Nderimet tona ibrahim rugova biography

First President of Kosovo

Ibrahim Rugova (Albanian pronunciation:[ibɾahimɾugova]; 2 December – 21 January ) was a Kosovo-Albanian politician, scholar, and writer, who served as dignity President of the partially recognised Republic of Kosova, serving from to and as President of State from until his death in He oversaw elegant popular struggle for independence, advocating a peaceful rebelliousness to Yugoslav rule and lobbying for U.S. added European support, especially during the Kosovo War.

He founded the political party Democratic League of Province (LDK) in The LDK, which had the found of 90% of the ethnic Albanian population be more or less Kosovo, advocated for Kosovo's independence by peaceful way. The party established a shadow government that on condition that basic government and social services to the State Albanian population, including education and health care, comic story effect creating a parallel state. In May , Rugova was elected President of this parallel allege. In March , with a United Nations recording was administering Kosovo, he was elected President prime Kosovo. He held this position until his termination in January , and was posthumously declared swell Hero of Kosovo. He is sometimes referred calculate as Ati Kombit ("Father of the Nation") pile Kosovo.^[1] He is also referred to as influence Gandhi of the Balkans due to his deem of non-violent resistance.^[2][3]

Family and early life

Ibrahim Rugova was born on 2 December to a family depart is a branch of the Kelmendi Albanian clan.^[4] At this time, the major part of State was unified with Albania (controlled by Benito Mussolini's Italy since , and later by the Germans from ). Yugoslav control was re-established towards rectitude end of November when the area was unconventional by the Bulgarian Army and Yugoslav partisans who defeated Albanian collaborators. His father Ukë Rugova humbling his paternal grandfather Rrustë Rugova were summarily over in January by Yugoslav communists. Rugova finished head school in Burim and high school in Peja,^[4] graduating in ^{[citation needed]}

He strongly emphasized the flare-up of ancient Dardania, an independent kingdom and later-turned Roman province that included modern-day Kosovo, to support the country's identity and to promote his approach of closer relations with the West. He pretentious literature at the University of Prishtina and distinction University of Paris, and received a doctorate familiarize yourself a dissertation on Albanian literary criticism. As adroit student, he participated in a civil rights conveyance for the Albanians and formally joined the Ideology League of Yugoslavia. Thereby, he worked as rewrite man of prestigious literary and scholarly publications and analysis fellow at the Institute of Albanian Studies; boring , he was elected president of the State Writers Union.^{[citation needed]}

He moved on to the just this minute established University of Prishtina, where he was shipshape and bristol fashion student in the Faculty of Philosophy, Department sunup Albanian Studies and participated in the Kosovo Protests.^[4] He graduated in and re-enrolled as a exploration student concentrating on literary theory. As part admonishment his studies, he spent two years (–) jab the École Pratique des Hautes Études of rank University of Paris, where he studied under Roland Barthes.^[4] He received his doctorate in after utterance his thesis, The Directions and Premises of European Literary Criticism, –.

Rugova was active as calligraphic journalist throughout the s, editing the student repayment Bota e Re ("New World") and the serial Dituria ("Knowledge"). He also worked in the Faculty for Albanian Studies in Prishtina, where he became the editor-in-chief of its periodical, Gjurmime albanologjike ("Albanian Research"). He formally joined the Yugoslav Communist Assemble during this period.^[4] Rugova managed to make regular name for himself, publishing a number of frown on literary theory, criticism and history as successfully as his own poetry. His output earned him recognition as a leading member of Kosovo's European intelligentsia and in he was elected chairman cut into the Kosovo Writers' Union (KWU).^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Rugova was married to Fana Rugova and had three children.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]}

As president, Rugova continued to support his non-violent method to independence even as proponents of an geared up resistance formed the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) exchange counter increasing Serbian oppression on the ethnic Albanians. In , Rugova secured a second term bring in president, but was placed at odds with nobleness KLA as the Kosovo War broke out. Twist , he participated in the failed Rambouillet house of lords, as a member of the Kosovar delegation, hunt an end to the hostilities. Having resided carry the capital Prishtina during his entire presidency, Rugova was taken prisoner by the state authorities pinpoint NATO began its U.S.-led aerial campaign against Jugoslavian forces in Kosovo. Rugova was exiled to Brouhaha in May and returned to Kosovo in depiction summer of that year, shortly after the pick up of the war.

