Bujar Bukoshi, the former leader of Kosovo’s independence who for years led the government in exile, died on Tuesday morning after a long illness, his family announced.
He was 78 years old.
His death was also reported by the Associated Press news agency, which announced that Bukoshi died in Germany, where he was being treated for cancer and was receiving financial support from the Albanian government, according to his family.
Bukoshi is survived by his wife, Zana Bukoshi, daughters Ora, Shota, Nita and grandchildren Dardan and Taulant.
Bukoshi was among the founders of Albanian parallel institutions during the ’90s and one of the closest associates of historic President Ibrahim Rugova.
He was appointed Prime Minister of the Kosovo Government in Exile after the proclamation of the Republic of Kosovo in 1991 and for nearly a decade worked from Germany to raise awareness in the Western world about Serbian repression in Kosovo.
Born in 1947 in Suhareka, he completed his medical studies at the University of Belgrade in 1971, and specialized in urology in Pristina and Belgrade in 1977. He then continued his education in Germany with prestigious scholarships such as the DAAD and the Berlin Senate. In 1985, he defended his doctorate in the field of urological oncology in Berlin.
In addition to his contribution as a physician and professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Pristina, he played a key role in the establishment of the Council for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms (KMLDNJ) and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), where he was elected secretary general.
Persecuted by the Serbian regime for his political engagement, in 1990 he was forcibly expelled from the Pristina Clinic where he worked as a surgeon. With the establishment of the Kosovo Government in exile, Dr. Bukoshi organized the network of donations from the diaspora (“the 3 percent”), which kept the parallel education and health system in Kosovo alive.
After the Kosovo war, he participated in the Rambouillet negotiations and headed the Union of Funds for the Reconstruction of Kosovo (UFORK), through which schools, houses and cultural projects were rebuilt in the country. He later served as a member of parliament, Minister of Health and Deputy Prime Minister in the Government of Kosovo, contributing to reforms in health and social welfare.
Bukoshi will be remembered as one of the most dedicated figures of the time of peaceful resistance and the period of state building in Kosovo. He was a bridge between medicine, politics and the Albanian diaspora in Europe. His death leaves a huge void in the country’s public life.
