 1989 according to Borba, July 7, 1989 .
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