Tel&Fax: ++381 38 33 843
e-mail: upsup@albanian.com
Prishtina, January 7, 1998
STUDENTS' PROTESTS IN KOSOVA
To the rest of the world it may seem incomprehensible to be forced from
your own
school because you want to study in your mother
tongue, but that's exactly what has
happened to the Albanian students in Kosova.
The University of Prishtina (UP) was founded in 1970. Since then, more
than 43,000
people have graduated (7,000 since 1991).
Yet in 1991, the Serbian policy of "ethnic
cleansing" began in Kosova's educational institutions.
Some 1,000 professors and 27,000
students were forced out of the University of
Prishtina alone. Hundreds of thousands of
high school students were banned from entering
school buildings.
In
some of the elementary schools, children were allowed into segregated buildings
-
with Serb children on one side, Albanians in
the other. The University and high schools
began to hold classes outside their school buildings,
in private houses, in miserable
conditions. This has been going on for seven
years now. The Serb police raids on these
buildings are a common practice. Teachers are
beaten in front of the children as a way to
promote fear.
In
September, 1996, responding to international pressure to ease tensions
in Kosova,
an "Educational Agreement" was signed between
President Rugova and Milosevic. This
agreement was never implemented.
In
signing the agreement, Milosevic intended to gain political points in the
eyes of the
international community in the hopes of having
Serbia's economic sanctions lifted.
Over
one year later, the empty school buildings continue to be guarded by heavy
police forces to prevent the Albanians from moving
in. Some buildings are used as
refugee camps for Serbs from Croatia. Now the
situation has become unbearable for the
Albanian students as it appears no progress has
been made towards opening the schools.
Therefore,
the Students Independent Union of the University of Prishtina (SIUUP),
the
only student organization in the UP, initiated
peaceful protests, with one clear aim: the
unconditional return of the university and high
school buildings, so the Albanian students
can attend normal classes in normal facilities,
ironically built by Albanians themselves. The
Albanian students DO NOT WANT the Serb students
to leave; they just want to use the
80% of the facilities that have been empty since
1991.
The
University of Prishtina currently has 14 senior colleges and 7 community
colleges. 23,000 students attend classes.
The "regular" University buildings are only
partially filled by Serb students, but the rest
of the buildings remain empty.
Although
the Serb government has offered lucrative loans and housing, it has
managed to attract less the 4,000 Serb students
from Serbia and Montenegro to attend
classes in Kosova. They only occupy some 20 %
of the University buildings.
SIUUP
is an independent, non-political, non-partisan organization. The demand
for
the unconditional return of the school buildings
is a non-political demand, based on
international law that guarantees education in
a mother tongue as a fundamental human
right. In September 10, 1997, SIUUP established
the University Protests Council. This
council has 9 members - 5 students and 4 professors.
In September 15 the council
established the platform for the principles for
the nonviolent and peaceful protests as listed
below:
* * *
Whereas the Students Independent Union of the University of Prishtina has
undertaken the initiative to organize peaceful
protests aimed at taking back the occupied
buildings of the university;
Whereas
the students had prior talks with the state institutions, politicians,
and
representatives of other associations, from whom
they had formal support, and hope that
they will follow by offering their concrete help;
Whereas
the University has offered support to the students' initiative for these
protests and have expressed their readiness to
organize peaceful and dignified protests;
The University Protests Council issues the following:
PLATFORM AND DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES
1. Students' protests are organized
for the purpose of retaking Prishtina University
buildings and
other premises violently occupied by the Serbian regime in 1991.
2. Students' protests will be peaceful
and nonviolent, using no arms or weapons of any
kind, with no
violence against any public or private property, nor will we return violence
if it is used
against us.
3. Preparation and realization of
peaceful protests will be done by the Students Protest
Council of the
University and other sub-councils of faculties and high pedagogic
schools (two year
colleges), in close cooperation with the University, faculties and high
pedagogic schools.
The public (in the country and abroad) will be appropriately notified
about the slogans
and placards which will be used by the students during the protests.
The public will
be notified in due time about other adequate actions which will enable
better organization
and realization of peaceful protests. The media and other
international
bodies will be informed and invited as well.
4. The Protests Council is open and
ready to cooperate and coordinate the work with
institutions and
other relevant subjects and associations on the basis of their concrete
declarations in
support of the Platform and Declaration of Principles of nonviolent and
peaceful protests
of the University of Prishtina.
5. The purpose of our protests is
not political. Its intention is obvious: the unconditional
release of premises,
buildings and the campus of the University, now under police
control.
6. We do not try to fight with our
adversary, but we are demanding the respect of human
rights and civil
freedoms equally for all peoples.
7. Anyone who provokes the police will
be considered a police informer.
8. If the police use force against
us, this does not mean that we ought to return violence.
9. We are not going either to yell
slogans, whistle or make any other kind of gestures to
offend or provoke
anyone.
10. If anyone - a protester or a supporter -
uses violence against the police or anybody
else in general
we shall do our utmost to stop and prevent such an incident.
11. We will follow the orders and decisions of
the University Protests Council and the
instructions of
the maintenance personel during the protests.
