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=======================================
'Cox News Service'
12
October 1999
"Former University of Georgia graduate student murdered in
Kosovo"
by Plott Brice reporting from Athens, GA
=======================================
Those who knew him say Valentin Krumov was focused on life. Living it.
Like many eastern Europeans, he smoked cigarettes, lots of them. But he
didn't worry about his health.
Like many people, he was overweight. But he never worried about dieting.
He was described as a man who could walk into any group of people in the
world and make conversation. It certainly helped that he spoke several
languages - English, Russian, French, his native Bulgarian and some
Italian. Tuesday, however, international police officials in Kosovo said
that gift for language may have gotten the former University of Georgia
student killed. Krumov was mobbed, beaten and then shot in the head
after enraging a group of ethnic Albanian teens by speaking Serbian.
That he was murdered on his first day on the job doing what he seemed
born for - working with the United Nations civilian mission in the
troubled Serbian province - came as a shock to friends and colleagues in
Athens. In May, after almost 10 years of off-and-on work at the Athens
campus, Krumov had received his doctorate from UGA.
To his major professor, Gary Bertsch, Krumov's death was the epitome of
irony.
"This guy was a real professional. He knew what that region was all
about," Bertsch said. "But he was a peacemaker. He was one of the most
friendly, gregarious guys that you would ever run into.
"If I were ever caught on a street with a mob, I would like to have
Valentin with me. Because he was both smart and bright and friendly and
would talk his way out of something like that. But apparently this was
one of those senseless tragedies that happen."
Bertsch, who wrote his own dissertation on ethnic relations in
Yugoslavia, said the killing was only "explicable because of the
terrible and ugly consequences of excessive nationalism in this part of
the Balkans. Still it was a shock . . . to hear it was Valentin."
Krumov, 38, who received his undergraduate and master's degrees in his
native Bulgaria, was killed Monday on one of the busiest streets in
Kosovo's capital, Pristina. According to reports from that city, Krumov
had just finished dinner and was walking with two colleagues on Mother
Teresa Street near the Grand Hotel, the base for many employees of
international organizations in Kosovo.
Speaking Serbian, Albanian youths apparently asked him for the time.
Krumov, who could have answered in any of several languages, is believed
to have replied in Serbian, unaware that he was apparently being put to
a kind of ethnic identification test. The Serbian language is hated by
the ethnic Albanian majority in today's Kosovo, and the mistake
apparently cost Krumov his life.
A mob set upon him.
"One individual proceeded to hit him with his fist, and others kicked
him," said U.N. Police Inspector Gilles Moreau. "A large crowd gathered
around the altercation. All of a sudden, a shot was heard, the crowd
dispersed and the body . . . was on the ground, lifeless."
Moreau said the assailants were believed to be about 16 or 17 years old.
Bertsch said because the Slavic languages are so similar, Krumov could
have answered in Bulgarian, but the youths mistook it for Serbian.
Krumov was single. His parents are professionals and his mother
reportedly was working in Russia at the time on an engineering project.
He applied to UGA for doctoral work about 10 years ago. Bertsch had just
founded UGA's Center for International Trade and Security - a research
and teaching center - and he was after this Bulgarian, Krumov.
"I recruited him. We were interested in international students like
Valentin. I think he was the first graduate assistant we hired," Bertsch
said.
But Krumov, though a scholar, was intent on being in the working world.
He would come and go from Athens and occasionally worked with the United
Nations in New York.
"I think some of us knew him very casually," said Mike Beck, who himself
recently received his doctorate at UGA.
"I can't say any of us really got to know him because he was constantly
on the move, coming and going. But he was very friendly with a great
sense of humor. He liked to have a good time. I know every time I was
around him it gave me a chance to practice my Russian."
Franco Becchi supervised Krumov's work in New York at the United Nations
Office for Project Services, which helps developing countries achieve
peace, stability and economic growth.
"We have been very close for a couple of years," said Becchi, a senior
project manager. "He was a very nice person, very enthusiastic, very
professional."
Krumov also worked for the U.N. between the end of 1996 and the middle
of 1997 in Bratislava, Slovakia.
He was dedicated to the ideals of the United Nation and presumably
wanted a long career with the organization, Becchi said.
Becchi last saw Krumov on Friday evening, when he dropped by the office
to say goodbye before leaving for Kosovo.
"He came after his medical clearance from the U.N., and he came in to
see me to share with me the joy of his new assignment," said Becchi, who
was shocked to learn that the U.N. peacekeeper who was killed was his
friend.
Chris Allen, who served on Krumov's dissertation committee said he was "very much a scholar, but very much a human being. Great with people. He
was a dedicated student, but less interested in academic scholarship. He
wanted to serve in the policy area."
In his first stint in Athens, Krumov lived with the Bertsch family until
he found an apartment. He worked toward his doctorate over the years.
The money as a graduate assistant helped him pay his fees.
"He took his time doing his Ph.D. because he worked for the U.N. part of
the time. And after finishing all his Ph.D. work, he decided to go work
full time for the U.N.," said Bertsch.
Still, Bertsch wouldn't give up on his prize pupil. He felt Krumov
deserved to have that doctorate.
"We talked several times. I always told him that he deserved to have
that Ph.D.. Finally, he came back," Bertsch said. Krumov defended his
dissertation and got his doctorate.
"He got his Ph.D. in political science. But we employed him in the
research/teaching center where students like Valentin work on problems
of international relations and promoting peace and development. That was
his job with the U.N.
"I mean this is a guy who came from Bulgaria to the American dream to
come and study at the University of Georgia and earn his Ph.D. And then
to get his dream job with the U.N. and really apply what he was ideally
suited for: That is working with people from all pats of the world. He
had a deep interest in people. He was an extroverted person."
When there was social life around the political science department,
Valentin was the center of attention.
"He could walk into any room and strike up a conversation with anybody.
He was the life of the party. Whenever we had parties people congregated
around him. He was telling stories and singing," Bertsch said.
Bertsch said Krumov liked to date and have fun, but he was still serious
and focused on his goal of working with the United Nations.
"He always had his hand in many different things. A conference here. A
conference there. Then back here for a quarter. He was always busy,"
Bertsch said. "He smoked cigarettes like crazy, which is typical of
eastern Europeans. . . . I have to admit some Americans didn't like to
get close to him because he sometimes smelled like a cigarette butt.
Some people treated him rudely because he looked like a 'Bulgarian.' He
was a large man, overweight_ maybe 40 or 50 pounds. Swarthy. But he was
a good man who loved life."
Krumov didn't worry about diets or health. And, Bertsch said, he
probably didn't worry about himself while he was walking down the
streets in Pristina.
"He was probably walking down the street thinking about life and other
people," Bertsch said. "And suddenly found himself being attacked."
Plott Brice writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta, Ga.
Don Melvin contributed to this report.
(c) Cox 1999 Reposted For Fair Use Only
***
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