Today, on the day when the heart of the Albanian nation has fallen into deep silence over the passing of academician Rexhep Qosja, I present to the reader these precious archival testimonies with a sadness that cannot be hidden and with a respect that words can hardly express. When a man like Rexhep Qosja is gone, not only a man is gone — an era is gone, a voice that for more than half a century spoke where many were silent is gone, a conscience that never bowed to the power of the moment, but bowed only to the truth and its people, is gone.
Written by: Bejtullah Destani
It is my duty, and a rare privilege, in this hour of pain to offer the Albanian nation a memory that is not built on words of praise, but on the purest source that can speak of a man: his own words, preserved in the archives of history.
documents
The telegrams presented here come from the declassified archives of the United States Department of State and shed light on one of the most difficult and decisive moments in our national history: the Rambouillet Conference in February 1999 and the June 1999 meetings in Cologne, on the eve of the liberation of Kosovo. In each of them, in the midst of a diplomatic drama where the fate of an entire people was weighed, stands the figure of Rexhep Qosja — calm, measured, with the weight of centuries on his shoulders, and with the voice of a people on his tongue.
Two of these documents constitute additional copies of the same State Department telegram, which records the meeting on the morning of February 20, 1999, between Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, Rexhep Qosja, and Veton Surroi, at the Rambouillet Castle. At that meeting, Qosja, with the profound dignity that characterized him, reminded the Secretary that “Kosovo suffers from an unjust agreement made 85 years ago, which has produced cycles of bloodshed, destruction, and massacres,” and demanded, with the strength of a man who clearly knows that he is speaking on behalf of generations, a guarantee that the people of Kosovo would be able to express their will through a referendum. The presence of two copies of this telegram in the archive testifies to the importance that was given, from the very first moment, to his speech.
The second document records the ministerial meeting of the Contact Group on the afternoon of the same day, in which Qosja — together with Hashim Thaçi, Ibrahim Rugova, and Veton Surroi — articulated before the foreign ministers of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Russia, and the United States the unanimous position of the Kosovar delegation that “the citizens of Kosovo have the legitimate right to freely and democratically declare their status.” In that hall, where every word was weighed on golden scales, Qosja held his own with the honor of an intellectual speaking on behalf of a wounded people.
The third document, dated February 21, 1999, brings us to the tense working lunch, where Secretary Albright asked the Kosovo Presidency to accept the interim agreement. At that difficult moment, when international pressure demanded submission, Qosja raised his voice for something higher than a text: for the nature of the peace that Kosovo deserved. He said that peace had to be a “just peace” — a peace that “would last forever.” In these few words lies the entire philosophy of his life: that a people cannot rest with a peace that is not built on justice.
The fifth and final document, from Cologne on June 8, 1999, in the days when the sky over Kosovo was being cleared of the smoke of war, records Qosje’s words as he presented his people’s struggle as a confrontation with the international community to defend “the values of contemporary civilization, such as democracy and human rights.” There, with the foresight rarely possessed by politicians, he insisted that the military campaign would only be truly successful when the people of Kosovo had the opportunity to decide on their own political status, and he warned with pain about the “absurd and intolerable” duality of parallel institutions, realizing that internal discord was the greatest danger that threatened us after liberation.
Historical memory
Read together, these documents are not simply archived papers — they are a voice. They are the voice of a man who, in the most difficult hours of his people, did not waver, did not bend, did not trade the truth for the convenience of the moment. Rexhep Qosja went to Rambouillet not as a politician seeking position, but as an intellectual carrying the weight of a long history of injustice on his shoulders. He spoke the language of justice when others spoke the language of compromise. He remembered the past when others wanted to forget it. He mentioned the people when in the great halls only the states were spoken of.
And that is precisely why — today, when he is no more — these words of his, preserved in the cold diplomatic language of a foreign power, will remain warm in the heart of our nation. For nations do not remember their men by the titles they held, but by the battles they fought for them, and by the words they spoke when no one else dared to speak them.
Publication note
These documents are reproduced from official declassification authorized by the United States Department of State (Case No. M-2017-11760 and Case No. M-2017-11766, issued on May 18, 2018). They are published today, on the day of eternal separation from Professor Rexhep Qosja, as a humble homage of a humble servant of the Albanian cause to a man who was, for our nation, one of the last colossuses of a generation that will not be repeated.
Farewell, esteemed academic.
We see their memory immortal, just as immortal are the words they bequeath to us — in the archive, in the nation, and in the eternal cause of a just peace for Kosovo.
Beitullah Destani
April 23, 2026
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