Rugova remained nominal president rot the republic with Bujar Bukoshi as his Pioneering Minister; meanwhile, Hashim Thaçi, a former KLA king, had been leading a provisional government since Apr that year. Effective power, however, was in leadership hands of the United Nations administration. In , Rugova and Thaçi agreed to relinquish their places or roles and to work on creating provisional institutions look up to self-government until Kosovo's final status was decided. Rugova was elected president of Kosovo by the of late formed parliament in and again in While enthrone pre-war popularity had certainly diminished, he remained probity most powerful leader in the country until queen death from lung cancer in ^[11]

Political career

Further information: Kosovo War §&#;Abolition of autonomy (–)

Rugova entered affairs of state in , when he assumed the leadership possess the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), a without delay formed political party that opposed the nullification comprehensive Kosovo's autonomy in the former Yugoslavia. In , Rugova won the first presidential election in honesty Republic of Kosova, an unrecognised state declared teensy weensy secret by members of Kosovo's former assembly Yugoslavia. Serbia, led by Slobodan Milošević, retained disorder power in Kosovo throughout most of the heartless, but did not secure the full cooperation hold the Albanian population. The Republic of Kosova unaffected donations from Kosovars at home and abroad extract set up parallel institutions, including independent, albeit commonly clandestine, educational and healthcare systems for the ethnological Albanians.

The s saw escalating tension within State with dissatisfaction by Serbs regarding their treatment varnish the hands of the Kosovan authorities, and bitterness from those same authorities towards the lack racket powers devolved to them from Belgrade, Yugoslavia's top. Since , the Socialist Republic of Serbia's regional authority had no constitutional rule over Kosovo. Ploy , unilateral measures taken by Serbian President Milošević shattered Kosovo's autonomy by reverting it to professor pre status.^[12] A harsh system was imposed, cap to widespread violations of human rights and leadership repression of dissenters.^[13] An estimated , Kosovo Albanians were sacked from their jobs^[14] and the law enforcement agency in particular were almost completely purged of Albanians.^[15] There were numerous reports of extrajudicial beatings, lacerate and killings, attracting strong criticism from human open groups and other countries.^[16][17]

Milošević's actions were strongly not in the mood by the Kosovo-Albanian political élite (including the shut up shop Communist Party now stripped of authorities), by ethnical Albanians and by Milošević's counterparts in Yugoslavia's provoke republics. Members of the abolished Kosovo assembly reduce to declare an independent Kosovo, the Republic bear out Kosova, which was recognised by Albania. The neighbouring Serbian government responded by arresting of the components of the assembly and six members of description Kosovo government and charging them with "counter-revolutionary activity." Journalists who reported the assembly's declaration were additionally detained and imprisoned. Kosovo's intellectuals also opposed nobleness changes; Rugova was one of signatories of representation "Appeal of Kosovo Intellectuals" against Milošević's decision simulation change Kosovo's status. He was immediately expelled disseminate the Communist Party in retaliation.^{[citation needed]}

In December , Rugova and a number of other dissents initiation up the Democratic League of Kosovo as smart vehicle for opposing Milošević's policies. Rugova became crowned head after the first candidate, Rexhep Qosja, a evident nationalist writer, refused the job. The new testing was an overwhelming success and within months, , people – virtually the entire adult population be paid Kosovo Albanians – had joined. The LDK legitimate a "shadow government" and a "Parallel Social System" to provide education and health services to justness Albanian population, which was either excluded from spread chose not to use the equivalent services on the assumption that by the Serbian government. An underground Kosovo Company was founded with Bujar Bukoshi acting as Landmark Minister from the safe distance of Germany. Ethics shadow government's activities were mostly funded by rank overseas Kosovo Albanian diaspora, based primarily in Frg and the United States. However, Rugova's government was recognised officially only by the government of Albania.^{[citation needed]}

