Supporting Dr. Ibrahim Rugova for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize 1996
Doc. 7667 2nd edition
28 November 1996
originally tabled on 26 September 1996
WRITTEN DECLARATION No. 249
This written declaration commits only the members who have signed it
The undersigned, members of the Assembly, recalling that
1. Dr Ibraham Rugova was elected president in Kosovo at its first free presidential and parliamentary elections with international observers in May 1992. He has since then endeavoured by peaceful and democratic methods to obtain independence for Kosovo.
2. The political and economic situation in Kosovo is at present desperate and intolerable thus presenting President Ibrahim Rugova with great difficulties in maintaining his non-violent policy.
3. President Ibrahim Rugova has been a spokesman for the safeguarding of civil and cultural rights of the Albanian majority in Kosovo despite the continuous violent attacks on basic human rights by the Serbian police forces.
4. In his search for peaceful solutions he has succeeded in negotiating an agreement with the Serbian authorities permitting Albanian children to resume their school education after nearly five years of exclusion.
5. Kosovo's Democratic League (LDK) was chaired by Dr Ibrahim Rugova when established in 1989 in opposition to the ruling communist party. Under Dr Rugova's leadership LDK developed into Kosovo's Democratic-Political Liberation Movement.
6. President Ibrahim Rugova was born in Kosovo in 1944 and is a wellknown author. He was elected chairman of the Authors' Association of Kosovo in 1988.
7. Consider that the award of the Nobel Peace Prize will give President Rugova more strength to continue his efforts to obtain a free Kosovo by peaceful means. At the same time, it will send a message to all nations of the world that a people should be entitled to obtain self-determination by means other than force.
Signed: [1]
Severinsen, Denmark, LDR
Gjellerod, Denmark, SOC
Atkinson, United Kingdom, EDG
Degn, Denmark, SOC
Seitlinger, France, EPP
Severin, Romania, SOC
Lentz-Cornette, Luxembourg, EPP
Eörsi, Hungary, LDR
Masseret, France, SOC
Gelderblom-Lankhout, Netherlands, LDR Jansson, Finland, LDR
López Henares, Spain, EPP
Kirkhill, United Kingdom, SOC
Verbeek, Netherlands, LDR
Sinka, Latvia, EDG
Davis, United Kingdom, SOC
Groenver, Denmark, LDR
Landsbergis, Lithuania, EDG
Fehr, Switzerland, LDR
Szalay, Hungary, LDR
Pante__jevs, Latvia, LDR
Németh, Hungary, LDR
Haraldsson, Iceland, LDR
Gricius, Lithuania, LDR
Jeszenszky, Hungary, EDG
Hardy, United Kingdom, SOC
Spahia, Albania, EPP
Pollo, Albania, EPP
Kopliku, Albania, EPP
_____________________
Total = 29
[1]. SOC : Socialist Group
EPP : Group of the European People's Party
EDG : European Democratic Group
LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers Group
UEL : Group of the Unified European Left