THE AGONY OF KOSOVA-INTRO

In 1989, about 1,700 Albanians were imprisoned for up to 60 days following nonviolent protests against the government. In 1990, at least 27 Albanians were killed and more than 1,000 arrested during demonstrations against politically manipulated changes in Yugoslavia’s constitution. Such abuses have been going on for some time, (As many as 100 Kosova Albanians died in 1981 street demonstrations and earlier, during World War II,Serbians may have massacred 400 Albanians civilians after an Albanian soldier shot four Serbs in an army barracks.) These days Albanians are arrested and held without being told of the charges against them. They can be sentenced to years in prison for such vague crimes as “inciting national hatred” or hostile propaganda.”

Albanians say they are forced by Serbian police to make confessions, that prisons are ifithy and have inedible food and that many prisoners suffer beatings or torture or are held in isolation. Other Balkan people, such as the Croatians, side with the Albanians. Croatian newspapers have reported that the vast majority who are imprisoned and tortured or otherwise mistreated in Kosova are Albanians arrested by Serbian police, usually for no good reason.

Do Kosova’s Albanians want Kosova to rejoin Albania or to be independent? Democratic leaders of the growing protest movement say they want Kosova to be recognized as an independent Republic or State rather than a province of Serbia. This would put them on equal footing with former Yugoslavia’s other states (formerly called republics). Such statehood would mean self rule, an idea the Serbs dislike. Serbians falsely claim that their civilization started in ancient Kosova and many do not want to give up the very poor but mineral-rich area, even though it once was part of Albania (originally fflyria which historically is the ancient Albanian homeland.) Albanians want their children taught in their own language. Misunderstandings, unrest and violence continue in this troubled area. “Serbs blame us for everything, including the failure of Communism,” is an often repeated complaint of Albanians living in Kosova.

Perhaps the most unusual -- and most contented -- group of Albanian-speaking people lives across the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy and Western Sicily. Together, they are known as the Arberesh and they arrived in Italy more than 500 years ago. The very first Albanians landed in Italy in 1448 A.D. as mercenary soldiers led by the great Albanian general George Kastrioti (“Skenderbeg”) to defend the kingdom of Naples against attack from the Prince of Aragon (in France). Later arrivals, in 1459, also came to put down a revolt. In return for their work, they were given land near Taranto, some 250 miles south of Rome. Beginning in 1488, thousands of civilians were rescued by sailors from Venice. They were plucked from the shores of Albania, with well-armed Turks in hot pursuit. All left Albania to preserve their religion, Orthodox Christianity, which was being erased by the invading Islamic soldiers. Today, in Italy, many still speak an older form of Albanian not always easily understood by modem resident of Albania. The settlers clung to rocky rural Mediterranean areas of Italy and Sicily that reminded them of their native land.