Yugoslavia's Albanians

Thank you very much for your [``News in Brief''] reports on P.Ivezaj [``Yugoslav court sentences US citizen for protest role,'' Oct. 10, and ``Yugoslavia releases three jailed Americans,'' Oct. 14]. He has been one among tens of thousands of victims of Yugoslav police state terrorism. Americans of Yugoslav origin are being continually spied upon, blackmailed, or threatened by Yugoslav secret service agents operating in the US. Many are being recruited to work for UDBA (Yugoslav KGB) - by using their relatives in Yugoslavia as hostages for blackmail.

The tragedy of Albanians in Yugoslavia, which closely parallels the oppression of the black population in South Africa, is that they are the victims of Serbian ultranationalism and supremacy. They are described by the Belgrade government as ``separatists'' because this is a convenient way to pre-empt any possible concern for these Albanians.

The charge of ``separatism'' is an often repeated trick of Serbian ultranationalists who know the US State Department's concerns about ``the unity, independence, and integrity'' of Yugoslavia. The simple fact that the Serbian ultranationalism and quest for supremacy is the key real threat to this unity and integrity is consistently being ignored by the State Department. This has gone so far that the State Department has redefined Yugoslavia as the first non-totalitarian communist police state.

The oppression of Albanians in Yugoslavia is continuous. At the beginning of this century Serbians conducted a genocide of the Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia, which they called ``South Serbia.''

During and after World War II there was the second genocide of Albanians in Yugoslavia by Serbian ultranationalists in the name of ``people struggle for liberation.'' During this period a similar genocide was committed on the Croatian nation - more than 500,000 were systematically slaughtered. After the infamous Serbian Minister of the Interior Rankovic was deposed, even the controlled press of Yugoslavia described the postwar oppression of Albanians as genocide.

The current wave of oppression is again exceedingly brutal. Thousands of Albanians, including even small children, have been sentenced to long prison terms - for resisting Serbian ultranationalism and demanding elementary human rights.

The parallel with South Africa's situation is unmistakable. To dismiss the Albanian minority's demands as ``separatist'' is misinformation. Marija Ann Levic Executive Director Human Rights in Yugoslavia Los Angeles