43 Facts About Ibrahim Rugova

Ibrahim Rugova was a prominent Kosovo Albanian political leader, scholar, and writer, who served as the President of the partially recognised Republic of Kosova, serving from 1992 to 2000 and as President of Kosovo from 2002 until his death in 2006.

Ibrahim Rugova oversaw a popular struggle for independence, advocating a peaceful resistance to Yugoslav rule and lobbying for US and European support, especially during the Kosovo War.

Ibrahim Rugova founded the political party Democratic League of Kosovo in 1989.

In May 1992, Rugova was elected President of this parallel state.

Ibrahim Rugova held this position until his death in January 2006, and was posthumously declared a Hero of Kosovo.

Ibrahim Rugova was born on 2 December 1944 to a family that is a branch of the Kelmendi Albanian clan.

Ibrahim Rugova finished primary school in Istok and high school in Peja, graduating in 1967.

Ibrahim Rugova strongly emphasized the heritage of ancient Dardania, an independent kingdom and later-turned Roman province that included modern-day Kosovo, to strengthen the country's identity and to promote his policy of closer relations with the West.

Ibrahim Rugova studied literature at the University of Prishtina and the University of Paris, and received a doctorate with a dissertation on Albanian literary criticism.

Ibrahim Rugova moved on to the newly established University of Pristina, where he was a student in the Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Albanian Studies and participated in the 1968 Kosovo Protests.

Ibrahim Rugova graduated in 1971 and re-enrolled as a research student concentrating on literary theory.

Ibrahim Rugova was active as a journalist throughout the 1970s, editing the student newspaper Bota e Re and the magazine Dituria.

Ibrahim Rugova worked in the Institute for Albanian Studies in Pristina, where he became the editor-in-chief of its periodical, Gjurmime albanologjike.

Ibrahim Rugova formally joined the Yugoslav Communist Party during this period.

Ibrahim Rugova managed to make a name for himself, publishing a number of works on literary theory, criticism and history as well as his own poetry.

Ibrahim Rugova's output earned him recognition as a leading member of Kosovo's Albanian intelligentsia and in 1988 he was elected chairman of the Kosovo Writers' Union.

In 1998, Ibrahim Rugova secured a second term as president, but was placed at odds with the KLA as the Kosovo War broke out.

Ibrahim Rugova was exiled to Rome in May 1999 and returned to Kosovo in the summer of that year, shortly after the end of the war.

Ibrahim Rugova was elected president of Kosovo by the newly formed parliament in 2002 and again in 2005.

Ibrahim Rugova entered politics in 1989, when he assumed the leadership of the Democratic League of Kosovo, a newly formed political party that opposed the nullification of Kosovo's autonomy in the former Yugoslavia.

In 1992, Ibrahim Rugova won the first presidential election in the Republic of Kosova, an unrecognised state declared in secret by members of Kosovo's former assembly within Yugoslavia.

Kosovo's intellectuals opposed the changes; Ibrahim Rugova was one of 215 signatories of the "Appeal of Kosovo Intellectuals" against Milosevic's decision to change Kosovo's status.

Ibrahim Rugova was immediately expelled from the Communist Party in retaliation.

Ibrahim Rugova became leader after the first candidate, Rexhep Qosja, a prominent nationalist writer, refused the job.

However, Ibrahim Rugova's government was recognised officially only by the government of Albania.

In May 1992, separate elections were held in Kosovo in which Ibrahim Rugova won an overwhelming majority and was elected President of Kosovo.

Ibrahim Rugova supported Kosovo's independence but strongly opposed the use of force as a means of achieving it, fearing a Bosnia-style bloodbath.

Ibrahim Rugova instead advocated a policy of Gandhi-like passive resistance, stating on a visit to London that.

Ibrahim Rugova was re-elected president in the same year and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament.

Ibrahim Rugova spent the first few weeks of the war under virtual house arrest, along with his family, in Pristina.

At the start of April 1999, Ibrahim Rugova was forcefully taken to Belgrade, where he was shown on Serbian state television meeting Milosevic and calling for an end to the war.

Ibrahim Rugova was allowed to leave Kosovo for temporary exile in Italy in early May 1999, not long before the war ended.

On Monday, 4 March 2002, Ibrahim Rugova was appointed president by the Kosovo Assembly, though this only took place at the fourth attempt after lengthy political negotiations.

Ibrahim Rugova lived to see the Constitution of Kosovo adopted by a freely elected democratic Parliament.

Ibrahim Rugova pursued a policy of very close relations with the United States, as well as with the European Union.

Ibrahim Rugova demonstrated a number of unusual traits during his time as president.

Ibrahim Rugova was readily identifiable by the silk neckscarf that he wore as a display of oppression in Kosovo and was known for his habit of giving visitors samples from his rock collection.

Ibrahim Rugova's presents were carefully graded; the size of a crystal could reflect Rugova's feelings about the outcome of a meeting, prompting diplomats to compare notes afterwards about the size of the rocks presented to them.

On 30 August 2005, Ibrahim Rugova left Kosovo and went to the United States Air Force Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany for medical treatment after earlier treatment in Pristina and Camp Bondsteel, the main US base in Kosovo and the second-biggest in Europe.

Ibrahim Rugova underwent chemotherapy, conducted by US Army doctors, at his residence in Pristina but the treatment failed to resolve the cancer.

Ibrahim Rugova died four months later, on 21 January 2006.

Ibrahim Rugova reminds that Rugova, in regard to religion, referred to himself as a 'symbolic Muslim'.

Ibrahim Rugova's grave, located at a hilltop in Prishtina, is oriented perpendicular to Mecca, as all other Muslim graves.