Part 5 - Kosovo economy & myths of Alb heroism & anti-fascism
KOSOVO'S ECONOMY UNDER THE YUGOSLAV COMMUNIST SYSTEM
(1945-1989)
Sources quoted here are American
scholars: Bernd Fischer, Julie Mertus (from
her book: Kosovo: how Truths and Myths started
a War) and Kosovar Riza Sapunxhiu:
the highest ranking Yugoslav Albanian, ex-president of the SFRJ rotating
presidency and ex-president of SFRJ's economy, as well as US and UK newspaper & magazine articles, Serbia Telekom’s telephone directory
and other secondary sources. There are also statements made by German WWII
Generals: Fitzhun and Schmidthuber. In addition to the book, Albanian Identities: Myth and History,
Mertus' book, Kosovo: how Myths and
Truths started a War.
The position taken here is that
Communist Yugoslavia was a Croat/Slovene group-strategy that enlisted the help
of Albanian and Bosnian Muslims as well as disloyal and opportunistic Serbs,
from its founding in 1945 until the Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution of 1989 that
saw Milosevic purge the League of Communists of Serbia and Montenegro of such
members. In this section, we will address the ludicrous claims by Albanian
nationalists that Communist Yugoslavia ever oppressed Albanians, either during
Tito's lifetime or any time afterwards.
We jump to post-1960 Kosovo and
consult American scholar Julie Mertus:
...while the number of Serbs in Kosovo with jobs (26%
of the total employed) was 12% higher than their share of the population. On
the other hand, because more Serbs were seeking jobs, the Serbs share of the
UNEMPLOYED in Kosovo was consistently higher relative to their share of he
population. In sum, the economic situation in Kosovo was bad for everyone.
Julie Mertus
Page: 27
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_mertus_27.jpg
One of the major complaints of
Kosovo Albanians is that they were economically 'oppressed' within the Yugoslav
economic system, while the Serbs allegedly had all the power. While one would
expect that such claims by Albanian nationalists would awaken them to how badly
Albanians had treated Serbs within the Ottoman power structure - it does not.
The Albanian historical memory is deliberately conditioned by Albanian Muslim
elites to be selective (see: Perpjekja 3). The evidence cited will show that
Albanians were not only NOT oppressed within the Yugoslav Communist system -
they were the oppressors.
It is necessary to consult
Albanian experts in order to understand how the Kosovo economy really
functioned and who really suffered from whatever forces shaped it and what
those forces were:
The highest-ranking Kosovar economist, Riza
Sapunxhiu, who in 1981 was vice-president
of the economy, contends that any criticism of the state economy in 1981 was
unwarranted. "We were doing
everything we could" he says. "People were impatient."
Julie Mertus
Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started
a War
Page: 27
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_mertus_27.jpg
Not only is Mr. Sapunxhiu a Kosovo
Albanian and president of the SFRJ economy: he was also president of SFRJ for a
year when he served on Yugoslavia's rotating presidency in the 1980s.
Sapunxhiu's colleague, Dragomir Vojnic elaborates:
Vojnic attributes much of the developmental
difficulties between the regions to a historical inheritance that could not
easily disappear. The people who lived in Kosovo looked for a target for their
frustrations.
Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started
a War
Page: 27
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_mertus_27.jpg
In other words, Kosovo was poorer
than any part of Yugoslavia because it was the longest under Ottoman rule. This
is something that the Muslim Kosovo Albanians were directly responsible for
because of their complicity and support of the Ottoman system and their earlier
resistance to secular Serbian education (see: section 1 above). Kosovo remained
poor in spite of earlier Serb efforts to modernize the backward Albanian
population.
Albanian bureaucrats who took
control of Kosovo in 1968 caused most of the problems, after Tito gave the
province near republic status, after Rankovic was accused of corruption on
trumped up charges.
...many Serbs pointed to the waste, inefficiency and incompetence of the Albanian bureaucrats who took over in the 1970s, as well as the large Albanian family structure that greatly taxed social resources.
Julie Mertus
Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started
a War
Page: 27
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_mertus_27.jpg
After Tito removed Rankovic as
Serbian president under trumped up charges, a policy of 'affirmative action'
was instituted in Kosovo. As is usual with such policies that mask
discrimination under the smokescreen of a petty euphemism: inefficiency
resulted. Unqualified Albanians were promoted to posts held by qualified Serbs.
This failed and worsened Kosovo's economy because the Muslim Albanians had
consistently shunned secular education during the inter-war period. Few
Albanians were educated. The new Albanian leadership was responsible for the
problems in Kosovo from 1968 to 1989.
Julie Mertus gives insight into
how the situation was viewed by both sides:
Commentators on both
sides said the situation was made worse by the exodus of experts from Kosovo,
mainly Serbs and Montenegrins...
Serbs... contend that the experts had been forced out
due to the discriminatory policies of Kosovo Albanians.
