From ipilika at hotmail.com Tue May 1 15:38:04 2001 From: ipilika at hotmail.com (ipilika at hotmail.com) Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 12:38:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Monks anger at Pope's Greek visit - April 30, 2001 Message-ID: <-884826099.988745884898.JavaMail.root@arwen.clickability.com> You have received the following link from ipilika at hotmail.com ******************** If you are having trouble with any of the links in this message, or if the URL's are not appearing as links, please follow the instructions at the bottom of this email. Title: CNN.com - Monks anger at Pope's Greek visit - April 30, 2001 Copy and paste the following into your Web browser to access the sent link: http://cnn.worldnews.emailthis.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=1900790209&pt=Y Copy and paste the following into your Web browser to SAVE THIS link: http://cnn.worldnews.savethis.com/st/saveThisPopupApp?clickMap=saveFromET&partnerID=2006&etMailToID=1900790209&pt=Y Copy and paste the following into your Web browser to forward this link: http://cnn.worldnews.emailthis.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=forward&etMailToID=1900790209&partnerID=2006&pt=Y *Please note, the sender's email address has not been verified. ******************** Email pages from any Web site you visit - add the EMAIL THIS button to your browser, copy and paste the following into your Web browser: http://cnn.worldnews.emailthis.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=browserButtons&pt=Y" Instructions: ----------------------------------------- If your e-mail program doesn't recognize Web addresses: 1. With your mouse, highlight the Web Address above. Be sure to highlight the entire Web address, even if it spans more than one line in your email. 2. Select Copy from the Edit menu at the top of your screen. 3. Launch your Web browser. 4. Paste the address into your Web browser by selecting Paste from the Edit menu. 5. Click Go or press Enter or Return on your keyboard. ******************** -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From kruja at fas.harvard.edu Tue May 1 15:51:34 2001 From: kruja at fas.harvard.edu (Eriola Kruja) Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 15:51:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] summer apt. Message-ID: Hi all, if you or someone you know, who lives in Boston (or surrounding area), is leaving for the summer and is interested in subleting their home/apt. please let me know. I'd be interested in subleting it from you (or them). thanks! eriola. From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue May 1 23:56:19 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 20:56:19 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Per bankat ne Shqiperi Message-ID: <20010502035619.6647.qmail@web11504.mail.yahoo.com> SHEKULLI BSH hap nj? debat t? l?n? pas dore. Pron?sia e huaj n? sistemin bankar rezulton pothuajse e d?mshme p?r Shqip?rin? Shqip?ria mbytet nga bankat e huaja Shqip?ria nuk ka asnj? bank? private vendase. T? huajt zot?rojn? 87.4 % t? sistemit bankar. Fitimi neto i k?tyre bankave largohet nga Shqip?ria. Nuk ?sht? b?r? asnj? debat real mbi t? mirat dhe t? k?qijat e privatizimit total t? bankave shtet?rore. Ekonomisti Dhori Kule k?rkoi dy dit? m? par? ruajtjen e pron?sis? shtet?rore n? Bank?n e Kursimeve, por sakaq procesi i privatizimit ka filluar Bankat e huaja mund t? interesohen p?r ekonomin? e vendit nga vijn? m? shum? se p?r ekonomin? e vendit ku veprojn?. Ato mund t? nxisin eksportet e vendeve t? tyre dhe t? mb?shtesin firmat bashk?patriote. Depozitat e mbledhura n? Shqip?ri mund t? kreditojn? biznese n? vendet e tjera. T? gjitha k?to fenomene t? konsideruara "negative" jan? v?n? re n? ekonomin? shqiptare. Nuk ka asnj? projekt serioz p?r t? zgjidhur k?to probleme Gjergj Erebara ?sht? mir? apo keq t? kemi nj? sistem financiar t?r?sisht t? privatizuar dhe rrjedhimisht t? konstrolluar n? mas? t? gjer? nga t? huajt? Debati mbi privatizimin e Bank?s s? Kursimeve nuk u zhvillua thuajse fare n? Shqip?ri, nd?rkoh? q? k?to lloj debatesh kan? qen? t? pranishme n? shkall? t? gjer? n? t? gjith? Evrop?n Lindore. Banka e Shqip?ris? publikoi s? fundmi nj? material diskutimi mbi efektet pozitive dhe negative t? hapjes s? plot? t? ekonomis? ndaj financave t? huaja. "P?rqendrimi i kapitalit t? huaj nga nj? apo dy vende krijon rrezikun e ekspozimit t? ekonomis? shqiptare ndaj ecuris? s? ekonomive t? k?tyre vendeve",- thuhet n? hyrje t? raportit. Edhe m? par? BSH ka studiuar arsyet se pse asnj? biznesmen apo grup biznesmen?sh shqiptar? nuk jan? angazhuar p?r hapjen e nj? banke private t? zot?ruar nga kapitali vendas. Rezultati ?sht? se biznesi n? Shqip?ri nuk ?sht? zhvilluar deri n? at? mas? sa t? hap? banka. Rrjedhimisht n? Shqip?ri ?sht? shfaqur dominimi gjithnj? e m? i madh i sistemit bankar nga bankat e huaja. N? fund t? vitit t? kaluar pjesa e pron?sis? shtet?rore n? sistemin bankar u ul n? 12.6 p?r qind, kundrejt 37.3 p?r qind q? ishte nj? vit m? par?. Pjesa e kapitalit t? huaj u rrit nga 62.7 p?r qind n? 87.4 p?r qind. N? Rumani u kund?rshtua publikisht k?rkesa e FMN-s? p?r privatizim total t? sistemit bankar. N? Kroaci blerja e bankave m? t? r?nd?sishme t? vendit nga bankat italiane i hapi rrug? nj? debati mbi mund?sin? e ekzistenc?s s? oligopolit italian n? sistemin bankar t? k?tij vendi. N? Shqip?ri ekzistojn? aktualisht 13 banka dhe vendet fqinje, Italia dhe Greqia, p?rfaq?sohen me 1 dhe kat?r banka n?n kontrollin dhe pron?sin? e tyre. N? Maqedoni, fal? nj? politike protektoriste, 54.2 p?r qind t? kapitalit t? sistemit bankar zot?rohen nga privat? vendas. Nga t? gjitha vendet e p?rfshira n? studimin e Bank?s s? Shqip?ris?, vendi yn? z? vendin e par? p?r nivelin m? t? ul?t t? pron?sis? vendase (shtet?rore) n? sistemin bankar, nd?rsa pron?sia private shqiptare vazhdon t? jet? zero. Duke qen? se Shqip?ria ?sht? vendi ku prania e kapitalit t? huaj n? sistemin bankar ?sht? m? i madh, at?here Banka e Shqip?ris? paraqet disa hipoteza: Shqip?ria mund t? jet? relativisht vendi m? i p?lqyer p?r investime t? huaja n? k?t? pik?; relativisht "m? dashamir?s" n? lejimin e kapitalit t? huaj. Dominimi i sistemit bankar t? Shqip?ri nga t? huajt vjen si pasoj? e licencimit t? bankave t? huaja dhe shitjes s? bank?s s? dyt? m? t? madhe. N? Slloveni, si pasoj? e politik?s shtet?rore t? ndjekur, kapitali i huaj n? sistemin bankar ?sht? shum? i kufizuar, vet?m 11.3 p?r qind. Grupe biznesmen?sh vendas u grumbulluan, ndoshta me ndihm?n e vet? qeveris?, dhe krijuan banka apo blen? aksione t? bankave shtet?rore. Nga institucionet zyrtare n? vendin ton? ?sht? vet?m Banka e Shqip?ris? q? ka kryer studime dhe ka parashtryar nevoj?n p?r nxitjen e krijimit t? nj? banke private shqiptare. Biznesi nga ana e tij ka k?rkuar q? t? tilla bashk?punime t? mos kryhen vet?m n? sistemin bankar, por n? t? gjitha fushat e ekonomis?. Nj? grupim prej 11 biznesmen?sh arrit?n t? privatizonin nj? nd?rmarrje t? r?nd?sishme (Birra Tirana) dhe mor?n pjes? nj?koh?sisht n? tenderin p?r celularin e dyt?, fush? ku natyrisht nuk pat?n mund?si t? konkurronin p?r shum? koh?. Nga ana tjet?r, dominimit relativ t? sistemit bankar nga nj? vend i vet?m (Qreqia), k?rkohet t'i jepet fund n?p?rmjet privatizimit t? 49 p?r qind t? aksioneve t? Bank?s s? Kursimeve n? favor t? institucioneve financiare nd?rkomb?tare. Bankat e huaja, sipas nj? studimi t? pavarur, p?lqejn? t? ken? p?r klient?, ve?an?risht n? aktivitetin e kreditimit, bashk?patriot?t e tyre dhe p?r shqiptar?t nuk ka bank? t? posa?me q? t'i ndihmoj?. Shqiptar?t po ndihen aktualisht dhe mund t? ndihen edhe n? t? ardhmen t? persekutuar n? vendin e tyre. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Wed May 2 07:32:25 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 04:32:25 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] State Dept. Daily Briefing Message-ID: <20010502113225.39725.qmail@web11501.mail.yahoo.com> U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing, 01-05-01U.S. State Department: Daily Press Briefings Directory - Previous ArticleFrom: The Department of State Foreign Affairs Network (DOSFAN) at --------------------------------- DAILY BRIEFING Phillip T. Reeker, Acting Spokesman Washington, DC May 1, 2001 INDEX: BALKANS 1 US Policy for Stability in the Balkans MACEDONIA 1 US Support for Territorial Integrity of Macedonia 1-2, 4 Secretary Powell?s Meeting with President Trajkovski 2 US Assistance to Macedonia 2-3 Killings in the city of Bitola 3-4 Role of Ethnic Groups in Political Dialogue 4-5 Macedonian Efforts for Return of Refugees CHINA 5 US Delegation in Hainan to Assess EP-3 Aircraft DEPARTMENT 5 Departure of US Ambassador to China Mr. Prueher HUNGARY 5-6 Secretary Powell?s Meeting with Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi 6 North Atlantic Council Meeting in Budapest ARMS CONTROL 6 Missile Defense Issues PHILIPPINES 6-7 Demonstrations re Former President Estrada --------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT_: MR. REEKER: Good afternoon. Welcome back to the State Department. I don't have any announcements, so I would be happy to take what questions you might have. QUESTION: Well, having heard Mr. Powell today in his stirring defense of Macedonia in the struggle with the Albanian terrorists or guerrillas, it crossed with a report by the Cato Institute. And the Cato Institute says that what's going on there and in part of Serbia reflects the disastrous Balkans policy of the US; that the US managed to pry Kosovo from the Serbs, and the Albanians are determined to have a large area to destabilize Macedonia, to take part of Serbia, and of course they pretty much have Kosovo now and, they say, Cato says, the massive displacement of ethnic -- of anybody who isn't an ethnic Albanian. Does this Administration find fault in any way with the previous administration's policy? Does it think each of these uprisings is an isolated event, or part of a larger scheme? MR. REEKER: I am not going to stand here and try to find fault or point fingers. That's not what this is about, Barry. As you know, we have talked for some time now about the situation in Macedonia. As you have said, the Secretary spoke to it right after his meeting with President Trajkovski this morning. What we are working with friends and allies and Europe, those in the Balkans, is to try to bring stability to the Balkans so that we can realize the long-held belief in a Europe whole and free. And the one piece of that which has not been found yet has been in the Balkans, and so we have worked very hard with our NATO allies, with those in the region who seek to have peace and be able to pursue prosperity, to find that type of thing. We are no more interested in a greater Albania than we were interested in a greater Serbia. We are not interested in a greater anything but than greater prosperity and peace for the people that live there. And I believe, and we believe, that that's what those people, the vast majority of those people, regardless of their ethnicity, also hope for. So you heard the Secretary talk about our support for Macedonia. We have strongly supported Macedonia, its territorial integrity, since its independence over a decade ago. We will continue to do that. We have been concerned about the recent tragic, barbaric terrorist attack that occurred there over the weekend. You heard our statement at the time, and the Secretary took the opportunity of meeting personally with the president today to again convey our sympathies. Eight people were killed in a senseless act of violence, right when the political process, a dialogue between all political parties in the country, is going forward. And that is the road we want to see people take. That is the successful road. And President Trajkovski reiterated that in his meeting with the Secretary, and he'll look forward to describing that to President Bush when he meets with him tomorrow. QUESTION: One other thing, please. The Secretary -- and I thought the President of Macedonia -- implied that US assistance will be more than economic. Is it spiritual, or is there going to be some military or weapons support to the Macedonian Government as it tries to deal with this uprising, this guerrilla campaign? MR. REEKER: In terms of spirit, Barry, I think the spirit that the Secretary echoed is one of solidarity with the Macedonians, who are approaching this in a process of dialogue. We have discussed before our assistance to Macedonia, which is over $55 million this year, and we intend to increase it in the next year. On the military side, our aid, in close coordination with other NATO partners, is aimed at strengthening some of the Government of Macedonia's capabilities to respond appropriately to extremist challenges. We have discussed in some detail -- I don't have it with me -- some of the military- to-military programs that we pursue with the Macedonians. As I said, they are active participants in the Partnership for Peace. They work with other NATO allies on that. On the economics side, obviously we support projects aimed at improving economic opportunity for all Macedonians, regardless of their ethnicity, and President Trajkovski had some very positive and strong words of praise for the USAID and the programs they have pursued in Macedonia, many of those programs aimed at helping create infrastructure, helping to develop economic infrastructure that will allow the country itself to work toward its aim of better prosperity, to work on issues like unemployment so that they can deal with that. And obviously with those types of programs, they will be able to more constructively confront the political challenges as well. QUESTION: Did the issue -- I mean, apparently 40 Albanian and Muslim businesses were set ablaze last night by Macedonian, or rather Slav vigilantes. Did this issue come up in the meeting? And would you describe that also as an act of terror? MR. REEKER: President Trajkovski was particularly concerned about that, what had happened in the city of Bitola. He discussed that with the Secretary. The Secretary mentioned to you in his remarks this kind of frustration comes out of these situations. Obviously, our message to those people, regardless of their ethnicity, that that is also not the right answer, that to respond to their frustration, to their anger and rage over those terrible killings on the weekend will not accomplish anything, and that they should pursue their concerns through the structures that the government has been pursuing there in a multiethnic way. The city of Bitola has a strong, long history as a multiethnic city. It was known as the city of consulates during the Ottoman period, and so it has a long history of an international presence there, and multiethnic, and it is proud of that. And so I think the vast majority of people in Bitola, as around Macedonia, while they grieve for the losses and the families of those eight that were killed, have to live with those losses, want to look forward -- not look back -- or take from their past the positive aspects of their history and work toward a more prosperous, multicultural, multiethnic future. QUESTION: Would you explain perhaps the US position on the exclusion of the NLA from the political dialogue in Macedonia? MR. REEKER: I think what we have talked about at great length is a broad dialogue with legitimate political representatives of all ethnic groups, Macedonian, Albanian, other ethnic groups that live in Macedonia, and want to pursue harmonious existence in that country. This type of violence that has been perpetrated by groups calling themselves the NLA or whatever names they want to give themselves are absolutely unacceptable, and we have been very forthright in our support for Macedonia taking steps to deal with that challenge. As the Secretary said, we will not allow terrorists to derail the political dialogue, and to have those people sit at a table is unacceptable. We have legitimate political forces that are working together in Macedonia and representing a broad, broad spectrum of the country, and that is the process that President Trajkovski intends to pursue and that we fully support. QUESTION: To follow up, but the NLA actually wants to take part in this dialogue, so does not the -- do you think that they are -- do you take them at face value? MR. REEKER: There is absolutely no place in the kind of constructive dialogue we want to see for groups that carry out the type of activity that that group has been doing. QUESTION: This is kind of along the same lines. Apparently, the NLA has now sent a letter to Kofi Annan and George Robertson, the EC, saying that they do want to start a constructive way to talk, and they would like mediation. And maybe that would be a way to work through this. How do we stand on that? MR. REEKER: I think I would just repeat exactly what I said. We support the process, which is a broad encompassing process representing all ethnicities in Macedonia, all the political parties who have been working together in this dialogue. And that is what we want to continue to support. We are not going to support groups that carry out this type of attack, this type of senseless, totally pointless attack, crossing borders, attacking security personnel. And so we will not at all support those types of groups. And the international community broadly has come out condemning those groups. They do not do anything to support the cause of ethnic Albanians anywhere in the region or in Macedonia. QUESTION: Well, is just talking to them supporting them? MR. REEKER: Their answer has been the type of activity that we've seen, the type of terrorist attacks, the deaths that have been involved. And that is not the solution. Guns are not the solution to this. It is a dialogue; it is a process that the Secretary described to you. And as he said, these are dastardly, cowardly acts that these groups are carrying on, and we don't need to have anything to do with them. QUESTION: Has the Secretary spoken with President Trajkovski about any kind of a deadline for these talks, or are they open-ended? MR. REEKER: Well, I don't think are setting deadlines or looking at timetables. We think it is important that they move ahead with these talks. The president committed himself to continuing that, even with the tragedy that they have seen. President Trajkovski updated Secretary Powell on the progress made in the dialogue, which are taking place under the president's auspices, since Secretary Powell visited there last month. And so we need to see progress on core political issues. And they are going to keep working on that, but I don't think at this point it is for us to sort of establish timetables or deadlines. They realize the urgency in dealing with this. I think all the people in Macedonia are seized with focusing on these issues and trying to sit down in a peaceful, calm way to discuss legitimate grievances, discuss the type of country they want to have. And I think that is obviously the path toward finding the solutions that will help things there. QUESTION: Secretary Powell made reference to some sort of progress that's been made. What progress is there that's been made since Secretary Powell was in the region? MR. REEKER: Well, a few of the things that President Trajkovski and the Secretary discussed included the agreement among the political parties to delay in holding a new census until that can be conducted according to the best international standards, because obviously that is going to be an important step; agreement on passage of a language law to govern the use of the Albanian language that meets European standards. Obviously the Council of Europe and other groups have developed standards for dealing with these issues. As I said, so many other countries in Europe face these multiethnic issues, these issues of having a number of different ethnicities that make up the citizenship of their country, and so there are examples and standards that can be followed. Also, the government has been quick to start on reconstruction of houses damaged during the fighting earlier last month and previously, and an agreement on a plan for the rapid return of refugees, those that left the area of fighting and are already moving back in. So those are some of the steps we have seen, and we will continue to keep in close touch with President Trajkovski and his government and to support them in this. Our Embassy is very much involved in working day to day to keep updated on what is happening there. QUESTION: I'm sorry, who were the refugees? The rapid return of which refugees? MR. REEKER: Those that fled the area where the fighting was taking place near Tetevo last month, or earlier. QUESTION: So these are Albanian refugees? MR. REEKER: I am not aware of all of their ethnicities. They were people that had to flee the area due to the fighting when the extremist groups were firing from the hills there. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From bosi at hotmail.com Wed May 2 11:00:16 2001 From: bosi at hotmail.com (bosi at hotmail.com) Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 08:00:16 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Ftese Message-ID: <20010502150016.7DC0237A@largo.sf.bravenet.com> jonie has sent this website to you using the Bravenet Tell-A-Friend Service. Jeni i/e ftuar te vizitoni projektin tone ne Internet ku ju mund te degjoni muzike shqiptare, te lexoni poezi, merrni pjese ne diskutim neper forume ose te argetoheni disa ore ne chatroom ku mblidhen shqiptare nga e gjithe bota, kryesisht mosha te reja. Adresa: ***Shpirti i Shqiptarit*** http://www.albasoul.com Keto faqe u dedikohen te gjithe shqiptareve ne mergim! This note was sent to you from this page: http://www.albasoul.com/main.htm Sender's comments: AKTUALITET Vetvritet pasi i ik?n nusja LIBRAZHD Tragjedi n? familjen ?okja. Pasi ka m?suar se bashk?shortja i ka ikur me t? dashurin n? Itali, duke i l?n? dy f?mij?t vet?m n? sht?pi, 35-vje?ari H.?okja,? sht? hedhur duke u vetvrar? nga ballkoni i katit t? tret?. Ngjarja e r?nd? ka ndodhur dje paradite, kur H.?okja ka gjetur f?mij?t vet?m n? sht?pi-. Fillimisht ka menduar se gruaja e tij 30-vje?are Z. ?okja ishte vonuar duke b?r? ndonj? pazar apo te ndonj? komshi. Por kur ka m?suar se ?'kishte ndodhur ka kaluar n? depresion nervor. Sipas d?shmitar? okular? q? kan? par? momentin e hedhjes nga dritarja, nga brenda sht?pis? d?gjoheshin t? qarat e dy f?mij?ve q? k?rkonin t? ?m?n. Bravenet Tell-A-Friend www.bravenet.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bravenet.com ~ free webtools for webmasters ~ http://www.bravenet.com/ (129215684) From kbejko at hotmail.com Wed May 2 15:30:42 2001 From: kbejko at hotmail.com (Kreshnik Bejko) Date: Wed, 02 May 2001 15:30:42 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Tirana-on-Thames Message-ID: Tirana-on-Thames >From The Economist print edition A quirk in the asylum laws explains why London is suddenly full of Albanians AT THE turn of the century Faik Konica, an Albanian writer, observed that there were ten Albanians living in London. One ran a restaurant in King?s Cross, another was a pimp. By 1989 the Albanian community in Britain still numbered barely 30 souls. Now that figure probably stands as high as 30,000. Britain, or rather London (hardly any Albanians live outside the capital), has a brand new community. So many newly arrived young Albanian men now stroll the streets of Barking in east London that it has almost become the capital?s very own Tirana-on-Thames. The Lisi restaurant in Maida Vale is another gathering point. In the evenings Albanians can tune into satellite broadcasts from Tirana to keep up with the news. At the Home Office?s refugee registration centre at Lunar House in Croydon, new Albanian asylum-seekers are fingerprinted every day. Each one tells the interviewer that he spent ?2,000 for a six-day ride in the back of a lorry to escape Serb repression in Kosovo. Yet, in the past three months, almost every one of those stories will have been untrue. Between 1989 and the beginning of 1997, the vast majority of Albanians claiming asylum in Britain were indeed Kosovars from Serbia?s overwhelmingly ethnic-Albanian southern province. These refugees tended to be English-speaking professionals or students. (Their less-educated compatriots were inclined to head for factories or building sites in Germany.) At first their numbers were not great, but when war broke out in Kosovo last February, sisters, cousins and others with family already established in Britain began to arrive. In the spring of 1997 Albania itself imploded, sending tens of thousands of its citizens fleeing in search of security and, above all, work. At first, Britain was regarded as an impossibly remote place about which they knew little. This has changed. Traffickers have now begun to channel ever more young Albanians to Britain telling them, rightly, that if they claim to be Kosovars fleeing war, they will be well looked after. They know that the British courts have determined that ethnic Albanians from Kosovo are the only substantial group of asylum-seekers in Britain eligible for refugee status by virtue of their ethnicity and where they come from?rather than because of any individual experience of torture or repression. A quirk in the way the Home Office monitors new arrivals means that nobody knows exactly how many Albanians have arrived. Albanian asylum-seekers are listed, as they have always been, as coming from the former Yugoslavia. Statistically there is no difference between an Albanian fleeing Serbs, or a Serb fleeing Croats. To make matters even more complicated, the Home Office lists only applications for asylum, so a single man or a family of ten each counts as one application. According to Albanians who translate in Home Office asylum cases, the number of genuine Kosovar refugees arriving in Britain has dropped off in the last couple of months, while the proportion of Albanians from Albania has risen dramatically. In 1998, up to the end of October, the number of asylum-seekers claiming to be from former Yugoslavia (almost all Albanians or Kosovars) was 6,335. During 1992, the worst year of the war in Bosnia, the total number of asylum-seekers in Britain from former Yugoslavia stood at 5,635. Albanian community leaders say that these figures mask the true numbers of Kosovars and Albanians living here and that there are now at least 30,000 of them. The influx of so many young and mostly uneducated young men from Albania has begun to cause ructions with the (slightly) longer-established Kosovo Albanians. While the Albanians from Albania have no organisations to fall back on, the Kosovars have strong family networks and community organisations, and often contribute money to the struggle back home. They grumble that the Albanians who are arriving here generally have little to do and often fall into petty crime?so giving all Albanians a bad name and making them targets of tabloid venom. Their concern is shared by Agim Fagu, the Albanian ambassador. He says that he is surprised that neither the Home Office nor the Foreign Office has contacted him to discuss the problem. He is worried that unless some sort of action is taken these young men will become easy prey for the Albanian mafia, which runs drugs and prostitution rackets in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From aalibali at yahoo.com Wed May 2 21:09:11 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 18:09:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] 2001 Harvard Colloquium on International Affairs Message-ID: <20010503010911.62937.qmail@web11503.mail.yahoo.com> http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/colloquium/schedule.html --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Wed May 2 22:39:22 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 22:39:22 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Meta in Washington Message-ID: May 3, 2001 EVENT: DISCUSSION - CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES (CSIS) TIME: 9:00 am BODY: SUBJECT: Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) holds a discussion on "Peace and Stability in Southeast Europe." Albania Prime Minister Ilir Meta LOCATION: CSIS, B-1 Conference Level, 1800 K Street NW, Washington, DC -- May 3, 2001 CONTACT: 202-775-3242 From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Wed May 2 22:38:33 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 22:38:33 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Meta in Washington Message-ID: From unregisteredUser at ezboard.com Wed May 2 18:07:55 2001 From: unregisteredUser at ezboard.com (unregisteredUser at ezboard.com) Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 15:07:55 -0700 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Albanian wanted to tell you about an ezboard community. Message-ID: <200105022207.PAA30023@xumapony002.sf-int.xuma.com> Albanian wanted to tell you about the Forumet e Albanian Web Ring ezboard community. You can reach the community by going here: http://pub2.ezboard.com/balbania Forumet e Albanian Web Ring is an online community dedicated to the following: A place for all albanians to get together and share their ideas and thoughts on Albanian, as well as international questions, and events. Create your own online community at http://www.ezboard.com/intl/en/index.html From unregisteredUser at ezboard.com Wed May 2 18:33:41 2001 From: unregisteredUser at ezboard.com (unregisteredUser at ezboard.com) Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 15:33:41 -0700 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Shqiptari wanted to tell you about an ezboard community. Message-ID: <200105022233.PAA00791@xumapony002.sf-int.xuma.com> Shqiptari wanted to tell you about the Forumet e Albanian Web Ring ezboard community. You can reach the community by going here: http://pub2.ezboard.com/balbania Forumet e Albanian Web Ring is an online community dedicated to the following: A place for all albanians to get together and share their ideas and thoughts on Albanian, as well as international questions, and events. Create your own online community at http://www.ezboard.com/intl/en/index.html From juniku at hotmail.com Thu May 3 21:04:55 2001 From: juniku at hotmail.com (Uk Lushi) Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 01:04:55 -0000 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Cilat vende si bejne me lirine e shtypit?! Message-ID: HTML attachment scrubbed and removed -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Raporti.rtf Type: text/richtext Size: 22773 bytes Desc: not available URL: From aalibali at yahoo.com Fri May 4 07:51:35 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 04:51:35 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Pope's visit Message-ID: <20010504115135.18140.qmail@web11506.mail.yahoo.com> Pope Calls for Harmony with Angry Orthodox Last updated: --> May 04, 2001 07:02 AM ET Reuters PhotoBy Jeremy Gaunt ATHENS (Reuters) - Pope John Paul called on Friday for reconciliation between Catholics and Orthodox Christians as Greece's religious leader prepared to deliver a verbal assault against 1,000 years of "unbrotherly" division. On the controversial first leg of a six-day pilgrimage to Greece, Syria and Malta, the Pope said it was a duty for Christians to smooth relations that have dogged both Churches since 1054. "Many walls have been broken down in recent times but others remain," he said in an address to Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos. "There is much to be done to bring harmony to the Christians of the East and West so that the Church can breathe with both her lungs." The pontiff earlier arrived in Athens to a low-profile reception in which he was greeted with a traditional olive branch and children in traditional Greek clothes. Vatican officials said he had kissed Greek soil -- his traditional blessing on arrival in a new country -- held up in a basket, although the ceremony was blocked from many people's view by officials greeting him. The Pope's visit has aroused fierce opposition from the dominant Greek Orthodox Church, while leaving many ordinary people indifferent. A small demonstration by black-robed priests began at a downtown Athens square where "Pope Go Home" placards were raised. A bigger protest was planned for later in the day. "He came to subjugate Greece. He wants to become the world dictator of the church," said Father Sidiros, one of the protesters. Greek authorities had put on unprecedented security for the one-day visit -- the first by a Pope since the Great Schism of 1054 divided Christianity into Eastern and Western branches . Athens streets were generally deserted, although police were to be seen everywhere, a far cry from the throngs that usually greet the pontiff. For the Pope, who turns 81 this month, the trip is the realization of a dream -- a pilgrimage along the path taken by St. Paul, the apostle who converted to Christianity on the road to Damascus. "WOUNDS" FROM TIME OF CRUSADES But conservative Orthodox believers have demonstrated for weeks against the arrival of the man they call the "arch-heretic" and whom they blame for the schism and a variety of other ills, including the Holy Inquisition. In an advance copy of a speech to be delivered to the Pope later on Friday, Greece's Archbishop Christodoulos said "open wounds" remained from the time of the Crusades, a series of papally sanctioned wars (1096-1291) to recapture Palestine from the Muslims. Closer to the present day, he attacked the pontiff for his alleged silence about the plight of the divided island of Cyprus. The Pope was to meet Greek officials, visit a Catholic church and pray opposite the Acropolis on the Arios Pagos hill, where Paul made his famous sermon to the "unknown god." He will hold a relatively small Mass for a few thousand faithful in a basketball court on Saturday morning. MIDDLE EAST PEACE >From Greece, the Pope flies on to Syria on Saturday where he is to issue an appeal for peace in the Middle East. His arrival in Damascus will mean he has traveled to Israel and all border nations that have been at war with it. His call for peace will be delivered from the Golan Heights city of Quneitra, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and returned under a U.S.-negotiated agreement in 1974. Israeli troops destroyed Quneitra, but still occupy the western Golan, as underlined by the Jewish state's military radar posts perched on the dominating peak. Syria has left Quneitra as it was in 1974 and made the city a museum to illustrate what it calls Zionist destruction. In Damascus, the Pope is to make a stop in the splendid Umayyad Mosque, whose history sums up the complexity of Syria's religious past. The site began as a pagan temple, was converted to a church after Christianity became the Roman Empire's religion in the 4th century and a mosque after the Arabs conquered Damascus in 639. After four days in Syria, the Pope ends his trip in predominantly Catholic Malta, presiding at a beatification ceremony for two Maltese priests and a nun. (additional reporting by Philip Pullella in Athens) --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Fri May 4 12:41:33 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 12:41:33 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Event in Washington, DC Message-ID: PREVENTION AND PRACTICE: THE BALKANS FORUM Organized jointly by the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, Georgetown University's Center for Eurasia, Russia, and East European Studies, and Search for Common Ground Session 9 A Yugoslav Dilemma: Kosovo Final Status Monday, May 21, from 4 - 6 p.m. Georgetown University - Old North Building, Room 205 Ambassador Milan Protic, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the United States Yugoslavia is in a complicated situation with respect to Kosovo. If Kosovo remains part of Serbia, Albanians will deserve treatment as political co-equals with Serbs. Many Serbs in the region will undoubtedly be alarmed by this prospect. Yet if Albanians are not given co-equal status, Serbia will remain volatile for the indefinite future, if not marked by recurring warfare. The other option is for Serbia to relinquish Kosovo, and possibly the Presevo Valley, as well. The principal question that Ambassador Protic will address at the May session of the Balkans Forum is, how does Serbia see its future as a bi-national state if the following two conditions prevail: 1) Kosovo remains part of Serbia 2) The Albanian birthrate remains close to its current level for the foreseeable future. Ambassador Protic was appointed to the United States as ambassador of Yugoslavia in February 2001. