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Nine-year Library Ban Lifted
in Kosovo

Following NATO’s successful military intervention in Yugoslavia, a ban on ethnic Albanians entering Kosovo’s National and University Library has been lifted. Imposed in 1990 as part of a Serbian crackdown on the autonomy of the Yugoslavian province, the ban included the firing of all Albanian staff and the destruction of as many as 100,000 of the library’s 600,000 books.

A July 3 Associated Press report said the Yugoslav army used the library as a headquarters during the war earlier this year, “apparently believing that NATO would not risk international disgrace by bombing a cultural institution.”

The library’s new director, Mehmet Gerguri, told the AP that he was among the staff fired in 1990. He was named director in 1997 by the self-styled parallel government of Kosovo but only now has been able to claim the post. Jobless since his firing, he said he has devoted himself to collecting books, which he plans to donate to the library.

Posted July 12, 1999.

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