Adem Demaçi

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Adem Demaçi (Born 26 February 1936 in Pristina, Yugoslavia, now Kosovo^[a]) is a Kosovo Albanian writer and politician and a longtime political prisoner who spent a total of 28 years in prison for speaking out against the poor treatment of the Albanian minority in Yugoslavia as well as criticizing communism and the regime of Josip Broz Tito. During his imprisonment, he was recognized as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

Demaçi was first imprisoned 1958-1961. After his release, he served two more prison terms 1964-1974 and 1975-1990. In each case he was arrested for separatism, but also as a Stalinist.

After his release, he was a Chairman of the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms of the People of Kosovo. He received the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov Prize in 1992. Nominated for Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993. Winner of Peace Prize of Rectors of Europe from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1994. He was a guest during a session of the United States House of Representatives in March 1992.

Adem Demaçi was political representative of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during 1998/1999. He stayed in Kosovo during the entire Kosovo War. Though Serbian soldiers knew who he was, they did not harm him. The most likely reason for this was his notoriety and his status as a victim of communist oppression. To this day, he is involved in Kosovo politics and continues to advocate Kosovo's independence from Serbia, even criticising KLA leaders for accepting a peace settlement with Serbia that did not grant independence for Kosovo.

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a.

^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The Assembly of Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence on 17 February 2008, a move that is recognised by 64 of the 192 UN member states and the Republic of China (Taiwan), but not by other UN member states. Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory.

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