Ibrahim Rugova

At this time, the major part of Kosovo was unified with Albania (controlled by Benito Mussolini's Italy since 1941, and later by the Germans from 1943).

Ibrahim Rugova (2 December 1944 – 21 January 2006) was a Kosovo Albanian politician, 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.

He oversaw a popular struggle for independence, advocating a peaceful resistance to Yugoslav rule and lobbying for U.S. and European support, especially during the Kosovo War.

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

Yugoslav control was re-established towards the end of November 1944 when the area was liberated by the Bulgarian Army and Yugoslav partisans who defeated Albanian collaborators.

His father Ukë Rugova and his paternal grandfather Rrustë Rugova were summarily executed in January 1945 by Yugoslav communists.

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

He 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.

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

As a student, he participated in a civil rights movement for the Albanians and formally joined the Communist League of Yugoslavia.

He 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.

Rugova was active as a journalist throughout the 1970s, editing the student newspaper Bota e Re ("New World") and the magazine Dituria ("Knowledge").

He also worked in the Institute for Albanian Studies in Pristina, where he became the editor-in-chief of its periodical, Gjurmime albanologjike ("Albanian Research").

He formally joined the Yugoslav Communist Party during this period.

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.

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

As part of his studies, he spent two years (1976–1977) at the École Pratique des Hautes Études of the University of Paris, where he studied under Roland Barthes.

He received his doctorate in 1984 after delivering his thesis, The Directions and Premises of Albanian Literary Criticism, 1504–1983.

Thereby, he worked as editor of prestigious literary and scholarly publications and research fellow at the Institute of Albanian Studies; in 1988, he was elected president of the Kosovo Writers Union.

His 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 (KWU).

Rugova was married to Fana Rugova and had three children, Mendim, Ukë and Teuta.

He founded the political party Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) in 1989.

The LDK, which had the support of 90% of the ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo, advocated for Kosovo's independence by peaceful means.

The party established a shadow government that provided basic government and social services to the Kosovo Albanian population, including education and health care, in effect creating a parallel state.

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

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

In 1999, he participated in the failed Rambouillet talks, as a member of the Kosovar delegation, seeking an end to the hostilities.

Having resided in the capital Pristina during his entire presidency, Rugova was taken prisoner by the state authorities after NATO began its U.S.-led aerial campaign against Yugoslav atrocities in Kosovo.

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.

Rugova remained nominal president of the republic with Bujar Bukoshi as his Prime Minister; meanwhile, Hashim Thaçi, a former KLA commander, had been leading a provisional government since April that year.

Effective power, however, was in the hands of the United Nations administration.

In 2000, Rugova and Thaçi agreed to relinquish their positions and to work on creating provisional institutions of self-government until Kosovo's final status was decided.

In March 2002, with a United Nations mission was administering Kosovo, he was elected President of Kosovo.

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

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

He is sometimes referred to as Ati Kombit ("Father of the Nation") in Kosovo.

He is also referred to as the Gandhi of the Balkans due to his strategy of non-violent resistance.

While his pre-war popularity had certainly diminished, he remained the most powerful leader in the country until his death from lung cancer in 2006.

His son, Ukë Rugova is also active in politics and took part as a candidate in the 2010 Kosovan parliamentary election.

As president, Rugova continued to support his non-violent path to independence even as proponents of an armed resistance formed the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to counter increasing Serbian oppression on the ethnic Albanians.