Translation: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Historical and
Investigative Research
http://www.hirhome.com/bbc_milosevic.htm
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Copyright 1989 The
British Broadcasting Corporation
BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
June 30, 1989, Friday
SECTION: Part 2 Eastern
Europe; B. INTERNAL AFFAIRS; YUGOSLAVIA; EE/0496/B/ 1; LENGTH: 2224
words; HEADLINE: SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC ADDRESSES RALLY AT GAZIMESTAN;
SOURCE: Belgrade home service 1109 gmt 28 Jun 89; Text of live
relay of speech delivered at 28th June rally celebrating the 600th
anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo Polje (EE/0495 i)
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Comrades, comrades. At this place, at
this place [repeats himself] in the heart of Serbia at the Field of
Kosovo, six centuries ago, a full 600 years ago, one of the greatest
battles of the time took place. As (?all great events) [words
indistinct] many questions and secrets [words indistinct]. By the force
of social circumstances this great 600th anniversary of the Battle of
Kosovo is taking place in a year in which Serbia, after many years,
after decades, has regained its state, national and spiritual integrity.
Therefore, it is not difficult for me to answer today the old question
with whom [words indistinct]. Throughout the game of history and life,
it seems as if Serbia has, precisely in this year, in 1989, (?gained)
its state and its dignity and thus has celebrated an event of the
distant past which has a great historical and symbolic significance for
its future. Today, it is difficult to say what is the historical truth
about the Battle of Kosovo and what is legend. (?Today) this is no
longer important. Oppressed by pain and filled with hope, the people
(?used to suffer and forget), as, after all, all people in the world do,
and [word indistinct] and glorified heroism. Therefore, it is difficult
to say today whether the Battle of Kosovo was a defeat or a victory for
the Serbian people, whether thanks to it we fell into slavery or whether
thanks to it we [word indistinct] in this slavery. The answers to those
questions will be constantly sought by science and the people. What has
been certain through all the centuries until our time today is that
disharmony struck Kosovo 600 years ago. If we lost the battle, then this
was not only the result of (?social) superiority and the (?geographical)
advantage of the Ottoman Empire, but also of the disunity in the
leadership of the Serbian state at that time.
In that distant 1389, the Ottoman Empire was not only stronger than that
of the Serbs, but it was [word indistinct] than the Serbian kingdom. The
lack of unity and betrayal in Kosovo will continue to follow the Serbian
people like an evil (?fate) through the whole of its history. Even in
the last war, this lack of unity and betrayal led the Serbian people and
Serbia into agony, the consequences of which in the historical and moral
sense exceeded fascist aggression. Even later, when a socialist
Yugoslavia was set up, in this new state the Serbian leadership remained
divided [words indistinct] to the detriment of its own people. The
concessions that many Serbian leaders made at the expense of their
people could not be accepted historically and ethically by any nation in
the world, especially because the Serbs have never in the whole of their
history conquered and exploited others. Their national and historical
being has been liberational throughout the whole of history and through
two world wars, as it is today. They liberated themselves and when they
could they also helped others to liberate themselves. The fact that in
the region (?they are in the majority) is not a Serbian sin or shame;
this is an advantage which they have not used against others, but I must
say that here, in this big, legendary field of Kosovo, the Serbs have
not used the advantage of being in a majority for their own benefit
either.
Thanks to their leaders and politicians and their vassal mentality they
felt guilty beforethemselves and others. Disunity among Serbian
politicians made Serbia lag behind and the inferiority of those
politicians humiliated Serbia.
This situation lasted for decades, it lasted for years and here we are
now at the field of Kosovo to say that this is no longer the case.
Therefore, no place in Serbia is better suited for saying this than the
field of Kosovo and no place in Serbia is better suited than the field
of Kosovo for saying that unity in Serbia will bring prosperity to the
Serbian people [words indistinct] and each one of its citizens,
irrespective of his national or religious affiliation.
Serbia of today is united and equal to other republics and should do
everything to improve its financial and social position and that of all
its citizens. If there is unity, co-operation and seriousness, it will
succeed in doing so. This is why the optimism that is now present (?in
all the republic these) days is realistic, also because it is based on
freedom, which makes it possible for all people to express their
positive, creative and humane abilities aimed at furthering social and
personal life.
Serbia has never had only Serbs living in it. Today, more than in the
past, members of other peoples and nationalities also live in it. This
is not a disadvantage for Serbia. I am truly convinced that it is its
advantage. The national composition of almost all countries in the world
today, particularly developed ones, has also been changing in this
direction. Citizens of different nationalilties, religions and races
have been living to gether more and more frequently and more and more
successfully. Socialism in particular, being a progressive and just
democratic society, should not allow people to be divided in the
national and religious respect. The only differences one can and should
allow in socialism are between hard working peole and idlers and between
honest people and dishonest people. Therefore, all people in Serbia who
live from their own work [words indistinct] respecting other people and
other nations in their republic. After all, our entire country should be
set up on the basis of such principles.
Yugoslavia is a multinational community and it can survive only under
the conditions of full equality for all nations that live in it. The
crisis that hit Yugoslavia has brought about national divisions, but
also social, cultural, religious and many other less important ones.
Among all these divisions, nationalist ones have shown themselves to be
the most dramatic. Resolving them will make it easier to remove other
divisions and mitigate the consequences they have created.
For as long as multinational communities have existed, their weak point
has always been the relations between different nations. The threat that
the question of one nation being endangered by the others can be posed
one day and this can then start a wave of suspicions, accusations and
intolerance, a wave that invariably grows and is difficult to stop has
been hanging like a sword over their heads all the time. Internal and
external enemies of such communities are aware of this and therefore
they organise their activity against multina tional societies mostly by
fomenting national conflicts. At this moment, we in Y ugoslavia are
behaving as if we have never had such an experience and as if in our
recent and distant past we have never experienced the worst tragedy of
national conflicts that a society can experience and still survive.
