From the 1981 demonstrations to the abolition of autonomy

The spring of 1981

On 11 March 1981, a student protest over conditions in the University of Prishtina canteen became the start of the largest wave of demonstrations in postwar Kosovo. By late March and early April the protests had spread to other towns and taken on a clearly political character, with demands reaching as far as republic status for Kosovo.[1][2]

The authorities declared a state of emergency, sent police and army units into Kosovo and labelled the demonstrations a counter-revolution. People were killed and wounded. The number of victims remains disputed: official figures at the time and later estimates differ considerably.[1]

Political trials and the “differentiation” campaign

After the demonstrations, the authorities launched a long campaign against what they called Albanian nationalism and irredentism. According to various sources, thousands of people — mostly young — were arrested, imprisoned or fined. In schools, the university, the media and party organizations, ideological “differentiation” was applied: those deemed politically unreliable were dismissed or expelled.[1][2]

Repression pushed some groups into underground organization. On 17 January 1982, in Untergruppenbach near Stuttgart, Jusuf Gërvalla, his brother Bardhosh and Kadri Zeka, activists of the Albanian political emigration, were killed. The killing is widely attributed to the Yugoslav security service, but no court judgment has identified the perpetrators.[1][3]

After these killings, several underground groups in Kosovo and the diaspora merged into the People's Movement for the Republic of Kosovo (LPRK), the forerunner of the LPK. Its networks would later play a part in the debate over armed resistance and in the organization that preceded the KLA.[3]

Serbian nationalism and the rise of Slobodan Milošević

During the 1980s, complaints by Kosovo Serbs and Montenegrins about pressure and emigration became a central theme of public debate in Serbia. In September 1986 a draft of the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts became public; it described the position of Serbs in Kosovo in extreme terms and tied it to a broader critique of the 1974 constitutional order.[1][4]

Slobodan Milošević, then head of the League of Communists of Serbia, exploited this climate. After his visit to Kosovo Polje (Fushë Kosovë) in April 1987 and the Eighth Session of the Serbian party in September that year, he consolidated power. The mass rallies of 1988–1989, known as the “anti-bureaucratic revolution”, toppled the leaderships of Vojvodina and Montenegro and put Kosovo directly in the line of fire.[4][2]

The Trepça miners

In November 1988, after provincial leaders Azem Vllasi and Kaqusha Jashari were forced out, miners from Trepça marched from the mines near Mitrovica to Prishtina. The march was followed by large civic gatherings — among the first mass expressions of peaceful opposition to the constitutional changes then being announced.[1][2]

On 20 February 1989, about 1,300 miners began a hunger strike underground in the mine at Stantërg (Stari Trg). They demanded that autonomy be preserved and that imposed officials resign. The strike drew broad support in Kosovo and in parts of Yugoslavia, especially Slovenia. After about a week the strikers came up when the resignation of three officials was announced; a few days later, Azem Vllasi was arrested.[1][4]

March 1989: the end of autonomy

In late February 1989 the federal leadership imposed special measures in Kosovo. On 23 March 1989 the Kosovo Assembly, surrounded by security forces and armoured vehicles, voted to accept amendments to Serbia's constitution that stripped the province of its main powers. On 28 March the Serbian Assembly gave them final approval. In practice this was the abolition of autonomy.[1][2]

The legality of the vote has been disputed ever since: deputies who were present, and later researchers, have questioned the vote count, the quorum and whether any decision taken under such pressure was free. The demonstrations that followed were put down by force and people were killed; the number is given differently in the sources. On 28 June 1989, the mass rally at Gazimestan on the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo symbolized the political triumph of Belgrade's new course.[1][4]