Basic Western misconceptions on the Kosovo issue and their corrections
28. The KosMet’s autonomy was cancelled by S. Milošević in 1989 and, therefore, Albanians lost their minority rights
Wrong. The autonomy was not canceled as it was just reduced from the political independence to the national-cultural rights in order to prevent further separation of the province from Serbia and to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs. The level of autonomy which KosMet’s Albanians, as a national minority, enjoyed before 1989 in Serbia is not recorded in world history of the protection of the rights of national/ethnic minorities. However, for the matter of comparison, at the same period of time and even today, the Kurds of Turkey, the Corsicans of France or the Sardinians of Italy were/are not even recognized as ethnic minorities in their countries. The Albanians of Macedonia or Montenegro within ex-Yugoslavia did not enjoy any kind of national/ethnic territorial/political autonomy as it was also the case with the Serbs in Croatia or Bosnia-Herzegovina who could only dream to get the autonomy status enjoyed by KosMet’s Albanians in Serbia. To be honest, at the same time, there was no any migration of KosMet’s Albanians to Albania where they would enjoy a full scale of national rights, but it was rather the opposite way that Albania’s Albanians were coming (illegally) to KosMet where they were “oppressed” on national/ethnic basis.