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Protic was elected Member of Parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in September 2000 and Mayor of Belgrade the following month. Ambassador Protic earned his M.A. and his Ph.D. from the University of California in Santa Barbara, where he was a junior lecturer at the Department of Contemporary European History from 1982 to 1984. Upon his return to the country, Ambassador Protic became a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Balkans Studies with the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985, and worked as a visiting professor at the California University and the Director of the Belgrade-based Center for Serbian Studies. The discussion will be held Monday, May 21, from 4 - 6 p.m. at Georgetown University (Old North Building, Room 205). This monthly event is providing all actors in the Washington, DC policy community an opportunity to engage in constructive cross-discipline dialogue on events and prescribed policy for preventing the spread of conflict in southeast Europe. The Balkans Forum brings together a diverse group of experts-academics, activists, policy makers, and practitioners-in a sustained dialogue on US policy in the Balkans. Each monthly session is organized around a brief presentation from one or two Balkan specialists followed by a roundtable discussion. We attach a brief description of the event and the sponsoring organizations for your information. We hope you will join us for what promises to be a fascinating conversation. Please contact Charlotte Diez at Search for Common Ground at cdiez at sfcg.org or call (202) 777-2206 to reserve a space at the Balkans Forum. Do not hesitate to contact us if we can provide any additional information. Regards, Ana Cutter Andrew Loomis Program Officer Project Manager Carnegie Program on Conflict Prevention Search for Common Ground in Macedonia 170 East 64th Street 1601 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. New York, NY 10021 Suite 200 Tel. (212) 838-4120, ext. 212 Washington, DC 20009 Tel. (202) 265-4300, ext. 203 From mentor at alb-net.com Fri May 4 16:08:52 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 16:08:52 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Press-Release: "Liria Kombtare": What is happening in Macedonia? How can we help? (fwd) Message-ID: ____________________________________________________________________ >>>>> Albanians in Macedonia Crisis Center (AMCC) <<<<<<<< http://www.alb-net.com/amcc ____________________________________________________________________ Press-Release: "Liria Kombtare" / "National Freedom" What is happening in Macedonia? How can we help? The Staten Island and Brooklyn (NY) chapter of the Humanitarian Foundation "Liria Kombtare" with hold informative gathering at Ideal Restaurant, Staten Island, NY. Where: Ideal Restaurant 630 Midland Ave, Staten Island, 10306 NY When: Saturday, May 5th, 2001 Time: 3:00PM In the last few days the Macedonian forces have indiscriminately fired on the Albanian populated areas wounding many civilians. The purpose of the meeting is to inform the Albanian and the American public about the current humanitarian situation in Macedonia which has resulted in the past few days. In addition, the public will be informed about the various ways it can help the Albanian people in Macedonia affected by the aggression of the Macedonian forces. "National Freedom" Humanitarian Foundation 456 River St. Paterson, NJ 07524 Tel: (973) 684-2104 ____________________________________________________________________ >>>>> Albanians in Macedonia Crisis Center (AMCC) <<<<<<<< http://www.alb-net.com/amcc ____________________________________________________________________ From mentor at alb-net.com Fri May 4 17:50:54 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 17:50:54 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] "They [The Macedonian Forces] Are Burning Us Alive," Residents of Slupcan Call For Help (fwd) Message-ID: "He also said the National Liberation Army forces are in village." "We feel safe while they [NLA] are her to protect us. Who knows what would happened to us if they were not here," he added. --- KosovaLive 4 May 2001 http://kosovalive.com/english/english.htm 1. Seven Killed In Slupcan And Vaksince While Residents Refuse To Leave Homes 2. "They Are Burning Us Alive," Residents of Slupcan Call For Help 3. Villages Of Opaja and Hotel near Kumanova Shelled, Situation Escalates 4. PPD Reports Situation In Macedonia Could Get Out Of Control 5. Candy Store Attacked With Bomb in Skopje 6. Refugee Family From Kumanova Sheltered In Mitrovica ### 1. Seven Killed In Slupcan And Vaksince While Residents Refuse To Leave Homes May 4, 2001 PRISHTINA (KosovLive) - As a result of the shelling by the Macedonian military and police forces, at least seven persons were killed and many others wounded in the last two days. Macedonian forces shelled the villages of the Likova and Kumanova municipalities using all artillery in disposition, sources of KosovaLive informed from the field. According to the same recourses, the most powerful shelling went on in the villages of Slupcan and Vaksince. More than half of the houses in Slupcan have been destroyed from the shelling of Macedonian forces. "One helicopter of the Macedonian forces was taken down and a number of tanks were destroyed, while the National Liberation Army forces (UCK) were trying to protect the civilians being attacked not only from the air but also from the positions of the Macedonian forces from a distance," Hysni Shaqiri, former deputy of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) who joined the UCK, told KosovaLive Friday. Shaqiri said that the Albanian political parties should be aware that they cannot play with the fate of the people. "I think that what the NLA requests is a reality that belongs to political parties as well, but they are not in a position to do this." "The fact that the demands are very realistic, political parties also have a historical responsibility toward the people and the conditions that the Albanian population is facing at the moment," Shaqiri said. The president of the Likova municipality, Hysamedin Halili, also confirmed for KosovaLive, about the seven killed and several wounded. "It is a war. People are hiding inside their basements; they are still in the village not wanting to leave their houses. The Macedonian government has given an ultimatum to leave the village until 4 p.m., but nobody has left the village," Halili said. While the shelling continues even after 4:30 p.m., the city of Kumanova awaits the curfew that begins from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. (hm) ### 2. "They Are Burning Us Alive," Residents of Slupcan Call For Help May 4, 2001 PRISHTINA (KosovaLive) - The number of victims comes to at least five from the shelling of villages near Kumanova, Albanian sources from the conflict zone reported. Besides the two killed in last night's shelling in Slupcan, Albanian sources said three residents of Vaksince lost their lives during Thursday's shelling. The same resources reported that a helicopter of the Macedonian forces helicopter was taken down at around 11 a.m. and two tanks were put on fire. One NLA soldier is also reported to have been wounded. Contacted through a mobile phone, 34-year old Iljaz from the village of Slupcan told KosovaLive that his seven-member family is hiding in the basement of their house together with 33 other resident of the village. "We are all gathered in the basement and nobody dares to go out. We are afraid that they will burn as alive. The Macedonians don't care where they shell, and they are also shoot at civilians," Iljazi said, explaining that the bombing had continued throughout last night and today until 2 p.m. Two elderly people of the village were killed and two children wounded. "We are all here. All five thousand residents of the village do not intend to leave the village, even though we do not have electricity or any contact with the outside world as our phones are down," Iljazi said. He also said the National Liberation Army forces are in village. "We feel safe while they are her to protect us. Who knows what would happened to us if they were not here," he added. Iljazi also said that even though the villagers have little food reserves, food is not a problem. "We do not even think about eating since yesterday," he said. (al) ### 3. Villages Of Opaja and Hotel near Kumanova Shelled, Situation Escalates May 4, 2001 SKOPJE/KUMANOVA (KosovaLive) - Macedonian forces are shelling two more Albanian villages in the Kumanovo area, northeast of Skopje Friday. Albanian sources from the area reported that shelling was taking place in the villages of Opaja and Hotel, describing the situation as tense and escalating. The shelling started Friday 8 a.m., when Albanian journalists saw Macedonian special units called "Wolfs" and "Scorpions" firing on the villages from positions at Kumanova's civil airport. Two elderly Albanian males, Ramiz Demiri (63) and Remzi Osmani (54), were killed and three others were wounded, including a nine-year old girl, in the Macedonian offensive Thursday afternoon in the village of Slupcane. Albanian sources in the area said tens of Albanian homes were destroyed in Slupcane and Vaksince, which were the target of the offensive of the Macedonian forces. However, local leaders from the area said the Albanian inhabitants of the villages have preferred to take refugee in their basements rather than leave their villages in response to the government ultimatum. "Not one of the residents has moved, they are all in their basements," Husamedin Hasani, president of the Likova municipality, said. "The situation is very serious. We appeal to the international factor to intervene in solving the crises," he added. Meanwhile, the forces of the National Liberation Army (NLA) said that a Macedonian helicopter was taken down during its flight over Slupcan. An NLA commander said that the NLA is ready to face possible ground offensives. ### 4. PPD Reports Situation In Macedonia Could Get Out Of Control May 4, 2001 TETOVA (KosovaLive) - The security situation in Macedonia is quite dramatic and could escalate out of control at any moment, the president of Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP), Imer Imeri, said Friday in Tetova. He criticized the Macedonian government, but at the same time called upon both sides of the conflict to give up their weapons and sit around a negotiation table and begin dialogue in finding a solution to the crises. "The incidents in the villages near Kumanova clearly show that the Macedonian government is not willing to solve the crisis but, on the contrary, is escalating it," Imeri said. According to Imeri, the ultimatum given by the Macedonian Prime Minister to the Albanian population in the conflict zone that they should leave their houses before the offensive begins, is only a "bluff" of the government. "The Macedonian army began the shelling much earlier than the ultimatum expired. In fact, the government deceived the inhabitants," Imeri told journalists. According to him, the PPD is concerned about the condition of the population in the villages of the conflict at this moment. Imeri said that the PPD "fears that such operations could lead to a humanitarian disaster and cause retaliation of wide dimensions." Imeri once again emphasized that the solution of current political problems with weapons is not preferable and that PPD requesting that both sides give up their weapons and in order to create an atmosphere of serious and effective talks. (si) ### 5. Candy Store Attacked With Bomb in Skopje May 4, 2001 SKOPJE (KosovaLive) - A bomb was thrown at the Palma candy store in Skopje after 1 p.m. Friday, owned by a Muslim Slav. Sources from Macedonia's Ministry of Internal Affairs in Skopje said the candy store was attacked with a bomb, and there were no victims in the incident. However, there was considerable material damage. The attack in Palma happened on the second night of the firearm attacks against Albanians and burning of Albanian businesses, in which one person from Kosova lost his life. (ar) ### 6. Refugee Family From Kumanova Sheltered In Mitrovica May 4, 2001 MITROVICA (KosovaLive) - After the latest turbulences in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, the first refugee family from Kumanova arrived Thursday night in Shipol near Mitrovica. The eight-member family arrived at their relatives after many difficulties in reaching the Hani i Elezit border point. Meanwhile, 14 other members of the family who are left in Kumanova are expected to arrive Friday. (lb) From aalibali at yahoo.com Fri May 4 18:54:32 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 15:54:32 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Koha Jone: Meidani per arsimin shqip ne Greqi Message-ID: <20010504225432.98680.qmail@web11504.mail.yahoo.com> Presidenti Meidani: Eshte koha per hapjen e shkollave shqip ne Greqi - Zoti President! Jeni i pari kryetar shteti i Shqiperise qe keni vizituar zyrtarisht republiken greke. Ne c'nivele jane marredheniet Shqiperi-Greqi, pasi shpesh eshte folur ne shtyp per nje ftohje te ketyre marredhenieve? - Per mendimin tim nuk ka rendesi nese nje vizite perkufizohet apo eshte e pare, e dyte, etj., por kane rendesi vlerat dhe nxitjet, rezultatet qe ajo prodhon. Ne kete kuptim edhe vizita ime zyrtare ne Greqi, me ftese te Presidentit Stefanopulos, ishte e frutshme, sepse ajo e ngriti me lart nivelin e bashkepunimit midis te dy vendeve tane fqinje, pas nje periudhe ftohtesie, te pakapercyer nga politika e meparshme me ngjarjen e Peshkepise, arrestimin e pese shtetasve shqiptare te minoritetit dhe operacionin "Fshesa", passhoqerues i tyre. Po te shihen me kujdes treguesit e sotem, qofte ne rrafshin ekonomiko-tregtar, qofte ne rrafshin politiko-social, apo ate te bashkepunimit rajonal e nderkombetar, mund te flitet qarte per nje progres te shenueshem e nje zhvillim te panderprere te marredhenieve Shqiperi-Greqi dhe aspak per prapambetje, per ftohje apo regres te tyre. Mjafton te kujtojme qe ne shkembimet tona tregtare, apo ne nivelin e investimeve Greqia eshte partneri yne i dyte dhe komentet e kunderta do te beheshin thjesht abuzive. Natyrisht, ne boten e hapur dhe demokratike qe po ndertojme e jetojme jane mese normale pikepamjet e ndryshme, qendrimet jo perputhese, ndoshta dhe te kunderta, por nuk duhet te lejojme ne asnje menyre, qe per arsye emocionale, historike, apo per arsye te tjera, per spekulime ksenofobike apo mediatike, ato te behen burime ftohtesie, aq me keq konfliktesh. Kjo eshte detyra e politikes largpamese, konstruktive e ndervepruese, sepse vetem ajo mund t'i vihet ne sherbim njeriut te thjeshte dhe aspirates se tij shekullore per paqe, mirekuptim, fqinjesi te mire, progres e integrim. Dhe kete komuniteti i biznesit e ka kuptuar e realizuar me mire se sa komuniteti i politikes, nepermjet forces se tij te nderveprimit, depertimit, mungeses se paragjykimit dhe parimeve universale e te interesave te hapura te tij. Duke marre shkas nga kjo, me lejoni edhe nje reflektim, me shume personal, mbi zhvillimin dhe sfidat ne procesin aktual te globalizimit. Ne kete zhvillim nje nga sfidat, jo te parendesishme per mendimin tim, eshte fakti se komuniteti i "qendrueshem" i biznesit, i bazuar ne kapitale e tregje dhe konceptet e tij, levizin, ndryshojne dhe akomodohen me shpejt ne procesin e integrimit e te globalizimit, ne krahasim me komunitetin e "paqendrueshem" te politikes, te bazuar ne procese zgjedhore e reagime elektorale dhe konceptet e saj. Qarkullojne madje zera se vete procesi i globalizimit, qe reduktohet ne vleresimin e vetem te kapitalit global e te qendrueshem, nenkupton dhe nje impotence ne rritje te politikes. Natyrisht, ky eshte nje gjykim teper i thjeshtezuar, sidoqofte, mendoj qe ka ardhur koha per nje veprim te r politik, per nje reformim te koncepteve baze te politikes, per nje fuqizim te instrumentave nderkombetare, (ekonomiko-financiare, politiko-institucionale, te sigurise, social-kulturore, etj.), nepermjet rregullave te reja, pse jo, dhe parimeve te reja. Ne gjykimin tim, nje nga keto koncepte te rendesishme, nen nje optike politike, ekonomike, sociale, shkolluese dhe mjedisore, eshte koncepti i sovranitetit, sepse mendoj se ne nje bote te integruar qe aspirojme te ndertojme, te gjitha politikat, ne kuptimin me te gjere te fjales, duhet te jene globale. Ne nuk mund te lejojme qe cfaredo ceshtje "shtepiake" te fshehe apo te permbaje nje potencial per t'u shnderruar ne burim te nje konflikti rajonal apo nderkombetar apo qe mosperputhjet mbi vlerat te jene te patrajtueshme e te padialogueshme, edhe pse, besoj se ndersa kombet apo shtetet mund te gjejne kompromise ne perputhje me interesat e tyre reciproke, ato akoma e kane shume te veshtire te gjejne kompromise mbi vlerat. Per kete arsye mendoj se ne vend te konceptit te vjeteruar te sovranitetit apo pavaresise klasike duhet te perpunohet me tej koncepti modern i ndervaresise, qe ben te mundur perputhshmerine e parimit te vetevendosjes me principin e ndervaresise. Kjo nuk nenkupton prekjen e sovranitetit kombetar, por me shume eshte nje zgjedhje sovrane e vete shteteve per t'iu transferuar me shume fuqi autoriteteve vendore nga njera ane, dhe nga ana tjeter per te kaluar nje pjese te vendimmarrjes sovrane autoriteteve mbikombetare apo nderkombetare. Pranimi i Euros si monedhe europiane eshte nje nga ilustrimet e kesaj ideje. Po keshtu Samiti i Kebekut (Quebec City) ne 22 prill te ketij viti, qe vendosi perfundimin e negociatave te vendeve amerikane per krijimin e Zones se Lire deri me 2005 eshte nje perpjekje tjeter. Ne kete drejtim duhet te ecin dhe vendet e Ballkanit per krijimin e nje "hapesire te perbashket ekonomike" apo te nje "mini-Shengeni" ballkanik, qe "ftohjeve dypaleshe" iu kundervihet me "ngrohje rajonale". - Sipas statistikave zyrtare, ne republiken greke sot jetojne e punojne rreth 500 000 emigrante nga Shqiperia. Do te deshironim te dinim, gjate kater vjeteve te fundit, cilat kane qene prioritetet e shtetit shqiptar per politiken e emigrimit? A do ta ndiejne emigrantet doren e shtetit dhe a ka ndonje strategji per rikthimin e tyre? - Sic jeni ne dijeni, krahas perpjekjeve per zvogelimin e shkalles se papunesise ne vend, jane rritur iniciativat ne rrafshin politik, diplomatik e social per legalizimin e emigranteve shqiptare ne vendet ku jetojne e punojne, si dhe per punesimin e ri sezonal ose jo, te legalizuar me marreveshje dypaleshe. Natyrisht, shume mbetet per te bere per emigrantet, ne menyre te vecante po te kihet parasysh kontributi i tyre shume i madh, jo vetem per familjet e tyre, por dhe ne kuptimin e rimekembjes ekonomike te vendit dhe te perballimit te problemeve sociale. Krahas ketyre perpjekjeve qe kane dhene rezultate te prekshme ne Greqi, Itali, etj., jane shtuar vecanerisht kete vitin e fundit, investimet ne vend, qofte ne infrastrukture (rruge, telekomunikacion, uje-kanalizime, energji etj.), ne turizem, ndertim e sherbime, por dhe ne prodhimin e drejtperdrejte, qe nga ana e tyre, brenda nje kohe relativisht te shkurter do te "perkthehen" si kerkesa per vende te reja punesimi, per standarde me normale sherbimi e jetse, etj., d.m.th. qe, ne kuptimin strategjik, do te krijojne kushte te favorshme per rikthimin, me zgjedhje te lire, prane familjeve dhe te te afermve dhe te nje pjese te rendesishme te emigracionit shqiptar. Ky kthim do t'i sjelle vendit perfitime te reja zhvillimi, ne kuptimin e kapitalit fizik dhe atij njerezor, pra detyrimisht do te shoqerohet me investime te reja, qofshin keto dhe modeste, ne fusha te ndryshme te jetes ekonomike, por dhe me nje transferim pozitiv pervoje, njohurish, profesionesh e kulture pune te emigracionit tone. Une i besoj ketij "reaksioni zinxhir" apo amplifikimi te tipit "feed-back", qe shume shpejt, do te pasqyrohet natyrshem, ashtu si dhe ne vende te tjera te botes qe kane pasur kete raport emigracioni, ne zhvillimin me ritme me te shpejta te ekonomise dhe te shoqerise shqiptare. Ne te vertete, qe sot Shqiperia eshte kthyer ne nje kantier te madh ndertimi e pune. Ne vend te sinjaleve te meparshme "S.O.S.", ajo po emeton sinjalin e ri me permbajtjen optimiste: "Mos u vononi, perfshihuni ne kete proces", qe po e kthen ne "fuqiplote" vetem demokratizimi i jetes, ekonomia e tregut, iniciativa e lire, liberalizimi e decentralizimi qeverises. - Zoti President! Jane mijera femije te vajtur nga Shqiperia e mijera te tjere qe kane lindur ne Greqi ne keta dhjete vjet emigracion. Eshte nje dhimbje e madhe kombetare qe keta femije nuk flasin gjuhen e nenes, shqipen. Gjer ku kane shkuar bisedimet zyrtare ndershteterore, per hapjen e shkollave shqipe ne Greqi per femijet e emigranteve shqiptare, qe te mos shkohet drejt asimilimit? - Eshte nje shqetesim realisht serioz, aq me teper po te kemi parasysh hopin e zhvillimit te aferm dhe mundesine e kthimit ne vendlindje. Edhe ne kete drejtim jane bere perpjekje nga shteti shqiptar, por sidoqofte deshira dhe realiteti jane akoma shume larg njera-tjetres. Per mendimin tim, ne kuptimin perspektiv, edhe shteti grek e shoqeria greke duhet te ishin shume me te interesuar per edukimin e femijeve te emigranteve shqiptare me gjuhen e nenes, me kulturen, historine e vendit te origjines se tyre, jo vetem ne kuptimin e rikthimit te natyrshem, por edhe te perspektives se bashkepunimit te gjithanshem