Equal and harmonious relations among the Yugoslav peoples are a
necessary condition for the existence of Yugoslavia and for it to find
its way out of the crisis and, in particular, they are a conditions for
its economic and social prosperity. In this respect Yugoslavia does not
stand out from the social milieu of the contemporary, particularly the
developed, world. This world is more and more marked by national
tolerance, national co-operation and even national equality.
Modern economic and technological, as well as political and cultural
development, has guided various peoples towards each other, has made
them interdependent and increasingly and mutually equal [Serbo-Croat
medjusobno ravnopravni]. Equal and united people can above all become a
part of the civilisation towards which (?we are) moving. If we cannot be
at the head of the column leading to such a civilisation, there is
certainly no need for us to be at its tail.
At the time when this famous historical battle was fought in Kosovo, the
people were looking at the stars, expecting aid from them. Now, six
centuries later, they are looking at the stars again,(?waiting) to
conquer them. On the first occasion, they could allow themselves not to
be unified and to have hatred and treason because they lived in smaller,
weakly interlinked (?worlds). Now, as people on this planet, they cannot
conquer even their own planet if they are disunited, let alone other
planets, unless they live in mutual harmony and solidarity.
Therefore words devoted to unity, solidarity and co-operation among
people (?have no greater significance) anywhere on the soil of our
homeland than they have here in the field of Kosovo, which is a symbol
of disunity and treason. In the memory of the Serbian people, this
disunity was decisive in causing the (?loss) of the battle and in
bringing about the fate which Serbia suffered for a full six centuries.
Even if it were not so from (?a historical) point of view, it remains
certain that the people regarded disunity as its greatest disaster.
Therefore, it is the obligation of the people to remove disunity, so
that they may protect themselves from defeats, failures and stagnation
in the future.
This year, the people in Serbia achieved [words indistinct] their mutual
harmony as the indispensable condition for their present life and
further development. I am convinced that this awareness of harmony and
unity will make it possible for Serbia not only to function as a state,
but to function as a successful state. Therefore I think that it makes
sense to say this here in Kosovo, where that disunity is a tragic [words
indistinct] and that renewed unity may advance it and may return dignity
to it. [Words indistinct] constitutes an elementary necessity for
Yugoslavia, too, for its fate is in the joined hands of all its peoples.
The Kosovo battle contains another great symbol. This is the symbol of
heroism. Poems, dances, literature and history are devoted to it. The
Kosovo heroism has been inspiring our creativity for six centuries
[words indistinct] and does not allow us to forget that at one time we
were [word indistinct] brave and [word indistinct], one of the few that
entered the battle undefeated.
Six centuries later, now, (?we are engaged in) battles and (?quarrels).
They are not armed battles, although such things cannot be excluded yet.
However, regardless of what kind of (?battles) they are, they cannot be
won without resolve, bravery and sacrifice, without the noble qualities
that were present here in the field of Kosovo in the days past. Our
chief battle now concerns implementing the economic, political, cultural
and general social prosperity, finding a quicker and more successful
approach to a civilisation in which people (?will enter the 21st
century). For this battle, we certainly need heroism, of course, of a
somewhat different kind, but that courage without which nothing serious
(?and worthy) can be achieved remains unchanged and remains urgently
necessary.
Six centuries ago, Serbia defended itself in the field of Kosovo, but it
also defended Europe. Serbia was at that time the bastion that defended
the European culture, religion and European society in general.
Therefore, today it appears not only unjust, but even unhistorical and
completely absurd to talk about Serbia's belonging to Europe. Serbia has
been a part of Europe incessantly, now just as much as it was in the
past, of course, in its own way, but in a way that in the historical
snse never deprived it of dignity.
In this spirit we now endeavour to build society in an equal and
democratic way, and thus to contribute to the prosperity of this
beautiful country, this unjustly suffering country, but also to
contribute to the efforts of all the progressive people of our age that
they make for a better and happier world.
Six centuries ago, Serbia defended itself in the field of Kosovo, but it
also defended Europe. Serbia was at that time the bastion that defended
the European culture, religion and European society in general.
Therefore, today it appears not only unjust, but even unhistorical and
completely absurd to talk about Serbia's belonging to Europe. Serbia has
been a part of Europe incessantly, now just as much as it was in the
past, of course, in its own way, but in a way that in the historical
sense never deprived it of dignity.
In this spirit we now endeavour to build society in an equal and
democratic way, and thus to contribute to the prosperity of this
beautiful country, this unjustly suffering country, but also
tocontribute to the efforts of all the progressive people of our age
that they make for a better and happier world.
[Note Tanjug reported (in Serbo-Croat 1300 gmt 28 Jun
89), that about 2,000,000 people had attended the Gazimestan rally.
The Federal delegation had included President of the SFRY Presidency
Janez Drnovsek and several members of the Presidency; LCY Presidium
President Milan Pancevski; SFRY Assembly President Slobodan Gligorijevic;
FEC President Ante Markovic; Col-Gen Veljko Kadijevic, Federal Secretary
for National Defence; Budimir Loncar, Federal Secretary for Foreign
Affairs; Petar Gracanin, Federal Secretary for Internal Affairs, and
Serbian LC President Bogdan Trifunovic. In the afternoon, Tanjug
reported (in English 1854 gmt 28 Jun 89), Patriarch German had
officiated at a requiem in memory of those who had fallen in the
battle.]