Mahmut Bakalli

Mahmut Bakalli
5th President of the League of Communists of Kosovo
In office June 28, 1971 – 6 May 1981
Prime Minister	Ilija Vakić Bogoljub Nedeljković Bahri Oruçi Riza Sapunxhiu
Preceded by	Velli Deva
Succeeded by	Velli Deva
Personal details
Born	January 19, 1936(1936-01-19) Đakovica, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Kosovo)
Died	April 14, 2006(2006-04-14) Pristina, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro
Political party	Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (from 2001) League of Communists of Kosovo (until 1989)
Alma mater	University of Belgrade
Profession	Sociologist, Politician

Mahmut Bakalli^[1] (born 19 January 1936 – died 14 April 2006) was a Kosovar Albanian politician.

Bakalli's political career started in the youth organization of the League of Communists of Kosovo, eventually becoming its leader in 1961. In 1967, he became head of the party's Prishtina chapter. As he rose through the ranks, he was subsequently elected to the Central Committee of the party's Serbian chapter, and to the Presidium of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia's Central Committee.

Bakalli led the Communist Party in Kosovo during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but resigned after disagreeing with the way the 1981 protests by ethnic Albanian students were handled by Kosovo's own police, headed by Rahman Morina. Bakalli then spent two years under house arrest, before being expelled from the party. He was after that allowed to work in the province's Science Association until retirement, but was forced out when Slobodan Milošević increased Serbian control over Kosovo in the late 1980s.

He was a member of the Assembly of Kosovo from 2001. He also worked as an adviser to prime minister Agim Çeku. He graduated from the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Political Science.

In 2002, Bakalli was the first witness to testify at The Hague International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at the trial of Milošević.

He died of throat cancer at the age of 70. He had a wife and three daughters.

References

1. ^ Serbo-Croat: Mahmut Bakali

External links

• BBC report on Bakalli's testimony against Slobodan Milošević
• Obituary in The Independent

Persondata
Name	Bakalli, Mahmut
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1936-01-19
Place of birth	Đakovica, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Kosovo)
Date of death	2006-04-14
Place of death	Pristina, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro