Miners End Yugoslav Sit-In; Troops Moving Into Province

Troops and tanks moved into Kosovo province Monday, while ethnic Albanian miners ended their eight-day sit-in deep in a mine shaft after three provincial Communist party leaders resigned as the strikers demanded.

However, the miners said they would not work until their other demands were met, including the abandonment of planned constitutional changes that would give the Serbian republic--one of six republics within Yugoslavia--more control over the autonomous province of Kosovo. Kosovo’s population of 1.8 million is 90% ethnic Albanian.

The official Tanjug news agency said the government put emergency measures into effect in Kosovo but did not describe them.

Air force jets flew over Pristina, the provincial capital, several times in a show of force by the federal government, which is trying to end a wave of protests by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo that began with the miners’ strike.

Tanks were parked in front of the army barracks. Vehicles loaded with soldiers headed toward Titova Mitrovica, 110 miles south of Belgrade, where the miners were occupying a lead and zinc mine.

The miners began leaving the mine after the resignations of the three officials, who are ethnic Albanians but are seen as supporters of the Serbian Communist Party.

Rahman Morina, the provincial party chief, resigned Monday, and Belgrade Radio quoted him as saying, in a comment directed at the Trepca miners: “I am deeply shaken that you consider me responsible for your lives and health. It is only for this reason that I am submitting the resignation.”

Husamedin Azemi, party chief of Pristina, and Ali Sukrija, Kosovo’s member in the national Central Committee, also stepped down.