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This resentment of Berisha towards Rugova continued after he came into opposition in 1997, after which time Rugova did not set foot in Albania again until 2004. The reason was Sali Berisha.
It is not a sin for high-profile politicians to have problems in their political and human lives, regardless of who is right. And Sali Berisha is very sorry for the three to four years of peaceful coexistence with Rugova (until early 1995) and the entire remaining ten years of a cold war with him.
The reason was basic, and it is similar to all the reasons why people in politics come into conflict with Sali Berisha. He wanted to use Ibrahim Rugova in order to strengthen his power in Albania. At first, he wanted to use his peaceful line to show himself as moderate with the US and Europe regarding the Kosovo issue. In fact, in a meeting with President Clinton in September 1995, without anyone asking him, he suggested to the President that autonomy for Kosovo would be the right solution "regardless of what they want".
Then, when he entered into conflict with the US, mainly from 1996 onwards, he tried to use Rugova to radicalize the situation in Kosovo under his control in order to become an international factor and a “useful” leader in order not to destabilize the region. Rugova rejected it categorically and clearly by severing contacts with him and under the advice of the US. He tried to use Adem Demaçi with his naivety as an opponent of Rugova and then the student movement initially within the LDK against Rugova, but he again refused.
For a long time, in the years 1996–1997, the only Albanian politician who had good relations with the US was Ibrahim Rugova, and severing his contacts with Sali Berisha was a condition for his support.
Berisha's grudge against Rugova continued after he went into opposition in 1997, after which Rugova did not set foot in Albania again until 2004.
The reason was Sali Berisha. He refused Berisha's visit to Kosovo in 2000, turning him back from the border, and never welcomed him to Kosovo until the day he passed away, which also marks Berisha's first visit to Kosovo, attending his funeral.
Although relations had formally improved through protocol, Ibrahim Rugova personally rejected it until the end of his life.
This cold war between the two does not mean that Sali Berisha's government did not contribute to Kosovo, nor that Ibrahim Rugova did not love Albania.
Until 1995, the Albanian Foreign Ministry and its diplomatic corps were all at the service of the Kosovo issue. Sali Berisha fell out with Ibrahim Rugova because he could not use him for the problems of his power, but this has nothing to do with the Albanian state. In an attempt to cover up his war against Rugova, Berisha mentions the activities of the Albanian state in favor of Kosovo. They have been indisputably one of the greatest contributions in history that Albania has made to Kosovo. Many young Albanian diplomats of that time were more ambassadors of Kosovo than of Albania.
But this does not mean anything about the relations between Sali Berisha and Ibrahim Rugova. They are what they are: two people who did not trust each other, due to Berisha's efforts to undermine his authority in Kosovo and to misuse him and Kosovo as a tool of pressure vis-à-vis the US at the height of the crisis with the US in 1996.
His attempt to retouch history now at its end is banal and meaningless. Berisha is no longer even a political ally of LDK, although formally he seems to be with it. Sali Berisha is a real ally with Albin Kurti, in all his positions on Kosovo, so he is where he was in 1996 against Ibrahim Rugova when he misused Demaçi's naivety against Rugova and the students within LDK who later turned into a student movement with Albin Kurti in 1997.
Ibrahim Rugova was so angry with Berisha in 1997 that, in an unusual press conference on November 7, 1997 in Pristina, he called for Ramiz Alia to be honored as the Albanian leader with the most merit for Kosovo:
*"The recognition of the Republic of Kosovo was made under the pluralist mandate of Ramiz Ali and also, as is known, he is one of the presidents who has done the most for the Kosovo issue, the opening of our Office, the recognition of the Republic and the start of the satellite television program. We ask the Albanian parliament to provide Ramiz Ali with the status of former President. Kosovo will have regular and good relations with Albania and the declarations of the moment will not affect this much." (8 November 1997 – Gazeta Bujku)
And all of this was done, among other things, to humiliate Sali Berisha and his "contribution" to Kosovo.
Therefore, Sali Berisha is tired in vain to retouch a story that has living witnesses and is documented. Above all, it is not that he is interested in it that much. In his "non grata" file, Ibrahim Rugova places an important weight on the role that Berisha has played in undermining stability in the region. I do not believe that LaCivita is interested in these new lies of Berisha in public. The old ones have been noted by the US itself to Rambouillet.
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