Father of Kosovo dies

last updated 8 January 2015

Pristina, Kosovo

Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova died of lung cancer last week at age 61, and the vacuum left by the nonviolent icon is likely to complicate talks on Kosovar independence. The soft-spoken writer had led the democratic movement in Kosovo since 1989, when Kosovar Albanians began demanding independence from Serbia. Unlike more militant nationalists, Rugova was a pacifist, with a penchant for silk scarves and a passion for rock collecting. He died just days before the scheduled start of negotiations on independence for Kosovo, which is still technically a province of Serbia but has been administered by the U.N. since 1999, when NATO intervened to stop Serbian ethnic cleansing. Those talks have now been postponed until late February.