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The weekly Koha (The Times) was published in Prishtina (Kosovo) between 1994 and 1997. Edited by VetonSurroi, a young Kosovar journalist and one of the pioneers of democratisation in former Yugoslavia, Kohasoon became a symbol of quality among the region's media. In 1997 it started to be published daily under thename of Koha Ditorë. With the kind permission of Mr. Surroi, Koha digests were originally posted onhttp://koha.estudiosbalcanicos.org.
- 1 -Digest # 4 (1994)THE BAN OF ALBANIA by ASTRIT SALIHU/PrishtinaThe visa, in its juridical definition as " a written clause which determines the right of theowner of the passport to cross the border in the time foreseen by the visa..." might sound OK.According to this civil right, Albanians would be allowed to get one of these clauses and visitthe Albanian state. Thus, at least, the "right to free movement..." would be fulfilled. This freemovement, from and towards Albania is of organic importance for the nation, not to speak of familiar liaisons and others.Going to Albania -continues being a dream for the majority of the Kosovans. Those who have been there in times of, still, undefined border relationships with Macedonia are now beingtaken away their passports and are determinedly fined. Prison is not excluded. They are notallowed to travel. Whatever it may be, in both cases the result is the same. All are punished!"Citizens of the SFRY can travel with the travel document (...) without a Yugoslav visa evento states with which Yugoslavia has not signed an agreement on the suppression of visas, if Yugoslavia has diplomatic or consular relations with those countries". According to this,since Yugoslavia has always had diplomatic relations with the Republic of Albania, then,there should not be any problems for the Kosova Albanians to travel to Albania, same as theyhave travelled to other countries of the world. Nevertheless, the continuation of the abovementioned decree on the "...travel of citizens of the SFRY to the countries with which theSFRY has not signed an agreement on suppression of visas" ("Official Gazette of SFRY nr.62/79 and 68/81), what has been said above, is complemented with the fact that this specificright to travel "is not applicable in the case of citizens of the SFRY travelling to PSR of Albania". With this decree of the Government of the Former Yugoslavia, which is still valid,even after the approval of new laws, travelling to Albania is still prohibited. This speaks of the legalized discriminatory precedent, against all those who wish to travel to Albania.Searching for more details regarding this specific travelling valid only for the KosovaAlbanians, we approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was approached with the purposeto find out about if this were an eventual reciprocal measure or maybe find out another reason, but in their reply, the MFA oriented us towards the "competent organ" for this issue,that is the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs. In regard to this, it is good to remind theopinion of the interpellation of Sokolovic, requested by a MP from Presheva in one of thesessions of the Serbian Parliament. The MP claimed that the passports were taken away fromAlbanians, because they were lacking exit visas. The reply was laconic: "It is not true that anexit visa from Yugoslavia is requested". On the other hand, the "competent organ" didn'tsend a reply at all.According to the data gathered by the Council for the Defence of Human Rights andFreedoms (CDHRF), in the past three months, 47 people were deprived of their passports, but
 
- 2 -it is supposed that hundreds of such have been confiscated, but yet not evidenced. The phenomenon of the confiscation of passports has not spared even public names such as: EjupStatovci, Rector of the University of Prishtina - he was sentenced to 15 days of prison and the passport was confiscated for two years; Rexhep Qosja, Academician - his passport wasconfiscated for three years and he was fined with 3.000 NYD; Muslim Mulliqi, Academician-his passport was confiscated for three months and was fined with 170 NYD, etc.Bajram Kelmendi, attorney at law, explains: "The Misdemeanors Courts, based on the requestof the organs of internal affairs, initiate the misdemeanors proceedings pursuant to Art. 47 of the Law on Travel Documents of the Yugoslav citizens which states: "...the citizen whotravels without a visa will be fined up to 3000 NYD, or 30 days of prison". This provisionforesees prison as an alternative punishment. The second paragraph of this article says thatthe citizen who has travelled without a visa, in this concrete case to Albania, can be also punished with the confiscation of the passport up to three years, apart from the abovementioned fine and prison term." Based on the quoted law, the confiscation of the passport isa measure of facultative and non obligative nature. This means that the Misdemeanors courtsare not "obliged" to confiscate the passport by all means. It is supposed that this measures areundertaken only in special cases. In reality, the passports are always confiscated at the border and without the due proceedings.Why are the Albanians deprived of their passports?Even in the context of the passports and their confiscation, it is impossible not to see thatthere is a clear political tendency. The content of this tendency is the interruption of theAlbanian organization: to make the economic, familiar, studious, scientific, cultural and, of