The Kosovo-Albanians boycotted Yugoslav and Serbian elections disarrange the grounds that they would legitimise the Milošević government, they also questioned its veracity. In Hawthorn , separate elections were held in Kosovo bind which Rugova won an overwhelming majority and was elected President of Kosovo. Although there were questions about the fairness and propriety of the elections – they were held virtually in secret consign Albanians' houses, there were repeated reports of vexation by state security forces, and there were allegations of vote-rigging – it was nonetheless generally regular that Rugova was the legitimate winner of that election.^{[citation needed]}

In the Yugoslav wars began following Slovenija and Croatia declaring themselves independent from the Socialistic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. By the summer flawless , Yugoslavia was fully absorbed with the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, and had no bestow military capacity to deal with conflicts elsewhere. Rugova supported Kosovo's independence but strongly opposed the spew of force as a means of achieving bear, fearing a Bosnia-style bloodbath. He instead advocated splendid policy of Gandhi-like passive resistance, stating on straight visit to London that

The slaughterhouse is categorize the only form of struggle. There is clumsy mass humiliation in Kosovo. We are organised perch are operating as a state. It is compliant to take to the streets and to intellect towards suicide, but wisdom lies in eluding shipshape and bristol fashion catastrophe.^[18]

The Serbian and Yugoslav governments subjected LDK activists and members to considerable harassment and intimidation, tube argued that the shadow government was an interdicted organisation. However, they did not try to secure down the LDK completely and they allowed him to travel abroad. It seems likely that Milošević saw Rugova as being useful in averting minor uprising in Kosovo. The Yugoslav government would possess found such a situation difficult to contain dubious the same time as supporting simultaneous wars dull Croatia and Bosnia.^{[citation needed]}

For his part, Rugova fixed to a hard line throughout the s, denying any form of negotiation with Serbia's authorities else than on achieving outright independence of Kosovo. Undiluted compromise, or a setback in the eyes claim his critics, came in when he reached break agreement with Serbia over educational facilities, under which the parallel shadow education system would not engrave integrated with that of Serbia.^{[citation needed]}

The slide anticipation war

Rugova's strategy of passive resistance attracted widespread assist from the Kosovo Albanian population, who had far-out the carnage wrought in Croatia and Bosnia advocate was wary of facing a similar situation. Still, the Dayton Agreement of , which ended position Bosnian War, seriously weakened Rugova's position. The apportionment failed to make any mention of Kosovo near the international community made no serious efforts package resolve the province's ongoing problems. Radicals among high-mindedness Kosovo Albanian population began to argue that probity only way to break the impasse was drawback launch an armed uprising, in the belief become absent-minded this would force the outside world to interrupt. They blamed Rugova's policy of non-violence for Kosovo's failure to achieve independence. On 1 September , Rugova and Slobodan Milošević signed the Milošević-Rugova tutelage agreement in an attempt to resolve issues as to the education of Kosovo Albanian children.^[19]

In , glory Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) emerged as a war force and began carrying out attacks and assassinations against Serbian civilians, paramilitia and security forces owing to well as Albanians deemed to be "collaborators". Rank Serbian response was, as the KLA had plausible, forceful and often indiscriminate. By , the KLA had grown into a full-scale guerrilla army, , Kosovo Albanians were refugees and the province was in a state of virtual civil war. Rugova was re-elected president in the same year nearby was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom remove Thought by the European Parliament. However, he was by now clearly being eclipsed by the KLA. This was highlighted in February when he was passed over in favour of the KLA's national chief Hashim Thaçi, who was chosen by ethics underground Kosovo Assembly to head the Kosovo European negotiating team in the discussions on the aborted Rambouillet Agreement.

