While the opening of the university was supported by Josip Broz Tito, according to a Kosovo Communist leader at the time, the university had faced strong political opposition from the Serbian Communists, who regarded it "as a harbinger of autonomy for Kosovo."

The Serbian Communists, supported by the army, maintain that democracy should be broadened within a single-party system.

The 180,000-member, 2000-tank Yugoslav People's Army, dominated by Serbian Communists, began to intervene on its own authority in support of Serbian irregulars under the pretext of halting ethnic violence.

The congress ended in the dissolution of the Yugoslav Communist Party, after the Slovene delegation decided to withdraw in protest against the domination of Serbian Communists who had embraced Serbian nationalism.

American, French and British officials view it as a civil war between rival ethnic factions, while Germans and those who support their view see it as an attack by Serbian Communists on peaceful people whose only crime has been to vote democratically in favor of independence.

The Communist Yugoslav presidency quelled the disturbances by sending in riot police and the army, and proclaiming a state of emergency, although it did not repeal the province's autonomy as some Serbian Communists demanded.

Two of the non-Communist republics, Slovenia and Croatia, have pushed for a looser union because they believe the present federation is dominated by Serbian Communists.

At the same time, Serbian Communists' leader Slobodan Milošević used the situation in Kosovo as a political means to win popularity among Serbs.

Mr. Nixon, unable as ever to repress the malice in his nature, added a crack comparing the Serbian Communists to Mikhail Gorbachev - whose great contribution to history was not using troops to preserve a crumbling empire.

Following the Soviet bloc invasion of that country, he was elected chairman of the Serbian Communists.