An e-mail

I love Peace

These days, I and my work colleges received one e-mail from one American who used to work with us in Kosova for almost three years. What’s make him different from others was the fact that he used to know a lot about Balkans history. Now he is far away from here, he is on Iraq and when he heard about our President Rugova’s death he send us this e-mail to offer his sincery condolences.
I want to thank him and same time I want to share that e-mail with all readers of my blogg. Thanks Gery..

Here is a paper:

"First I offer my sincerest condolences on the passing of President Rugova. If Kosova attains independence, which I think likely, that will be his great legacy. Albanians in general and Kosovars in particular had been portrayed as barbaric savages and ruthless killers. Blood feuds, the Kanun of Lek, the Kacak bands of Azem Behta and Shota and others, the lawless Drenica Valley with the Jashari's and Tahir Mejha (I am sure my spelling is wrong on some of this) and on and on. Those are the kinds of things the world heard, if they heard anything at all, and it was written by enemies of Albanians. But that is all people heard so they believed it. Not all of it. Not that Albanians had only recently climbed down from the trees and lost their tails as some Serbian Nationalist wrote but your people were perceived as bloodthirsty and uncivilized.

Then in the late 1990's Kosova came to the clear attention of the world. The media, especially television, brought your beautiful homeland into people's living rooms and they could see and hear for themselves what was happening. They saw the Trepca miners marching in peaceful protest to Prishtina. They saw Albanian villages in flames. They saw almost a million people herded onto trains or riding on tractors to refugee camps and they saw slaughtered civilians in places like Racak. They asked themselves "who are the civilized ones and who are the bloodthirsty ones?" I think that was mostly because of Ibrahim Rugova.

I know that your people have always been brave. They have fought against overwhelming odds throughout your history. I know many wanted to fight. That they were willing to die for their families and beliefs and freedom. I think that were it not for Dr. Rugova that is what would have happened. The world would have seen mayhem from both sides and not have gotten emotionally involved because of what had been said about Kosovars in the past. The Serbs would have only been defending them-selves against barbarians just as Milosevic said. That is what Milosevic wanted to happen, what he thought would happen. If he could provoke the Kosovars into full scale war he felt he could justify cleansing the land of them. But Rugova defeated him. He used passive resistance, a tactic I believe was totally foreign to the Albanian psyche, that the Serbian Nationalists were helpless against. He has been called the 'Gandhi of the Balkans' and he was as successful as Mohandas Gandhi was in India. I know the KLA (UCK) formed and resisted but by then the damage to Milosevic had been done. By then resistance was seen as justified and understandable.

Today Kosova is on the verge of probable independence. I believe that were it not for Ibrahim Rugova it wouldn't be. If Kosova does attain independence people will be thanking Bill Clinton and Wesley Clark and NATO among others. None of them had as much to do with it as Dr. Rugova. I think only one other person had as much to do with your freedom as President Rugova. Ironically that person is Slobodan Milosevic. Were it not for him and his policies I doubt it would be much different than it was 20 years ago. You have a big statue of Skanderbiu in Prishtina. I imagine you will soon have another of Dr. Rugova. I know that nobody will agree with me but I think you should have a third one (a small one) to Milosevic. It should read "Slobo! WE the People of the Democratic Republic of Kosova thank you for our Freedom and Independence." I understand he has high blood pressure. I imagine if he found out about that he would have a stroke. If you do attain independence I think it is a shame that President Dr. Ibrahim Rugova didn't live to see the fruit from the tree of freedom he planted".


Gary

PRESIDENT OF KOSOVA- Dr.FATMIR SEJDIU

I love Peace

Today, parliament of Kosova voted Fatmir Sejdiu for President of Kosova. He is elected just after third round of voting. For first time he got just 78 votes pro, second round he got just 76 and for third round 80 votes pro, 13 contras, 17 useless.
On his speech president Sejdiu said that he will continuo Rugova’s way for bringing peace and independence of Kosova and will continuo to cooperate with UNMIK, KFOR, Americans, Ahtisar, EU and all peoples of Kosova. He appealed to Serbians and all minorities to cooperate with Kosova’s institutions for making Kosova better and safe place of everyone.
President Sejdiu, peroration his speech by promising that he will work on: “good of all Kosova’s people, by protecting sovereignty of Kosova and making true the Independence of Kosova”.

Kosova with new President

I love Peace

After the death of president Rugova, Kosova need new president. With constitute the president should be elected within three month and until then president of parliament needs to replace him. But it looks this week the parliament of Kosova will vote for new president since LDK(the largest party in Kosova) has pronounced the new candidate for President. He is Fatmir Sejdiu.
Here is his biography:
Fatmir Sejdiu was born on 23 October 1951 in the village of Pakashtice in the Pudujeve Municipality. He lives in Prishtina with his family. He is married with three sons.
After the war in Kosova, Sejdiu earned his PhD in law. Currently, he teaches History of State and Law at Prishtina University's Law Faculty and Department of Political Science.
Prof Sejdiu's political biography starts with the formation of the Democratic League of Kosova [LDK] [in 1989]. Since then, he has been LDK secretary general for two four-year terms, while at the party's last congress he was elected member of the LDK Presidency
Sejdiu has been a member of the Kosova Assembly's presidency for two terms. On many occasions he has chaired Assembly sessions, standing in for Assembly Speaker Nexhat Daci.
In addition to being on the Assembly's presidency, Sejdiu has been a member of Assembly commissions on the Assembly's Working Regulations and for International Cooperation and EU Integration. As a legal expert, he participated in the drafting of the Constitutional Framework for Kosova.
Prof Sejdiu speaks English and French.
I hope parliament will vote him for president because he is the right person to lead Kosova on this time. He has prudence to judge, he has intelligence to think and knowledge to speak so this is something very important for one leader. He is very good professor and good person also.
Professor I wish you all the best. I will pray for your success and God help you to lead Kosova in a properly way to win independence and to bring a PEACE for everyone in Kosova.
GOD blesses you….