Two former close associates talk about Ibrahim Rugova

It has been 12 years since President Ibrahim Rugova's death today.

Rugova had died in half of Vienna's talks on Kosovo's final status, which two years and 1 months after his death, demonstrated with the declaration of Independence.

Ibrahim Rugova suffered from cancer.

Today during the day, on the 12th anniversary of his death, many citizens and personalities have taken their way into Pristina's grave.

KA LLXO.com has talked to two of Ibrahim Rugova's former close associates.

One of Rugova's closest men, Adnan Merovci, told KALLXO.com that the former president has completed his political mission.

I think Rugova has completed his mission and he has accomplished what he has met, has managed to carry out what was needed in time and place, I think a little too soon after he had very advanced ideas, we need to work to advance”, Merovci told KALLXO.com.

According to him, Rugova was not only LDK. His popularity, according to the former historical president's bodyguard, has also surpassed the region's barriers.

“Rugova is in time seen as a man of his family, his hall, the state, the country, has definitely broken down even the barriers of the region”, Merovci said, adding that Rugova managed to maintain education and health alive in difficult times.

While one of Ibrahim Rugova's former associates in founding the party is also university professor Milazim Krasniqi, who recently published the book, “Secrets that Ibrahim Rugova did not take with him”. He calls Rugova an idear of Kosovo's independence.

“Rugova remains a man who has been the architect of Kosovo Independence, and that is the greatest credit of his political heritage”, Krasniqi told KALLXO.com.

While Merovci has compared Rugova to national figures such as Skenderbeu and Hasan Pristina.

“The deletion of his image will make future scholars, as that man managed with his weapon, that of Kosovo internationalism, to be accepted everywhere and you see today when I have the state of how hard it is to be accepted. His work has made him a figure that we can distinguish as one of the figures Skenderbeu, Mother Teresa, Hasan Pristina and Adem Demaci”, Merovci said among others.

Today, Rugova has honoured him by paying tribute to even his biggest former opponent, who is now a descendant of his position, Hashim Thaci. He has written that he will remember him as Kosovo's first president, even though in the past the relationship between them has not been good at all.

Speaking of the honour being done to Rugova today by his former political opponents, Merovci says Rugova's figure is as big as everyone belongs to in a bit.

<x0brahim Rugova has been and remains a large figure, being as such may have been opposed. Rugova's figure also with time has proven to be comprehensive, and each belongs to a” piece, he says.

On the 12th anniversary of his death, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has been homazhe at Rugova's grave.

Haradinaj President Rugova had “delivered” to the prime minister's post in December 2004, at the time the AAK had won a small number of MPs.

While, Milazim Krasniqi, while assessing it as a good tradition of institutional respect for state figures, when it speaks of the motives of these sites, says they are part of political hypocrisy.

“In terms of the motives they're doing, I believe they're part of political hypocrisy, part of political marketing, part of political freedoms, but I'm saying the best is gradually this tradition of institutional respect is developing, but everyone's motives and intentions are part of the hidden character and as such are hardly commentable”, Krasniqi said, among other things.

In addition to Thaci's Haradinaj, Rugova has also been honoured by LDK membership.

While Deputy Prime Minister Behgjet Pacolli has written on Facebook that Kosovo does not have a politician like Rugova.

There is no and will not have believed in the near history of Kosovo, political leader who has left behind an ideology, a flow of thought and action, bearing his name. There isn't a second. If you know anybody else, tell me”, Pacolli wrote in “Facebook”

While the head of the legislature, Kadri Wessel has not been declared at all for the 12th anniversary of Rugova's death.

And Merovci recalls that Rugova has often opposed people who have been named his relatives.

The “has quickly been transformed in a way, he has, alone, and all against him”, Merovci added.

While speaking to Rugova's figure, Milazim Krasniqi says he sees him as a modest man who has more been a visionary than a pragmatic politician.

“Rugova has been a modest and visionary man in political projections, there has been a strategically very precise orientation about allies and about the enemies of Albanians, which means there has never been a dilemma in strategic definitions, while as a politician has not been very pragmatic, it has always moved under the pressure of events or factors, otherwise I am saying that there has been more visionary than a pragmatic politician, Krasniqi said.

Speaking to Rugova as a politician before the war and Rugova as post-war politician, Krasniqi sees major differences in these different periods of time.

I think prior to the war there was a visionary politician with the creation of strategic partners and allies. Unfortunately, after the war there was another Rugova, perhaps because of the bitter legacy at the time of the bombings when he was kidnapped by Milosevic and brutally terrorised by him, then by the aggression of political opponents. He closed himself and created a kind of rejection political fanaticism and it has had reflection on the political scene itself, and today it is still unclear to me how it is possible that the LDK as a great political movement did not take any more responsibility for building Kosovo”, Krasniqi added to KALLXO.com.

Rugova had been co-founder of the Democratic League of Kosovo and its chairman since his founding until his death in January 2006.

In addition to being president of the country, he had been chairman of the Association of Writers of Kosovo before the LDK was formed.