Two 1987 speeches by Slobodan Milosevic
1. Speech of Slobodan Milosevic to the 9th Congress of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia
(June 1987, Belgrade)
2. Speech of Slobodan Milosevic at Urosevac
(April 25, 1987)
=== 1 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic-1987-6-eng.htm
Speech of Slobodan Milosevic to the 9th Congress of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia
June 1987, Belgrade
Kosovo - When Abuse and Humiliation are in Question, Appeals for
Patience Sound Hypocritical
This meeting of Yugoslav communists about Kosovo has been long and
impatiently awaited. It needs to be a turning point in relation to the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia, but also for our entire people against
our greatest problem this many years. From this Central Committee is
expected, further, not only that we take up a position regarding this
problem and be the bearer of its solution, but also that the changes
be radical and the solution correct, in keeping with the politics of
the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
With that I don't think we can conclude that amongst ourselves alone
that we can bring good results. Quite the contrary. Till now there
have been good conclusions that addressed everything. But they weren't
realized.
That's why this Central Committee must take upon itself the
responsibility for realizing the conclusions that it reaches.
The Communist Party as an organization, and especially its Central
Committee, dissociates the mechanisms in the area of its programs and
statutes, which can endanger the realization of its conclusions, not
to mention when the vital interests of further survival of its
institution are in question.
This is due to the fact that, for a full six years our community has
had on the record an appraisal of counter-revolution in Kosovo, and
for that full six years how that counter-revolution hasn't been
smitten.
The state of things in Kosovo isn't good and, our data and assessments
show, it's getting worse in the sphere of national, political and
economic relationships. There is great poverty in Kosovo, but that
isn't the cause of the situation which isn't good. It's correct that,
while in some portions of our nation we note all the more greater
economic and cultural upsurge, in Kosovo we have the lowest rate of
growth in Europe. But the citizens of Kosovo don't need our charity.
They need more than anything for there to be a charter for legal and
political appropriations of the relationships of this body to be
administered to them, as on all the rest of the citizens of Yugoslavia.
Only so can they cease being the majority of Yugoslavia's poor for
whom things are so difficult.
But really, how can they grow, how can they catch up with Yugoslavia,
let alone Europe, if one portion of the population lives in fear of
what will happen to them in their workplace? And even greater, what
waits for them at home when they arrive from work, are the children
alive and healthy, or is the house even there? This is because the
laws of this nation don't apply in large numbers amidst the Serbs and
Montenegrins in Kosovo.
Yugoslavia as a state isn't defunct, so in light of that, it needs to
and must serve its function. I don't know a more basic function of a
state than her obligation to protect the physical integrity of all her
citizens.
That obligation of hers isn't, nor can it be, distributed unevenly
according to nationality, on the contrary, it must be enforced
equally, without regard to nationality.
Present among us is the belief that the Kosovo problems that have been
piling up for so long can't be solved over night. That belief is
correct, but only in part. Overnight one can't create employment and
economic growth in Slovenia, Vojvodina, or Dalmatia, for example.
Overnight it can and must be made clear to everyone that this nation
will protect all of her citizens, down to the last one.
Now Unity is on the Agenda
As a part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, Kosovo is a part of
Yugoslav territory, the Yugoslav State, and this leadership of
Yugoslav communists, by the nature of things, carries the
responsibility to judge Kosovo and all her inhabitants.
This is why I find that Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo no longer
need to hear political dictates full of appeals for patience. When in
question are abuses and humiliation which many of them have endured
for years, appeals for patience sound at worst hypocritical.
The patience that they've shown till now isn't all that is needed to
solve and reform things - dispose of their problems. On the contrary,
the position of Serbs and Montenegrins has worsened. That fact is the
primary reason why today we are conducting this discourse, and it's
good that during it we are dictating politics, and even placed
congress bringing up the state and position of the nation on the
agenda. The community and party that has opted for socialism and
democracy cannot behave in any other way. And that it has often been
otherwise is one of the reasons we have found ourselves in this crisis
that we are in.
