Context of '1985: Kosovar Serb Claims Kosovar Albanians Assaulted Him'

Mahmut Bakalli, president of the League of Communists’ Kosovo Provincial Committee, resigns and is replaced by Veli Deva, also a Kosovar Albanian. Bakalli is blamed for not seeing a series of demonstrations that have rocked the province coming, although at a committee meeting on March 8 he did say there was a lack of basic goods and that conditions had to be alleviated for those without jobs or with low wages, as well as students. The next month another senior official resigns and in all six of the nine committee members leave their positions. In his last speech, Bakalli blames “subversive propaganda” from Albania, and says letting the situation get out of hand is his responsibility. In September 1981 a report by the Serbian and Kosovo committees of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia will blame Bakalli’s administration, saying it did not warn the Yugoslav and Serbian governments, though it allegedly knew the Marxist-Leninist Party of Albanians in Yugoslavia was planning demonstrations and that Albanian nationalism was increasing. Veli Deva is a former committee president and has the support of Albanians, for opposing Serb chauvinism, but is also against the Albanian government. [Vickers, 1998, pp. 201, 208; Kola, 2003, pp. 161-162]

A severely injured Kosovar Serb farmer named Djordje Martinovic says Kosovar Albanians sodomized him with a broken beer bottle, as part of Albanian attempts to force non-Albanians to leave Kosovo. Some Albanian sources claim Martinovic is gay and that his severe injuries are self-inflicted. The government of Kosovo tries to minimize the effects, but Martinovic’s case will be sensationalized in the Yugoslav media. It becomes an important case for Serbs who see Serbia as oppressed; a January 1986 Serb petition will say, “The case of Djordje Martinovic has become that of the whole Serb nation in Kosovo.” [Kola, 2003, pp. 174]

Two hundred well-known intellectuals in Belgrade sign a petition to the Serbian and Federal assemblies, claiming that Yugoslavia has committed “national treason” in its Kosovar policy. The petition says that there is a “politics of gradual surrender of [Kosovo] to Albania,” resulting in “genocide” against Serbs. The conflict is explained as a continuation of centuries of fighting between Serbs and Albanians. Djordje Martinovic’s 1985 claim of violent intimidation by Kosovar Albanians is highlighted in the petition (see 1985). The petition will be followed by Kosovar Serb protests in Belgrade, further claims of genocide by Serbian academics, and continued calls for constitutional amendments. [Kola, 2003, pp. 171]