Kosovo independence icon Rugova dies, leaving vacuum
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova died of lung cancer on Saturday, leaving a leadership vacuum for ethnic Albanians on the eve of talks to secure the independence from Serbia that he championed.
"President Rugova died at home in Pristina surrounded by his close family, aides and American doctors. He passed away...after fighting this illness with great bravery and extraordinary morality," said a statement from the Kosovo presidency.
The Kosovo parliament said the funeral would take place on Wednesday, the day the United Nations was due to begin direct negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina to decide whether Kosovo's 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority wins independence or remains part of Serbia as Belgrade insists.
Wednesday's talks in Vienna would be rescheduled for early February, U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari said.
Rugova, 61, had been under care at his villa since being diagnosed with lung cancer last September at a U.S. military hospital in Germany.
He died without seeing the independence he worked for most of his adult life. However, virtually all of the people he led today demand self-determination from Serbia.
In accordance with the rules of Kosovo interim institutions, parliamentary speaker Nexhat Daci was appointed acting president. Parliament, which announced five days of mourning, must choose a replacement within three months.
Rugova has no clear successor in his faction-ridden Democratic League of Kosovo and no plans for his replacement at the helm of the Kosovo negotiating team have been announced.
CRUCIAL MOMENT
Western diplomats are concerned at the prospect of a messy power-struggle at such a crucial moment.
"It's not the (death) itself it's the political wrangling that comes after that's the issue," said a Western diplomat.
Kosovo's most popular politician is former guerrilla fighter and ex-prime minister Ramush Haradinaj. However, he is on provisional release from the Hague tribunal pending trial for war crimes.
Kosovo Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic said Rugova left "a big gap in the political scene and I'm afraid a struggle among Albanian political parties will start right now".
Tributes came from the United States, the United Nations and the European Union.
In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid tribute to Rugova's leadership, adding: "The United States will continue to work with all the people of Kosovo to build a society based upon the principles of democracy, human rights and inter-ethnic tolerance that President Rugova valued so deeply."
French President Jacques Chirac praised the "historical role and political courage that drove Ibrahim Rugova to defend the democratic rights of the Kosovan people..."
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Rugova's death occurred "at a crucial moment of final preparations for the talks on Kosovo's future status".
FUTURE STATUS
Serbian President Boris Tadic sent his condolences and said he hoped Rugova's death would not disrupt efforts to find a peaceful compromise on the province's future status.
A powerful figurehead who served two terms as president, Rugova had been expected to steer the Kosovo team through several months of negotiations with the Serbs.
Legally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombing drove out Serb forces accused of atrocities against Albanian civilians in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas.
Instantly recognisable by his silk scarf -- often in the red and black colours of the Albanian national flag -- Rugova sometimes seemed a rather doddery, other-worldly figure.
The Sorbonne-educated literature professor was the architect of a decade of passive resistance to Serb domination from 1989, when former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic stripped the province of its autonomy.
He created a parallel Kosovo state in the 1990s to defy Serb oppression. Dubbed the "Gandhi of the Balkans", he clung to passive tactics in the 1990s while Croatia and Bosnia were consumed by conflict. Albanians tolerated a form of Balkan apartheid, but ran their own underground schools and hospitals.
Rugova underestimated his people's readiness to die for independence and was sidelined by the 1998-99 guerrilla insurgency of the Kosovo Liberation Army -- which drew NATO into its first, "humanitarian", war to drive out Serb forces.
Criticised for spending most of the war in the West, Rugova hit rock bottom when he appeared on Serbian television grinning nervously and shaking hands with Milosevic in Belgrade.
Rugova said he had been kidnapped and fled to Italy, his credibility crushed. He rebounded after the war ended to become interim president twice, and kept the helm of the province's largest political party, winning elections with ease.
"President Rugova died at home in Pristina surrounded by his close family, aides and American doctors. He passed away...after fighting this illness with great bravery and extraordinary morality," said a statement from the Kosovo presidency.
The Kosovo parliament said the funeral would take place on Wednesday, the day the United Nations was due to begin direct negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina to decide whether Kosovo's 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority wins independence or remains part of Serbia as Belgrade insists.
Wednesday's talks in Vienna would be rescheduled for early February, U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari said.
Rugova, 61, had been under care at his villa since being diagnosed with lung cancer last September at a U.S. military hospital in Germany.
He died without seeing the independence he worked for most of his adult life. However, virtually all of the people he led today demand self-determination from Serbia.
In accordance with the rules of Kosovo interim institutions, parliamentary speaker Nexhat Daci was appointed acting president. Parliament, which announced five days of mourning, must choose a replacement within three months.
Rugova has no clear successor in his faction-ridden Democratic League of Kosovo and no plans for his replacement at the helm of the Kosovo negotiating team have been announced.
CRUCIAL MOMENT
Western diplomats are concerned at the prospect of a messy power-struggle at such a crucial moment.
"It's not the (death) itself it's the political wrangling that comes after that's the issue," said a Western diplomat.
Kosovo's most popular politician is former guerrilla fighter and ex-prime minister Ramush Haradinaj. However, he is on provisional release from the Hague tribunal pending trial for war crimes.
Kosovo Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic said Rugova left "a big gap in the political scene and I'm afraid a struggle among Albanian political parties will start right now".
Tributes came from the United States, the United Nations and the European Union.
In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid tribute to Rugova's leadership, adding: "The United States will continue to work with all the people of Kosovo to build a society based upon the principles of democracy, human rights and inter-ethnic tolerance that President Rugova valued so deeply."
French President Jacques Chirac praised the "historical role and political courage that drove Ibrahim Rugova to defend the democratic rights of the Kosovan people..."
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said Rugova's death occurred "at a crucial moment of final preparations for the talks on Kosovo's future status".
FUTURE STATUS
Serbian President Boris Tadic sent his condolences and said he hoped Rugova's death would not disrupt efforts to find a peaceful compromise on the province's future status.
A powerful figurehead who served two terms as president, Rugova had been expected to steer the Kosovo team through several months of negotiations with the Serbs.
Legally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombing drove out Serb forces accused of atrocities against Albanian civilians in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas.
Instantly recognisable by his silk scarf -- often in the red and black colours of the Albanian national flag -- Rugova sometimes seemed a rather doddery, other-worldly figure.
The Sorbonne-educated literature professor was the architect of a decade of passive resistance to Serb domination from 1989, when former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic stripped the province of its autonomy.
He created a parallel Kosovo state in the 1990s to defy Serb oppression. Dubbed the "Gandhi of the Balkans", he clung to passive tactics in the 1990s while Croatia and Bosnia were consumed by conflict. Albanians tolerated a form of Balkan apartheid, but ran their own underground schools and hospitals.
Rugova underestimated his people's readiness to die for independence and was sidelined by the 1998-99 guerrilla insurgency of the Kosovo Liberation Army -- which drew NATO into its first, "humanitarian", war to drive out Serb forces.
Criticised for spending most of the war in the West, Rugova hit rock bottom when he appeared on Serbian television grinning nervously and shaking hands with Milosevic in Belgrade.
Rugova said he had been kidnapped and fled to Italy, his credibility crushed. He rebounded after the war ended to become interim president twice, and kept the helm of the province's largest political party, winning elections with ease.
posted by Marko at 1/21/2006 06:44:00 PM
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