In these last six years of crisis there were a few completely
plebiscitarian situations: (discourse on the submitted conclusions of
the XIII congress CK SKJ; discourse on the political system; the
bringing of a second-hand program for economic stabilization,
pre-congress discourse, etc). They all showed that the nation and
nationality of this country, especially the working class, are in
basic decisions clear and unified. In any case, those resolutions were
never realized, or at least not with the timing which was crucial.
There is no doubt that this was because there was disunity, or
inadequately capable leadership. There aren't any separatist,
nationalist, or hegemonistic nations. Many in Yugoslavia were
justifiably worried and unsettled from the actions of Serb
nationalists who exploited understandable unhappiness and indignation
of Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo, and their use of the difficult
times in Kosovo as proof that the Communist Party of Yugoslavia is an
organization without influence, and that Yugoslavia is in a crisis from
which it can't extract itself.
Serbian communists and the Serbian nation never never had an
understanding with those that betrayed her. Today the new generation,
with memories of repugnance, remember its Chetnikism as the greatest
betrayal in the history of the Serbian nation. That is why everyone in
Yugoslavia should know that, neither in war, nor today, no older or
neo-Chetnikism, neither old nor new nationalism will ever pass in
Serbia.
From Dimitriy Tutsovich to present day, progressive people in Serbia
have fought for the Albanian nationalities in Serbia to be fair from
every angle.
Meanwhile, things have now changed and in Kosovo today Serbs and
Montenegrins are in the minority. Most of them are enduring economic,
political, national and even physical pressure from the side of the
bearers of counter-revolution. With those kinds of displays its not
just Serbs and Montenegrins fighting alone, but rather with the
support of all Serbs and Montenegrins and this leadership. The
situation with the Serbian nation in Kosovo must, in a positive way, be
changed by Albanians in Kosovo most of all.
Time for change in Kosovo is running out quickly. Either we will go
about it quickly and energetically, or it will definitely be out of
our hands.
This session isn't significant only because Kosovo is on the agenda as
the biggest problem of the Yugoslav people, but rather we're wrestling
such an important and delicate question, along with others, in the
open. Regarding that I wish to say that, from today forward,
congresses regarding Kosovo will be difficult to held in closed
session. Thus the possibility will shrink for persons in open session
to speak differently from what they do, as in so-called closed
sessions.
Differences exist in the understandings of the Kosovo situation and
ways out of it, that is indisputable. If there was unity, Kosovo would
have been solved for years already. These differences had been
demonstrated much earlier and were one of the reasons Kosovo is in
crisis.
Now, however, the time is at hand to transcend differences in
understanding in the leadership from past and present. Now unity is on
the agenda. This is difficult to achieve, but has been achieved
conceptually by this session and in the prepared conclusions for this
session of the Presidency CK Yugoslavia. When it comes to anything
involving Kosovo, I think that the degree of unity is greater than it
has ever been in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, in terms of
information resources, between intellectuals, not to mention in the
working class. Naturally, we must build further on this unity,
especially in the leadership.
The goal we have, like all the others, can only be achieved with the
help of unity. In our country this unity necessarily relates to, above
all, the Communist Party, but also the rest of the nation and
nationality of Yugoslavia.
Already for more than forty years communists and the people of
Yugoslavia have fought huge battles together: for freedom, for
socialism, for the dignity in international worker commerce, for
control of our own destiny, for input and insight into today's world.
This is why now, in Kosovo, we must wage one more battle for a way out
of this crisis, but also a way out hatred, because, I am convinced,
this crisis and hatred came together and fed off of one another.
Earlier generations knew heavier fighting, in wars which were fought
by heart alone, and victories which were achieved with great sacrifice.
To win this battle, which we now must win, we have many conditions. We
have many achievements: we have freedom, an independent voice in
international commerce throughout the entire world, control of our
destiny which, deficient practices aside, represents today's political
ideal for all progressive businesses and peoples of the world, we have
a powerful army, highly trained experts in every field, and a youth
that is aggressively educated.
