KOSOVO: Prime Minister Hashim Thaci marks first week of independence by visiting grave of former President Ibrahim Rugova.

Record ID: 573711

  • Title: KOSOVO: Prime Minister Hashim Thaci marks first week of independence by visiting grave of former President Ibrahim Rugova.
  • Date: 24th February 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) KOSOVO PRIME MINISTER HASHIM THACI SAYING: "The reactions that happened in Belgrade, are very primitive reactions, these cannot be linked with Serb citizens of Kosovo. I will stand beside them to help them."
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAE4JG2WMRC9FB9GXYSRTDSDA9V
  • Story Text: Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci marked the first week since declaring independence from Serbia by visiting the grave of former President Ibrahim Rugova on Sunday (February 24), to pay his respects to the person, who many in Kosovo see as the father of the nation.
    Thaci took time to tell the waiting crowds that the situation in the north of Kosovo was under control,
    "This part of Kosovo's territory (the north) is under full control of NATO authority and Kosovo Police and UNMIK, we are monitoring this with full attention and full readiness to have a response to all the challenges," Thaci said.
    Ibrahim Rugova was the first President of Kosovo, he set up parallel institutions throughout Kosovo, after Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic cancelled autonomy for the region, forcing many out of jobs and starting a reign of terror that lasted for over a decade.
    Thaci laid a bouquet of flowers at the grave site and said to the people that the reaction from Belgrade to Kosovo's independence was primitive and not linked to Serbs living in Kosovo.
    "The reactions that happened in Belgrade, are very primitive reactions, these cannot be linked with Serb citizens of Kosovo. I will stand beside them to help them," he said.
    Kosovo is the 6th state carved from the Serb-dominated federation since 1991, after Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro, and the last to escape Serbia's embrace.
    The Serbs vow never to give up the land where their history goes back 1,000 years.
    They reject independence in defiance of the Albanians and their Western backers and say they will keep their grip on strongholds in northern Kosovo.
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