[ALBSA-Info] From the archives

[Agron Alibali]

Commenting on Tom Lantos' Letters
By Isuf Hajrizi
There is no doubt Rep. Tom Lantos (D- Cal.) is a
committed fighter for human rights and democracy. His
long list of fights for justice, include his strong
objections to Serbian repression of the Albanians in
Kosova, discrimination of the Albanians in the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as well as in the rest
of former Yugoslavia. 

However, in recent letters to Secretary of State
Warren Christopher and fellow members of Congress,
Lantos described in painful detail, his recent private
"fact-finding trip" to Greece and Albania. In his
report, however, the California Democrat leaves much
to be desired. 

Lantos said he visited Southern Albania to examine
treatment of ethnic Greeks in the region, which he
found to be unsatisfactory. To this end, while
observations of our legislators regarding human rights
in the region are most welcome, they should, however,
be even-handed and objective. 

Lantos said he visited Greece before crossing over to
Albania. One would think that a man of his stature,
would stop for a few moments to acquaint himself with
the situation of several hundred thousand Albanians in
Greece. It would not have taken long for the
Congressman not only to see widespread discrimination
of Albanians by Greek authorities, but the Greek
denial of their physical existence. 

Furthemore, recent Albanians in Greece, not only are
denied their ethnic identity, but many are forced to
change their names into Greek before getting
permission to enter the country where they are largely
used for "coolie" work. Greece says it is doing
Albania a favor by employing its migrant workers,
which is partially true, but Greek businessmen are
exploiting these workers by paying them several times
less the minimum wage and giving them jobs most Greeks
do not want. 

Lantos says he is "very concerned" about the treatment
of ethnic Greeks but has no regard for Albanians in
Greece. This is seriously disappointing. 

The Congressman should be reminded that Greece, which
claims to be one of the world's oldest democracies,
does not reckognize minorities living within its
borders. 

Minorities lose their national and ethnic identity,
thus technically becoming Greek by force. Such is the
case with a large Albanian minority in northern
Greece, called the Chams. As for discrimination on
education and the closing of six Greek schools in
southern Albania, if Lantos had bothered to look
further, he would have found out that they were not
closed because they were Greek, but because there were
not enough Greek students to fill them. Such
assessment come from team experts who have fully
investigated the situation there. 

The Mission of the Council of Europe, in a 1992 report
said the conditions in the Greek schools were "quite
compatible with international standards." As for their
attendace by Greek students, the report added: "Many
of these [schools] were far from attaining the normal
minimum number of pupils required, and in some cases a
school had been kept open with hardly any pupils at
all." 

The MCE report went on to say that "this practice of
keeping open schools cannot possibly be justified in
economic terms." 

A careful observer would have found that if there were
schools closed later inthis region, they were closed
for lack ofstudents and not lack of fair treatment
ofethnic Greeks by the Albanian government. Of course,
this is not to say that some Albanian law enforcement
officers do no abuse their position, at times
mistreating citizens of all ethnic backgrounds. 

This is plain stupid behavior on their part and should
be dealt with properly by the government. Albania is
trying to work closely with Interpol to educate its
police forces in dealang with the public. It may take
some time. 

Lantos also complained that his companion - Nicholas
Gage, President of the Panepirotic Foundation - was
denied an entry visa by the Albanian government. While
Gage may be a prominent writer, through his preaching
of alleged discrimination of Greeks in Albania, he
also encourages unnecessary conflicts between the two
groups, which the Congressman agreed that if left
alone, they get along just fine. 

There were several terrorist attacks by Greek bandits
against Albanian citizens inside Albania last year
suspected to have been spurned in part by inflammatory
rhetoric from "concerned" activists like Gage.
Tirane's decision to treat Gage as persona non grata
at this time should not be mixed with the phenomenon
of democracy but more as a policy decision. There is a
mile-long list of people who are not welcomed in the
U.S. This does not mean the U.S. is not democratic. 

When President Sali Berisha visited the U.S. last
year, Gage misinformed Boston University to withdraw
its decision to give Berisha a promised honorary
degree in the last moment, thus implicating the
respected university into an ugly adventure. 

It is surprising to see Lantos allowing himself to be
the victim of such a group to the point that he allows
a member of it to write a very slanted "fact-finding"
report on Albania. Lantos called the "report" an
"excellent summary" and attached it to official
Congressional letterhead. 

In the report the names of Albanian towns and regions
are used in Greek - Northern Epiros for southern
Albania, Argyrokastro for Gjirokaster, Agioi Saranta
for Sarande, Chimatra for Himare - suggesting the
group does not recognize the legitimacy d the region,
thus hinting on territorial claims despite the fact
that this is an internationally recognized border.
Athens itself reckognizes this border and uses the
correct names. 

Greece and Albania are for the first time in recent
history, working to improve their relationship on all
fields - economic, political, social and cultural.
Inflammatory statements only serve to defeat this
goal, which if allowed to flourish, would bring much
needed economic prosperity and political stability to
the region. Albanian Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi
was in Greece this week. Greece will soon open a new
consulate in Korce, and its president visted Albania
in March. 

Before our legislators in Congress subscribe to their
colleague's complaints on Democracy in Albania, it
would be wise to challenge themselves and Lantos to
visit northern Greece to witness the unfair treatment
of Albanians there and to consider the progress the
two sides have made in improving their relationship. 

(Courtesy of Illyria, May 1996) 

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