Ibrahim Rugova, president of the Republic of Kosovo, politician, writer, was born in the village of Cerrcë, municipality of Istog (Kosovo). When he was one year old, the Yugoslav communists shot his father (Ukë Rugova) and grandfather (Rrustë Rugova). After primary schooling in his hometown, he finished secondary schooling in Pejë, and he completed his studies in the branch of Albanian language and literature of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Pristina (1971). He was an editor in the student newspaper “Bota e re” (“New world”) and in the scientific magazine “Dituria” (“Knowledge”)(1971-’72). After graduation, he worked for two decades at the Albanian Institute of Prishtina as a researcher in the field of literature. For a while, he was also the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Gjurmime albanologjike” (“Albanological tracings”), a publication of this Institute. He spent an academic year (1976/77) in Paris, at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes . He received his doctorate in 1984 in the field of literature at the University of Pristina. Until the end of the 80s of the 20th century, Ibrahim Rugova developed intense literary activity. In 1988, he was elected chairman of the Writers’ Association of Kosovo, which became a powerful nucleus of the Albanian movement opposing the Serbian and Yugoslav communist rule in Kosovo. In 2005, the “Faik Konica” publishing house of Pristina published the complete works of Ibrahim Rugova in eight volumes. Ibrahim Rugova entered political life in December 1989, when he was elected chairman of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), the first political party in Kosovo, which directly challenged the communist regime in power. Under his leadership, the Democratic League of Kosovo, in cooperation with other Albanian political forces in Kosovo and with the then Assembly of Kosovo, completed the legal framework for the institutionalization of Kosovo’s independence, with the Declaration of Independence (July 2, 1990), with the announcement of Republic of Kosovo (the adoption of the Constitution on September 7, 1990), with the popular referendum on the independence and sovereignty of Kosovo (September 1991), with the first multiparty elections for the Assembly of Kosovo and with the presidential elections in the Republic of Kosovo (May 24, 1992). In those first post-communist elections in Kosovo, the Democratic League of Kosovo won the majority of seats in the Assembly, while Ibrahim Rugova was elected President of the Republic of Kosovo. In the second elections, in March of 1998, he was re-elected President of the Republic of Kosovo, while the party he led, the Democratic League of Kosovo, won the majority of seats in the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo. During the NATO bombings against Serbia, Ibrahim Rugova stayed with his family in Pristina, as a hostage of the Serbian occupier. At the end of the bombing period, he left Kosovo with the help of the Italian Government and stayed with his family in Rome until the liberation of Kosovo. After the entry of KFOR troops (Kosova Force) he returned to Kosovo and became part of the transitory institutions of Kosovo in the UNMIK period (United Nations Mission in Kosovo/Mission of the United Nations in Kosovo). In the elections organized by UNMIK, the Democratic League of Kosovo party under the leadership of Ibrahim Rugova won the local elections (in October 2000) and the first general elections (2001). In 2002, Ibrahim Rugova was elected President of Kosovo and was re-elected to this position in 2004. As a supporter of the peaceful option for resolving the Kosovo issue, he enjoyed the support of various international institutions and was honored with many prestigious awards: the Peace Prize of Paul Litzer Foundation in Denmark (1995), Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Paris VIII in Sorbonne, France (1996), Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament (1998), Peace Prize of the City of Münster, Germany (1999) and was announced “Honorary citizen” of Italian cities: Venice, Milan and Brescia; then Peace Prize of the Democratic Union of Catalonia “Manuel Carrasco i Formiguera”, Barcelona, Spain (2000), Europe Prize for 2004 (of the Pan-European Foundation “Coudenhove-Kalergi”), Honorary Senator of Europe from the Senate of Europe (Atverpen , 2004) and the award from the New York City Council (2005). Ibrahim Rugova served as the president of Kosovo until 2006, when he passed away in Pristina. His funeral ceremony was attended by many well-known political personalities and statesmen from around the world. (In the photo: Ibrahim Rugova)
Text: Encyclopedic Dictionary of Kosovo – Vol. II , Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, Prishtina, 2018, page 1445–1446.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Rugova
Graphic processing: AHCF
