For the record, the “ban” on importing/buying personal computers was lifted on 28th November, 1984. The ban had to do with limiting personal imports from abroad to 50 DM (Deutsche Marks). Computers were much more expensive, so the government made an exemption for computers in the ban. Of course liberals love to present things like these as evidence of an “oppressive regime”.

But Yugoslavs were smuggling in computers and computer parts much like many other Western goods. The thing about policing in Yugoslavia is that the policemen were all local, so if you weren’t using computers to bring down the State or do something to be flagged by the state security service, then it’d be up to the local cops to “catch” you.

Yugoslavian cities had whole open air markets selling smuggled Western goods that the police would buy from too. Nobody cared if you somehow got your hands on a computer (which in the early 80s were too expensive for most people on the planet.