CNN: Kosovo President Rugova dies at 61

[DeepModem Mom]

Kosovo President Rugova dies at 61
Saturday, January 21, 2006


(CNN) -- Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, the literary scholar turned politician who was the symbol of the fight for Kosovar self-rule, died Saturday after battling lung cancer, officials said. He was 61.

Rugova, who was diagnosed with cancer last year, died in the Kosovo capital Pristina....

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The capital's streets were empty, with people glued to their radios and TV screens. Television stations were playing classical music....

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Long before most outsiders even knew the province existed, Rugova was agitating non-violently for Kosovo self-rule, squaring off against the Serb-dominated Yugoslav regime led by Slobodan Milosevic -- now on trial at The Hague for war crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s....Last year, the international community finally agreed to begin negotiations on independence for Kosovo.

According to the United Nations, this year "will likely see the end of the process to determine the status of the ethnically divided Serbian province which the world body has administered since 1999."...


http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/21/kosovo.rugova/index.html

[Fenris]

1. That's tragic.

:(