Autonomy Abolished: How Milosevic Launched Kosovo’s Descent into War

"It was a day for conscience and responsibility," Termkolli told BIRN.

Kosovo's autonomy as part of the Yugoslav federation was granted in 1974 under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito, giving it almost the same rights as Yugoslavia's six republics. Fifteen years later, this was being reversed.

Termkolli expected most members of the Provincial Assembly to vote against the withdrawal of autonomy. But they didn't.

"I felt like a part of me died. I stand up and looked at most of the faces. They looked like crows to me. I said to myself: 'Now Kosovo is gone,'" she recalled.

The minutes from the Provincial Assembly session that day say that 167 of its 190 members voted to accept the Milosevic amendments. Only Termkolli and nine other ethnic Albanian members voted against.

"It was a moment of shame. A dark episode that would have negative consequences," she said.

Five days later, the Assembly of Serbia approved the constitutional changes, effectively revoking Kosovo's autonomy.

The day after that, unrest erupted in Pristina and the city of Ferizaj/Urosevac, where police attacked students who were protesting against the changes.

"Police charged into 1,000 students on the university campus in the Kosovo capital Pristina. The television showed them beating the students with batons," The Guardian newspaper reported at the time.

Termkolli said she believes that the revocation of autonomy was part of "a well-prepared scenario by Slobodan Milosevic".

"Shortly after this, on June 28 [1989], Milosevic would inflame a new wave of nationalism and ethnic hatred," she added.

Milosevic's speech in June at the site of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo, a key event in Serbian history and mythology, caused some...