http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/2005/09/breaking-news-kosovos-president.htm
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KOSOVOREPORT
THE LATEST NEWS AND DAILY POLITICAL ANALYSIS FROM KOSOVO
Sunday, September 04, 2005
BREAKING NEWS: Kosovo's president, reportedly has cancer
PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - Kosovo's president Ibrahim Rugova is
expected to make a televised address to the province Monday, a day after a
government official told The Associated Press that he has cancer.
It was not immediately clear what was Rugova's current condition, according
to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the issue. The official did not disclose any other details.
He returned home on Saturday after spending a week at the U.S. military's
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany after a sudden deterioration in
his health.
His condition had remained shrouded in secrecy during that time, with his
associates offering no details on his ailment for nearly 10 days. That
fueled fears of a possible slowdown of the process leading to talks on the
province's future, planned for later this year.
A statement issued by his office late Saturday said Rugova will take up his
presidential duties again, but he will be under medical care in his
residence in Pristina.
Initially, Rugova was treated by doctors in Pristina and at the main U.S.
military base in Kosovo, Camp Bondsteel, before being taken to Germany.
In his last public appearance before flying to Germany, Rugova was visibly
frail and spoke with a weak voice during a ceremony to lay the foundation
stone of the first Catholic cathedral in Kosovo's capital.
The 61-year-old leader, who has cult status among some ethnic Albanians, has
been at the forefront of their demand for independence from Serbia since the
early 1990s, when he led a nonviolent movement against the policies of
then-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Serbs want Kosovo to remain part of Serbia-Montenegro, a union that replaced
Yugoslavia.
Rugova's possible departure from office due to ill health would leave
Kosovo's political scene in disarray at the most sensitive time since the
end of the war in 1999.
Talks to determine Kosovo's future are to take place later this year -- if
the province reaches internationally set standards on human rights, rights
of minorities and rule of law.
Until recently, Rugova led the Democratic League of Kosovo, the province's
biggest political party, which has won two general elections since the U.N.
began running the disputed province in 1999. The U.N. came in after a NATO
air war aimed at stopping the crackdown by Serb forces on
independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
posted by KosovaReport @ 10:36 PM 1 comments
1 Comments:
At 12:02 AM, Anonymous said...
President Rugova has proven himself to be a survivor time and again. He will
hang low for a while and ride this storm like he's done the previous ones.
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