Copyright 1986 The New York Times Company The New York Times July 27, 1986, Sunday, Late City Final Edition SECTION: Section 1; Part 1, Page 6, Column 1; Foreign Desk LENGTH: 507 words HEADLINE: MINORITIES ARE UNEASY IN YUGOSLAV PROVINCE BYLINE: By HENRY KAMM, Special to the New York Times DATELINE: BELGRADE, YugoslaviaBODY:
The Serbs and Montenegrins of Kosovo began agitating during a Communist Party convention in June. The police blocked roads to forestall planned marches to dramatize the issue.
But even without marches, ethnic tension in Kosovo was a topic of debate at the convention. Speakers said that Albania was fomenting agitation in the autonomous province with the intent of detaching it from Yugoslavia.
The convention also heard an attack on Bulgaria and Greece over the longstanding issue of Macedonian nationality. Macedonians, a Slavic group with historical links both to Bulgaria and to Greece, form one of the constituent republics of Yugoslavia.
Turkish Minority in Bulgaria
Along with the persecution of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria and resentment among ethnic Hungarians in Rumania, ethnic
issues that have marked Balkan history are returning to the fore.
''We have to say how dangerous the Kosovo problem is to the integrity of our country,'' said Ivan Stambolic, President of the Serbian Republic, which includes Kosovo Autonomous Province. Kosovo's population of 1.6 million is 78 percent ethnic Albanian.
''It is the most delicate problem we have ever had,'' said Mr. Stambolic in a meeting with Western reporters at the convention hall. ''It is a problem of long duration that cannot be solved overnight.''
Since earlier this year, hundreds of Serbs living in Kosovo have staged marches in Belgrade to protest what they consider the failure of the Government to protect them from attacks and threats by Albanians against them and their property.
'Unfavorable Trends'
Vidoje Zarkovic, head of the party's collective presidency, spoke at the convention about ''continuing unfavorable trends in the
province'' and said, ''We have not succeeded in stabilizing the disturbed interethnic relations and in developing trust.''
In a resolution, the convention accused Albania of fomenting ethnic conflict.
''Albania has continued to openly and blatantly interfere in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia,'' the resolution declared. ''Irredentist and nationalist indoctrination of our citizens by Albania constitutes a serious threat to peace and security in the Balkans and beyond.''
Despite a perceptible thawing of Albania's isolationist attitude since the death last year of Enver Hoxha, the Albanian leader, its hostility to Yugoslavia has grown.
''Albania is intensifying its anti-Yugoslav campaign,'' said Dobrivoje Vidic, a member of the Yugoslav party's presidency. ''It unrelentingly attacks all the values of our society, expresses unconcealed territorial aspirations, flagrantly interferes in the internal affairs of our people and extends open support to the counterrevolutionary goals of the Albanian separatists in Yugoslavia.''
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