e me intensiv midis dy vendeve tona fqinje, ne kuadrin e integrimit europian e euro-atlantik. Une kam bindjen se me progresin galopant te teknikave te informacionit dhe te komunikimit, shume paragjykime e financime te pseudonacionalizmit te semure, shume teknologji anakronike te epersise apo te asimilimit po behen dita dites gjithnje e me pak rezultative. Nga ana tjeter, te gjithe popujt e vegjel, perfshire ketu te gjitha kombesite ballkanike, duhet te bashkepunojne me mire, me mendje e zemer te hapur e te sinqerte, per t'i rezistuar homogjenizimit ne procesin e fuqishem te globalizimit, duke ndihmuar njeri-tjetrin ne ruajtjen e diversitetit kulturor, te gjuhes se gjithsecilit, te traditave, etj. Sidoqofte ne pyetjen tuaj shfaqet dhe nje shqetesim tjeter qe eshte brendashqiptar, qe ekziston ne familjet tona ne emigracion, ne bashkesite shqiptare ne diaspore, ne angazhimin dhe organizimin e tyre konkret ne percimin e gjuhes, te kultures e te traditave shqiptare. Gjykoj se ketu ka shume mundesi, qofte duke mbajtur "gjalle" gjuhen ne familje, qofte duke organizuar kurse private, qofte duke u angazhuar ne veprimtari kulturore e botuese ne sherbim te bashkesise. M-_ume se deshire, kjo, ne njefare mase, eshte dhe nje detyrim atdhetar, por dhe nje investim per vete emigrantet shqiptare e femijet e tyre. Natyrisht dhe nga ana e shtetit shqiptar dhe e shoqerise shqiptare kerkohet me teper shtrirje dhe penetrim mediatik, me teper komunikim elektronik (radio, televizion, internet, etj.) me teper botime (abetare e njesuar, libra te thjeshtezuara shkollore, botime historike, manuale, etj.) me teper aktivitete kulturore, sportive, etj., te cilat duke qene pjese te nje mozaiku vibrues formojne ndergjegjen dhe historine individuale e kombetare dhe per me teper shnderrojne veprimin solitar ne nje vizion qe percohet e ndahet midis qindrave e mijerave te tjere. Kjo eshte epersia e zhvillimit bashkekohor, e botes se informacionit dhe kjo duhet kuptuar e nuk mund te mos shfrytezohet. - Zoti President! Ne median greke, deri edhe ne parlamentin grek, nga disa koka te nxehta deputetesh, shfaqet hija e "Shqiperise se Madhe". Perse eshte shfaqur me kaq intensitet kohet e fundit? - Arsyet mund te jene nga me te ndryshmet dhe mund te mbartin ne thellesine e tyre moskuptime, mentalitete, paragjykime apo teknologji tashme teper te vjeteruara, larg realiteteve te sotme dhe evolucioneve te tyre, vecanerisht gjate ketyre viteve te fundit. Por me e cuditshmja, ndoshta dhe me keqdashesja, eshte se ato "emetohen" me intensitet te larte ne periudha te caktuara dhe per me teper ne menyre teper te orkestruar, pikerisht sot kur jane sa normale, po aq edhe urgjente realizimi i kerkesave, perfshire edhe ato te ndryshimeve kushtetuese te shqiptareve ne Maqedoni, ne perputhje me standardet europiane dhe te Keshillit te Europes (te ritheksuar dhe ne rezoluten e fundit te Asamblese se tij), apo perfshirja e referendumit, si e drejte legjitime e cdo populli ne perputhje me Konventat Nderkombetare, ne paketen kushtetuese qe aktualisht po hartohet per avancimin e procesit te veteqeverisjes ne Kosove, ne baze dhe te rezolutes 1244 te Keshillit te Sigurimit te OKB-se. Me ironike eshte se keto sajesa terminologjike "gelltiten" dhe nga ndonje kancelari e bashkesise nderkombetare. Krahas termit te "Shqiperise se Madhe" po me ate lehtesi hidhet ne sofren e ngrenies dhe termi "Kosova e Madhe", edhe pse shqiptaret, kudo qe jetojne ne trojet e tyre etnike, kane shprehur qartesisht deshiren e tyre, madje endrren e tyre, te integrimit euroatlantik, qe do t'i shnderroje detyrimisht e progresivisht kufijte e vendeve te rajonit ne simbole gjithmone e me gjeografike. Pavaresisht ketij manipulimi, qe ne thelb me "adjectiv-in" e tij eshte me shume se absurd, krahasuar me dimensionin shqiptar, mund te ritheksoj per te qindten, ndoshta te mijten here, se ky nuk eshte nje prodhim shqiptar. Perkundrazi, shteti shqiptar e ka shprehur hapur se mbeshtet, edhe pse me kosto fillestare relativisht te larte ekonomike, integrimin rajonal, si parakusht per integrimin europian e euroatlantik, se eshte i gatshem per te bashkepunuar me tej me vendet e rajonit deri ne formimin e nje tregu te perbashket me pjesemarrjen e Bullgarise, Kroacise, Shqiperise, Maqedonise, Bosnjes, Serbise, Malit te Zi, Kosoves dhe, ndoshta, ne menyre opsionale dhe te Rumanise e Moldavise. Njekohesisht kjo kerkon nje ridimensionim te koncepteve, te situatave, te strukturave, por dhe menjanim te "mendjeve te vjeteruara" apo "mendjeve te nxehta" qe me teper pengojne, sesa nxisin e frymezojne ne progresin me ritme te shpejta te bshkepunimit, sigurise, stabilitetit, demokracise, shoqerise civile e ekonomise ne tere rajonin ballkanik. Pikerisht, ne baze te shtrirjes gjeografike, dinamizmit demografik e shperndarjes se popullsise shqiptare ne trojet e saj ne te gjitha vendet perreth, prirjes se saj pozitive per prosperitet demokratik e integrim euroatlantik, rritet dita-dites vlera stabilizuese dhe roli i saj teper i rendesishem ne zhvillimet e pritshme ballkanike, gje qe per mungese realizmi, ndoshta edhe per reminishence apo ksenofobizem, mund te mos shihen qarte, dhe me tej mund te shoqerohen apo shformohen, ne menyre te qellimshme, apo te paqellimshme me "shpikje" apo sajesa krejtesisht te pabazuara, larg prirjeve ndervepruese integruese e globalizuese dhe proceseve teresore demokratizuese, (politiko-ekonomike, institucionalo - kushtetuese), te perqafuara ne menyre transparente dhe me mendje te hapur europiane pothuajse nga e gjithe popullsia shqiptare. - Emigrantet shqiptare ne Greqi vazhdimisht bejne pyetjen: Kur do te mbaroje tranzicioni ne Shqiperi? A do te behet Shqiperia? Cili do te ishte mesazhi Juaj? - Ne te vertete, Shqiperia po behet cdo dite, ajo po ndryshon e rritet, natyrisht duke kaluar neper nje proces te nderlikuar, qe nuk eshte si "bulevardi i Neves", por i zhvilluar me shume zikzake nga njera ane dhe duke cliruar shume energji te brendshme nga ana tjeter. Ne kete ndryshim, ne kete rilindje shumepermasore eshte i pranishem kontributi i te gjithe shqiptareve dhe ne menyre me te vecante, ai i vete emigracionit shqiptar. Sidoqofte, me lejoni, te shfaq dhe disa refleksione me te vecanta. Ne radhe te pare, jeta politike shqiptare eshte ende komplekse, por une besoj se kjo i detyrohet me shume nje reminishence partiake mbi shtetin, te trasheguar nga e kaluara. Personalisht besoj se per te kapercyer perfundimisht kete mentalitet na duhet te thellojme zbatimin, si ne te gjtha vendet e zhvilluara demokratike, te te njejtit standart, domethene trajtimin jo politiko-partiak, por ate demokratik e institucional mbi ligjin dhe shtetin. Kjo nenkupton dhe nje reformim te domosdoshem e te vazhdueshem te partive politike per t'i shnderruar realisht ato ne parti elektorale. Sa me shpejt te ndodhe ky ndryshim, aq me mire do te jete per zhvillimin e shendetshem te shoqerise shqiptare. Sidoqofte, pa nje zhvillim normal ekonomik, pa nje qeverisje transparente, pa nje sistem gjyqesor te forte dhe te pavarur, pa nje shoqeri civile zeforte, pa nje media te lire e qytetare, demokracia e re ne Shqiperi se bashku me politiken, ashtu si dhe te gjitha demokracite e reja mund te vuaje akoma, madje dhe te perpelitet nen trysnine e "lojerave" te paprincipta apo me keq, te mediokritetit dhe jomoralitetit politik. Per mendimin tim, ketu duhet thelluar me tej procesi demokratik, ketu duhet perqendruar me shume vemendja, ketu kerkohet zeri intelektual, ndershmeria qytetare e ndjesia kombetare, bashkepunimi, kompromisi dhe solidariteti, per te fuqizuar qeverisjen, jo nepermjet rregullave te tepruara, procedurave te lodhshme burokratike, apo nderhyrjeve qeverisese eksesive, por liberalizimit te ekonomise, menaxhimit transparent dhe llogaridhenies, fuqizimit te procesit e te kontrollit buxhetor, financiar e monetar, konsiderimit serioz te problemeve sociale, te shendetit e te edukimit, mbrojtjes se natyres dhe krijimit te mjedisit te qendrueshem mbeshtetes e ushqyes te aktiviteteve te tregut. Natyrisht, mund te ishte thjeshtezim, made primitivizem, po t'ia faturonim problemet e realitetit te sotem vetem reflektimit te shoqerise shqiptare apo agresivitetit politik, nderkohe qe nuk mund te mohohet edhe ndikimi i peripecive te medha nepermjet te cilave jane zhvilluar ato, vecanerisht gjate ketij shekulli. Megjithate pershtypja ime eshte se nga hapja e madhe gjate periudhes se tranzicionit, ne menyre me specifike nga zgjerimi i kontaktit me boten e qyteteruar ne keto vitet e fundit, vecanerisht gjate krizes kosovare dhe pas saj, mendesia e individit dhe e shoqerise shqiptare po evoluon pozitivisht me shpejtesi te madhe. Ne kete evoluim gjithesecili ka perpjekjet dhe kontributin e tij. Por, edhe per gjykimin e ketij zhvillimi, ne keto vitet e fundit duhet perdorur akoma metoda krahasuese me permbajtje te brendshme, per te kaluar me vone, ne menyre te natyrshme, ne ate me permbajtje te jashtme. Sidoqofte, perceptimi im eshte se viti i fundit i shekullit te kaluar u pervijua si perfundimi i periudhes se emergjences ose i fazes me te veshtire te tranzicionit demokratik shqiptar, madje edhe si etapa parambyllese e nje procesi vendimtar per historine shtetformuese e njekohesisht integruese per te gjithe popullin shqiptar. Gjithashtu ne vija te pergjithshme, mund te thuhet se ka perfunduar ne vija te pergjithshme ndertimi i institucioneve demokratike dhe procesi institucional i ndarjes se pushteteve dhe tani eshte kaluar ne fazen me cilesore te koordinimit sa me efektiv te punes midis tyre. Natyrisht qe Shqiperia eshte akoma shume larg te qenit "parajse" dhe nje shikim roze do te ishte teper irrealist. Ka akoma veshtiresi serioze te kalimit nga sistemi teresisht i mbyllur ne ate krejtesisht te hapur, por megjithate eshte shume me ndryshe nga c'e kemi prekur kohe me pare, ka nje sinergji teper pozitive dhe dinamizem te brendshem gjithmone ne rritje te qytetarit dhe te strukturave te shoqerise. Megjithate, kam bindjen se duhet insistuar me tej, ne edukimin qytetar e shoqerizues dhe me ndjenjen e pergjegjesise e te vullnetarizmit individual dhe kolektiv. Me shume mund te behet per te krijuar nje perfytyrim te drejte te raportit qeverises - te qeverisur, por dhe ne konceptimin e te drejtave dhe detyrave te secilit prej faktoreve te ketij binomi. Dhe ne kete aspekt politika qytetare, civile e konstruktive detyrimisht duhet te jape orientimin dhe ndihmesen e saj te vyer. Pra, te gjithe bashke, ne duhet te zhvillojme pergjegjesite tona e te ndertojme jeten tone. Te gjithe te jemi qytetare te ndergjegjshem per detyrimet tona duke koordinuar me mire me njeri-tjetrin interesat, vlerat, virtytet, mendjet, ndjesite dhe energjite tona. Te them te drejten me ka bere shume pershtypje qe per kete fryme e shpirt qytetarie, beri thirrje edhe presidenti Bush ne ceremonine e tij te betimit: "... Une ju kerkoj te kembengulni drejt se mires se perbashket, me teper se ndaj konfortit tuaj; te mbroni reformat e nevojshme kunder sulmeve te lehta; t'i sherbeni kombit tuaj, duke filluar me fqinjin tuaj. Une ju kerkoj te jeni qytetare. Qytetare, jo spektatore. Qytetare, jo subjekte. Qytetare te pergjegjshem per te ndertuar komunitete te sherbimit dhe nje komb te karakterit..." Dhe me tej: "Kur mungon shpirti i qytetarise, asnje program qeveritar nuk mund ta zevendesoje ate. Kur ky shpirt eshte i pranishem, asnje gabim nuk mund t'i kundervihet atij". Ky do te me pelqente te ishte dhe meszhi im per te gjithe shqiptaret, perfshire ketu edhe vete emigracionin shqiptar. Intervistoi Kristo Mertiri 05/04/2001 --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Fri May 4 23:09:48 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 20:09:48 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Daily Mail Message-ID: <20010505030948.66525.qmail@web11502.mail.yahoo.com> DAILY MAIL (London) May 5, 2001 A SICK MOCKERY OF JUSTICE DAVID WILLIAMS A GANG of IRA terrorists shot dead in an SAS ambush as they tried to destroy a police station and murder the officers inside had their human rights violated, a European court ruled yesterday. In a decision condemned as 'astonishing and perverse,' seven judges said Britain should pay the families of the eight men - among them some of the Provisionals' most notorious killers - GBP 10,000 each because the cases were not properly investigated. The European Court of Human Rights also made similar awards to the families of two other IRA men and a Sinn Fein member killed in separate incidents, and to the family of an innocent man killed in the police station shoot-out. Taxpayers face a total bill from the action of GBP 225,000 - GBP 120,000 for the awards in each of the cases and GBP 105,000 for the legal costs of the dead men's families. Last night there were fears the ruling could lead to further compensation claims from relatives of terrorists killed by security forces. The judges - among them one Briton and an Albanian whose early career was devoted to tracking down opponents of the former communist dictatorship - did not rule that the deaths were unlawful. Instead, their unanimous ruling, related to procedural matters. It was greeted with jubilation by the families and with outrage by Unionists and the police. David Trimble, Ulster Unionist leader and First Minister at the Northern Ireland Executive, described the judgment as 'astonishing and perverse'. 'There would be people who would call in question the competence and the judgment of the European Court,' he said. East Belfast Democratic Unionist MP Peter Robinson said: 'This ruling is insane and offensive. The Government should ignore it. There should be no compensation payments. There can be no greater absurdity than the human rights of killers, in the act of carrying out murder, being protected while they attempt to violate the human rights of others.' A spokesman for the Police Federation, which represents RUC officers, said: 'If IRA members are killed in action carrying out a murderous deed, they will be rewarded with a lump sum or pension. There really is no justice.' The IRA active unit, known as the 'A Team' was ambushed by the SAS as it attacked Loughgall police station in County Armagh with a 200lb bomb in the bucket of a JCB in May 1987. Their plan was to blow up the station and then shoot any RUC survivors. The bomb went off, burying two officers in the rubble, but as the IRA gang began to jump from a van the SAS opened fire, killing all eight, and a motorist caught up in the carnage. Among those who died were Patrick Kelly, the commander of the East Tyrone Brigade, who was said to have been responsible for the murder of civilians and mem-By David Williams Chief Reporter bers of the security forces, and James Lynagh, known as 'The Executioner' and one of the IRA's top three killers. Weapons recovered at the scene were later linked to eight murders and 33 shootings. Lawyers for the IRA members' families claimed excessive force was used and that a 'shoot to kill' policy had been sanctioned by the Government and security chiefs. The European court ruled that in all 12 cases there had been a breach of human rights because of a lack of police independence and a lack of public scrutiny. But the judges said they were not prepared to analyse 30 years of the Troubles in an effort to establish whether the security forces had adopted a practice of using 'dis-proportionate' force. Among those sitting in judgment was Kristaq Traja, 46, from Albania. He emerged as a champion of human rights after rising through the public prosecution service of what was Eastern Europe's most backward regime. The British judge on the panel was Nicolas Bratza, 56, an Oxford-educated barrister who specialises in human rights. The other judges included lawyers from Cyprus and the Czech Republic. A lawyer for one of the families of the IRA men said the judges had reminded the Government that 'even in the midst of conflict, they cannot step outside the rule of law'. Roisin Kelly, sister of Patrick Kelly, said the ruling meant the Government had been held accountable for the deaths of the families' loved ones. 'It means the inquest system is fundamentally flawed and that the RUC cannot carry out independent investigations into incidents they are actively involved in.' She will now be pressing for an independent inquiry. Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly hailed the ruling as the 'single most important legal judgment in 30 years of conflict'. 'British policy, the RUC, and the legal and judicial which they created stand indicted before the world,' said Mr Kelly, who was jailed for his part in the 1972 IRA bombing of the Old Bailey. However, there were calls for the Government not to pay up. The court cannot force Britain to pay, but there is a moral obligation on countries covered by the court to accept its rulings. Asked if the Government would hand over the compensation, Tony Blair's spokesman said: 'That is something that will have to be looked at.' The Premier's spokesman left open the possibility of an appeal. He said: 'Nothing is ruled in or out. There has been no finding of unlawful killing and no finding of a shoot-to-kill policy.' Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said: 'The criticisms are of procedures, the investigations, not the deaths themselves.' Andrew MacKay, shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, said the ruling flies in the face of natural justice. He added: 'Anybody who cares for the rule of law owes the RUC and the Army a tremendous debt of gratitude for their dedication and sacrifice.' The three other cases involved two IRA men killed by police in separate shootings in Belfast and near Lurgan, County Armagh in l982 and l992 and a member of Sinn Fein, shot dead by loyalist paramilitary gunmen in County Tyrone in l991. