Source Q

A speech by Josip Broz Tito made on 29 November 1943 in Belgrade.

We are very well aware that the traitor government is doing all it can to smuggle itself back into Yugoslavia at any cost (and that goes for the king too) before the people utter their decisive word on their future. We know that certain reactionary circles abroad are helping that government. But we also know that the vast majority of progressive democratic elements in the Allied countries sincerely desire our people to decide their future for themselves … We have been slandered from all sides … All the occupiers and traitors … say that our people's liberation struggle in Yugoslavia is purely a communist affair, involving the bolshevization of a country, an attempt by the communists to seize power, the abolition of private property, the destruction of the church and of religion, the destruction of culture and so on … Very few people believe these lies any longer, and least of all the people of Yugoslavia … The times are past when a handful of reactionaries could ascribe such matters to the communists of Yugoslavia, in order to isolate them from the people. Bearing this in mind … It is essential to take steps to ensure that our peoples obtain a state system based on the brotherhood and equality of rights of all peoples of Yugoslavia and which would guarantee genuine liberty and democracy to all sections of the community. The monarchy has completely discredited itself in the eyes of the people during the last twenty-three years. The evidence for this has been proved hundreds of thousands of times and all our peoples know it. Only a republican form of government can ensure that such disasters never again come upon our people.

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A speech by Josip Broz Tito made on 14 February 1945 in Belgrade.

Our sacrifices are terrible. I can safely say that there is no other part of the world which has been devastated on a vaster scale than Yugoslavia. Every tenth Yugoslav has perished in this struggle in which we were forced to wrest armaments from our enemies, to freeze without clothing, and to die without medication. Nevertheless our optimism and faith have proved justified. The greatest gain of this conflict between democracy and fascism lies in the fact that it has drawn together everything that was good in humanity. The unity of the United States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain is the best guarantee to the peoples of the world that Nazi horrors will never again be repeated. In organizing our country on the sacred principles of democracy and of concern for the common man, we Yugoslavs believe that we are making our best contribution to this harmonious community.

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A speech by Josip Broz Tito made on 9 May 1945 in Belgrade.

Peoples of Yugoslavia! Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Moslems! The long-desired day has dawned which you have been waiting for with such yearning. The day of rejoicing has come to us here, too. Finally the greatest fascist power in Europe is vanquished, Germany, which incited so much suffering upon our people and took so many victims. The powers that tried to enslave you have been vanquished. You were offered enticements by the German and Italian fascists in order to lead you to exterminate each other. But your best sons and daughters, inspired with love for their homeland and for you, her peoples, thwarted this diabolical enemy plan. Instead of mutual dissension and hostility, you are today united in a new and happier Yugoslavia. Instead of the old Yugoslavia, rotten with corruption and injustice, today we have the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia of equal peoples. This is the result of the victory of our glorious Yugoslav Army, it is the result of your endurance, your self-sacrifice and faith in your just cause … We must make our brotherhood and unity even stronger, so that never again can any force destroy it.

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Extract from Stevan K. Pavlowitch, Hitler's New Disorder: The Second World War in Yugoslavia (2008).

Tito's wartime speeches were carefully crafted to appeal to multiple audiences at once. While denouncing the monarchy and advocating for a federal republic, he deliberately avoided mentioning communism as the guiding ideology, instead emphasizing brotherhood, equality, and democratic principles. This rhetorical strategy served to broaden support beyond committed communists, reassuring Western Allies while simultaneously laying the groundwork for a post-war communist state. The language of national unity masked what was, in practice, a communist-led movement with clear revolutionary aims.

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United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, address to the UN General Assembly, 20 September 1999, following the NATO intervention in Kosovo.

The tragedy of Kosovo has left us all with a sense of deep disquiet. We are all deeply aware of the horror that unfolded there: the systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing, the mass deportation of nearly one million people, the destruction of homes, the massacres of civilians. The international community was faced with a terrible dilemma. On one hand, the Charter of the United Nations clearly forbids the use of force against a sovereign state without Security Council authorisation. On the other hand, the failure to act in Rwanda five years earlier haunted us all. Can we really afford to let the same thing happen again? The Kosovo intervention has forced us to confront a fundamental question: when does the international community's responsibility to protect innocent civilians override the principle of state sovereignty?

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Photograph taken on the Kosovo-Macedonia border, April 1999, showing a long column of refugees walking along a road carrying bundles and suitcases. Abandoned houses are visible behind them and a NATO aircraft flies overhead. A road sign reads "Macedonia Border."

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Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, statement to the UN Security Council, 24 March 1999, condemning the NATO bombing campaign.

The actions of NATO constitute a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter and of international law. No state, and no group of states, has the right to use military force against a sovereign state without the authorisation of the Security Council. The humanitarian situation in Kosovo, however grave, does not justify the unilateral use of force by a military alliance acting outside the framework of international law. Russia did not and does not support Serbian policy in Kosovo. But we cannot accept a precedent in which military alliances bypass the Security Council and impose their will by force. If this principle is established, no small nation will be safe from intervention by powerful states acting in the name of "humanitarianism."

