Ibrahim Rugova

Ibrahim Rugova (1944-2006), President of Kosovo (2002-2006). Rugova was born in Istok, Kosovo, during the German occupation of World War II. His father and grandfather were executed by Communist partisans in 1945. Rugova graduated from the University of Priština in 1971, and spent a year studying at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris (1976-1977). On his return to Kosovo, Rugova worked as a research fellow at the Institute for Albanian Studies in Priština.

In 1988, amid growing tensions between the ethnic Albanian and Serb communities in Kosovo (at that time part of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia), Rugova was elected president of the Kosova Writers Association, which became a centre for opposition to Serbian rule in Kosovo. In December 1989 Rugova was elected leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (DLK), which advocated full independence for Kosovo, but refused to support armed struggle to achieve this aim. Instead, as Yugoslav rule tightened over the province, Rugova presided over the creation of a parallel state, partly funded by Kosovo Albanians working abroad, which employed ethnic Albanian teachers, doctors, and nurses dismissed by the Yugoslav authorities.

After the Dayton Peace Accord brought the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian War to a close in 1995, without addressing the situation in Kosovo, criticism of Rugova’s pacifist strategy increased. The emergence of the Kosovo Liberation Army, dedicated to achieving Kosovan independence by force, was a direct challenge to Rugova, despite his election as president of Kosovo in underground elections in 1998. During the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999, Rugova controversially appeared with Serb leader Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade, and then went into exile in Italy. Nevertheless, on his return to the province in 2000, Rugova was able to resume his role as leader of the Kosovo Albanian moderates. He was elected president of Kosovo by the Kosovo Assembly in March 2002, and re-elected in December 2004.

Rugova died from lung cancer on January 21, 2006, shortly before UN-sponsored talks were due to begin to resolve the question of Kosovo’s statehood.