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Click and bid on cool stuff like Dave Matthews Band Tickets & more! -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From mentor at alb-net.com Sun May 6 01:24:01 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Sun, 6 May 2001 01:24:01 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Macedonia To Ask for War Declaration Message-ID: Dear Friends, Seems like the situation in Macedonia is getting worse by minute. The oppressive and discriminatory Macedonian government has no regards and respect for its Albanian population. What happens when about 40% of the population is treated as second class citizens by the Macedonian Government?! For how long does the Macedonian government expect to oppress so many people and act like everything is OK?! For the last two days, Macedonian Government has asked the Albanian populated areas around Kumanova to be emptied of its inhabitants? Is this Ethnic CLEANSING in making? sincerely, Mentor ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 6 May 2001 01:14:41 -0400 From: Mentor Cana To: ALBANEWS at LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU Newsgroups: bit.listserv.albanian Subject: News: Macedonia To Ask for War Declaration ____________ALBANEWS: Albanian News and Information Network_________ Archives: http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/archives/albanews.html ____________________________________________________________________ >>>>> Albanians in Macedonia Crisis Center (AMCC) <<<<<<<< http://www.alb-net.com/amcc ____________________________________________________________________ Albanian Home Page http://www.albanian.com/ KCC (Kosova Crisis Center) http://www.alb-net.com/ Kosovapress http://www.kosovapress.com/ ____________________________________________________________________ http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010505/ts/macedonia.html Saturday May 5 8:57 PM ET Macedonia To Ask for War Declaration By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writer SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's prime minister said Saturday he plans to ask Parliament to declare a state of war, hours after soldiers hammered ethnic Albanian rebel positions with artillery fire in an escalating offensive. The comments from Prime Minister Ljbuco Georgievski followed a series of rebel ambushes of security forces and the steady bombardment of insurgent positions in the northern part of Macedonia - attacks that have deepened fears the country is on the verge of civil war. ``What is happening on the territory of Macedonia is war,'' Georgievski told reporters outside an emergency session of the Macedonian government leadership. ``Those people who are doing this have the aim of conquering the territory.'' A declaration of a state of war needs the approval of a two-thirds majority of the 120-member Parliament, but it was not immediately clear if the government could round up the support. The legislature was expected to meet Tuesday, but the statements from Georgievski suggested he could try reshuffle the government before that. If approved, the declaration would give President Boris Trajkovski the power to rule by decree and appoint a government of his choosing. It would also give him the ability to seal the borders, ban public gatherings, and impose a curfew. Georgievski also said joint action against the rebels could be taken with the government in neighoring Yugoslavia, where ethnic Albanian insurgents operate in of the province of Kosovo. Ethnic Albanians, who account for roughly a third of Macedonia's 2 million people, argue they are treated as second class citizens and want the constitution rewritten to give them equal status. Fighting between the government and the rebels began in February. Carlo Ungaro, the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites)'s Macedonia mission chief, said that at least seven civilians had been killed since Thursday, when the government began the latest offensive against the rebels. ``We have young people dying,'' said Borjanka Stevkovska, nervously straightening the green onions stacked in her market stall in Skopje, the capital. ``From one day to another, it just gets worse.'' The 52-year-old mother of two teen-age daughters can hardly bear to watch the evening news with its reports of dead soldiers, burning villages and diplomatic wrangling - the somber signposts warning of another Balkan country slowing slipping toward instability. Just 15 miles to the north, the government pummeled what it said were ``selective'' targets, unleashing rockets from helicopter gunships and firing cannon and grenades at rebel command posts and sniper nests in villages dotting the border with Yugoslavia. So far, world leaders, including President Bush (news - web sites), have backed Macedonia in its steadfast refusal to negotiate with the rebels, whom the government views as terrorists trying to seize territory and carve out an ethnic Albanian state. The police and army ordered civilians to evacuate five villages, describing it as a precaution. Authorities demanded that people in five other villages also leave amid claims that the insurgents were using 3,500 people as ``human shields.'' But the rebels accused the government of firing indiscriminately at civilians and denied that villagers were being used as shields. Three Macedonian soldiers were wounded when their vehicle hit an anti-tank mine planted by the rebels, Defense Ministry spokesman Gjorgji Trendafilov said. Earlier Saturday, Trajkovski summoned leaders of major political parties, including ethnic Albanians, and announced an ``agreed-upon'' five-point plan to solve the crisis, starting with an evacuation of civilians from the fighting area. He pledged to include more representatives of ethnic minorities in a decentralized government; strengthen the rule of law; crack down on organized crime; include some minority languages in official use; and ``strengthen the civil concept of Macedonia'' as a nation. Rumors circulated among ethnic Albanians in the capital that the government wants the civilians to flee so it can raze the border villages, creating an internal buffer zone between the rebels and their ethnic kin in the southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo. More subtle divisions between ethnic groups have cropped up in Skopje. Xhemajl Fazliu, 27, an ethnic Albanian, looked over his shoulder before complaining that his Slavic-speaking neighbors would no longer buy his cabbages, potatoes and paprikas. ``Every day I would deal with the same people. Now they just greet me and go away,'' he said. ``I come here, but I don't feel safe.'' The increasing unease follows days of riots that shook the southern city of Bitola after the funerals of some of eight soldiers killed in a rebel ambush April 28. The government describes the riots, which destroyed some 40 ethnic Albanian businesses, as an expression of outrage to terrorism. Ethnic Albanians suggest the melee was a warning that they had better watch out. NATO (news - web sites) and the European Union (news - web sites), fearing fresh bloodshed, are sending envoys to Macedonia. The EU's security affairs chief, Javier Solana, planned to arrive Sunday and NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson was to join him Monday. ____________________________________________________________________ >>>>> Albanians in Macedonia Crisis Center (AMCC) <<<<<<<< http://www.alb-net.com/amcc ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ALBANEWS is not affiliated with the Albanian Government, the Kosova Government, any association or organization, nor any information or news agency. Reports, articles and news items from various sources are distributed via ALBANEWS for INFORMATIVE purposes only. Opinions expressed/published on ALBANEWS do NOT necessarily reflect the views of the owner and the co-owners and/or moderators, nor any of their host institutions. ALBANEWS does NOT guarantee the accuracy of the reports, articles and news items distributed via the list. ____________________________________________________________________ ALBANEWS listowner, co-owners and/or moderators can be contacted at: ALBANEWS-request at listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Mon May 7 08:46:28 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 08:46:28 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] AIM on IMAMI Message-ID: WED, 02 MAY 2001 01:16:53 GMT The Fantasy of ?Greater Albania? in Albanian Politics AIM Tirana, April 23, 2001 Perhaps not even the executive president of the Party of Democratic Alliance (PAD), Arben Imami could have imagined that his proposal of the union of Albania with Kosovo would have the effect of a political bomb. One could have hardly found a more appropriate date than April 12 to turn a statement into a political and diplomatic scandal. On that day, at the invitation of US Secretary of State Colin Powell, 11 foreign ministers of the states in the region gathered in Skopje, Albania inclusive, to coordinate efforts for preservation of stability and guarantees of the borders. During the month of Macedonian crisis state leaders of Macedonia and of a few other Balkan countries insisted on the stand that the ideological and nationalistic motivation of Albanian armed guerilla groups in Tetovo and Kosovo was the aspiration to create ?Greater Albania?. The government of Albania and its diplomacy have spent a considerable amount of energy in order to convince their international interlocutors that the accusations of certain circles in neighbouring states concerning the aspirations to create ?Greater Albania? were unsustainable. And then, exactly at that moment, a member of the cabinet, minister of justice Arben Imami publicly presents the platform of his party on peaceful union of Albania with Kosovo. In four points of that platform, the political and institutional union of Albania with Kosovo is demanded, joint economic reform, customs and monetary union, psychological and cultural union and joint diplomatic action aimed at persuading the international community to start believing that such a union would be useful. If Imami had not been a member of the cabinet but just the president of his party, this statement would have passed unnoticed, because the political significance of this party is too small and insignificant in the process of decision-making of this country. PAD has only two deputies or 1.29 per cent of the votes in the parliament. It is easy to imagine how difficult the position the minister of justice has put his government into regardless of the fact that he had spoken in the capacity of the president of a party which is in power in Albania. The Albanian government immediately disassociated itself from the minister of justice confirming that Albania was against the change of borders and that it recognised Resolution 1244 of the Security Council. But since it has just two months left to be in power before the new already scheduled elections, the government has not asked Imami to disassociate himself from his statement and confirm his loyalty to the platform of the government he belongs to, the platform which does not include even a faintest hint or idea of any form of a union of Albania with Kosovo. The minister of justice has not disassociated himself, nor has he offered to resign, but neither has the government asked him to submit his resignation. In fact, secretary for relations with the public of the Democratic Alliance, Gj. Zefi, after the reaction of the government, declared that the government had no reason to disassociate itself nor to support this stand and repeated that the Democratic Alliance remained true to the platform of union of Albania with Kosovo. The mentioned platform caused commotion in Albanian politics, because all the major political parties often encountered concern in relations with international partners because of the thesis on ?Greater Albania?. Socialist Party (SP) which heads the coalition PAD belongs to, opposed this statement through its secretary for international relations Dade. Other parties from the coalition also reacted negatively, and foreign minister Paskal Milo, who is a member of the presidency of Social Democratic Party (SDP), declared that such statements caused damage to the Albanian cause and the position of Albania and that they cast a shadow on relations with the international community. It is interesting to mention that even the main party of the opposition, Democratic Party (DP), opposed the platform of the executive president of PAD, although the Democrats constantly criticised the government coalition for uninvolvement in protection of the interests of Kosovo. Secretary for foreign relations of DP B. Mustafaj estimated the idea of the union of Albania with Kosovo as a fantasy invented by non-Albanians and a deliberate act meant to satanise Albanians. The quantity of emotions stirred up by Imami?s proposal is also illustrated by the negative reactions that arrived from Albanian political parties in Kosovo and Macedonia. President of Democratic Alliance of Kosovo (DSK) Ibrahim Rugova said on April 20 that he considered the statement of one of the ministers in the government in Tirana on the necessity of the union of Albania with Kosovo ? frivolous. President of ADP in Macedonia Arben Xhaferri warned that every politician had to be responsible for every statement because they can be just soap bubbles. Many prominent politicians from various parties and factions in Tirana explained Imami?s platform with the approaching campaign for June parliamentary elections. At the convention of the party on April 21, Imami himself tried to mitigate negative reactions. Nevertheless, the argument on the pre-election character cannot explain the motives for the public presentation of PAD?s platform. The election campaign has not officially started yet and the election weight of PAD is so small that one can hardly believe that it will manage to attract a significant number of votes. It does not seem to be completely true either that PAD has done it in order to make it easier for itself to separate from the left government coalition headed by SP in order to join the right coalition after the invitation president of DP Sali Berisha had addressed to its leadership. In fact more than in the country itself, the platform for the union of Albania with Kosovo has caused the greatest concern outside Albania and in diplomatic circles which deal with the Balkans. The first public reaction arrived from the Ambassador of USA in Tirana, Joseph Limprecht, who warned on April 16 that when the invitation for the union of Albania with Kosovo came from a member of the cabinet, that invitation is considered by the Albanian people as support to the extremists and terrorists who wish to destabilise the region. Reactions were much broader in the countries of the region where some media hurried to present it as evidence that corroborate their warnings about the objectives of the Albanians. Reactions have arrived even from Poland where a known daily, Rzheczpolitika, called Imami?s proposal a provocation for the international community. In these reactions there is no fear that PAD could be capable of winning parliamentary reactions with its platform, because everybody underlined the fact that PAD was a minor party. However, they are all alarmed by another thing: first, Imami is a member of the cabinet and, second, he showed that the fantasy of ?Greater Albania? exists in the arsenal of Albanian politics. Indeed, the idea of what is called ?Greater Albania?, but which is in political vocabulary called ?Ethnic Albania? and which implies the union of all the territories where the Albanians live in various states in the region, have always been present but on the margins of Albanian politics. Such ideas are not present at the centre of this politics. In the platforms of major political parties, left or right, in Albania, there is no idea of ethnic Albania or a union of Albania with Kosovo. Only certain minor parties, such as Legalitet (Royalists) among the rightist parties and National Unity among the Leftist one, have in their platforms the union of territories where the Albanians live. Neither in Kosovo nor in Macedonia major political parties of the Albanians have the question of the union in their platforms. There are a few minor parties which are practically illegal and which advocate the idea of ethnic union. However, the existence of such ideas even on the margins of Albanian politics causes concern in the international community that they might be stirred up and gain more ground for various pre-election, political, financial or other reasons. The fact that a party known as cosmopolitan and liberal suddenly appeared in public waving the flag of union of Albania with Kosovo causes a great surprise. It seems that minor parties do not seem to be able to find other possibility to reduce the influence and the image of big parties except by sending signals that will cause alarm in the international community that the fantasy of ?Greater Albania? exists and that it is moving around the Albanian politics. AIM Tirana Arian LEKA From kbejko at hotmail.com Mon May 7 12:10:57 2001 From: kbejko at hotmail.com (Kreshnik Bejko) Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 12:10:57 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Nje koment mbi Arberoret Message-ID: Neve, Arvanitet e Grekise, nuku jemi Shqipetare as minoritet. Jemi Arberor te vertete qe kemi mabare besene e Skenderbeut, jo sic Shqipetaret me te shume qe e mborene edhe u beshen muci Turket! Vitalis _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon May 7 14:58:42 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 11:58:42 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Fwd: Panel on May 10: The Balkans After Milosevic: the Economic Battleground Message-ID: <20010507185842.16790.qmail@web11505.mail.yahoo.com> Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Kokkalis_Program at ksg.harvard.edu Subject: Panel on May 10: The Balkans After Milosevic: the Economic Battleground Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 11:09:20 -0400 Size: 1921 URL: From e_dusha at hotmail.com Mon May 7 19:13:44 2001 From: e_dusha at hotmail.com (e_dusha at hotmail.com) Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 19:13:44 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Nje koment mbi Arberoret Message-ID: Perralla me mbret! Shqiptaret duhej te mbijetonin. Ne beme ate qe duhej, pragmatistet gjithnje fitojne mbi idealistet. Keta te fundit ngelen gjithnje me lot nder sy!!! >From: "Kreshnik Bejko" >To: albsa-info at alb-net.com >CC: alb-club at alb-net.com >Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Nje koment mbi Arberoret >Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 12:10:57 -0400 > > ----------- ALBSA-Info Mailing List --------- > - ALBSA Web Site: http://www.albstudent.org - > > > >Neve, Arvanitet e Grekise, nuku jemi Shqipetare as minoritet. Jemi Arberor >te vertete qe kemi mabare besene e Skenderbeut, jo sic Shqipetaret me te >shume qe e mborene edhe u beshen muci Turket! > >Vitalis >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com > >_______________________________________________________ >ALBSA-Info mailing list: ALBSA-Info at alb-net.com >http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/albsa-info _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon May 7 22:26:41 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 19:26:41 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] The Express Message-ID: <20010508022641.50885.qmail@web11508.mail.yahoo.com> The Express May 7, 2001 LEADER; Pg. 12 LEADER - BRITISH LAW SHOULD NOT BE UNDERMINED BY THESE EURO OUTSIDERS; HUMAN RIGHTS RULING DESTROYS OUR FREEDOM JOHN LAUGHLAND IT IS very appropriate that, on Friday, the European Court of Human Rights should have ruled in favour of IRA terrorists who were trying to destroy our society. For the effect of incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights into British law is to strip British society of its rights. Labour defended the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into British law by saying that, henceforth, British judges would rule on human rights cases brought by British subjects. The Government wanted to avoid a repetition of the notorious ruling in 1995 when the Strasbourg court ruled that the SAS had unlawfully killed three IRA terrorists in Gibraltar in 1988. Friday's ruling shows that this argument was a complete sham. Instead, the legal and political procedures by which British people deal with terrorism on British soil are subject to adjudication by people who do not know our laws and who do not live in our country. Every year our Parliament, elected by us, votes a renewal of special powers under the Prevention of Terrorism Act: soldiers and police operate under the rule of law and according to its provisions. No doubt these procedures are sometimes inadequate; no