Are these not the assets that shall deliver us from this crisis, which
will carry us into a new world and a new century?
Further, a time of change is before us. That wish for change is being
expressed by the entire Yugoslav public. The largest number of people,
especially young people. That which we must change for socialism to
persist does not mean we must tear it down and nullify it. Quite the
contrary. We want to, debugging its failings, build the best together.
Unity in the realization of this conclusion isn't necessary only for
peace for Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo and for peace in Kosovo. It
is necessary for peace in Yugoslavia. The loss of peace in any part of
this nation threatens peace in this nation as a whole. History knows
no faster, more effective and tragic variant of loss of freedom than
this. With this surety all our peoples and nationalities must feel as
and behave as Yugoslavs.
For everything that we've achieved in this community, we've achieved
together. When we began to divide, we began to lose. The nature or our
independence and autonomy in the Yugoslav collective excludes each
other not mattering to us.
Debts, unemployment, inflation, Kosovo, all these can only be solved
together and with the cooperation of the Yugoslav people, nations, and
Yugoslav leadership.
Our goal isn't only an exit from this crisis. Our goal is economic
prosperity which will bring us closer to Europe, and political and
cultural growth which will bring us closer to the ideals which were
purchased by every revolution in the 20th century.
The changes that need to happen in our community in the spheres of
economics, politics and culture are huge and urgent.
These can't be carried out by just any people. On the contrary, they
can be carried out by only those who in essence belong to this time,
who know what those changes are and who are qualified to carry them
out.
This plenum may signify the start of the victory of the spirit of
unity and solidarity of the nations and peoples of Yugoslavia, on such
a critical and key question like Kosovo. It can be expressed by the
prosperity and bravery carried within by a million Yugoslav citizens,
youth, and communists, who at last must be those that throw all doors
open wide.
TRANSLATED BY: TIM SKORICK
Original Serbian Text (PDF File)
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic-1987-6.pdf
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic-1987-4-eng.htm
Speech of Slobodan Milosevic at Urosevac
April 25, 1987
At this instant about 1,500,000 Albanians live in Kosovo, and many
fewer Serbs and Montenegrins. We can't say that they are a minority,
but the fact is that there are a lot less of them. It's also a fact
that the majority of them are exposed to economic, political,
nationalist and physical pressure from separatists, carrying forward a
counter-revolution which started in 1981.
Things are happening here these days that haven't happened in
civilized countries in this world for a few centuries. They rape women
and children, humiliate people, physically mistreat them. Serbs and
Montenegrins can't conquer those shameful acts alone. In the ways and
amounts of support the republic and Yugoslav leadership can offer, the
position of Serbian and Montenegrin peoples on Kosovo require a huge
change in a positive way in the Albanians on Kosovo.
Progressive, upstanding people, young people, it's understood, above
all, that the Albanian communists must be the first, most dedicated
and most successful fighters against their own nationalists.
That, friends, doesn't go just for the Albanian nation, it goes for
Serb, Montenegrin, and for every nation on the planet.
It's true and moral that every nation's most progressive people alone,
before all others, fight against the nationalists in their own ranks.
Against all those ugly and inhumane acts that wound and humiliate
other nations. But, those ugly and inhumane acts wound and humiliate,
at the end of the line, the nation that those that commit them belong
to.
The Albanian nation, out of shame from what their nationalists are
committing, are surely hurting not Serbs and Montenegrins but rather
herself alone. With every rape of a Serbian child infamy falls on all
Albanians if they do not put a stop that shame.
On the safety of Serb and Montenegrin children, here on Kosovo,
Albanian mothers and fathers must worry more, and not the police.
There where the police and the military take matters into their own
hands freedom ends for both the guilty and the innocent, for the
rights of all.
Care for your rights, guard your voice, those that can.
