Let’s not lose hope” “

Flags at half mast, only classical music broadcast by Kosovar radio and television, citizens in tears gathered outside the residence where he spent the last days of his life: news of the death of the President of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, at Pristina on 22 January was greeted with deep sorrow by a population that loses in him its most representative leader and the one best known in the world. The loss is all the heavier to bear because it comes just a few days before the beginning of the first talks in Vienna between Serbs and Albanians on the status of Kosovo, administered by the UNO since June 1999. The talks, mediated by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari, promise to be difficult because there is a fundamental difference between the two sides: the Albanians, on the one hand, want full independence; the Serbs, on the other, want Kosovo to remain an integral part of Serbia-Montenegro. HEAVY LEGACY. “The death of Ibrahim Rugova further impoverishes Kosovo and leaves a heavy legacy to the person called to take his place”, said Archbishop Zef Gashi, apostolic administrator of Kosovo, in commenting to SIR on the death from lung cancer of the President of Kosovo, called “the Ghandi of the Balkans”. Rugova, 62 years old, had been leader of the non-violent struggle for the independence of the Albanian minority of Serbia. “Whoever is called to replace him – says Archbishop Gashi – will have to assume the role and political stature of the late President as a model”. Pending nomination of his successor, the chairman of Parliament is likely to assume the post of President ad interim. The death of the Kosovar leader is also charged with important political implications, since Rugova died just a few days before the start of the first talks in Vienna between Serbs and Albanians on the status of Kosovo. In this regard Archbishop Gashi urges: “It’s difficult to predict what will happen now, but what’s important is not to lose hope in a future of peace for Kosovo. Progress in this direction has already been made and we need to continue along the path traced by the President. Rugova never lost hope. He worked patiently for reconciliation and peace, and the overcoming of every form of religious, ethnic or social discrimination. His was an extraordinary action in this region marked by crises and conflicts. It was a difficult mission to which he devoted the whole of his life. Only after his death are we beginning to realize what a person of great virtues he was. His greatest commitment was to make every effort to ensure peaceful co-existence here in Kosovo”. In this political action Rugova used non-violence supported by a particular attention to the cultural dimension” as a means of promoting mutual understanding. “The time’s now come to make his work bear fruit. For our part – concluded the archbishop – the Catholic communities of the country will not fail to give their support and backing or their prayer at this time”. MAINTAINING UNITY. “For the whole of his life Rugova demonstrated great charisma and strove to find a peaceful solution to the situation in Kosovo”, commented the Secretary General of the UNO, Kofi Annan, in joining in the mourning of the people of Kosovo for the passing away of their great leader. “Rugova – declared Annan – lived at a crucial time, during the final phase of the dialogue on the future of Kosovo”. In this regard, the UN Secretary General said that he “believed in the maturity of the institutions of Kosovo and that the loss of the President will not interrupt this process”. He therefore appealed to the political leaders of Kosovo “to maintain unity and continue to fully support the special envoy of the Secretary General Martti Ahtisaari and his special representative Soren Jessen-Petersen”. THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE HE NEVER WON. Born in a village in eastern Kosovo 62 years ago, the orphan of a father killed, like his grandfather, by Communist partisans, Ibrahim Rugova graduated in Albanian literature at the University of Pristina and then studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. He was to become the leader of the non-violent resistance in Kosovo but did not enter politics till 1989, when he joined the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) whose president he would become. From 1989 to 1991 he chaired with the sociologist Anton Cetta the “councils of reconciliation”, thanks to which hundreds of Albanian families, divided by blood feuds, became reconciled. In 1990 he began to organize a “parallel society”, proposing a non-violent resistance that would enable Kosovo to remain outside the armed conflict between Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. In 1992 the parallel elections designated him as President of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. From 1993 on Rugova visited the main European capitals and was received by governments to which he denounced the repression and violation of human rights suffered by his people; he asked for an intervention of the international community and proposed for Kosovo a form of autonomy under an international protectorate. In September 1996, the year in which he was a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, he signed with the Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic an accord on schools, brokered by the St. Egidio Community. The parallel election of 22 March 1998 re-confirmed him President of the Republic. He was received by John Paul II in 1996 and 1997.