3 hours agoChief EULEX '%s' talks about the meeting with Ibrahim Rugova: I met him in a smoke room.
Periskopi(6 years ago)
(6 years ago)The chief of the EU's mission to rule of law in Kosovo, EULEX Lars-Gunnar Wigemark in an interview for the “Balkan” show in “ABC” spoke of Pristina in 1992, how he remembers that time as part of an O mission. The SEU, but also the meeting with Ibrahim Rugova. Very gray, very gray, a little depressing, because, [...]
Very gray, very gray, a little depressed, because, of course, people were depressed, oppressed. People seemed so sad, if not scared.
I remember meeting your great leader Ibrahim Rugova with his characteristic scarf in a smoke room, because I'm afraid he's been smoking too much.
I remember the Grand Hotel here in Pristina as a very strange building. Since then, a kind of monument to heritage... not so pleasant parts of the former Yugoslavia, which had good things.
It wasn't all negative, of course. But, I think, at that time, the oppression of Kosovo, which began in 1989 by Mr. Milosevic and the others had arrived at a point where they had touched people's lives, schools were not open, instruction in Albanian was being held in houses, and so on. I only stayed here for a few days, but I remember. So I wasn't surprised at what happened later because I think there was a lot of pressure. And if you push too hard, sooner or later there'll be a reaction. This is almost like in physics” he said.
