John AutryMarch 8, 1995 - Women in Black demonstrated in the center of Belgrade, Serbia, on International Women's Day, expressing solidarity with Kosovar women: "The Albanian women from Kosovo are our sisters."
The women were both spit at and kicked, but didn't give up, and stood there to the end of the usual hour.
Though Kosovo is overwhelmingly (90%) ethnically Albanian, it is considered the national and religious birthplace of Serbians. Both Kosovo and Serbia had been part of the former Yugoslavia, which had granted partial autonomy to Kosovo in 1974. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic (later tried for war crimes) in 1989 withdrew that autonomy and revoked the official status of the Albanian language in Kosovo.
