Such hijacking, though, would have petered out had
the cesspool of rage and indignation not been festering so
ebulliently. Serb insensitivity backed by indiscriminate brutality
led to escalation. As the years passed, calls for the restoration of
the 1974 constitution (under which Kosovo was granted political,
financial, legal and cultural autonomy and institutions) - merged
into a sonorous agenda of "Great Albania" and a "Kosovo Republic".
The Kosovar crowd was never above beatings, looting and burning. The
hate was strong.
Yugoslavia's ruling party - the League of Communists - was in the
throes of its own transformation. With Tito's demise and the
implosion of the Soviet Bloc, the Communists lacked both compass and
leader. His natural successors were purged by Tito in the 1960s and
1970s. The party wasn't sure whether to turn to Gorbachev's East or
to America's West. The Communists panicked and embarked on a rampage
of imprisonment, unjust dismissals of Albanians (mainly of teachers,
journalists, policemen and judges) and the occasional torture or
murder. Serb intellectuals regarded this as no more than the
rectification of Tito's anti-Serb policies. Serbia was the only
Republic within the Federation, who was dismembered into autonomous
regions (Kosovo and Vojvodina).
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