17 years from former President Ibrahim Rugova's death

Ibrahim Rugova was born on 2 December 1944 in the village of Cerca, the municipality of Istog. On January 10, 1945, Yugoslav communists shot their father, Uka, and Grandpa Rrust Rugova, who had been a prominent fighter against the qualitical Cetres that had infiltrated Kosovo during World War II.

Ibrahim Rugova conducted elementary school in Istog, high school in Pec, 1967. The Philosopher's Faculty of Albanian Literature is carried out in Pristina. During the 1976-77 academic year, he stayed in Paris, Ecole Pratique des Houtes Etudes, under the supervision of Prof. Roland Barthes, who has followed his scientific interests in the literature study, with a focus on literary theory. He was doctors at the literature field at Pristina University in 1984.

In 1996, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has been elected a member of the Kosovo Academy of Arts and Sciences. At first, he was an editor in the newspaper of the new world students and in the science magazine Dituria (1971-72), published in Pristina. He has also worked in the magazine Word. Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has held his science activity at the Albanological Institute as a literature researcher. One time he was editor-in-chief of the magazine Albanological Tracking of the Institute. Literary creativity has been taking place since the early '60s.

Dr. Ibrahim Rugova in 1988 has been elected chairman of the Association of Kosovo Writers, which has become the powerful core of the Albanian movement, which has opposed Serbian and Yugoslav communist rule in Kosovo.

As a leading intellectual who has given voice to this intellectual and political movement, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has been elected, on December 23rd 1989, by the founding chairman of the Democratic League of Kosovo, the first political party in Kosovo to have directly challenged the communist regime in power. The LDK, under Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, has soon become the leading political force in Kosovo, gathering most of the people around him.

In co-operation with other Albanian political forces in Kosovo, as well as with the then Kosovo Assembly, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova and LDK have closed the legal framework for institutionalising Kosovo's independence. The declaration of independence (July 2nd 1990), Kosovo's declaration and the adoption of its constitution (7 September 1990), the popular referendum on Kosovo's independence and sovereignty, held in late September 1991, have been pre-emptive for Kosovo's first multiparty elections, held on 24 May 1992. Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has been elected president of the Republic of Kosovo. Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has been re-elected president of the Republic of Kosovo in elections held in March 1998.

Under Dr. Ibrahim Rugova LDK has won the majority of votes in the first internationally sponsored local elections in post-war Kosovo in October 2000, as well as the first national elections in 2001 and the second local elections in 2002. The LDK also won national elections in 2004.

Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has been elected president of Kosovo in March 2002 and has been re-elected even in 2004.

Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has died on 21 Kalnor 2006 in Pristina and is buried in the Sun Coast with the highest honours of the people of Kosovo.

On the anniversary of Ibrahim Rugova's death on January 21, 2007, Kosovo President Dr. Fatmir Sejdiu has decorated Kosovo's historic president with Kosovo's “Hero Order”, the highest title in our country given to the Albanian and Kosovo historical figures that have done “so bravely for Kosovo's freedom and independence”.

Ibrahim Rugova has published these works:

Freedom Touch, Renaissance, Pristina, 1971,

Kah theory, Renaissance, Pristina, 1978,

л Bibliography of Albanian literary criticism 1944-1974, Albanological Institute, Pristina, 1976 (with Isaac Sheman),

Literary criticism (from De Rada to Migen), Renaissance, Pristina, 1979 (with Sabri Hamiti),

Strategy for Meaning, Renaissance, Pristina, 1980

Bogdan 1675-1685, Renaissance, Pristina, 1982,

л Kahe and premieres of Albanian literary criticism 1504-1983, Albanological Institute, Pristina, 1986

Aesthetic refugee, Renaissance, Pristina, 1987,

) Independence and Democracy, Word, Pristina, 1991,

Kosovo's case, Dukagjini, Peja, 1994,

The completion of Ibrahim Rugova's works in eight volumes, Faik Konica, Pristina, 2005

Ibrahim Rugova's international awards and titles:

In 1995, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has been awarded the Paul Litzer Foundation's Peace Prize in Denmark.

In 1996, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has been declared Eminence Doctor (Honoris Causa) of the University of Paris V III, Sorbonne, France.

In 1998, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has been awarded the Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament.

In 1999, Dr. Rugova has received the Mynster City's Peace Prize, Germany, while an honorary citizen of Italian cities -- Venice, Milan and Brescia -- has been declared.

In 2000, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has received the Peace Prize for the Democratic Union of Catalonia “Manuel Carrasco of Formigerra” in Barcelona, Spain.

In 2004 Dr. Ibrahim Rugova is honoured with the European Prize, Senator Honor from the Pan European Coudenhove-Klergi Foundation.

He's also honored by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (SHBA), “Mik of the United States of America” In 2004, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova has been declared Eminence Doctor (Honoris Causa) of the University of Tirana.

/Kosovo pres/