Pristina: Albanians on Sunday began five days of mourning and the search for a new president to lead the disputed Serbian province into independence talks after Ebrahim Rugova died, leaving no clear successor.
Rugova's death on Saturday of lung cancer left the 90 per cent Albanian majority leaderless on the eve of direct talks with Belgrade to decide whether Kosovo becomes independent or remains part of Serbia, as Belgrade insists.
A charismatic and powerful figurehead, the former literature professor has no obvious replacement as president or at the helm of the Kosovo negotiating team. A continuous flow of mourners filed past Rugova's hillside villa, where he died. Albanian national flags hung at half-mast across the capital.
Thursday burial
He will be buried on Thursday, January 26 in the Kosovo capital Pristina, delayed from Wednesday, the day negotiations were due to begin, at the request of his family. His body will lie in state in the Kosovo parliament from tomorrow.
Talks in Vienna were postponed to early February. Parliament has three months to vote in a new president but Kosovo's Western backers want Rugova's party to overcome bitter factionalism and nominate a successor sooner.
The world urged unity, mindful of the divisions that have plagued Kosovo's postwar politics.
"We express our hope that Kosovo will continue to follow the legacy of President Rugova and that the political leaders will stay united during the following period in order to face the upcoming challenges," the EU envoy in Kosovo said yesterday.
Legally part of Serbia, the province of 2 million people has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when Nato bombing drove out Serbian forces accused of the "ethnic cleansing" of Albanian civilians in a two-year war with separatists.
The UN Security Council gave the green light to status talks late last year, responding to growing Albanian impatience with the status quo and US warnings of fresh violence.
