| Date | May 2022 | Marks available | 4 | Reference code | 22M.1.BP.TZ0.18 |
| Level | Both SL and HL | Paper | Paper 1 - first exams 2017 | Time zone | TZ0 |
| Command term | Analyse | Question number | 18 | Adapted from | N/A |
Question
Source Q Ibrahim Rugova, President of Kosovo from March 2002 until his death in 2006, testifying before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) (3 May 2002).
The first objective of this party [Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK)] was to establish democracy in Kosovo, to start a democratic life for all its citizens. It aimed to give Kosovo a republic status equal to the other republics in the former Federation, because, as I said, Kosovo had been stripped of its autonomy. Then [after the 1991 referendum] we were striving to build an independent Kosovo — with rights for all its citizens. This was the main and initial goal, but the main thing was to defend the Kosovar people who were endangered at that time …
Our position was that independence should be achieved by peaceful, diplomatic, and democratic methods and violence should not be used …
The LDK started organizing solidarity actions to help people who were left without jobs, people who were dismissed from their jobs. It also organized society at large, keeping education and health and other areas of life going, such as culture and sport. And at that time, we also started collecting a tax, not a compulsory tax, but what we called a “solidarity tax”. It mainly concentrated on helping people with food, clothing and things that they needed, because people who had worked for years were now homeless and could not earn a living.
[Source: United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, PROSECUTOR vs. SLOBODAN
MILOŠEVIĆ, CASE IT-02-54, Testimony of Ibrahim Rugova in IT-02-54-T (ICTY), 3 May 2002.]
With reference to its origin, purpose and content, analyse the value and limitations of Source Q for an historian studying the aims and methods of Rugova’s LDK.
Markscheme
Value:
- It offers first-hand information about the LDK's methods and aims from Rugova himself.
- It shows how Rugova justified the aims and methods of the LDK.
- It offers detailed information about the peaceful and democratic actions of the LDK.
Limitations:
- It is a sympathetic account by Rugova of the LDK's aims and methods.
- As a statement to an international court, it may omit any reference to LDK actions that contributed to the origin of conflict.
- It does not offer any information on the impact of the LDK’s methods.
The focus of the question is on the value and limitations of the source. If only value or limitations are discussed, award a maximum of [2]. Origin, purpose and content should be used as supporting evidence to make relevant comments on the value and limitations. For [4] there must be at least one reference to each of them in either the value or the limitations.
Examiners report
In general, candidates seem to be better prepared for this question and most attempted to address the value and limitation of the source from its origin, purpose and content. Nevertheless, there remains a proportion of candidates that focus primarily on the content of the source at the expense of the provenance and purpose. In addition, a significant minority continue to begin their response with lengthy descriptions of origin, purpose and content before evaluating these elements, which wastes valuable examination time. Quite often candidates would not refer to what the question was asking, but would just make very general comments. As per previous sessions, some candidates did not refer to one of the elements in their response — for example, no reference to purpose or to content. Candidates should be aware that they need to make valid comments on the value and limitations of the source drawn from its origin, purpose and content.
