Kosovo Commemorates 15th Anniversary of First President’s Death

Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and LDK party officials at Ibrahim Rugova’s grave in Pristina on Thursday. Photo: BIRN.

Acting President Vjosa Osmani paid tribute at Ibrahim Rugova’s memorial in Pristina, saying that the path that he paved “remains a permanent guideline” for Kosovo.

Dubbed the pacifist father of Kosovo’s independence, Rugova lost his battle with lung cancer in January 2006 when he was serving his second term as president. At that point, he was taking part in UN-led negotiations with Serbia about Koosvo’s future status, which led to its declaration of independence in February 2008.

“He was a person who brought [Kosovo] Albanians together around the idea of freedom and independence and knew how to create strong friendship bridges with states which still back us,” Osmani said.

The head of the Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) political party, Albin Kurti, also paid homage to Rugova’s pacifist methods in the troubled 1990s.

“We commemorate his political determination and his institutional commitment as well as his human calmness and patience,” Kurti said.

Rugova led the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK party from its establishment in 1989 until his death, and his successor, Isa Mustafa, spoke at the memorial about his political legacy.

“I am here today to express the LDK’s position and commitment to following the path President Rugova paved, and to say that nobody could inherit this path except the LDK,” Mustafa said.

Rugova was born in December 2, 1944 in the village of Cerrce, in the western municipality of Istog/Istok.

In 1976-77, he studied under the supervision of Roland Barthes in Paris, where he developed his scholarly interests in literature with a focus on literary theory.

He established the LDK in 1989 as a broad movement which led Kosovo’s ‘parallel’ institutions in the 1990s, after Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic had abolished Kosovo’s autonomous status.

After Belgrade imposed direct rule, Rugova was unofficially elected as Kosovo’s president for two terms.

When NATO launched air strikes in an attempt to force Milosevic to withdraw Serbian police, military and paramilitary forces from Kosovo in March 1999, police broke into Rugova’s house in Pristina and put him and his family under house arrest.

After more than a month, Rugova and his family were allowed to leave for Italy. He returned home to Kosovo after the war ended, in July 1999.

He was formally elected president by parliament in 2002, and re-elected in 2005.