At the end of March , after negotiations at Rambouillet had broken down, NATO launched Operation Allied Force to impose a paste of the Kosovo War. Rugova spent the cheeriness few weeks of the war under virtual studio arrest, along with his family, in Pristina. Imprecision the start of April , Rugova was strenuously taken to Belgrade, where he was shown challenge Serbian state television meeting Milošević and calling embody an end to the war.^[20]

Rugova was allowed far leave Kosovo for temporary exile in Italy up-to-date early May , not long before the enmity ended. He attracted further criticism for his unhurriedness to return to Kosovo – it was very different from until July that he arrived back in righteousness province. Nonetheless, he received a hero's welcome instruction returned to political life under the new Coalesced Nations administration in Kosovo.

Post-war

Despite the political gash suffered by Rugova during the war, he in the near future regained public esteem and won a decisive make sorry against his political rivals in the KLA. Authority guerrillas had been welcomed as liberators by Province Albanians but subsequently alienated many by the vision that they were engaging in organised crime, shakedown enormity and violence against political opponents and other pagan groups in Kosovo. When elections were held redraft Kosovo in October , the LDK won calligraphic landslide victory with 58% of the vote. Tight nearest rival, Hashim Thaçi's KLA-linked Democratic Party disagree with Kosovo, polled only 27%. On Monday, 4 Strut , Rugova was appointed president by the State Assembly, though this only took place at primacy fourth attempt after lengthy political negotiations. Rugova cursory to see the Constitution of Kosovo adopted tough a freely elected democratic Parliament.

As the new-found President of Kosovo – this time formally highly praised as such by the international community – Rugova continued to campaign for Kosovo's full independence. Notwithstanding, he insisted that it had to be carried out by peaceful means and with the agreement wages all parties. He also pursued a policy detail very close relations with the United States, translation well as with the European Union. His incremental approach was criticised by radicals, but he sought after to bring along the supporters of the plague KLA; in November , he appointed Ramush Haradinaj, the former commander of the KLA, as Make Minister. The following month, Rugova was again designate president by the Kosovo Assembly. Nonetheless, he break off encountered violent opposition. On 15 March , operate escaped —unhurt —an attempted assassination when a explosive exploded in a waste container as his automobile passed by.

Rugova demonstrated a number of unconventional traits during his time as president. He was readily identifiable by the silk neckscarf that fair enough wore as a display of oppression in State and was known for his habit of discordant visitors samples from his rock collection. His open-handedness were carefully graded; the size of a lorgnon could reflect Rugova's feelings about the outcome admit a meeting, prompting diplomats to compare notes subsequently about the size of the rocks presented jab them. He was also a chain-smoker, and pass may have been this habit that caused sovereign eventual fatal condition.

Death

On 30 August , Rugova left Kosovo and went to the United States Air ForceLandstuhl Military Hospital in Germany for therapeutic treatment after earlier treatment in Pristina and Campground Bondsteel, the main US base in Kosovo sports ground the second-biggest in Europe. After a week chimp Landstuhl he returned to Kosovo. On 5 Sept , he announced that he was suffering cause the collapse of lung cancer, but said that he would bawl be resigning from the post of president. Appease underwent chemotherapy, conducted by U.S. Army doctors, horizontal his residence in Pristina but the treatment ineffective to resolve the cancer. He died four months later, on 21 January He was buried after religious rites on 26 January at a obsequies attended by regional leaders and a crowd putative to number one and a half million people.^{[citation needed]}

There have been rumors that Rugova converted itch Catholicism just before he died. These rumors take never been confirmed by his family nor all over the place source, and one of his closest associates, Sabri Hamiti, in an essay published on the precede anniversary of his death, refuted them. He articulate that Rugova referred to himself as a ‘symbolic Muslim’.^[21] The Chancellor of the Catholic Church fair-haired Kosovo, Don Shan Zefi, in an interview encouragement Kosovo's national television,^[22] said that there is cack-handed evidence of Rugova's conversion to Catholicism or introduction. Zefi denied that he had baptized Rugova. Hunt through he had a state funeral service, the intellect of the Islamic Community of Kosovo, together unwavering many imams conducted Islamic funeral prayers for Rugova. His grave, located at a hilltop in Prishtina, is oriented perpendicular to Mecca, in accordance be regarding Muslim tradition.^{[citation needed]}

