Word: rugova
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...Milosevic's hard line has radicalized the Kosovar population, eroding support for moderate leader Ibrahim Rugova and -- to the consternation of the West -- boosting the ranks of the armed guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army. "The more Serb forces attack civilians, the weaker Rugova's position becomes," says Calabresi. Rugova today refused Milosevic's offer of talks, demanding Serb withdrawal as a precondition. But even that, says Calabresi, may not be enough: "Troop withdrawal wouldn't mean much unless Milosevic was prepared to make significant concessions on the political status of Kosovo" -- a notion that sticks in the craw...
...exceptions, Kosovars have been willing to follow their leaders' policy of nonviolence and passive resistance. In May they evaded attempts by Serbs to block unauthorized elections, but their new assembly has been barred from meeting. The President of the unrecognized Independent ! Republic of Kosovo, Democratic League leader Ibrahim Rugova, says, "We hold meetings every week with local representatives" despite repeated Serb arrests of Albanian activists...
...from the Muslim fanatic portrayed in Serbian propaganda, Rugova, 47, seems an unlikely nationalist leader. A Paris-educated Ph.D. in linguistics, he explains, "I opted for nonviolence because there has been too much violence in the Balkans. But since the war in Slovenia and Bosnia, Serbian ideology is one of brute force. Nonviolence may become absurd in these circumstances." The Kosovars harbor the dangerous conviction that the U.S. and Europe will help them win independence from Serbia -- the same conviction once held by moderates in Bosnia. But because Kosovo has never been an independent republic and is technically part...