Kosovo mourns death of 'Gandhi of the Balkans'

KOSOVO: Kosovo mourned yesterday for President Ibrahim Rugova, the leader of its fight for independence, who has died just ahead of talks that could make his dream a reality.

UN-brokered negotiations on Kosovo's bid for freedom from Belgrade were put back from Wednesday to early February, after Mr Rugova succumbed to lung cancer on Saturday in his villa in Pristina, capital of the mainly ethnic-Albanian province.

Figures from across Kosovo's fractured political scene paid their respects to Mr Rugova, as international leaders called for calm in the struggle to succeed a man who was dubbed the "Gandhi of the Balkans" for his non-violent opposition to Serb rule.

"Rugova has been the defining element of politics in Kosovo for so long that it is hard to imagine Kosovo, and Kosovan politics, without him," said Soren Jessen-Petersen, head of a UN mission that has run the region since 1999, when Nato bombing drove out Serb forces accused of "ethnic cleansing" in their crackdown on separatist rebels.

"The aim to which he dedicated his life is that of a free Kosovo," Mr Jessen-Petersen told a special session of parliament.

"It is a vision whose realisation remains in the hands of you, Kosovo's political leaders, whose unity and commitment to the president's mission will be vital in the coming months."

World leaders also paid tribute to Mr Rugova (61), the Paris-educated academic and writer around whom Kosovo's independence movement coalesced in the late 1980s, as communism collapsed across the Soviet bloc and Yugoslavia's bonds began to fray.

"The United States will continue to work with all the people of Kosovo to build a society based upon the principles of democracy, human rights and inter-ethnic tolerance that President Rugova valued so deeply," said US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, said Kosovo had lost a historic leader who devoted his life to protecting and promoting the rights of the people.

"President Rugova was a man of peace, firm in the face of oppression, but deeply committed to the ideals of non-violence." His erstwhile sparring partners in Belgrade, meanwhile, expressed fears over who may follow Mr Rugova, who is to be buried on Thursday.

"I hope the death of Ibrahim Rugova will not impede efforts to find a peaceful, agreed solution for the future status of the province," said Serb president Boris Tadic, who is under international pressure to give conditional independence to a region that Serbs see as their historic and spiritual homeland.

Sandra Raskovic-Ivic, Belgrade's main representative for Kosovo, said Mr Rugova could be followed by someone lacking his commitment to non-violence.

"I do not trust them very much," she acknowledged of many Kosovo politicians who fought with the separatist guerrillas during their 1998-9 struggle with Serb forces.

Kosovo's UN administrators and government met twice on Saturday without being able to decide who should replace Mr Rugova as head of the ethnic-Albanian negotiating team for the forthcoming status talks.

Parliamentary speaker Nexhat Daci has taken over as acting president.

"The president's death is the most difficult moment for the people, the institutions and the international community in Kosovo," said Mr Daci, who is one of the favourites to succeed Mr Rugova.

Parliament has three months to elect a new president, but western powers want the potentially dangerous power vacuum filled sooner.