TRANSLATED BY: TIM SKORICK
Original Serbian Text (PDF File)
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic-1987-4.pdf
1. Speech of Slobodan Milosevic to the 9th Congress of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia
(June 1987, Belgrade)
2. Speech of Slobodan Milosevic at Urosevac
(April 25, 1987)
=== 1 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic-1987-6-eng.htm
Speech of Slobodan Milosevic to the 9th Congress of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia
June 1987, Belgrade
Kosovo - When Abuse and Humiliation are in Question, Appeals for
Patience Sound Hypocritical
This meeting of Yugoslav communists about Kosovo has been long and
impatiently awaited. It needs to be a turning point in relation to the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia, but also for our entire people against
our greatest problem this many years. From this Central Committee is
expected, further, not only that we take up a position regarding this
problem and be the bearer of its solution, but also that the changes
be radical and the solution correct, in keeping with the politics of
the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
With that I don't think we can conclude that amongst ourselves alone
that we can bring good results. Quite the contrary. Till now there
have been good conclusions that addressed everything. But they weren't
realized.
That's why this Central Committee must take upon itself the
responsibility for realizing the conclusions that it reaches.
The Communist Party as an organization, and especially its Central
Committee, dissociates the mechanisms in the area of its programs and
statutes, which can endanger the realization of its conclusions, not
to mention when the vital interests of further survival of its
institution are in question.
This is due to the fact that, for a full six years our community has
had on the record an appraisal of counter-revolution in Kosovo, and
for that full six years how that counter-revolution hasn't been
smitten.
The state of things in Kosovo isn't good and, our data and assessments
show, it's getting worse in the sphere of national, political and
economic relationships. There is great poverty in Kosovo, but that
isn't the cause of the situation which isn't good. It's correct that,
while in some portions of our nation we note all the more greater
economic and cultural upsurge, in Kosovo we have the lowest rate of
growth in Europe. But the citizens of Kosovo don't need our charity.
They need more than anything for there to be a charter for legal and
political appropriations of the relationships of this body to be
administered to them, as on all the rest of the citizens of Yugoslavia.
Only so can they cease being the majority of Yugoslavia's poor for
whom things are so difficult.
But really, how can they grow, how can they catch up with Yugoslavia,
let alone Europe, if one portion of the population lives in fear of
what will happen to them in their workplace? And even greater, what
waits for them at home when they arrive from work, are the children
alive and healthy, or is the house even there? This is because the
laws of this nation don't apply in large numbers amidst the Serbs and
Montenegrins in Kosovo.
Yugoslavia as a state isn't defunct, so in light of that, it needs to
and must serve its function. I don't know a more basic function of a
state than her obligation to protect the physical integrity of all her
citizens.
That obligation of hers isn't, nor can it be, distributed unevenly
according to nationality, on the contrary, it must be enforced
equally, without regard to nationality.
Present among us is the belief that the Kosovo problems that have been
piling up for so long can't be solved over night. That belief is
correct, but only in part. Overnight one can't create employment and
economic growth in Slovenia, Vojvodina, or Dalmatia, for example.
Overnight it can and must be made clear to everyone that this nation
will protect all of her citizens, down to the last one.
Now Unity is on the Agenda
As a part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, Kosovo is a part of
Yugoslav territory, the Yugoslav State, and this leadership of
Yugoslav communists, by the nature of things, carries the
responsibility to judge Kosovo and all her inhabitants.
This is why I find that Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo no longer
need to hear political dictates full of appeals for patience. When in
question are abuses and humiliation which many of them have endured
for years, appeals for patience sound at worst hypocritical.
The patience that they've shown till now isn't all that is needed to
solve and reform things - dispose of their problems. On the contrary,
the position of Serbs and Montenegrins has worsened. That fact is the
primary reason why today we are conducting this discourse, and it's
good that during it we are dictating politics, and even placed
congress bringing up the state and position of the nation on the
agenda. The community and party that has opted for socialism and
democracy cannot behave in any other way. And that it has often been
otherwise is one of the reasons we have found ourselves in this crisis
that we are in.
