Troops deployed in Kosovo

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 10

Troops deployed in Kosovo

NZPA-Reuter Pristina, Yugoslavia Troops and tanks were deployed throughout Kosovo province yesterday morning as ethnic Albanian miners ended an eight-day \sit-in which forced the resignation’s ol three top communist politicians*. Witnesses saw tanks and trucks carrying troops on all the main roads in the province. Soldiers armed with machineguns stood at the roadside. \ The first miner to leave the Mitrovica mine 180 km south of Belgrade was carried out on a stretcher. Many limped out, while others fainted or were supported by doctors. Scores of ambulances ferried the miners to hospitals. The miners won the resignations of the Kosovo party chief, Rahman Morin.a, Husamadin Azemi, the party boss of the Kosovo capital,. Pristina, and Ali Sukrija, an ethnic Albanian member of the Yugoslav Central Committee, whom they

< accused of being Serlbian stooges. The miners had 1 ed a general s itrike which paral ysed Kosovo. 1 They have said they a vould continue ti heir strike above ground.

i Yugoslavia’s State Presidency on & londay deployed tro< ops in the area t( » protect “constitutio inal order, law ai nd order, property, and personal se icurity.” Paramilitary reinforcements were sent t,b Kosovo on Saturday.

The resignations 'ivere a heavy bk »w to the Serbian Communist Pa rty chief, Slobodan Milosevic, wh o has backed Messrs Morina and Azc jmi.

”1 p urmoil in the province rolled on wit h some 8000 students continuing the, ir protest at a / Pristina sports edri tre and Serbs and Montengrins starting to hold rival protests. A bout 800 Serbs .and Montenegrin miri ers in the K.osovo Leposavac mini e went on 'an underground stril :e in protest at the Albanian dem tands.

The students were demanding that changes to Serbia’s constitution giving the republic more control over Kosovo be blocked. Yugoslav leaders have said this was impossible.

The Kosovo drama has exacerbated divisions in Yugoslavia with the northern republics of Slovenia and Croatia voicing support for the miners and blasting Serbia. “With or without the support of the party, the Serbian people will not allow unacceptable rights to be secured through blackmail,” a Serbian leadership statement said on Monday.

In the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, party leader, dissidents and intellectuals gathered to express support for the Kosovo Albanians. Tensions between Kosovo’s 1.7 million ethnic Albanians and 200,000 Serbs and Montenegrins have risen since bloody Albanian riots in Kosovo in 1981. Thousands of Serbs have fled Kosovo alleging brutality by the Albanians.