Thus, Kosovar
nationalism was qualitatively the kin and kith of the Serb or Croat
sub-species. Paradoxically, though rather predictably, they fed on
each other. Milosevic was as much a creation of Kosovar nationalism
as Thaci was the outcome of Milosevic's policies. The KLA's
Stalinist-Maoist inspiration was in emulation of the paranoid and
omphaloskeptic regime in Albania - but it owed its existence to
Belgrade's intransigence. The love-hate relationship between the
Kosovars and the Albanians is explored elsewhere ("The Myths of
Great Albania -Part I"). The Serbs, in other words, were as
terrified of Kosovar irredentism as the Kosovars were of Serb
dominion. Their ever more pressing and menacing appeals to Belgrade
gave the regime the pretext it needed to intervene and Milosevic the
context he sought in which to flourish.
In February 1989, armed with a new constitution which abolished
Kosovo's autonomy (and, a year later, its stunned government),
Milosevic quelled a miners' hunger strike and proceeded to institute
measures of discrimination against the Albanians in the province.
Discrimination was nothing new to Kosovo. The Albanians themselves
initiated such anti-Serb measures following their new gained
constitutional autonomy in 1974.
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