Azem Vllasi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Azem Vllasi (born 1948; surname also sometimes spelled Vlasi) is a Kosovo Albanian politician.
Vllasi was born in Rubovc municipality of Kamenica and became a lawyer before he joined politics. He was a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and became the leader of the Communist Party of Kosovo in 1986, and the president of Kosovo.
Under Vllasi, the Albanian-led Party took a more assertive position towards the Serbian government, and could be expected to put up strong opposition to any moves to reassert Serbian authority over Kosovo. The province of Kosovo at the time had one vote in the federal presidency of Yugoslavia.
In November 1988, Azem Vllasi and Kaqusha Jashari, two top-ranked Kosovo politicians, were dismissed and replaced by appointees of Slobodan Milošević (the leader of the Serbian Communist Party at the time). In response to this, the local population started a series of public demonstrations and a general strike. A partial state of emergency in Kosovo was declared on February 27, 1989, and the newly-appointed leaders resigned on February 28th.
Vllasi was arrested by the police on the charges of "counter-revolutionary activities". He was released from prison in April 1990.
Vllasi survived the war years and nowadays still maintains that Tito's times were much better for Kosovo than the present situation after the war and the later violent unrest.
In December 2005, Kosovo's prime minister Bajram Kosumi appointed Vllasi as special advisor for negotiations over the final status of Kosovo.