doubt sometimes offences are committed. But why should the people who are directly affected by this terrorism, the British themselves, be subordinate to outsiders when it comes to assessing whether our judicial and political processes are adequate? To add insult to injury, one of the seven judges who handed down this particular ruling is from Albania. A big mafia stronghold, Albania is one of the most lawless and crime-ridden countries in the world. But it belongs to the Council of Europe and thus gets to appoint judges to the European Court of Human Rights. The Albanian judge, Kristaq Traja, worked as a state prosecutor under the Stalinist tyrant, Enver Hoxha, who was himself an enthusiastic supporter of the IRA. Judge Traja also works for the Soros Foundation in Albania, an organisation which campaigned against the anticommunist Democratic government of Albania until it was overthrown in a violent armed uprising in 1997. That revolt brought the former communists back to power and now Traja works for the new government, which by the way is notorious for its links to the Albanian mafia. By what right does someone like this sit in judgment over British laws and British democracy? But the same problems would remain whoever was sitting in the court in Strasbourg for the simple reason that the Human Rights Act detaches the law-making process from the democratic process. Thanks to the Act, laws are no longer made by our elected representatives in Parliament, where the competing claims within society are represented, but are instead subject to the say so of judges. The divorce between law-making and democracy encourages people to think they can enjoy their "rights" without considering the cost to society. This in turn makes them resentful when they do not get what they want and prevents them from being grateful for what society gives them. In reality, all our rights come at a cost to someone else. The judicial and political process is all about balancing these competing claims in accordance with the rules which define society. The philosophy of the Human Rights Act does not take society's rights into account. Human rights ideology is literally anti-social. In one notorious case, a man who had illegally built a house in the New Forest successfully appealed against its demolition in the name of his "right to a family life". But the whole point of having planning regulations is so that the right to a family life can be enjoyed in a manner which is in harmony with other people's rights as well. Similarly, one chief constable has written that cannabis will inevitably be legalised by the Human Rights Act. If it is, this means that society as a whole will no longer have the collective right to decide what kind of a society it wants to be. It will depend instead on a few judges to rule whether or not we become a nation of dope heads. THIS is why the Human Rights Act is probably the most elitist piece of legislation ever to hit the statute book. Laws are no longer made by us, the voters, acting through our elected representatives. Instead, they are made by about 150 High Court judges who are in turn subject to seven so called judges sitting in Strasbourg. Our right as British subjects to have some influence through Parliament over which laws are made in the United Kingdom is thus removed. It has been replaced instead with the right to cringe below the Bench and to say: "Thank you, my Lord" if a favourable judgment is handed down. And if the judgment is unfavourable then there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Click and bid on cool stuff like Dave Matthews Band Tickets & more! -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From kbejko at hotmail.com Tue May 8 12:23:47 2001 From: kbejko at hotmail.com (Kreshnik Bejko) Date: Tue, 08 May 2001 12:23:47 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] From the Wall St. Journal Message-ID: (this appeared in today's Wall St. Journal. The reaction of the Greek Orthodox clergy to the Pope's visit should make us all aware of a conflictual mentality existing among Greek clergymen which I hope will not take root in Albania since its orthodox 'raya' are guided by a predominantly Greek clergy.) May 8, 2001 When Will the Orthodox Learn to Love the Pope? By Rod Dreher, a columnist at the New York Post. Over the course of his pilgrim papacy, John Paul II has endured hectoring in Sandinista Nicaragua, stared down Soviet-sponsored tyrants in Poland, suffered attempts by dictators to hijack his good will for their own malign agendas -- as Syria's Assad did on Saturday -- and braved all manner of threat to his dignity and safety in pursuit of his evangelical mission. You'd expect that he'd get that from communists and Levantine strongmen, and indeed from non-Christian fanatics -- like the radical Hindus who vowed violence during his visit to India. You do not expect it from Christians, especially Christian clergy. But in the days preceding the pontiff's arrival in Greece, the rank-and-file Orthodox clerical union denounced him as an "arch-heretic" and the "two-horned grotesque monster of Rome." Mercy! Some of these arch-knotheads, particularly monks from Mt. Athos, even petitioned the Almighty to curse the bishop of Rome. Greece, presumably, is a modern European democracy. Yet its government had to deploy a large police presence to prevent Orthodox zealots from harming a stooped and trembling octogenarian Catholic priest. It must be said that not all Orthodox feel as the Greeks do. The ecumenical patriarch in Istanbul welcomed the papal visit; and the Syrian Orthodox, who share a relatively close relationship with Syrian Catholics, were much more hospitable. Still, as a Roman Catholic admirer of Orthodoxy, I was saddened by the Greek hostility. To my great relief, a (non-Greek) Orthodox priest friend shared my indignation. "John Paul II is the single person most responsible for the defeat of atheistic communism, and history will be very kind to him," he said. "Calling for him to be cursed is just embarrassing." My friend went on to explain, though, that Americans cannot grasp the way the Crusader sack of Constantinople in 1204 shaped the Greek Orthodox soul. True, the Crusaders behaved like barbarians; and no Roman Catholic today would defend them. But eight centuries is a long time to hold a grudge. And it's not like the Orthodox have clean hands. The sack was preceded in 1182 by a massacre of Western Christians in that city. A cardinal was beheaded, and 4,000 Western Christians were sold into slavery. Does the pope ask the latter-day Orthodox to apologize? Of course not. Nor does he ask the Russian Orthodox hierarchy to apologize for collaborating with the Soviets to steal Ukrainian Catholic churches six decades ago. Unlike his Orthodox counterparts, this pontiff lives in the real world. He understands that if Christianity is to survive, much less thrive, in the third millennium, believers cannot afford quarrels over past grievances. There are deep theological divisions between East and West, and any ecumenism that pretends otherwise is false. But isn't working more closely to combat the functional nihilism that accompanies the spread of consumerist values a more pressing concern than fussing over the fate of the Filioque clause? The pope knows that the key question in the era of postmodernism and globalization is not what brand of Christianity the world will follow; it is whether the world will follow Christianity at all. It is said that the Greek Orthodox regard John Paul as a symbol of the Westernization they despise. Who are they kidding? The pontiff who was the scourge of the militant atheist ideology that made martyrs of millions of Orthodox believers is the same man who is the fiercest enemy of the secular Western juggernaut. Have the Orthodox been paying attention for the past two decades? Do they read his stuff? Maybe not. The late Alexander Schmemann, the eminent Russian Orthodox theologian, lamented his faith's "complete indifference to the world," claiming that official Orthodoxy lived in a "heavy, static, petrified" world of "illusion." Orthodox consciousness "did not notice the fall of Byzantium, Peter the Great's reforms, the Revolution; it did not notice the revolution of the mind, of science, of lifestyles, forms of life," Schmemann wrote in his private journal. "In brief, it did not notice history." John Paul does. Seizing the moment, he has not only asked forgiveness for the historical sins of Catholicism, but has also gone to astonishing lengths to accommodate the obstreperous Orthodox -- even putting the nature of the papacy on the table for discussion. He has suffered repeated insult from Eastern churchmen -- including a scandalous 1991 rebuke at a ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica -- yet returned hatred with affection. To little avail, alas. If the fathomless humility and charitable witness of this great and good pontiff (great because he is good) bear fruit in the East, it will almost certainly not be in his lifetime. Word has not yet reached Mt. Athos that the new Babylon is not Rome but Hollywood and the shopping mall. (How's that for a two-horned monster?) But it will. By the time the Orthodox awaken from their self-satisfaction and grasp the true nature of the spiritual and moral crisis engulfing their respective cultures, what will they do to fight it? Perhaps they will consult "Veritatis Splendor" and "Evangelium Vitae," as well as other prophetic writings of John Paul II, an authentic Christian humanist who truly grasped the promise and the peril of the postmodern world. Too late, it may dawn on the Orthodox religious authorities what kind of wise and holy man they, in their narrow-mindedness and pride, rejected out of hand. Tragic? Yes. But in the Gospels, you'll find precedent for this sort of thing. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From mentor at alb-net.com Tue May 8 16:20:07 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 16:20:07 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Forwarded mail.... Message-ID: If you can help, please contact them directly at: lbing at workinc.org --- Mentor ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001 15:43:07 -0400 From: Lisa Bing To: mentor at alb-net.com I am interested in finding out if there are any Albanian owned businesses in the Boston/Dorchester area. I work at an employemnt agency and one of my clients is from Korca. He does not speak English. Thank you From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Tue May 8 17:10:09 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 17:10:09 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Botime Message-ID: * Le D?bat, n? 114, Mars - avril 2001, ISBN 2070761479 Balkans : r?flexions d'apr?s coup - Timothy Garton Ash, "Le Kosovo en valait-il la peine ?" - Joseph Krulic, "La force et le droit dans la crise yougoslave (1987-2000)" ___________________________________________________________________ * Cahiers de Chaillot, n?46, Avril 2001, ISSN 1017-7574 Le sud des Balkans : vues de la r?gion (sous la dir. de Dimitrios Triantaphyllou) - Ismail Kadar?, "Balkans, les v?rit?s et contrev?rit?s" - Predrag Simic, "Les Balkans existent-ils" - Ljubomir Frckoski "La Mac?doine et la r?gion" - Ylber Hysa, "La MINUK et la KFOR au Kosova" ___________________________________________________________________ From webmaster at liriakombtare.com Tue May 8 21:54:16 2001 From: webmaster at liriakombtare.com (liria) Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 21:54:16 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] PRESS RELEASES Message-ID: <000201c0d82f$05fe7a80$5d6e96ac@fondi> PRESS RELEASE: "Liria Kombtare" - Humanitarian Foundation May 8th, 2001 "Liria Kombtare" is pleased to announce the launching of the its web site at: URL: http://www.liriakombtare.com/ The Humanitarian Foundation "Liria Kombtare" (National Freedom) was established to help and support the Macedonia Albanians who are facing the aggression by the Macedonia forces as well as the oppression and discrimination in the hands of the Macedonian Government. More specifically, in the last few days the Macedonian forces have indiscriminately fired on the Albanian populated areas wounding many civilians. "Liria Kombtare", through its web site informs the public about the most current events, as well as about the humanitarian situation in Macedonia. In addition, the site inform about the ways the Macedonia Albanians can be helped in these needy times. "National Freedom" Humanitarian Foundation 456 River St., Paterson, NJ 07524 Tel: (973) 684-2104 Fax: (973) 684-2105 E-mail: webmaster at liriakombtare.com URL: http://www.liriakombtare.com/ -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue May 8 22:39:46 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 19:39:46 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Gazeta Shqiptare Message-ID: <20010509023946.59025.qmail@web11506.mail.yahoo.com> SPECIALE Hebrejt?, ja si u mbrojt?n n? Delvin? e Sarand? Prania e komunitetit hebre n? Shqip?ri dokumentohet t? pakt?n n? shekullin e tremb?dhjet? n? disa qytete si n? Vlor? e Durr?s ku u dalluan p?r tiparet e veta etniko-fetare. Sipas burimeve historike, n? koh?n e Sulltan Bajazitit, n? Shqip?ri erdh?n t? tjera grupe me hebrej t? deg?s mesdhetare sefardine p?r shkak t? inkuizicionit spanjoll e portugez. Por, bashk?sit? e para t? k?saj popullsie jo autoktone u v?rejt?n n? disa qytete si n? Vlor?, Art?, Janin?, Berat, Elbasan, e m? von? edhe n? t? tjera qendra urbane si n? Gjirokast?r, Prizren, etj,. N? qytete t? ve?anta ose n? lagjet e tyre hebrejt? e Shqip?ris? g?zonin t? dr?jt?n e kultit t? tyre fetar. Ndryshe nga shum? vende t? tjera t? bot?s, qendrimi ndaj hebrejve n? Shqip?ri nuk ka qen? diskriminues. Historia e hebrejve t? qyteteve Sarand? e Delvin? ?sht? pjes? integrale e koherences s? nj? tradite shqiptare sipas t? cil?s hebrejt? jo vet?m nuk jan? diferencuar ose diskriminuar p?r shkak t? etnis? s? tyre, por edhe jan? respektuar, n? shum? rast? n? kushtet e rrezikut t? jet?s s? vet? vendasve. N? Sarand? Hebrejt? e Sarand?s nuk ishin nj? komunitet i madh n? num?r. Por, ajo q? t? habit ende sot, pas rreth 60 vjet?ve nga mungesa e tyre, ?sht? fakti q? vendasit e mo??m i kujtojn? kryefamiljar?t hebrej si t? ishin ndar? nj? dit? m? par? prej tyr?. Qani Sulo ka q?n? ende djalosh n? koh?n e hebrejve t? Sarand?s. Por ai nuk e ka aspak t? v?shtir? t? kujtoj? emrat e disa prej tyre. "Menahemi kishte familjen pran? Moisiut dhe pak m? tej banonte edhe Tunidhi, - tregon Sulo, dhe nuk harron t? p?rmend? faktin se q? t? gjitha familjet, vendasit i mbajn? mend n? qytetin jonian qysh nga koha e para Mbretit Zog. Menahemi sipas vendasve t? mo??m banonte sip?r merkatos q? e nd?rtoi Zogu n? Sarand?. Sipas tregimeve t? sarandiot?ve t? vjet?r hebrejt? e qytetit t? tyre mallrat i blinin n? tregjet p?rtej detit. "N? Itali dhe Angli, flitej se i merrnin mallrat. Por ama mallra m? t? mira dhe me cil?si si ato, rrall? se gjeje gj?kundi tjet?r", kujtojn? t? mo?mit k?tu. Qani Sulo mban mend se hebrejt? e vegj?l punonin n?p?r dyqanet e hebrejve t? tjer?. Kjo, jo se k?rkonin fitime nga f?mij?t, thot? ai. Por e b?nin k?t? p?r t'i m?suar edhe f?mij?t me v?shtir?sit? e pun?s. Marr?dh?niet me vendasit i kishin shum? korrekte dhe p?r k?t? respektoheeshin nga t? gjith?, kujtojn? sot m? t? mo?mit e qytetit bregdetar p?rball? Korfuzit. Krushqit? dhe varret Historiani Apostol Pango, n? Delvine, q? tani ka dal? n? pension p?rmend disa nga emrat e kryefamiljar?ve hebrej t? k?tij qyteti t? lasht?. "Jozefi, Menahemi, Metathea, Tovi, Maci, Jontovi.... Esht? p?r t? theksuar, v?ren historiani se "hebrejt? e Delvin?s kishin dhe varrezat e tyre publike n? qytet. Ja, atje sip?r ,dhe tregon me dor? vendin posht? nj? qafe p?rmbi qytet q? n? Delvin? njihet si Qafa e Topit. Dy nuse delvinjote, u martuan me dh?ndurr? hebrej, tregon Pango. Nj? nuse, ka dal? nga dera e Sinajve, kurse nj? tjet?r nga ajo e Ballacajve, pohon nj? i moshuar n? k?t? qytet, duke pir? nj? kafe pran? berberhanes Ballaci. Sapo d?gjon p?r tem?n e hebrejve t? Delvin?s, Qemal Ballaci, q? ka vite n? pension por ende punon berber, nxiton t? nxjerr? nj? dokument q? nga thell?sia e nj? dosjeje q? nuk dihet perse e mban n? berberhan?. "Shikojeni,- tregon berberi veteran i Delvin?s, - ?sht? nj? tapi e koh?s s? Zogut. Gjyshi im, Veli Ballaci bleu n? mars 1925 nj? bashk? (nj?si toke) brenda n? qytet m? sip?rfaqe 8 str?m nga Minahem Sollomoni, banues n? Delvin?. Dhe lexon me z? "vlefta e shitj?s, 500 (p?s?qind). Nd?rsa 84-vje?ari Bilbil Hodo n? lagjen "Sinan Ballaci" thot?: "Si sot i kujtoj manifakturat n? katin e par? t? pazarit t? qytetit ku tregtonin hebrejt?. Josifi, vijon ai,-kishte edhe nj? djal? t? s?mur?, i shkreti". Gjerman?t N? Sarand? kujtojn? se gjat? Luft?s s? Dyt? bot?rore, sapo gjerman?t mb?rrit?n me forcat e para n? qytet, k?rkuan hebrejt?. Gjerman?t, thot? Qani Sulo, ishin vendosur n? nj? dykat?she q? ekziston edhe sot pran? Bank?s. Komandanti gjerman doli n? ballkon dhe urdh?roi t'i sillnin m?nj?her? "?ifut?t". Por qyteti i kishte fshehur t? gjitha familjet dhe nuk dor?zoi asnj?. "At?her? urdh?ri i Komand?s s? p?rgjithshm? ?sht? ky, -tha oficeri gj?rman. Ajo sht?pi n? Sarand? q? zbulohet se ka fshehur ?ifut?t do digjet dhe njer?zit e saj do t? pushkatohen!, - Tani largohuni m?nj?h?r?! - i tha ai pas k?saj nj? p?rfaq?sie nga k?shilli i qytetit. Por familjet q? strehonin hebrejt? nuk ishin sekret n? qytet. Familja e Veliko Malilajt, ajo e Koco Papagjik?s, e Zeqo Sulo Hoxh?s, etj, ishin bazat e hebrejve,-tregon Qani Sulo. Dy dit? m? von?, oficeri gjerman do t? shkonte vet? n? zyr?n e Thoma Papait, nj? zyr? e vog?l e k?shillit t? pleq?sis? s? qytetit. "Dua t? m? jepni ?ifut?t!-e k?rc?noi gjermani me grada. Pas k?saj p?rmendi emrat e hebrejve. Hoxha i Sarand?s q? u ndodh aty dhe q? kishte edhe ai hebrej t? strehuar n? sht?pin? e tij iu p?rgigj: "Esht? e v?rtet? se k?tu kan? q?n? k?ta q? thoni ju, por me kapitullimin e Italis? kan? shkuar q? t? gjith? n? Bullgari". Frika e pushkatimit ngeli pezull p?r shum? koh?, por asnj? hebre nuk u dor?zua. Pas Luft?s s? dyt? Bot?ror? ata u larguan nga Saranda fillimisht drejt Greqis? e ndoshta m? pas drejt vendit t? tyre, thon? t? mo?mit. Por ende sot n? Sarand? dhe Delvin?, emrat e tyr? p?rmenden n?p?r biseda sa her? t? moshuarit kujtojn? t? kaluar?n dhe dit?t e v?shtira t? k?rc?nuarara me vdekje q? kan? mbetur larg. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Click and bid on cool stuff like Dave Matthews Band Tickets & more! -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue May 8 23:05:12 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 20:05:12 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Chicago Tribune Message-ID: <20010509030512.46572.qmail@web11501.mail.yahoo.com> Chicago Tribune May 8, Tuesday Editorial; Pg. 16; ZONE: N Macedonia's enemy at the gates A second front has erupted in the low-level war between ethnic-Albanian rebels and the government of Macedonia that threatens to drag NATO forces back into Balkans bloodshed. If NATO allies don't move quickly and deliberately to stop it, a decade of effort to bring a tenuous peace to the former Yugoslavia could go up in smoke. Clearly the solution in this Balkan tinderbox is not more war. Macedonia was the only former Yugoslav republic to secede without bloodshed, in 1991--but it was always considered an explosion waiting to happen. Now that nightmare scenario appears closer than ever. Macedonian troops bombed and battled ethnic Albanians Monday in northern villages. After a weekend offensive, government forces claimed they had ejected rebels from some of the territory. At least seven civilians have been killed and the army drove some 1,000 refugees into Kosovo, the province of Serbia where U.S.