'Gandhi of the Balkans' dies of cancer aged 61
Mr Rugova, who died of cancer on Saturday, epitomised the province's decades-long struggle for independence from Serbia and achieved cult status among some of its ethnic Albanian majority for leading them in a nonviolent struggle against repression.
He died of lung cancer without seeing his dream of independence fulfilled, leaving the province's political scene in disarray at the most sensitive moment since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999. He was 61.
