[ALBSA-Info] News:Albania/Greece

[Kreshnik Bejko]

[10] Albania pledges to improve human rights legislation
TIRANA, 18/11/2000 (ANA/Reuters)

Albania pledged on Friday to draw up improved citizens' rights legislation 
following Greece's complaints over the mistreatment of the ethnic Greek 
minority in the south of the small Balkan country, which culminated in 
violence during the October local elections.
"The prime minister expressed his conviction that Albania will compile and 
apply an advanced legislation, one of the most progressive in Southeastern 
Europe...The legislation would further improve the rights of all Albanian 
citizens," an Albanian government spokesman said.

Greece reacted strongly to the unfair treatment of ethnic Greeks in Albania 
during last month's elections warning that country that such behavior could 
damage its relations with the European Union. Ethnic Greeks in Himara 
complained that police kept them away from polling stations. The 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had said there were 
"serious irregularities" in the area. Greece's Foreign Ministry General 
Secretary George Savaidis on a visit to Tirana told Albanian Prime Minister 
Ilir Meta that Tirana had to review its legislation on minorities if it 
wanted to get closer to the EU.

EU member Greece has cited alleged voting violations during October local 
elections in and around the Greek speaking town of Himare, on Albania's 
western coast.

Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou has written to European 
Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten about what he said was a 
serious lack of democracy in Albania and a need to respect the rights of the 
Greek minority. The EU is expected to send a committee in early 2001 to 
discuss a cooperation agreement with Albania.

[11] Papandreou answers Karatzaferis charges of altering Greek-Albanian 
border

Athens, 18/11/2000 (ANA)
Foreign Minister George Papandreou said on Friday that Albania's failure to 
respect the principles on which its bilateral relations with Greece were 
built would not only create problems in its relations with Greece but also 
with its European course.
Papandreou was responding to a question put by independent deputy George 
Karatzaferis about delineating the Greek-Albanian border.

Answering Karatzaferis' question more specifically, Papandreou said that 
Greece and Albania had both signed an friendship and cooperation agreement 
proclaiming their intention to preserve existing borders between their 
countries in 1996. This was followed by a 1998 initiative, the minister 
explained, to step up cooperation between the Greek and Albanian defense 
ministries on maintaining and increasing border lookouts.

Under this agreement, he said, a joint Greek-Albanian committee met every 
four months to discuss this issue, with the next meeting scheduled to take 
place in Ioannina on November 22-23.

Papandreou stressed that there was no issue of changing borders.

Karatzaferis responded with very strong words and accused the minister of 
lying, claiming that through the above process, one border post, 
water-supply pipes, fields and property had passed over to the other side of 
the border.

Papandreou replied in more low-key fashion, saying that "Greece is now a 
country that is proud and independent, which wins its battles in a more 
effective way than in older times which brought the country to tragic 
moments, such as Cyprus."

At another point, Papandreou also said that agreements between Greece and 
Albania specifically stress respect for fundamental human and minority 
rights as a condition for good bilateral relations. "This also means the 
Greek minority, whether they live in Himare or anywhere else," he said.

[12] Albanian government spokesman publicises Albanian PM's replies to Greek 
PM's letter
GJIROKASTER, 18/11/2000 (ANA - P. Barkas)
Albanian government spokesman Thoma Gelci on Friday publicized the replies 
given by Albanian Prime Minister Ilir Meta to a letter by Greek Prime 
Minister Costas Simitis, delivered on Wednesday by Greek Foreign Ministry 
Secretary General Savvaidis.
On the question of Greece's position on Albania's foreign policy, Gelci said 
Meta clarified the Albanian government's position which "considers Greece, 
as well as Italy, as strategic partners of Albania."

Referring to the cancellation of the military agreement between the 
corresponding defense ministries (resulting in the withdrawal from Albania 
of the Greek force in Tirana last August) which constituted another part of 
Simitis' letter, Meta clarified that "this was the result of technical and 
not political problems."

Gelci also said the Albanian Prime Minister did not accept that "there are 
blocked Greek investments in the country, because Albanian reality by itself 
speaks of Greek investments on the increase."

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