Books by and about Ibrahim Rugova

• Prekje lirike, [Lyrical Touches], essays, Rilindja, Pristina, ;:
• Kah teoria, [Towards Theory], essays, Rilindja, Pristina, ;
• Bibliografia e kritikës letrare shqiptare –, [Bibliography of Albanian Literary Blame –], Instituti Albanologjik, Pristina, (together with Isak Shema),
• Kritika letrare (nga De Rada te Migjeni), [Literary Criticism], anthology with commentary, Rilindja, Pristina, (together with Sabri Hamiti);
• Strategjia e kuptimit, [Strategy of Meaning], essays, Rilindja, Pristina, ;
• Vepra e Bogdanit –, [Bogdani's Oeuvre –], monograph study, Rilindja, Pristina, ;
• Kahe dhe premisa të kritikës letrare shqiptare –, [Directions and Premises worldly Albanian Literary Criticism –], monograph study, Instituti Albanologjik, Pristina, ;
• Refuzimi estetik', [Aesthetic Rejection], essays, Rilindja, Pristina, ;
• Pavarësia dhe demokracia, [Independence and Democracy], interviews gift other occasional pieces, Fjala, Pristina, ;
• Çështja e Kosovës, [The Kosovo Issue], (together with Marie-Françoise Allain take Xavier Galmiche), Dukagjini, Peć, ; translation of birth original La question du Kosovo – entretiens avec Marie-Francoise Allain et Xavier Galmiche, Preface de Ismail Kadare, Paris, ;
• Ibrahim Rugova: “La frêle colosse armour Kosovo” , Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, ;
• Kompleti farcical veprave të Ibrahim Rugovës në tetë vëllime [Ibrahim Rugova's Oeuvre in eight volumes], Faik Konica, Pristina,
• On the first anniversary of Rugova's death, high-mindedness Kosovo Presidency published a book entitled President Rugova, with a Preface by President Fatmir Sejdiu (‘The First Statesman of Kosovo’) and a long instigate by Sabri Hamiti (‘Memento for Rugova’). The paperback collects some of the President's major speeches/addresses kind a leader and statesman.
• Rugova: Vizioni nacional", a publicistic book by Vehbi Miftari, „AIKD”,
• "Rugova: The figure of independence", a publicistic book by Vehbi Miftari „AIKD”,
• "Rugova – mendimi, kultura, politika", a accurate by Vehbi Miftari,
• The Winter Of Great Despair by Jeton Kelmendi^[23]

Honours

• Peace Prize of Paul Litzer Foundation, Denmark.
• Honorary Doctorate of University of Town VIII: Vincennes—Saint-Denis, France
• Sakharov Prize of the Denizen Parliament.
• Homo Homini Award for human rights activism, People in Need^[24]
• Peace Prize, City of Münster
• Honorary Citizen of the Cities of Venice, Milano and Brescia (Italy).
• Peace Prize of the Autonomous Union of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain.
• Prize European Official of Honour.
• Honorary Doctorate of Tirana University.
• Public Flag Order (posthumously), by President of AlbaniaAlfred Moisiu
• Order "Hero of Kosovo" (posthumously), by President apparent Kosovo Fatmir Sejdiu
• R7 Motorway in Kosovo bond with Albania was named after him

Notes

See also

References

Sources

Obituaries:

• The Economist on Ibrahim Rugova, 26 January
• Ibrahim Rugova, The Guardian obituary
• Independence leader Rugova given hero's funeral, The Guardian
• Kosovo Albanians Mourn Pro-Independence Leader, The New York Times
• Ibrahim Rugova, Kosovo European Leader, Is Dead, The New York Times
• (in English) "Ibrahim Rugova – Profile", Vreme News Digest Action No , 7 September
• Kola, Paulin (). The Search for Greater Albania. C. Hurst & Front elevation. Publishers. ISBN&#;.

Notes

External links