[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} Top Rugova Aide, Xhemail Mustafa, Assassinated

[Trepca.net]

Top Rugova Aide, Xhemail Mustafa, Assassinated

Prishtina, 23 November, Kosova Information Center (KIC) - Xhemail Mustafa (1954), a close aide to LDK 
leader Ibrahim Rugova, was shot and killed in Kosova capital Prishtina today (Thursday) afternoon.

Mr. Mustafa was killed, reportedly by two as yet unidentified gunmen, in front of his home in Dardania district in downtown Prishtina shortly after 15:00 hrs. He was declared dead upon admission in Prishtina hospital. 

Hospital sources said he had recevived four to five gunshots to his chest and head.

KFOR and the UN police sealed off the scene pending site investigations.

The late Mustafa leaves behind his wife and two children.
 
A prominent journalist and writer, Xhemail Mustafa was born in Gllamnik village, municipality of Podujeva, northeast of Kosova, in 1954. He studied humanities at the University of Prishtina.

In the eighties, Mr. Mustafa was a journalist and editor with the culture section of the Rilindja newspaper, then the only daily in Albanian in Kosova. In the nineties, he was a leading KIC writer.

Author of two books - a collection of literary essays and a diary of the spring 1999 war in Kosova - Mr. Mustafa was distinguished as a refined observer of literary and political phenomena.

Xhemail Mustafa was one of the co-founders of the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK), the first noncommunist and democratic party formed in Kosova in December 1989. For a time, he was a member of the LDK Presidency. Since 1992, he was a spokesman and press advisor to Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the LDK and the President of the Republic of Kosova (1992-1999).
 
Xhemail Mustafa is the second KIC member to have been assassinated. Enver Maloku, Mustafa's long-time friend and colleague, head of the KIC, was likewise assassinated in a similar fashion in Prishtina on 11 January 1999.
 
A soft-spoken person, Mr. Mustafa will be missed sorely by his colleagues. "Xhemail Mustafa's killing is heavy blow to the efforts of the people of  Kosova for freedom, democracy and independence", the LDK leadership said in  its first reaction to the news of Mustafa's assassination.
 
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