-led NATO forces waged a war against Yugoslavia in 1999 to defend Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian majority. The Bush administration is now in the unenviable position of watching those former Kosovar allies stir up trouble in Macedonia. A small minority of hard-core ethnic-Albanian extremists from Kosovo seems to be leading the fight against Macedonia, hoping to build support for independence. Most Kosovars and Macedonians don't have the stomach for another war; they see peaceful dialogue as a better path to more independence. But an explosive war could radicalize the ethnic-Albanian minority in Macedonia--who make up more than 30 percent of the population--against the Slavic majority and the government. President Bush and NATO are right to back the Macedonian government, but the U.S. should strongly oppose the government's effort to declare a state of war to get emergency powers to deal with the insurgents. Yes, it's a small band taking on the government. NATO's secretary-general Lord Robertson denounced the rebels as "a bunch of murderers stuck in the mountains" threatening democracy. But the greater risk lies not in the rebel assault, but in the government's response. Any crackdown on the rights of ethnic-Albanians could lead to disaster. Ethnic-Albanians in Macedonia are vulnerable to exploitation by their Kosovar cousins. Even though they hold five Cabinet posts in the Skopje government, they still feel treated like second-class citizens. The only solution is a diplomatic solution, and that should be guiding NATO's efforts. Here's an ideal case where European governments, not the U.S. for a change, could take the lead. That seems to be happening. European Union officials wisely counseled against a declaration of war by the government of Macedonia and sent their top security affairs representative, Javier Solana, to ask Prime Minister Ljbuco Georgievski to seek dialogue and avoid excessive force. The stakes are high. Much has changed in the Balkans in the past 10 years. Former Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic is cooling his heels in jail. There is every reason for both ethnic Albanians and slavic Macedonians to seek a peaceful accommodation. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Click and bid on cool stuff like Dave Matthews Band Tickets & more! -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From mentor at alb-net.com Wed May 9 10:06:09 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Wed, 9 May 2001 10:06:09 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Lajme: 7 May, 2001 "ZGJIMI" Message-ID: Nga Nje grup i studenteve te SH.S. "ZGJIMI"-Kumanove > Sot me 7 Maj 2001 (e hene) ne komunen e Likoves > ka pasur ngjarje qe mund te shihet vetem ne filma > luftarak. Mbi 1000 predha rane mbi kokat e civileve > te cilet te kembngulur rrine ne trojat e tyre dhe se > me asnje cmim nuk do ti leshojne ata. Forcat maqedone > ne pamundesi te luftojne me USHTARET TANE TE LIRISE , > granatoje shtepi, shkolla e xhami. Ata, kinse po > luftoje kunder "teroristeve"(sic i quajn ato) ato lu- > ftojne kunder pasurise dhe jeteve te njerezve te pa- > fajshem. Ushtaret e UCK, populli i sheh si shpetimtare > sepse ata edhe jane bite e atij vendi. > > Gjendja e civileve sic thame eshte teper e rende.Ka te > plagosur dhe shume shtepi te rrenuara.Nuk kane asnje > siguri sepse ushtria maqedone(teroriste,sepse lufton ku- > nder civileve)gjuan te ato.Medikamentet dhe ndihmat > ushqimore mungojne ne mase te madhe. RRyma elektrike dhe > telefoni nuk punojne.Ata thjeshte jane te izoluar dhe > shuem afer vdekjes.Prandaj, ato apelojne te te GJITHE > ato qe munden te ndihmoje apo TE NGREJNE ZERIN e arsyes > qe ti ndihmojne ketyre njerezve, qe ushtria dhe shteti po > luan me jetat e tyre.Tju dalim ne ndihme,sepse ate TASH e > kemi obligim moral. > > Nje grup i studenteve te SH.S. > "ZGJIMI"-Kumanove From mentor at alb-net.com Wed May 9 11:33:37 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Wed, 9 May 2001 11:33:37 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] HRW: Macedonian Forces Responsible for Killing and Destruction (From a Letter to Macedonian President B. Trajkovski) Message-ID: An excerpt from the Human Rights Watch (HRW) letter sent to Macedonian President B. Trajkovski. [May 4th, 2001] "This concern is strengthened by our findings following the March 2001 actions by the security forces against armed ethnic Albanian groups in the western part of the country. Available evidence suggests that government forces were responsible for the deliberate killing of 16-year-old Omer Shabani on April 3 in the village of Selce. We also received reports that families of ethnic Albanians arrested on suspicion of membership in the so-called National Liberation Army (NLA) were unable to obtain any information on the whereabouts of their relatives. Finally, our documentation suggests that government forces were responsible for the wanton destruction and looting of villages perceived as being pro-NLA, including the villages of Selce, Gjermo, Gajre, Drenovec, and Kolte. We urge you to make these incidents the subject of prompt, thorough, and transparent investigations. Full letter available at: http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/05/macedonia_ltr1.htm From ipilika at hotmail.com Wed May 9 12:48:05 2001 From: ipilika at hotmail.com (Iris Pilika) Date: Wed, 09 May 2001 16:48:05 -0000 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Bosnian protests over Serb violence Message-ID: Bosnian protests over Serb violence Thousands of Bosnian Muslims have been protesting against Serb violence May 9, 2001 Web posted at: 1528 GMT SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Thousands of Muslim protesters have demanded an end to harassment of returnees in Serb-held areas of Bosnia. The protests on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, which swelled to thousands, were prompted by Serb riots over the weekend which prevented groundbreaking ceremonies for two mosques. On Tuesday night demonstrators stopped outside the office of Bosnia's top international official, Wolfgang Petritsch, to highlight what they see as world indifference to their plight. Sarajevo police formed a human shield in front of Serb Orthodox churches in Sarajevo, fearing revenge attacks, but the Muslim protesters walked by, chanting: "We won't do anything, this church is also ours." On Saturday, a Serb mob threw stones at Muslim dignitaries and diplomats attending a ceremony to lay a new cornerstone for the Osman Pasa mosque, which was destroyed in the 1992-95 war, in the southeastern town of Trebinje. Stone-throwing Serb mobs torched buses in Banja Luka There were even worse scenes on Monday in the biggest Bosnian Serb town, Banja Luka, with up to 2,000 stone-throwing Serbs torching vehicles and keeping diplomats and Muslim visitors trapped for six hours. Dozens were injured in one of the biggest Serb nationalistic outbursts since the Bosnian war ended in 1995. At one point protesters stormed the police cordon and climbed atop the Islamic community centre, ripping down the flag, burning it, and hoisting the Bosnian Serb flag in its place. Dignitaries trapped included Jacques Klein, United Nations mission head, Werner Blatter, who heads the U.N. refugee agency in Bosnia; and officials from the British, Swedish and Pakistani embassies. Police said they had identified 42 suspects so far and several police officials had been dismissed. The ceremonies were part of a project of ethnic reconciliation and the return of refugees, including providing for the reconstruction of some of the more than 600 mosques blown up in Serb-held areas. The reconstruction of the mosques was ordered in 1999 by the Human Rights chamber, an international human rights commission. Bosnian Serb authorities then reluctantly issued a permit for the restoration of the Ferhadija mosque. Former Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic predicted in an interview that if Serb violence continues, the Bosnian Serb mini-state "will cease to exist," adding that extremism "has no perspective." Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica told reporters during a visit to New York that he was "very concerned and unhappy with the... violence and religious intolerance in the case of Banja Luka." Some churches and mosques should not be rebuilt because they "might provoke these incidents," he said after talks with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The Associated Press contributed to this report. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From aalibali at yahoo.com Wed May 9 21:11:59 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Wed, 9 May 2001 18:11:59 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Kathimerini's commentary Message-ID: <20010510011159.14250.qmail@web11503.mail.yahoo.com> Kathimerini Opinion Yugoslav chain By Stavros Lygeros The armed struggle of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) against the Slav-Macedonian state is but another link in the Yugoslav drama. As is well-known, the crisis erupted with the Serbo-Croat war, continued in Bosnia and Kosovo and which has now swept the Former Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). At the same time, Montenegro is waging a political battle to become independent... Slovenia avoided the fate of the other republics because it was ethnically homogeneous... The crisis in former Yugoslavia proved the groundlessness of American theories over the formation of multiethnic states in regions where the process of national integration remains incomplete. It proved that the implementation of the above model generates instability, while the formation of ethnically homogeneous states is a factor of long-term stability. Things would have been much more different had there been diplomatic solutions which included territorial arrangements and, when absolutely necessary, exchange of populations. Population exchange is, of course, a barbarian solution; it was obvious, however, that the only alternative path would be that of military conflict and violent ethnic cleansing. This was made evident in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and recently in FYROM. The American obsession reveals that, in reality, US interests are best served by volatile statelets that are subject to manipulation. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Click and bid on cool stuff like Dave Matthews Band Tickets & more! -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Wed May 9 21:18:11 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Wed, 9 May 2001 18:18:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Kathimerini's interview Message-ID: <20010510011811.27845.qmail@web11504.mail.yahoo.com> Idea of a 'greater Albania' is wrong Albanian opposition leader Sali Berisha argues that the rebels have a just cause, but violence is not the solution By Stavros Tzimas Kathimerini Opposition leader and former Albanian President Sali Berisha criticizes the armed Albanians fighting in FYROM for using illegal and unacceptable methods. But he told Kathimerini that he thought their demands were just. He supports the integrity of FYROM and says there is no question of a "greater Albania" or "greater Kosovo." Fighting between Albanian rebels and government forces has broken out again in FYROM. What exactly is your position on this? Do you support the armed uprising of your fellow Albanians in that country? We categorically do not support any act of violence or any act aimed at breaking up the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. I have always been convinced that the existence and stability of that republic is very important for the southern Balkans and for the whole region. I see a dangerous situation. Armed groups There is a lot of talk about these armed Albanians. Some say they are invaders from Kosovo, led by former KLA officers, while others say they are local Albanians, described abroad as terrorists. What is your information? Let's judge together. If we turn on the television we will see Albanian villages being bombed. Unfortunately this is one way of increasing the ranks of the National Liberation Army, you can't imagine to what extent. I respect the democratically elected FYROM government. I believe that President Trajkovski wants to find a democratic solution. But when you use fire to douse fire in your own house, I am afraid that the house burns more quickly. With this in mind I call on both sides to sit down at the table at once for negotiations that include the representatives of these armed groups. As for the armed groups, I cannot prove that they had secessionist tendencies at the outset, but the West itself realizes that their demands are just. I agree that we are dealing with armed groups who are using illegal and unacceptable methods to achieve just demands. But violence is not the way to solve problems. I can understand the Trajkovski government asking why it should retreat in the face of violence, and it is not right for a government to give in to violence. But the most important thing is to solve the problem. So what should the FYROM government do when it sustains an armed attack and its territory is under threat? Do you think it right that it should sit with folded arms? Agreed, but it is fire from within your house, not from outside. Trajkovski and the government are not responsible for the situation which has developed, because it did not create this legacy. But they are responsible for solving the problem. Courageous dialogue is needed, because what will happen if the bombardment continues? Every day the ranks of the fighters increase. What will the consequences of the bombardment be for the Albanians? Tragic situation In any case there is agitation among Albanians outside Albania, in Kosovo, southern Serbia, and FYROM, with strong irredentist features. Some observers wonder whether the time has come for a general settlement of the Albanian question. Is there such an issue, in your opinion? Will settling it mean a greater Albania or a greater Kosovo? The situation of the Albanians is the most tragic in the Balkans. Albania was the last state to become free, and the Kosovars have just been liberated. Indeed I have heard people talking about a greater Albania or a greater Kosovo. Perhaps at some stage they will talk about a greater Presevo. But who was being oppressed? Weren't they Albanians? The problem facing us is as follows: Are the others willing to recognize the rights which the Albanians must enjoy as free people? It is very important for the current view of the Albanian situation to change. If that happens, a new positive balance will be created in the Balkans. The idea of a greater Albania is very wrong. I can tell you that, as far as I know, Albania and Kosovo are two different Albanian entities. Some small parties representing 1-2 percent have expressed the idea of uniting Albania and Kosovo. So the issue of a greater Albania or a greater Kosovo does not arise. What is important is for these entities that exist today to be free, for these people to move toward independence and not be afraid. Domino effect Is this case, why shouldn't the Greeks in Albania or the Hungarians in Romania legitimately claim their own path? Doesn't this start a vicious circle, setting off the so-called domino effect in the Balkans? The story of the minorities is a different issue. The Balkans must establish the most progressive standards for the minorities. I am not talking about ethnically pure states. What we have here is a federation which is disintegrating, not a change of borders. Only the internal borders of the federation have changed, not the borders of Albania, Greece, or Bulgaria, because they did not belong to the federation that dissolved. So there cannot be a domino effect. Djindjic invites Meta to BelgradeIdea of a 'greater Albania' is wrong Albanian opposition leader Sali Berisha argues that the rebels have a just cause, but violence is not the solution By Stavros Tzimas Kathimerini Opposition leader and former Albanian President Sali Berisha criticizes the armed Albanians fighting in FYROM for using illegal and unacceptable methods. But he told Kathimerini that he thought their demands were just. He supports the integrity of FYROM and says there is no question of a "greater Albania" or "greater Kosovo." Fighting between Albanian rebels and government forces has broken out again in FYROM. What exactly is your position on this? Do you support the armed uprising of your fellow Albanians in that country? We categorically do not support any act of violence or any act aimed at breaking up the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. I have always been convinced that the existence and stability of that republic is very important for the southern Balkans and for the whole region. I see a dangerous situation. Armed groups There is a lot of talk about these armed Albanians. Some say they are invaders from Kosovo, led by former KLA officers, while others say they are local Albanians, described abroad as terrorists. What is your information? Let's judge together. If we turn on the television we will see Albanian villages being bombed. Unfortunately this is one way of increasing the ranks of the National Liberation Army, you can't imagine to what extent. I respect the democratically elected FYROM government. I believe that President Trajkovski wants to find a democratic solution. But when you use fire to douse fire in your own house, I am afraid that the house burns more quickly. With this in mind I call on both sides to sit down at the table at once for negotiations that include the representatives of these armed groups. As for the armed groups, I cannot prove that they had secessionist tendencies at the outset, but the West itself realizes that their demands are just. I agree that we are dealing with armed groups who are using illegal and unacceptable methods to achieve just demands. But violence is not the way to solve problems. I can understand the Trajkovski government asking why it should retreat in the face of violence, and it is not right for a government to give in to violence. But the most important thing is to solve the problem. So what should the FYROM government do when it sustains an armed attack and its territory is under threat? Do you think it right that it should sit with folded arms? Agreed, but it is fire from within your house, not from outside. Trajkovski and the government are not responsible for the situation which has developed, because it did not create this legacy. But they are responsible for solving the problem. Courageous dialogue is needed, because what will happen if the bombardment continues? Every day the ranks of the fighters increase. What will the consequences of the bombardment be for the Albanians? Tragic situation In any case there is agitation among Albanians outside Albania, in Kosovo, southern Serbia, and FYROM, with strong irredentist features. Some observers wonder whether the time has come for a general settlement of the Albanian question. Is there such an issue, in your opinion? Will settling it mean a greater Albania or a greater Kosovo? The situation of the Albanians is the most tragic in the Balkans. Albania was the last state to become free, and the Kosovars have just been liberated. Indeed I have heard people talking about a greater Albania or a greater Kosovo. Perhaps at some stage they will talk about a greater Presevo. But who was being oppressed? Weren't they Albanians? The problem facing us is as follows: Are the others willing to recognize the rights which the Albanians must enjoy as free people? It is very important for the current view of the Albanian situation to change. If that happens, a new positive balance will be created in the Balkans. The idea of a greater Albania is very wrong. I can tell you that, as far as I know, Albania and Kosovo are two different Albanian entities. Some small parties representing 1-2 percent have expressed the idea of uniting Albania and Kosovo. So the issue of a greater Albania or a greater Kosovo does not arise. What is important is for these entities that exist today to be free, for these people to move toward independence and not be afraid. Domino effect Is this case, why shouldn't the Greeks in Albania or the Hungarians in Romania legitimately claim their own path? Doesn't this start a vicious circle, setting off the so-called domino effect in the Balkans? The story of the minorities is a different issue. The Balkans must establish the most progressive standards for the minorities. I am not talking about ethnically pure states. What we have here is a federation which is disintegrating, not a change of borders. Only the internal borders of the federation have changed, not the borders of Albania, Greece, or Bulgaria, because they did not belong to the federation that dissolved. So there cannot be a domino effect. