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Ex-Slovenian president dies at 57
2008-02-23
Former President Janez Drnovsek, who helped lead Slovenia to independence from Yugoslavia and later enthralled many of his countrymen by adopting a New Age lifestyle, died Saturday, his office said. He was 57. Mild-mannered but resolute, Drnovsek became a political icon in part for working to keep violence at a minimum when Slovenia gained independence in 1991. He later led the country to European Union and NATO membership. In recent years, as he battled cancer, he made a radical transformation to a holistic lifestyle and wrote several New Age-influenced books. His office said he died overnight at his home but gave no specific cause. Drnovsek was the Slovenian representative the Yugoslav federation's collective presidency when his region declared its independence. Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic sent tanks to Slovenian borders, triggering a brief war. But Drnovsek used his position to push for negotiations, eventually orchestrating a deal for the peaceful withdrawal of the Yugoslav army and sparing Slovenia from bloodshed that later engulfed Croatia and Bosnia. Drnovsek was Slovenia's prime minister for a decade before being elected president in 2002. He did not run for a second presidential term in elections late last year and was replaced by Danilo Turk in December. Drnovsek had a cancerous kidney removed in 1999. In 2005, he acknowledged that doctors had diagnosed what he described as "formations" -- apparently cancer -- on his lungs and liver in 2001, a year before he was elected president. Nevertheless, he generally carried out his duties without disruptions. He said he realized in 2005 that doctors could not cure him. Instead, he insisted that he had cured himself simply by changing his diet, his lifestyle and his way of thinking. After many years as a straight-laced and stodgy politician, Drnovsek turned into something of a New Age guru. "It is hard for me to say if the change was only caused by the illness," Drnovsek told The Associated Press in an interview last year. "It is true that the illness acts as a shock -- it awakens one." He moved from Ljubljana, the capital, to the remote village of Zaplana, where he lived with his dog. He baked his own bread and ate only organic fruit and vegetables. He had no TV. He considered some of the daily political give and take a waste of time and focused instead on the fight for the poor and weak, even offering to mediate in Sudan's troubled Darfur region. Some criticized him for trying to take on global issues that seemed outsized for the ceremonial president of a small eastern European country. He also ruffled feathers by reversing himself on some key issues. Once an important supporter of the European Union, he grew critical of it, complaining about the bloc's agricultural subsidies. In 2005, he angered Serbia, a valued trading partner, by openly supporting Kosovo's independence-seeking Albanians. He wrote about the perils of technology and urged humans to rely instead on each other. The new Drnovsek delighted many in this New Jersey-sized country of just 2 million people. His book "Thoughts on Living and Becoming Conscious" became a best-seller last summer. He recently published a new book called "Dialogues." While his new ways made him even more beloved among many Slovenians, some people criticized him for being too detached from daily politics. Born in the northeastern city of Celje on May 17, 1950, Drnovsek earned a degree in economics at Ljubljana's Faculty of Economics, and then worked as a banker. In his youth and early adulthood, he was a member of the Communist Party -- the only political force in the former Yugoslavia. But he never was a Communist at heart, going off to ski whenever the party held a congress. When the Communists were ousted in the first multiparty elections in Yugoslavia in 1990, paving the way for Slovenia's independence, he exclaimed: "This is a sign of democracy drive that cannot be stopped!" Warren Zimmermann, then the U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia, lauded Drnovsek at the time as a "courageous, firm and reasonable politician ... one of a few people worth admiration in this region." Drnovsek is survived by a son and a daughter. ___ Associated Press Writer Snjezana Vukic contributed to this report from Zagreb, Croatia.
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