Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Kosovo president Rugova seriously ill - source

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, the ethnic Albanian pro-independence leader undergoing medical tests in Germany, is "seriously ill," a senior foreign diplomat said on Wednesday.

The 60-year-old president was flown to a U.S. military hospital at Landstuhl in western Germany on Saturday after aides said his health had deteriorated following a bout of flu.

An official spokesman refused to comment on Rugova's condition. But a senior foreign diplomat told Reuters: "He is in very serious condition."

Rugova has been at the heart of Kosovo Albanian efforts to win independence from Serbia for the past 15 years.

The province became a de facto U.N. protectorate in 1999 after NATO bombing forced the withdrawal of Serb forces accused of atrocities in fighting separatist rebels.

There is no clear successor to Rugova, who has twice been elected president since the war.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

He will survive, he is a survivor, serbos couldn't break him and illness wont break him either.

He is a strong leader with strong international friends and ideals. Some albanians might see him as crazy, always asking for the rights of everyone even though serbs caused so much pain in his personal and political life.

Anonymous said...

it looks like all the alcohol (purportedly a liter of scotch per day) and his 4 packets of marlboro are catching up with him..........


he'll probably be dead within a few months.....

Anonymous said...

Just like the average Balkan male. Life expectancy is about 60 for males in the Balkans and few of those who smoke and drink (90% of Balkan men)make it past that.