MACEDONIA/YUGOSLAVIA: MODERATE ETHNIC ALBANIAN LEADER IBRAHIM RUGOVA RETURNS TO KOSOVO

Record ID: 565792

  • Title: MACEDONIA/YUGOSLAVIA: MODERATE ETHNIC ALBANIAN LEADER IBRAHIM RUGOVA RETURNS TO KOSOVO
  • Date: 15th July 1999
  • Summary: MACEDONIA-YUGOSLAVIA BORDER, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (JULY 15, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. PAN CONVOY WITH HEAD OF THE DEMOCRATIC LEAGUE OF KOSOVO IBRAHIM RUGOVA CROSSING BORDER 0.16 2. SV PEOPLE CHEERING AS CONVOY PASSES 0.20 3. TRAVELLING SHOT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE LINING THE ROUTE 0.33 PRISTINA, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA (JULY 15, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 4. VARIOUSTHOUSANDS OF PEOPLE MASSING OUTSIDE HOME OF RUGOVA/RUGOVA CAR ARRIVES/ RUGOVA EXITS HIS CAR/CROWD CHEERS/ HE SHAKES HANDS WITH CROWD/ WOMAN KISSES HIM/ MEN HUG HIM/WOMEN AND CHILDREN GIVE HIM FLOWERS 1.25 5. SV GIRL HOLDS POSTER SAYING RUGOVA 1.28 6. MV'S RUGOVA WAVES AT CROWD OUTSIDE HIS HOUSE/GOES IN (2 SHOTS) 1.45 7. PAN CROWD CHANTING "RUGOVA" 1.55 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 30th July 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MACEDONIA-YUGOSLAVIA BORDER AND PRISTINA, KOSOVO, YUGOSLAVIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVA9M0WVSU15PF86XM57Z37O7JUO
  • Story Text: Moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova has
    returned to Kosovo after several months abroad.

    To chants of "Rugova, Rugova" from his supporters, he
    crossed the border into Kosovo from Macedonia at around 0950
    GMT on Thursday (July 15) in a convoy of four diplomatic
    vehicles and one other car.

    Rugova, head of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK),
    left Kosovo during NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia and went
    abroad after a much-criticised meeting with Yugoslav President
    Slobodan Milosevic.

    Members of the LDK were at the border to greet Rugova, who
    had meetings planned on Thursday in the Kosovo capital
    Pristina with party officials and Sergio Vieira de Mello, the
    temporary head of the U.N.civilian administration in Kosovo.

    Rugova has said he plans to speak to all ethnic Albanian
    groups in the province including the Kosovo Liberation Army,
    which has set up a self-proclaimed provisional government with
    some places reserved for his party.The KLA challenges
    Rugova's status as the unofficially elected head of a Kosovo
    government.

    Rugova led a decade-long campaign of passive resistance to
    Serbian rule of Kosovo, 90 per cent of whose population was
    ethnic Albanian.But the KLA says his campaign achieved little
    or nothing.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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