course, political communication impossible. This results with the fact that Albanians can't goto Albania and vice-versa. Thus Serbia proves once again its statehood and absolutesovereignty even through tyrannizing and discriminating Albanians on this side of the border.The attempt to provincialize and break the Albanian space into pieces, which causes theweakening of the political factor of the territorial and ethnic compactness of Albanians, alsoresults form this. Forcing people to go through different administrative mistreatment waitingfor the visa or, eventually, suffering the forcible confiscation of the passport, create theimpression of "loyalty" which satisfies the Serbian governmental self-pride.HISTORYTHE YUGOSLAV-TURKISH CONVENTION OF 1938 IN FUNCTION OF THE ETHNICCLEANSING OF THE ALBANIAN LANDS by EMINE ARIFI-BAKALLIThe emigration of Albanians, i.e. the ethnic cleansing of their territories, was not taken off Belgrade's agenda since the past century, when the first projects concerning this issue wereoutlined, and then put into life. Nevertheless, the persecutions, seclusions, arrests, murders,and emigration to Turkey, Albania and other places, as well as the persistent and organizedcolonization, have not given the expected results. Just before WWII, the Serbian analysts of different profiles, based on the secret statistics, concluded that Albanians were dominatingtheir own lands. Albanians even composed 70-75% of the population, with a tendency of growth. The possibility of having a strong irredentist movement and the actualization of the
 
- 3 -issue of minorities before the international associations, where a serious treatment could have been expected between 1929 and 1932, made Belgrade even more determined to find adefinitive solution to this "issue", which according to it, could be reached through anagreement with Turkey which would enable a massive and systematic emigration of Albanians.The arrival to power of people of great political ambitions in 1935, had as a result theintensification of actions in this respect. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslaviacreated a special Inter-Ministerial Commission which would exclusively deal with this issue.In the meantime, outstanding individuals of the Serbian society and the non-governmentalassociations were given the task to actively deal with the most important Serbian nationalissue, and that was the "Albanian issue". This was precisely the time when Vaso Cubrilovic'selaborate "The Expulsion of Arnauts" was made. This was only an articulation of all of whathad been thought, had been spoken and written in Serbia since a long time ago, and as suchhad become the spiritus rector of the Yugoslav internal and foreign policy.The "new" steps of the Yugoslav foreign policy went along with the initiation of the ruin of the Versailles system and the fading of the collective agreements made upon it, including theSaint Germaine agreement. In one word, these steps were made easy by the new politicalconjuncture in Europe. Thus, the German assault: the new militarization of the Rhein, thedeclaration of regular recruitment, the accelerated arming and the totally indiscrete attemptsfor the Anschluss of Austria, were secure signs of the possibility of Germany to get throughto the Adriatic Sea, in which case Yugoslavia and Italy would become its natural allies.Belgrade, openhearted, awaited for signals coming from Rome. Even more, taking intoaccount that Yugoslavia's new rulers belonged to a new extremist political wing, which wasready to accept to split Albania and share it with Italy, because according to them, Albania, asthe "center of irredentism", was one of the main reasons which influenced the failure of theSlavization of Kosova and the other Albanian lands. According to the done calculations, theruin of the Albanian state, in close cooperation with Italy, would darken the perspective of theAlbanian people in Yugoslavia and in this way, the process of assimilation and emigrationwould be accelerated.The new friendship, at least, should assure the silence of Rome and its press, which was verynoisily speaking of the position of the Albanian people in Yugoslavia and the bargains beingmade behind their back with Turkey. This is precisely where the sources of the concessionsof Belgrade towards Rome are to be found. This meant that Belgrade "guaranteed" theindependence of Albania, not touching the past at all, which understood theacknowledgement of the rights of Italy over Albania.The friendly relations with Germany were assured with the role Yugoslavia when the Balkans'Treaty was signed, when the doors to the German capital were opened and with the outmostsupporting posture that Yugoslavia had on the occasion of the Anschluss of Austria.In fact, one of the first steps undertaken by the new Yugoslav diplomacy was to deteriorate itsrelations to Albania. Thus, Albania had its doors closed for complaints and requests regardingthe position of Albanians, which was made possible in times when better relations were pretended between 1934 and 1935. The president of the Yugoslav Government M.Stojadinovic, once stated that in Yugoslavia there were no "minority issues", since 90% of its population were Slavs. At the same time he found the "formula" to silence Albania for heclaimed that "...the Albanians in Yugoslavia were not deprived of any rights, for they never have had schools or other institutions which they could have been educated in the national
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