In
the meantime, the 1997-1998 academic year began on time. The University
will be
working without interruption all the time. The
teaching process will be adapted to the
peaceful protests and their duration, in accordance
with the decision of competent
authorities and pursuant to the regulation in
effect, the purpose of which should be
implementation of students' requests.
* * *
In
addition, the Individual Colleges and Community Colleges' organizing
subcommittees were established. Each of the sub-committees
has 5 members (3 students
and 2 professors). There are four committees
within the Senior Colleges and Community
Colleges. Three of them are to make sure the
protests remain peaceful and the fourth one
is in charge of medical help, in case the police
uses force to crush the protest.
During
the last three protests, held on October 1, October 29 and December 30,
every plan, strategy and detail was legal and
it was publicly announced beforehand.
The
slogans were published in the papers. The media, the public, the students
and
the Serb regime were notified properly beforehand.
This was done to clearly avoid any
provocation from anyone.
In
addition to Prishtina, protests took place in 6 other towns of Kosova,
where units of
the university are located. Despite the fact
that the protests were peaceful, non-violent and
were strictly attended by UP students, the Serb
police forces intervened without warning,
using batons and teargas. More than 700 students
were injured. Since the political parties
were not welcome by the organizing board, there
were no other people beside students
and teachers participating in the protest. However,
there was a large number of people
who came out in solidarity, but who stood on
the side walk and did not mix in the protest.
The
students of the UP stand firm with their demands and will not stop the
protests
until the demands in question are met. However,
if the peaceful protests are eventually
proven to be fruitless and concrete steps are
not taken to meet the student demands,
there is real danger that the students will lose
the belief that the peaceful mean to achieve
our goals. We ask everyone of you to help us
achieve our fundamental right - the right to
study in our mother tongue.
BACKGROUND
Kosova
is a region of the former Yugoslavia, inhabited by 2.1 million people,
90% of
which are Albanians, 8% Serbs and 2% others.
Kosova is an area of 4,201 square miles
(10,877 square kilometers), located in the south
of what used to be Yugoslavia. In the
former Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, Kosova
was a constitutive autonomous
province of the federation.
However,
in 1989, two years after Slobodan Milosevic came at the helm of Serbian
politics with his dictatorship policies, he violently
and unconstitutionally dissolved the
Kosova parliament and practically occupied Kosova,
stripping its autonomy. He did this
with the help from the Yugoslav Army and police.
The illegal suspension of the
autonomous status of Kosova led to wide scale
protests in Kosova, with hundreds of
thousands of people taking to the streets.
Even
though these protests were peaceful, the Serb military regime violently
crushed
them. From March 1989 until February 1990, more
than 70 Albanians were killed and
hundreds were injured and tortured in Serb prisons.
The members of the Kosova
(unconstitutionally resolved) parliament, after
a few sessions, in July 2, 1990, unanimously
voted and declared Kosova a Republic within the
Yugoslav Federation. In September 7 of
the same year, the Kosova Constitution was approved.
Following these two events the
Serb police became increasingly brutal in punishing
Albanians. The Serb Government shut
down the Prishtina Radio and Television (RTP).
The Albanian daily newspaper "Rilindja"
was banned. Hundreds of thousands of Albanians
were fired from their jobs when they
refused to sign "loyalty oaths" to Serbia. Those
fired included doctors and other hospital
staff. In September 1991, a popular referendum
where 99 percent of the voters (89
percent of Kosova's eligible voters) declared
the independence of Kosova.
In
May 24 of the following year (1992), the first parliamentary elections
were held.
After the elections, Kosova formed its parallel
institutions. Even though all the actions in
the last few years were peaceful, the Serb authorities
have killed more than 200 Albanian
people since 1991. Kosova Albanians continue
to pursue a non- violent resistance,
despite Serb repression they have to deal with
on daily basis.
APPEAL FOR SUPPORT
The following are some of the ways you can help the University Students:
1. Write petitions and support messages
for the non-violent, peaceful protests of the
students of the
University of Prishtina in achieving their fundamental right of education.
2. Write letters of protest to the
Serb dictator Slobodan Milosevic.
3. Write letters to the U.S. government
and President Bill Clinton and to other western
capitals explaining
the situation in UP.
4. Send books and other professional
materials (university textbooks) in English
language to the
students of UP.
5. Send different books for non-violent
movements around the world since there is a lack
of this kind of
material in UP.
6. Give access to our system operators
to your educational FTP, WWW sites, FAQ's,
Hypertext PDF
and Postscript books and literature, technical documentation and
educational software
etc. to advance the studies in the UP and all other ways of
exchanging electronic
data.
7. Organize protests in the schools
you attend/teach.
8. Exchange students with UP.
9. Send student delegations to monitor
the protests and/or see the conditions in which
the UP functions.
10. Write in your local papers about UP and about
the education in the Albanian language
in Kosova in general.
11. Write to the U.S. and other Western media
centers and ask them to monitor the
protests in Kosova.
12. Have lectures and discussion panels in your
school/university about education in
Kosova.
senden