In these last six years of crisis there were a few completely
plebiscitarian situations: (discourse on the submitted conclusions of
the XIII congress CK SKJ; discourse on the political system; the
bringing of a second-hand program for economic stabilization,
pre-congress discourse, etc). They all showed that the nation and
nationality of this country, especially the working class, are in
basic decisions clear and unified. In any case, those resolutions were
never realized, or at least not with the timing which was crucial.
There is no doubt that this was because there was disunity, or
inadequately capable leadership. There aren't any separatist,
nationalist, or hegemonistic nations. Many in Yugoslavia were
justifiably worried and unsettled from the actions of Serb
nationalists who exploited understandable unhappiness and indignation
of Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo, and their use of the difficult
times in Kosovo as proof that the Communist Party of Yugoslavia is an
organization without influence, and that Yugoslavia is in a crisis from
which it can't extract itself.
Serbian communists and the Serbian nation never never had an
understanding with those that betrayed her. Today the new generation,
with memories of repugnance, remember its Chetnikism as the greatest
betrayal in the history of the Serbian nation. That is why everyone in
Yugoslavia should know that, neither in war, nor today, no older or
neo-Chetnikism, neither old nor new nationalism will ever pass in
Serbia.
From Dimitriy Tutsovich to present day, progressive people in Serbia
have fought for the Albanian nationalities in Serbia to be fair from
every angle.
Meanwhile, things have now changed and in Kosovo today Serbs and
Montenegrins are in the minority. Most of them are enduring economic,
political, national and even physical pressure from the side of the
bearers of counter-revolution. With those kinds of displays its not
just Serbs and Montenegrins fighting alone, but rather with the
support of all Serbs and Montenegrins and this leadership. The
situation with the Serbian nation in Kosovo must, in a positive way, be
changed by Albanians in Kosovo most of all.
Time for change in Kosovo is running out quickly. Either we will go
about it quickly and energetically, or it will definitely be out of
our hands.
This session isn't significant only because Kosovo is on the agenda as
the biggest problem of the Yugoslav people, but rather we're wrestling
such an important and delicate question, along with others, in the
open. Regarding that I wish to say that, from today forward,
congresses regarding Kosovo will be difficult to held in closed
session. Thus the possibility will shrink for persons in open session
to speak differently from what they do, as in so-called closed
sessions.
Differences exist in the understandings of the Kosovo situation and
ways out of it, that is indisputable. If there was unity, Kosovo would
have been solved for years already. These differences had been
demonstrated much earlier and were one of the reasons Kosovo is in
crisis.
Now, however, the time is at hand to transcend differences in
understanding in the leadership from past and present. Now unity is on
the agenda. This is difficult to achieve, but has been achieved
conceptually by this session and in the prepared conclusions for this
session of the Presidency CK Yugoslavia. When it comes to anything
involving Kosovo, I think that the degree of unity is greater than it
has ever been in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, in terms of
information resources, between intellectuals, not to mention in the
working class. Naturally, we must build further on this unity,
especially in the leadership.
The goal we have, like all the others, can only be achieved with the
help of unity. In our country this unity necessarily relates to, above
all, the Communist Party, but also the rest of the nation and
nationality of Yugoslavia.
Already for more than forty years communists and the people of
Yugoslavia have fought huge battles together: for freedom, for
socialism, for the dignity in international worker commerce, for
control of our own destiny, for input and insight into today's world.
This is why now, in Kosovo, we must wage one more battle for a way out
of this crisis, but also a way out hatred, because, I am convinced,
this crisis and hatred came together and fed off of one another.
Earlier generations knew heavier fighting, in wars which were fought
by heart alone, and victories which were achieved with great sacrifice.
To win this battle, which we now must win, we have many conditions. We
have many achievements: we have freedom, an independent voice in
international commerce throughout the entire world, control of our
destiny which, deficient practices aside, represents today's political
ideal for all progressive businesses and peoples of the world, we have
a powerful army, highly trained experts in every field, and a youth
that is aggressively educated.
