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3. ALBANIAN OFFICIALS ABOUT KOSOVO AND METOHIJAThe Yugoslav-Albanian relations are traditionally burdened by the active interference of the Republic of Albania in the internal affairs of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, its territorial claims in relation to Kosovo and Metohija and other parts of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, its unreserved support to the ethnic Albanian separatists and terrorists and its paternalistic attitude to the Albanian national minority in the FR of Yugoslavia. The Republic of Albania is conducting such a policy continuously on the basis of an intensive and aggressive anti-Yugoslav diplomatic and propaganda activity, particularly in the UN, OSCE and other international organisations and forums. With the onset of the Yugoslav crisis, the relations between the FR of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Albania sunk to the lowest level because in giving its support to the disintegration processes in the SFRY, Albania negated the existence of the FR of Yugoslavia as a personality in international law, insisting on the thesis that the province of Kosovo and Metohija is not an integral part of the Republic of Serbia and that it has the right of self-determination. The anti-Yugoslav and anti-Serbian policies backed up by
an orchestrated media campaign, demonstrated the characteristics of
hysterical propaganda from time to time, particularly after the unilateral
lowering of the diplomatic representation to the level of chargé
d'affaires in June 1992 and its recognition of the so-called Republic of
Kosovo "as a sovereign and independent state". |