There is no information currently available to the IRBDC specific to a newspaper called Zerlikosoves published in Zurich, Switzerland. However, a search of the on-line LEXIS/NEXIS database produced references to newspapers with similar spellings: Zeri e Kosoves and Zerl i Kosoves.

According to the Yugoslav News Agency, as reported by the BBC, the newspaper Zeri e Kosoves (Voice of Kosovo) is an organ of the Movement for an Albanian Socialist Republic in Yugoslavia (BBC Summary 26 Jan. 1987). The 1987 article also notes that the wife of one of the leaders of this movement was responsible for bringing the newspaper into Yugoslavia, and that her father, jailed in 1986, had promoted and distributed the paper in Kosovo (Ibid.). Reuters also reported on this story, indicating further that the woman smuggled this illegal Albanian language newspaper into Yugoslavia (27 Jan. 1987). Please see the attached articles for details.

A third article, reporting on the trial of members of the organization Marxist-Leninists of Kosovo, refers to Zerl i Kosoves as an illegal pamphlet which was included among "propaganda material" discovered in a search of the defendants' apartment in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo (BBC Summary 4 Dec. 1987). No further details on the pamphlet are given.

There is no further information currently available to the IRBDC specific to this topic. However, it may be of interest to note that, according to a 1985 Amnesty International report, ethnic Albanians have been imprisoned for possession of books, emigre newspapers and tape-recordings considered to be "hostile propaganda" under Article 133 of the criminal code (1985, 28).

Amnesty International. 1985. Yugoslavia: Prisoners of Conscience. (AI Index: EUR 48/20/85). London: Amnesty International Publications.

BBC Summary of World Broadcasts. 4 Dec. 1987. "Sentences for 'Marxist-Leninists of Kosovo'." (NEXIS)

_____. 26 January 1987. "Detention of Albanian Separatist Denied." (NEXIS)

Reuters. 27 January 1987. AM Cycle. "Albanian Girl's Passport Withdrawn Under Terrorism Rules." (NEXIS)

BBC Summary of World Broadcasts. 26 January 1987. "Detention of Albanian Separatist Denied." (NEXIS)

Reuters. 27 January 1987. AM Cycle. "Albanian Girl's Passport Withdrawn Under Terrorism Rules." (NEXIS)