Rexhai Surroi

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Rexhai Surroi (8 June 1929 – 22 December 1988) was a Yugoslav Albanian journalist, diplomat and writer. He was among the first Kosovo Albanians to finish high school in Albanian in the former Yugoslavia (1947–48) and later studied law at the University of Belgrade.

He started as a football player and then became a journalist and editor. He edited the weekly Zani i Rinisë and later worked at Radio Pristina, where he became director in the mid-1960s. From 1969 to 1970 he served as vice-president of the SAP Kosovo provincial government and was a strong advocate for establishing the University of Pristina, the only Yugoslav university with Albanian as the language of instruction.

Surroi had a long diplomatic career. He was Yugoslav ambassador to Bolivia (1971–1974). From 1974 to 1977 he was an assistant secretary in the Federal Secretariat of Foreign Affairs. He then served as ambassador to Mexico, Honduras and Costa Rica (based in Mexico City) from 1977 to 1981. From 1981 to 1983 he again worked as an assistant secretary. Between 1983 and 1985 he was the general manager of Rilindja, Kosovo’s largest Albanian-language media company. He finished his career as Yugoslavia’s ambassador to Spain (1985–1988).

Surroi died in a car accident in Madrid in 1988 while still serving as ambassador to Spain. He is the father of Veton and Flaka Surroi. Kosovo honors his memory with an award for excellence in journalism named after him. He also wrote Albanian-language books including Besniku, Dashunija dhe urrejtja, Pranvera e tretë, and Orteku I & II.