The World - News from Feb. 26, 1989

Some Serbian activists asked Yugoslav authorities for weapons to protect themselves amid growing protests by the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo province. Meanwhile, national officials announced that more troops were being sent to the troubled area of Kosovo, an autonomous province in the republic of Serbia. Tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians have walked off their jobs since Monday, protesting a constitutional change and demanding the resignation of the provincial Communist Party chief. In response, a group of Serbs urged the government to “give us arms to defend ourselves with because the situation is critical.”