Albanians contend that the emigration resulted from
"the loss of privileges they had enjoyed
and their reluctance to accept equality with Albanians"
Julie Mertus
Kosovo: How Myths and Truths Started
a War
Page: 27
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_mertus_27.jpg
Let us examine the Albanian POV:
"Albanians contend that the emigration (of Serbs from Kosovo) resulted
from 'the loss of privileges they had enjoyed and their reluctance to accept
equality with Albanians'"
The only privileges Serbs enjoyed
in Rankovic-era Kosovo was nominal equality with an Albanian population that
had just collaborated with Adolph Hitler (see: Perpjekja 5) and had expelled
200 000 Serbs from Kosovo which Tito did not allow to return (see: Miranda
Vickers: Between Serb and Albanian), participated in a 400 year oppression of
Serb and other Balkan Christians, including Albanians, during the Ottoman era
and shunned attempts by Serbia at multi-cultural, secular education in the
interwar period (see: section 1 above).
As far as Serbs contending that
"the Serbian experts had been forced
out due to the discriminatory policies of Kosovo Albanians," we have
30+ newspaper and magazine articles from such sources as: New York Times, The
Herald-Tribune, the Sun-Times and other American and UK media pieces from the
1980s, that chronicle the ethnic cleansing and expulsion of 150 000 Serbs from
Kosovo under the Kosovo Albanian leadership:
http://geocities.datacellar.net/aia_skenderbeg/......
Finally, regarding Kosovo's
economy: in reality Kosovo and Slovenia experienced the highest PROPORTIONAL
growth compared to any republic in Yugoslavia:
http://www.photius.com...
As to allegations that Serbs will
not accept equality with Albanians, one only need to examine Serbia Telekom's
telephone directory and search for common Albanian last names in bigger cities
like Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis in order to see that Albanians live so freely
within Serbia that they are not afraid to list their names, address and
telephone numbers:
http://www.telekom.yu...
Kosovo's economy was mismanaged by
unqualified Albanian authorities (installed by Tito after '68) and that these
authorities pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing against the Serb population
that had survived Albanian oppression in Ottoman Times and WWII. Albanian
claims of "oppression" in the Yugoslav communist system and under the
Serbian monarchy are baseless and are nothing more than a smokescreen for the
Muslim Albanian nationalist elites to promote Serbophobia, instability and
separatism in order to maintain their grip on power (also see: Perpjekja 1
& 3).
In this section we will analyze
the reports of WWII German generals who occupied Kosovo and relied on the
Albanian population for political support and troops:
SS General Josef Fitzhun, charged with the creation
of a regular army for the puppet regime of Rexhep Mitrovica blamed his failure
on the Albanian officer corps, which he
complained was not only worthless but filled with pederasts (homosexual
pedophiles)
Bernd J Fischer
Perceptions and Reality in 20th
Century Albanian Military Prowess
Page: 140
Quoted from:
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd
J. Fischer
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_140.jpg
To show that Fitzhun's experience
was not an isolated incident, we turn to another source:
General August Schmidthuber commander of the SS
Skenderbeg Division, explained his failure by suggesting that the legend of
Albanian military heroics was just a saga and that he personally could chase
them all around the world with light grenade-launcher.
Bernd J Fischer
Perceptions and Reality in 20th
Century Albanian Military Prowess
Page: 140
Quoted from:
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd
J. Fischer
http://geocities.datacellar.net/aia_skenderbeg/faqe_140.jpg
Schmidthuber's humorous assertion
that he could 'chase them all around the wold with light grenade-launcher' was
proven true when the Yugoslav army chased the KLA out of Kosovo with little
effort. In the absence of Nazi Germany, the new Albanian Nazis (KLA) turned to
liberal-fascist America, which has exterminated 30 000 000 American children
since abortion was introduced in the 1970s (see: Buchanan Death of the West)
and killed 2 000 000 Japanese, Vietnamese, Iraqis and Afghan men, women and
children and supported dozens of murderous, dictatorial 3rd world regimes - all
within the last 60 years since WWII.
Similarly, in those contemporary Albanian settings in
which violence is understood as a legitimate tool to enforce the coherence (in
others it is simply public ostracism) the myth of besa with its central value of ‘faithfulness’ was used to swear in
recruits for the KLA; the early KLA
became infamous for killing its own ‘traitors’ as well as Serb policemen and
journalists expressing critical opinions were under threat.
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers:
Quoted from:
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd
J. Fischer
Page: 18
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_18.jpg
ALBANIAN ‘RESISTANCE’ TO NAZISM
Hitler, for example considered Albania to be the last
wild corner of Europe and the Albanians as a vital warrior mountain race - a
perception which seems to combine NAZI racial theory with the fanciful novels
of Karl May (…) It was in fact an important element in explaining Nazi
Germany’s rather benign occupation policy in Albania during WWII.
Bernd J Fischer
Perceptions and Reality in 20th
Century Albanian Military Prowess
Page: 134
Quoted from:
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd
J. Fischer
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_134.jpg
Below we learn from Fischer that
the Balli Kombetar did in fact collaborate with the Hitler and the Nazis. Not
only them but so did the Zogists and most of the Albanian chieftains, which
implicated most of the Albanians people as Nazi collaborators.
One of the keys to explaining Germany’s relative
success was its policy of seducing and then corrupting all of the non-communist
elements of the resistance, including the nationalist Balli Kombetar, the
Zogists and many of the independent chieftains.
Bernd J Fischer
Perceptions
and Reality in 20th Century Albanian Military Prowess
Page: 139, 140
Quoted from:
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd
J. Fischer