Are these not the assets that shall deliver us from this crisis, which
will carry us into a new world and a new century?
Further, a time of change is before us. That wish for change is being
expressed by the entire Yugoslav public. The largest number of people,
especially young people. That which we must change for socialism to
persist does not mean we must tear it down and nullify it. Quite the
contrary. We want to, debugging its failings, build the best together.
Unity in the realization of this conclusion isn't necessary only for
peace for Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo and for peace in Kosovo. It
is necessary for peace in Yugoslavia. The loss of peace in any part of
this nation threatens peace in this nation as a whole. History knows
no faster, more effective and tragic variant of loss of freedom than
this. With this surety all our peoples and nationalities must feel as
and behave as Yugoslavs.
For everything that we've achieved in this community, we've achieved
together. When we began to divide, we began to lose. The nature or our
independence and autonomy in the Yugoslav collective excludes each
other not mattering to us.
Debts, unemployment, inflation, Kosovo, all these can only be solved
together and with the cooperation of the Yugoslav people, nations, and
Yugoslav leadership.
Our goal isn't only an exit from this crisis. Our goal is economic
prosperity which will bring us closer to Europe, and political and
cultural growth which will bring us closer to the ideals which were
purchased by every revolution in the 20th century.
The changes that need to happen in our community in the spheres of
economics, politics and culture are huge and urgent.
These can't be carried out by just any people. On the contrary, they
can be carried out by only those who in essence belong to this time,
who know what those changes are and who are qualified to carry them
out.
This plenum may signify the start of the victory of the spirit of
unity and solidarity of the nations and peoples of Yugoslavia, on such
a critical and key question like Kosovo. It can be expressed by the
prosperity and bravery carried within by a million Yugoslav citizens,
youth, and communists, who at last must be those that throw all doors
open wide.
TRANSLATED BY: TIM SKORICK
Original Serbian Text (PDF File)
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic-1987-6.pdf
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic-1987-4-eng.htm
Speech of Slobodan Milosevic at Urosevac
April 25, 1987
At this instant about 1,500,000 Albanians live in Kosovo, and many
fewer Serbs and Montenegrins. We can't say that they are a minority,
but the fact is that there are a lot less of them. It's also a fact
that the majority of them are exposed to economic, political,
nationalist and physical pressure from separatists, carrying forward a
counter-revolution which started in 1981.
Things are happening here these days that haven't happened in
civilized countries in this world for a few centuries. They rape women
and children, humiliate people, physically mistreat them. Serbs and
Montenegrins can't conquer those shameful acts alone. In the ways and
amounts of support the republic and Yugoslav leadership can offer, the
position of Serbian and Montenegrin peoples on Kosovo require a huge
change in a positive way in the Albanians on Kosovo.
Progressive, upstanding people, young people, it's understood, above
all, that the Albanian communists must be the first, most dedicated
and most successful fighters against their own nationalists.
That, friends, doesn't go just for the Albanian nation, it goes for
Serb, Montenegrin, and for every nation on the planet.
It's true and moral that every nation's most progressive people alone,
before all others, fight against the nationalists in their own ranks.
Against all those ugly and inhumane acts that wound and humiliate
other nations. But, those ugly and inhumane acts wound and humiliate,
at the end of the line, the nation that those that commit them belong
to.
The Albanian nation, out of shame from what their nationalists are
committing, are surely hurting not Serbs and Montenegrins but rather
herself alone. With every rape of a Serbian child infamy falls on all
Albanians if they do not put a stop that shame.
On the safety of Serb and Montenegrin children, here on Kosovo,
Albanian mothers and fathers must worry more, and not the police.
There where the police and the military take matters into their own
hands freedom ends for both the guilty and the innocent, for the
rights of all.
Care for your rights, guard your voice, those that can.
TRANSLATED BY: TIM SKORICK
Original Serbian Text (PDF File)
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/milosevic-1987-4.pdf