Jusuf Zejnullahu (born 1944 in

Democratic Federal Yugoslavia Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, also known as Democratic Federative Yugoslavia (DF Yugoslavia or DFY), was a provisional state established during World War II on 29 November 1943 through the Second Session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the Nation ...

) was a Kosovar politician.

Background and early life

He was active in Kosovo politics throughout the 1980s, and occupied a number of important economic positions within the

SAP Kosovo The Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Socijalistička Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo, Социјалистичка Аутономна Покрајина Косово, separator=" / ", sq, Krahina Socialiste Autonome e Kosovë ...

autonomic province and

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

as a whole. On 14 April 1989 he was elected a member of the Central Committee of the

League of Communists of Yugoslavia The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...

from Kosovo.

Prime Minister of Kosovo

On 4 December 1989 Zejnullahu was elected

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

(Chairman of the Executive Council) of the

Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo The Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Socijalistička Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo, Социјалистичка Аутономна Покрајина Косово, separator=" / ", sq, Krahina Socialiste Autonome e Kosovë ...

, then part of

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

. On 3 April 1990 he and a number of other ethnic Albanian members of the Provincial Executive Council, including one of the two vice-premiers, offered their resignations, in protest at

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...

’s

measures Measure may refer to: * Measurement, the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event Law * Ballot measure, proposed legislation in the United States * Church of England Measure, legislation of the Church of England * Measu ...

in the region, and the handling of the separatist unrest by the local Communist Party of Kosovo. At the 23 May session the Kosovo Assembly rejected these resignations, and the officials continued in their posts.

Declaration of Secession

Zejnullahu was later involved in the declaration of secession of July 2, 1990, after which Kosovo's Assembly and Executive Council were dissolved. He was later designated Prime Minister-in-exile of Kosovo's shadow provincial government, and arrested for his pro-independence activities.

Emigration to the United States

In 1999 he emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where he remains.Former Kosovar leader rejoices from afar
''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

'', February 19, 2008

Notes

References

Living people 1944 births League of Communists of Kosovo politicians Yugoslav Albanians Date of birth missing (living people) {{Kosovo-politician-stub