Thursday, 26 January 2006

SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen’s address on the occasion of the memorial service for the late President Ibrahim Rugova

“Madame Fana, Mendim, Ukë, Teuta; Honoured Guests from Kosovo and abroad; Friends.

It is testament to President Ibrahim Rugova’s importance, and to his personality, that so many people have gathered here today, and over the past days. In spite of the cold, in spite of the distance, we have come in our thousands to say goodbye to him. President Rugova brought Kosovo’s plight to the attention of a sometimes indifferent world. Today it is indifferent no longer. And now the world has come to him, to join the people of Kosovo in paying their respects and in saying a fond farewell.

All who met President Rugova were struck by his warmth, his wisdom, and his dedication. He was committed in his beliefs and steadfast in his methods. Throughout his life he remained dedicated exclusively to peaceful means – meeting violence with vision. At a time, and in a region, where so many set their eyes upon the past, President Rugova was always focused on the future. He laid a path for Kosovo and he followed it unwaveringly. His path led – and still leads – towards a Kosovo that is democratic, multiethnic and free. A Kosovo that is firmly integrated into Europe, and which retains the strong links to the United States that he did so much to build.

His was a life dedicated to a political aim – but it was not one entirely defined by it. He was the father of Kosovo, but he was also the father of a close family – and it is with his family, whose loss we can share but not replace, that our thoughts must now be. Dear Madame Fana; Dear Mendim, Dear Ukë, Dear Teuta – thank you for sharing your husband, and your father, with the people of Kosovo, and with the world.

Ibrahim Rugova’s intellectual passions – for literature and geology, to name but two – gave him a roundedness of personality, and with this a generosity of spirit, that we will all remember and always admire. There can be few here today that do not have a collection of the beautiful crystals that the President would so carefully pick, so lovingly wrap, at the end of our meetings with him. My own collection, on my desk and at home, will in the months ahead provide a constant reminder of the loss that we now all feel.

President Rugova has left a void behind him – but he has also left a vision to guide Kosovo forward. It is a vision whose fulfilment he did not live to see, but whose realisation will be achieved through the unity and commitment of those who follow him. This will be his true memorial.

Ibrahim Rugova has left us. But his memory and his dream live on. May he rest in peace, in the land of Kosovo he loved so much.

Lamtumirë, miku im, Ibrahim. [Farewell Ibrahim, my friend].”

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