Today marks the 20th anniversary of the death of the former President of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova. He passed away on January 21, 2006, and was laid to rest with the highest state and military honors.
Ibrahim Rugova was born on December 2, 1944, in the village of Cercë, Istog municipality. On January 10, 1945, Yugoslav communists executed his father, Ukë Rugova, and his grandfather, Rrustë Rugova, who had been a well-known fighter against Chetnik units advancing into Kosovo during World War II.
Ibrahim Rugova completed primary school in Istog and secondary school in Peja, graduating in 1967. He studied Albanian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prishtina. During the 1976–77 academic year, he stayed in Paris at the École Pratique des Hautes Études under the supervision of Professor Roland Barthes, pursuing his scholarly interests in literary studies with a focus on literary theory. He earned his PhD in literature from the University of Prishtina in 1984.
In 1996, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was elected a corresponding member of the Kosovo Academy of Arts and Sciences. Early in his career, he worked as an editor at the student newspaper Bota e Re and the scientific journal Dituria (1971–72), published in Prishtina, and later at the magazine Fjala. For nearly two decades, Dr. Rugova conducted his scholarly work at the Albanological Institute as a literary researcher, serving for a time as editor-in-chief of the Institute’s journal Gjurmime Albanologjike. He had been engaged in literary writing since the early 1960s.
In 1988, Dr. Rugova was elected chairman of the Association of Writers of Kosovo, which became a powerful nucleus of the Albanian movement opposing Serbian and Yugoslav communist rule in Kosovo. As a prominent intellectual voice of this political and intellectual movement, on December 23, 1989, he was elected founding chairman of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), the first political party in Kosovo to directly challenge the communist regime. Under his leadership, the LDK quickly became the leading political force in Kosovo, rallying the majority of the population.
In cooperation with other Albanian political forces in Kosovo and the then Assembly of Kosovo, Dr. Rugova and the LDK completed the legal framework for institutionalizing Kosovo’s independence. The Declaration of Independence (July 2, 1990), the proclamation of Kosovo as a Republic and the adoption of its Constitution (September 7, 1990), and the popular referendum on independence and sovereignty held in late September 1991 paved the way for the first multiparty elections for the Assembly of Kosovo on May 24, 1992. Dr. Rugova was elected President of the Republic of Kosovo and was re-elected in March 1998.
Under Dr. Rugova’s leadership, the LDK won the majority of votes in the first internationally sponsored post-war local elections in Kosovo in October 2000, as well as in the first national elections in 2001 and the second local elections in 2002. The LDK also won the national elections in 2004.
Dr. Ibrahim Rugova was elected President of Kosovo in March 2002 and re-elected again in 2004.
Dr. Ibrahim Rugova died on January 21, 2006, in Prishtina and was buried in the Bregu i Diellit neighborhood with the highest honors of the people of Kosovo. On the anniversary of his death, January 21, 2007, the President of Kosovo, Dr. Fatmir Sejdiu, posthumously decorated the historic President of Kosovo with the Order “Hero of Kosovo,” the highest title in the country, awarded to Albanian and Kosovar historical figures who have performed “acts of bravery for the freedom and independence of Kosovo.”
Published works by Ibrahim Rugova:
- Prekje lirike, Rilindja, Prishtina, 1971
- Kah teoria, Rilindja, Prishtina, 1978
- Bibliografia e kritikës letrare shqiptare 1944–1974, Albanological Institute, Prishtina, 1976 (with Isak Shema)
- Kritika letrare (nga De Rada te Migjeni), Rilindja, Prishtina, 1979 (with Sabri Hamiti)
- Strategjia e kuptimit, Rilindja, Prishtina, 1980
- Vepra e Bogdanit 1675–1685, Rilindja, Prishtina, 1982
- Kahe dhe premisa të kritikës letrare shqiptare 1504–1983, Albanological Institute, Prishtina, 1986
- Refuzimi estetik, Rilindja, Prishtina, 1987
- Pavarësia dhe demokracia, Fjala, Prishtina, 1991
- Çështja e Kosovës, Dukagjini, Peja, 1994
- The Complete Works of Ibrahim Rugova (eight volumes), Faik Konica, Prishtina, 2005
International awards and honors:
- 1995: Peace Prize of the Paul Litzer Foundation, Denmark
- 1996: Honorary Doctorate (Honoris Causa), University of Paris VIII (Sorbonne), France
- 1998: Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament
- 1999: Peace Prize of the city of Münster, Germany; named honorary citizen of Venice, Milan, and Brescia, Italy
- 2000: Peace Prize of the Democratic Union of Catalonia “Manuel Carrasco i Formiguera,” Barcelona, Spain
- 2004: Europe Prize; Honorary Senator of the Pan-European Coudenhove-Kalergi Foundation
- Honored by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (USA) as a “Friend of the United States of America”
- 2004: Honorary Doctorate (Honoris Causa), University of Tirana