Source: "Dictionary of Misconceptions", pp. 119-120

"ALBANIANS ARE THREATENED IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA"

This is one of the favorite theses promoted by the Albanian separatists and their mentors. However, none of them ever managed to prove such affirmations in relation to the international standards warranting human and civil rights of national minorities. The ethnic Albanians in the Republic of Serbia, which includes the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija, are a national minority but they have never been prevented from exerting the rights that the Constitution of Serbia and of FR Yugoslavia garantee to all citizens, regardless of their nationality. Ethnic Albanians
enjoy the right to form political organizations, to establish their national institutions, to receive education (from grammar school ot university) in their own mother-tongue, to be informed in their own language, have their TV programs, newspapers and magazines, to vote and be elected (without any limitations) for local, republican and federal offices, as well to have private enterprises.
   
Bearing this in mind, it can not be stated that the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija are threatened only because they are not allowed to forcibly separate this region from Serbia, and create an independent state with the prospective of joining Albania. Furthermore, they can not be threatened ones "just because" they refuse to recognize the legal authorities, do not pay taxes, and prevent their children from attending school (in their own mother-tongue) but according to the educational programs which apply to all other schools and universities in Serbia.
   
Obviously the "discontent" of the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo and Metohija, and the activities of the secessionist movement are not caused by the lack of human and minority rights, but are the essence of a long-term political strategy designed to overthrow the constitutional order and undermine the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia. [N.J.]

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