ZERI IN PRISTINA

NEW ZERI IN EXILE

ZERI english Digest

Real-Audio-Files:

• Interview with Blerim Shala by Roland Brunner, Medienhilfe Ex-Jugoslawien, June 23, 1999 (10 Min/engl.)
• Interview with Blerim Shala by Malcolm Shearmur, Radio Swiss International, June 16, 1999 (4 Min/engl.)
• Interview with Blerim Shala,
  Editor in Chief of Zeri by Roland Brunner, Medienhilfe Ex-Jugoslawien, June 16, 1999
  (6 Min/engl.)

Editor-In Chief Blerim Shala
at his visit with Medienhilfe Ex-Jugoslawien in Zürich, Switzerland, June 1999

Blerim Shala, Editor-in-Chief since 1997, was a member of the Kosovar delegation to the peace negotiations in Rambouillet and Paris in the first quarter of 1999. After one week spent in hiding from the security police in late March, Mr. Shala was part of the mass deportation from Pristina, crossing into Macedonia in early April.

Born in Pristina, Blerim Shala graduated with a degree in philosophy and sociology from the University of Pristina in 1986. He began work with the publication Zeri in 1987 and was named Kosovo "journalist of the year" in 1991 by the Rilindja daily newspaper. In 1990, Mr. Shala founded the Youth Parliament, which led the student demonstrations in Kosovo that year, and was a major organizer of the other peaceful Kosovo Albanian demonstrations in 1990-91. He was arrested in April 1991 for these activities, and was imprisoned again in 1991 and 1993 for his newspaper articles.