Serbs Dissolve Legislature in Kosovo Region

Authorities in Serbia, Yugoslavia’s largest republic, Thursday dissolved the local legislature and government in Kosovo, the troubled southern province it administers, officials and the media said.

The crackdown comes three days after rebel Albanian parliamentary deputies declared the province’s political independence from Serbia.

Authorities also took measures apparently designed to give the republic full control over Kosovo’s media.

Several leading ethnic Albanian officials and journalists were removed from their jobs at Kosovo’s radio, television and the Albanian-language Rilindia publishing house, which publishes a daily newspaper. The state Tanjug news agency reported that TV and radio later went off the air.

The Serbian moves could trigger fresh unrest by the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo, the nation’s least developed region and the scene of sporadic violence over the past two years.

The Serbian law stipulated that all elected and other officials in the provincial government were suspended. Any legislation passed by the Kosovo assembly after Thursday will be considered illegal, a TV report said.

Yugoslavia is a loose federation of six republics and two nominally autonomous provinces. Kosovo, which is 90% ethnic Albanian, has progressively lost control of its affairs to Serbia.