Demach, Balkan legend

My relationship with him has been very personal: we have worked together during the worst times for Kosovo Albanians during the apartheid period, said the iron coup of the Milosevic regime. For me he will always be a romantic leader who has all fascinated with openness and some kind of political inaction. It was simply a symbol of the resistance of Kosovo Albanians.

We started working together in 1997 when we prepared the first Serbian-Albanian dialogue in Ulcinj. At the time, we hoped that the multi-year conflict between the two countries would be resolved through dialogue. Despite strong efforts by the Serbian authorities to stop our conference, which was originally scheduled to be held in Pec, we finally managed to keep it in Ulcinj.

Demaci brought along forty Albanians, including prominent figures such as Mahmut Bakalli, Azem Vlasi, Pajazi Nushin and Behlul Beqaj. Their bus broke down so much where in Montenegro. They arrive at four in the morning. We waited for them in the squares of the hotel with Serbian representatives, among them Novak Pribiq, Ivan Djuric, Gika Berisavilovic, and Zarko Korac. For me, it was one of the touching encounters between people of different generations who discussed everything calmly and reasonably. I'm sorry we didn't have a camera with us to record this meeting.

Then, Demaci said, “We are all aware that the regime does not want us to make dialogue. However, I think that the Albanian side should not ignore the Serbian regime in the same way that it ignores us. We need to tell the Serbian regime what we think, even if it's in the form of a monologue.” He did not believe Serbian opponents. He believed the historic goal of the meeting was “not to turn deaf ears to historic challenge, but to exploit all its energy and urgently deal with what should be done to dissuade Serbs still manipulated. ”

He believed only by returning circumstances before the removal of Kosovo's autonomy in 1989 would it be possible to find a long-term solution to the conflict between Albanians and Serbs. It even supported a “Balkan confederation” composed of Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro. In 1997 the United States proposed something similar: Federal RSJ. The EU also supported him, but Serbia rejected the proposal.

Demac was also about direct negotiations between Serbs and Albanians. According to him, the 1999 Rambouillet Conference failed to meet this basic precondition and was not well prepared.

Demac appeared as a politician during the wave of Kosovo Albanians' frustration over passive resistance policies, and became head of the political wing of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK). Now, after the peaceful “zone that didn't get us anywhere” Albanians have the right to resist, he said. And not for The KLA, the Kosovo issue, would not be internationalised.

Ademi Demac was the first Albanian politician to come to Belgrade after the NATO intervention. “I don't believe in freedom on just one side, neither for Albanians nor for Serbs,” has said at the Centre for Cultural Decontamination, adding, “after all those things were plagued, it will be difficult for Albanians to convince that coexistence is possible, even necessary, and of common interest”.

After NATO intervention, Demac worked for Serbs to continue staying in Kosovo. He organised a number of conferences, always insisting on speaking Serbian on those occasions.

After all these years, we met several more times. During my last visit to Kosovo this May for a debate about Kosovo's citizenship, organised by the Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts, I was told he was ill. Not serious, they told me. I'm sorry I missed the chance to see him then. He died in the state he had landed for. He was, and always will be, a legend of the Balkans.

(Authore is human rights activist from Serbia)