Rugova stayed, but people, that… the fact itself that everyone knew we were held hostage was discouraging for the people in Kosovo. Even those that had some courage to stay, to hide, it affected them negatively. The interview that I mentioned, it restored hope in people, because they realized we were alive, I’m saying it had this element of encouragement. But with time they started improvising, founding governing bodies, inviting people to come back, this kind of stuff was done under the the threat of bombing. Rugova never in his life tried to stop the bombings, it is a misunderstanding and misinterpretation and what not… when it is a misunderstanding, you say it, it was said, but it was misunderstood.
No, no, not even for a second did Ibrahim Rugova say that the bombings should stop. If you take a press statement and there it says, let’s say, even if you signed under pressure by removing the term ‘Metohi’, and you say, ‘We are in favor of a peaceful solution and the bombs were dropped to achieve peace’. So what do you make of it? But, ‘I ask for the bombing to stop and to start a peace process’ or similar stuff like this, while Ibrahim Rugova was alive he never said that.
Adnan Merovci was born in 1956 in Vushtrri. He graduated from the Faculty of Technology at the University of Prishtina. During the ‘90s, he was Chief of Protocol for the President of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova. Merovci held this position for ten years. Between 2002-2003, he was the Head of Kosovo’s post offices, and later was Chief Executive Officer of the Secretariat of the Central Election Commission. Recently, he was elected president of the Independent Media Commission. Mr. Merovci lives in Pristina and is a father of four.