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Valon Xharra

Biography

Valon Xharra learned diplomacy the hard way, on the battleground, as a Kosovar Albanian helping US negotiators who were seeking a ceasefire between Yugoslav forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army. He learned "how to operate with stamina and remain calm in the face of extreme stress and danger, while surrounded by angry and dangerous soldiers from both sides."

As the NATO bombing began "and Serbian forces ethnically cleansed my city," he found he personally was a target, as someone who had worked with US diplomats. He and his family fled into Albania. With no end in sight to the conflict, Valon was offered a chance to immigrate and study in the US, but decided to return to Kosovo. "I was a part of history in the making in Kosovo," he says, "and, in my mind, doing anything else would have meant giving in to the ethnic-cleansing campaign of the Milosevic regime." It was only in 2002 that he came to the US to attend Bard College.

As he heads from Bard to Columbia University, Valon wants to learn ways to help Kosovo improve its economy. He knows tensions in Kosovo still exist, and is disturbed that Albanians are "wrapped up in the idea of their victimhood," which he believes can blind them to their own faults. But he feels a duty to help lead Kosovo toward statehood. That means learning, he says, to "become a leader who possesses a credible capacity to craft real solutions, by blending the rights of the majority and the minority, tactfully and with moderation."

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