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Historian Tim Judah, Kosovo: War and Revenge, second edition, 2002.

The impact of the Kosovo war extended far beyond the Balkans. It established a precedent for humanitarian military intervention without UN Security Council authorisation that would reshape international relations for decades. The concept of "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P), formally adopted by the UN in 2005, was a direct intellectual product of the Kosovo debate. Within Kosovo itself, the consequences were profound but ambiguous: the NATO campaign succeeded in ending Serbian ethnic cleansing and enabling the return of most refugees, but it also triggered a reverse wave of violence against the Serbian and Roma minorities who remained. Kosovo declared independence in February 2008, recognised by the United States and most Western European states but rejected by Serbia and Russia. The territory remained effectively partitioned and internationally disputed, a reminder that military intervention can end a crisis without resolving the underlying conflict.

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Miloševic´ speaking in Kosovo in 1989.

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Speech Miloševic´ gave at Kosovo Polje (the "Field of Blackbirds") to a crowd of largely Serb Kosovars on 24-25 April 1987.

Nationalism always means isolation from others, being locked in a closed circle, and that also means stopping growth, because without cooperation and connection with Yugoslavia, and then widening vistas, there is no progress. Every nation and nationality which shuts itself off and isolates itself behaves irresponsibly toward their constituents' growth. That is why, before anything else, we communists must do all that is required to eliminate the consequences of nationalist and separatist behaviour … But our goal is to emerge from a state of hatred, intolerance and mistrust. That all people in Kosovo live well. And that is why, in relation to that goal, I want to tell you colleagues, yes, you need to stay here. This is your land. Your homes are here, your memories … You need to stay here because of your forefathers and because of your descendants. You would shame your forefathers and disappoint your descendants … We'll change it together, we, Serbia and all of Yugoslavia! … we can at least stop the exodus, we can assure the condition that all people that live on Kosovo be in their homes, live under equal rights and equal allotment of Kosovo economic opportunity before anything else, and then all other opportunities … All of Yugoslavia is with you. The issue isn't that it's a problem for Yugoslavia, but Yugoslavia and Kosovo. Yugoslavia doesn't exist without Kosovo! Yugoslavia would disintegrate without Kosovo! Yugoslavia and Serbia will never give up Kosovo!

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Excerpts from the speech by Miloševic´ at a rally in Belgrade, 19 November 1988.

Comrades, no meeting as big as this has been held in Belgrade since its liberation. The last time such a great number of people, united by a great idea, gathered in the streets of Belgrade was on 20th October 1944. At that time the people in the streets of Belgrade were celebrating victory in the war. At that time, just as today, members of all Yugoslav peoples and nationalities assembled here in togetherness. The most important thing that we must resolve at this time is to establish peace and order in Kosovo. There is no more urgent task for Serbia, nor should there be any other more pressing task for all of Yugoslavia, because the solidarity of the Yugoslav peoples and especially of Yugoslav workers have always been their greatest and strongest characteristic … For this reason, it is difficult to explain why this solidarity has been late in manifesting itself to a greater extent, more quickly, and with a greater love when citizens of our own country have been concerned. The long absence of this solidarity with the boundless suffering of the Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo constitutes an incurable wound to their hearts and to the heart of all of Serbia. We shall win the battle for Kosovo regardless of the obstacles facing us inside and outside the country … Nobody should be surprised that all Serbia rose up last summer because of Kosovo. Kosovo is the very centre of its history, its culture, and its memory. All people have a love which burns in their hearts forever. For a Serb that love is Kosovo. That is why Kosovo will remain in Serbia. That will not be at the expense of Albanians. I can tell the Albanians in Kosovo that nobody has ever found it difficult to live in Serbia because he is not Serbian. Serbia has always been open to everybody to the homeless, to the poor and the rich alike, to the happy and the desperate, to those who were only passing through and to those who wanted to stay.

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Excerpts from the speech by Miloševic´ at Gazimestan, Kosovo, 28 June 1989 (the 600th anniversary of the Battle of the Blackbirds between Serbian and Ottoman forces).

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 to be disunited 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 not united, let alone other planets, unless they live in mutual harmony and solidarity. Therefore, words devoted to unity, solidarity, and cooperation among people have no greater significance anywhere on the soil of our motherland 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. Six centuries later, now, we are again engaged in battles and are facing battles. They are not armed battles, although such things cannot be excluded yet … Our chief battle now concerns implementing the economic, political, cultural, and general social prosperity, finding a quicker and more successful approach to a civilization in which people will live in the 21st century. Six centuries ago, Serbia heroically defended itself in the field of Kosovo, but it also defended Europe. Serbia was at that time the bastion that defended 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 … In this spirit we now endeavour to build a society, rich and democratic, 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 make for a better and happier world. Let the memory of Kosovo heroism live forever! Long live Serbia! Long live Yugoslavia!

Long live peace and brotherhood among peoples.