yugoslavias implosion

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ChApter 1
contended the liberals, that attempts to handle the national issue
through centralism would only aggravate nationalist discontent.
The debate on amendments to the constitution led to a discussion
in Serbia on the rights of the autonomous provinces within Serbia
and the federal state. Liberals were aware that the Albanian issue
in Kosovo required a permanent solution to prevent the increasing
radicalization of Albanian nationalism. The differences between the
two Albanian camps—one envisioning Kosovo as a republic within
Yugoslavia, the other insisting on secession—were deepening amid
opposition to solving the problem of ethnic Albanians’ rights. The
challenge to the province’s status within the federation elicited a
negative Albanian reaction. Fadil Hoxha, Kosovo’s representative
on the Executive Bureau of the lcy Presidency, stressed that “no
one has demanded that Kosovo should become a republic, nor that it
should be outside Serbia.” 28
The liberals were aware that the issue of Vojvodina called for
a solution outside the centralist matrix because of the province’s
history. (Until it became part of the Kingdom of Serbia in 1918,
Vojvodina had been part of Hungary for some nine hundred years.
It had a substantial minority population—including half a million
Hungarians in the aftermath of World War II—but enjoyed only a
limited degree of autonomy prior to the 1974 Constitution.) Although
this position was bitterly opposed in Serbia, amendments calling for
a change in the province’s status to “Socialist autonomous province”
and altering the principle of its organization (so that it became part
of the Yugoslav federation) were nevertheless adopted.
The liberals were resolute opponents of Serbian imperial nationalism,
their program being based on the more independent position
of Serbia from Yugoslavia and federal institutions. They were
noted for their advocacy of a “modern Serbia” concentrating on
28 Quoted in Latinka Perović, Zatvaranje kruga (Closing the
Circle), (Sarajevo: Svjetlost, 1991) p .175