Word: serbia
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Milosevic has been campaigning for a drastic expansion of Serbia's power within Yugoslavia, including a tightened grip over the province of Kosovo, which is now only technically under Serbian control. Yugoslavia's Serbs regard Kosovo as their historic homeland, even though they now constitute little more than 10% of the province's population. At last week's meeting, Milosevic was opposed by the leaders of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, all of whom feared that his ambitious campaign would upset the fragile balance of power among Yugoslavia's six republics and two autonomous provinces...
...Serbia. Kosovo. The names rise up like wraiths from the mists of European history, evoking episodes that dispatched the tumbrels of war throughout the Old Continent 74 summers ago, or paved the way a half-millennium earlier for the Turkish domination of the Balkans. It was at Sarajevo in June 1914 that a Serbian-trained assassin shot the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, igniting World War I. And it was at Kosovo Field in 1389 that the Ottomans snuffed out Serbian independence...
During the past few months, Milosevic has deftly manipulated his supporters throughout Serbia into pressing for the ouster of moderates opposed to tighter Serbian controls over Kosovo. Demonstrations erupted in Serbia and Voivodina, like Kosovo an autonomous province. In Montenegro last week, police used tear gas and nightsticks to suppress a demonstration by thousands of Milosevic partisans...
Those words failed to blunt the drive by Milosevic for greater power for himself and Serbia. As party meetings were held throughout the republics in preparation for a meeting of the 165-member Yugoslav Central Committee this week, there was talk that up to one-third of the members might be ousted in a pro-Milosevic shake-up and a purge of incompetents. The Serbian party, meanwhile, hammered away at the Kosovo issue. A Serbian party resolution, backed by Milosevic, demanded the ouster of three top Kosovo party officials, two of them ethnic Albanians. Warned Milosevic: "The people gather...
...Yugoslavia's autonomous province of Voivodina last week, some 100,000 Serbs demanded and got the resignation of the entire 15-member provincial Politburo. Two days later in Montenegro, thousands of protesters also demanded the ouster of the Communist Party leadership. Across Serbia, largest of the country's six republics, thousands of demonstrators called for tough, centralized control over the southern province of Kosovo, where a majority of the 2 million inhabitants are ethnic Albanians. Many carried photos of Serbian Party leader Slobodan Milosevic...