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Click and bid on cool stuff like Dave Matthews Band Tickets & more! -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Wed May 9 21:15:46 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Wed, 9 May 2001 18:15:46 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Kathimerini's opinion Message-ID: <20010510011546.86432.qmail@web11502.mail.yahoo.com> Commentary One step from chaos By G.G. de Lastic Slav-Macedonian leaders were close to declaring FYROM in a state of civil war, thereby formalizing the conflict and rendering it irreversible. Instead, and under NATO and EU pressure, they announced the formation of a national unity government by Slav-Macedonian and Albanian parties. For the time being, the prospect of an all-out war has been avoided. The political maneuver will probably generate a provisional lull. However, despite the delusions nourished by several European and American officials who hold that the formation of a coalition government marks the normalization of developments in FYROM, the situation is actually much more dramatic. Slav-Macedonians and ethnic Albanians are far from bridging their divide. Skopje has committed fatal errors, for it panicked over the obvious threat of partition and was blinded by an arrogance fueled by international support. The activities of Albanian rebels setting up ambushes and killing armed policemen or clashing with the army is one thing; but the bombing of ethnic Albanian villages by Slav-Macedonian troops and the destruction of Albanian houses and shops by mob-attack is quite another. The ties between the two ethnic groups have suffered irreparable damage. It is no coincidence that the armed rebellion was much more widespread this time around than the one that broke out a month ago. It included many villages with tens of thousands of inhabitants - practically in all Albanian-populated areas of FYROM. It led to the declaration of "free territories," while it proved difficult to suppress the insurgency by military means. Slav-Macedonians are unlikely ever to trust FYROM Albanians in the future, while ethnic Albanian citizens will have to accept that they will always be suspected of undermining the integrity of the country - meaning that they will have to live under constant surveillance. It is obvious that such a relationship is unviable, and is bound to instigate crises in the future. In essence, a smooth coexistence between Slav-Macedonians and ethnic Albanians is practically impossible. This means that this country will not survive as a unified state. EU and NATO pressure for a federal solution came too late to avert the final rupture. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Click and bid on cool stuff like Dave Matthews Band Tickets & more! -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From mentor at alb-net.com Thu May 10 15:22:16 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Canaonf) Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 15:22:16 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Turkish Foreign Ministry on Albanians in Greece Message-ID: FYI... http://www.mfa.gov.tr/grupa/ac/ack/06.htm From Gazhebo at aol.com Thu May 10 15:45:38 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 15:45:38 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Inside a Rebel Camp - NEWSWEEK Message-ID: Inside a Rebel Camp A rare glimpse of the shadowy National Liberation Army?and interviews a commander about the guerrillas? future plans By Juliette Terzieff NEWSWEEK April 27 ? Our instructions were clear. Follow the white VW Golf from the shopping center outside Kumanovo, Macedonia?s third-largest city. Do not ask questions about exactly where you?re going; do not tell police who stop you where you think you may be going. SOME SIX MILES LATER we were there. We still don?t know the name of the village, but we do know it?s a training ground for the guerrilla fighters of the shadowy National Liberation Army?the group that many believe had been eliminated. The NLA, which says it is fighting for the rights of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia, burst into the public eye in February when its fighters seized control of several villages and triggered fierce battles with the Macedonian army. By the end of March, after several days of tank-led heavy fighting near the city of Tetovo, the rebels had abandoned their positions, leaving weapons and uniforms scattered in bunkers and empty houses. Macedonian officials proclaimed victory, arguing that the "terrorists" had retreated into the neighboring province of Kosovo in defeat. Members of the NLA?whose Albanian name Ushtria Clirimtare e Kombtare has the same acronym, UCK, as the better-known Kosovo Liberation Army (Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves)?countered that their forces were still inside Macedonia. Observers were skeptical of this claim?and this may have been why the group took the rare step of letting us visit their camp. We saw uniformed men marching, running, and ducking as they practiced maneuvers up and down the village?s dusty roads. They carried handheld weapons like rifles and grenade launchers; they wore a mix of camouflage cobbled together from gear from Germany, the United States, Britain, France and Yugoslavia, among others. Small children ran up behind one group of 20 or so young recruits screaming encouragement while their parents looked on with smiles. Inside the command center, a 33-year-old man using the nom de guerre Commander Sokoli, which means Hawk, ushered us into an office filled with computer equipment and satellite phones. "You can ask me anything you want," Sokoli told us. "I am ready." Excerpts: NEWSWEEK: What are the NLA plans at the moment? Commander Sokoli: Right now we are continuing to respect the ceasefire we unilaterally called at the end of March, using the time to reorganize our structures and train the large number of new volunteers. We are waiting to see if the politicians will make any serious strides towards meeting our demands. If they don?t, we will not simply put down our guns and walk away. What exactly are those demands? In general, we want Albanians to be considered as equals to the Macedonians. We would like to see Albanian recognized as an official language, [have] the right to higher education in our native tongue, [see] changes to the Constitution that would guarantee equal status and treatment and a new census observed by international institutions to guarantee the legitimacy of the numbers. Our position now is worse even than it was under the old Yugoslav constitution of 1974. We are shut out of equality in every aspect of life. The only time we are equal, or actually above the Macedonians, is when it comes to paying taxes. Other than that we are treated as second-class citizens. How do you see the pace and progress of negotiations currently underway between Macedonian and Albanian politicians? What they are talking about now, like delaying the conducting of a census and a third national television station, are merely the tip of our demands. [They are] less than 5 percent of the issues that need to be dealt with and most certainly not the most serious of them. And on the television station, for example, they shouldn?t be talking about making a third channel all in Albanian. They should be talking about having the first channel in Macedonian, the second in Albanian, and the new one, the third, in the languages of other minorities in the country like the Serbs and the Turks. The real problem is that what we?re seeing now is a show put on by the Macedonians for the international community. The parliament says there can be no changes to the Constitution, that they will not even discuss it, and what that means, in effect, is that they refuse to see themselves as equals to Albanians. What does that mean for the country? If the Macedonians stick to this position, it equals unavoidable war. So the NLA will attack the Macedonians? We would like to see a political solution, but if there is no movement we will have to act once again. Won?t that reinforce the Macedonian position that the NLA is a terrorist organization bent on destroying the country? Unfortunately they will probably see it that way, but this is because they refuse to see the truth of what we are doing. When we left our positions outside Tetovo it was a political decision, not a military one. The NLA made its presence known to force politicians into addressing problems that have existed for a decade. And we wanted to let them and the international community know that we are not for war, but for a solution, a "real" solution, and so we give the politicians another chance. But the NLA has picked up guns, started fighting ... Look, if we were in Switzerland, England or America, picking up guns to fight for your rights would be illogical, ridiculous even. But this is the Balkans, and in the Balkans to not pick up guns to fight for your rights is illogical. Macedonia is called a democracy, and it is a multiethnic society, but that means it has to act in line with these principles. It is unjust to have 700,000 Macedonians ruling over 1.3 million people of other ethnic groups as though they are inferior. How do you see the role of the international community in this? The international community is vital in this situation, but they have to be willing to really look hard at the situation and act accordingly. If they think it is easier to close their eyes to the real problems, this is a catastrophe for Macedonia, for the Balkans and for Europe. Everyone in Macedonia agrees on orienting the country toward the European Union and Western standards, but you can?t build on a shaky base. And right now, the base is falling apart. Our appearance was [meant] to bring up these issues and put pressure on the politicians, and so far, we have succeeded. Macedonian officials, and many Albanians, doubt your continued existence as a viable force. The Macedonians are lying to themselves, lying to their people, that they have chased the NLA away. They know we are here. We have just under 3,000 fighters currently in uniform and the ability to mobilize thousands more. In the last few days we have begun trying to communicate more with the outside, sending our demands to the United Nations and America so that they know and our people know that we are most definitely still here. Shortly, we hope to finish the organization of three brigades, consisting of 6,000 soldiers each, to operate in different parts of the country when necessary. The lists are all there and if we had to call an immediate mobilization, all three brigades could be operational within 24 hours. How long is the NLA prepared to wait for political progress? Up to now, we have not seen any serious signs that would convince us of sincerity on the part of the Macedonians. In fact, they are organizing their own paramilitary groupings and purchasing more weapons, while the "talking" goes on. All parties have pledged to do something concrete by June, so that is how long we?ll wait. But I honestly don?t think they?ll make it. How do you think the NLA would stand up against Macedonian forces? Let me say this. In Kosovo the Serbs used to use 300 tanks in one battle. The Macedonians have less than that in their whole arsenal. Many of our soldiers fought in Kosovo and learned from those experiences while many of the Macedonians have never actually fought. How do you think we?d do? From mentor at alb-net.com Thu May 10 18:23:09 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 18:23:09 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] typo in my last name Message-ID: Friends, Today I had sent out few messages with a typo in my last name. I was configuring my e-mail client/application and my last name was somehow saved as "Canaonf"... Well, some friends asked me if there was a change in my last name. :) hehehe. So, here is the explanation: Just a typo! :) later, Mentor From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Fri May 11 00:15:42 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 00:15:42 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Introducing New NAAC Staff Assistant from Kosova -- Eventually he will come to Boston to Fletcher School Message-ID: An embedded message was scrubbed... From: alb2001 at beld.net Subject: [2001ajb] FWD: Introducing New NAAC Staff Assistant from Kosova -- Eventually he will come to Boston to Fletcher School Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 15:38:18 -0400 Size: 2986 URL: From aalibali at yahoo.com Fri May 11 07:30:02 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 04:30:02 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] ATSH Message-ID: <20010511113002.66921.qmail@web11504.mail.yahoo.com> Korce; G?rmimet e paligjshme d?mtojn? gjashte qendra arkeologjike e fetare KORCE, 10 Maj/ATSH-G.Ashimi/-. G?rmimet apo k?rkimet e paligjshme nga persona privat? kan? d?mtuar s? paku gjashte qendra arkeologjike e fetare n? rajonin e Kor??s. D?mtimet m? t? r?nda jan? kryer n? Tum?n e Kamenic?s (vendbanim ilir pran? Kor??s), Tumat n? zon?n e Luarasit (Kolonj?), kishat e Tudasit, Lubonj?s e Voskopoj?s (Kor??) si dhe vlera kulturore e historike n? zon?n e Mokr?s (Pogradec). Rreziku deri n? zhdukje q? i kanoset k?tyre objekteve, ka b?r? q? Kryetari i K?shillit t? Qarkut Fehmi Xhemo t'i k?rkoj? drejtuesve t? pushtetit lokal dhe drejtoris? rajonale t? policis? q? t? marrin masa p?r ruajtjen e tyre. "V?zhgimet, njoftimet e her?pashershme, flasin p?r d?mtime t? r?nda n? k?to objekte jo vet?m nga mungesa e mir?mbajtjes por edhe nga d?mtime me q?llime p?rfitimi nga persona thesark?rkues" tha Xhemo. Sipas tij, k?ta persona shpesh paraqiten si njer?z t? legalizuar me li?ensa dhe leje t? ndryshme t? cilat jan? t? falsifikuara. Pik?risht p?r t? ndaluar veprimtarin? e k?tyre personave, nga ana e K?shillit t? Qarkut k?rkohet q? nd?rhyrja e institucioneve te pushtetit vendor dhe Drejtorse Rajonale te policis?. /f.n/ --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Click and bid on cool stuff like Dave Matthews Band Tickets & more! -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Fri May 11 19:34:10 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 16:34:10 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Gazeta Korrieri Message-ID: <20010511233410.3129.qmail@web11501.mail.yahoo.com> Imami: Kjo drejtesi e dyshuar Imami: Kjo drejtesi e dyshuar Arsyet e mosshkarkimit te 3 anetareve te Gjtykates se Larte nga Parlamenti, lidhen jo vetem me opoziten, kohen e shkurter te votimit, por edhe me problemet brenda mazhorances. Sipas ministrit te Drejtesise, "Limpreht ka te drejte ne konstatimin se infrastruktura e gjyqesorit shqiptar, po kalbet" "Mesazhi, qe ka marre drejtesia shqiptare pas deshtimit ne Parlament te mocionit ndaj 3 anetareve te Gjykates se Larte, eshte: Populli shqiptar, qytetari shqiptar dhe perfaqesuesit e tij, kane te drejte te mendojne dhe te dyshojne per drejtesine ne keto momente". Keshtu e ka komentuar ministri Imami, votimin qe i dha te drejten gjyqtareve te vazhdojne te qete punen e tyre, pavaresisht se rreth 80 deputete, ose 60% e Parlamentit kane votuar qe at te shkarkohen. Megjithese Imami eshte munduar te flase me nje gjuhe politike, ai le te kuptohet se me mocionin ne Kuvend, por edhe me kerkesat e tij te herepashershme drejtuar Keshillit te Larte te Drejtesise per masa kunder gjyqtareve, e ka bere punen e ministrit. Dhe pret pas kesaj, gjykimin edhe per punen e drejtuesve te institucioneve te tjera, qe kane ne dore kurimin e sistemit te semure te drejtesise shqiptare. Ne sencen e fundit plenare, Kuvendi hodhi poshte mocionin e firmosur nga ju dhe Kryeministri Meta, per shkarkimin e tre anetareve te Gjykates se Larte. Si e komentoni ju kete votim te Parlamentit? Per te siguruar nje shumice dy te tretat, eshte nje gje e veshtire. Kur eshte marre kjo iniciative, une dhe te gjithe ata qe kane nenshkruar mocionin e kane pasur parasysh kete veshtiresi. Kjo eshte e para. E dyta: Nje mocion i tille pa pasur bashkepunimin e opozites ne cdo situate dmth., do ta kishte shume te veshtire te mund te kalonte. Fakti eshte qe opozita zgjodhi politiken perballe drejtesise. Nuk mori pjese ne votim, duke ia lene avantazhin lojes politike, ndonese deri ne momentin e fundit ishim te bindur qe mocioni ishte i bazuar. Se treti: Koha ishte armiku kryesor besoj i mocionit. Koha shume e ngjeshur perpara zgjedhjeve, dhe implikimi gjithsesi dashje pa dashje me atmosferen e zgjedhjeve u be pengese per mosrespektimin e nje procedure, e cila se pari, do te kerkonte degjimin e paleve, dhe e dyta do te kerkonte hetim te metejshem. Dhe do te shihnim se per ndonje nga keta gjyqtare ka gjera te rralla, ka gjera te cilat do te futen ne analet e historise juridike shqiptare. Duke mos u bere keto per shkak te kohes ne radhe te pare, edhe per shkak te mungeses se presdispozicionit edhe te individeve te vecante, qe eshte edhe e shpjegueshme, nuk e ngre si ceshtje, por eshte e shpjegueshme, qe arritem ne kete perfundim. Megjithate, une mendoj qe nje gjyqtar, per te cilin 82 nga 110 deputete votojne kunder, kredibilitetit, per te vazhduar punen, eshte shume i ulet. Dje ishte dita Kombetare e Drejtesise. Ky vendim i Parlamentit ishte nje mesazh i mire apo i keq per drejtesine shqiptare? Mesazhi qe ka mare drejtesia shqiptare eshte qe populli shqiptar, qytetari shqiptar dhe perfaqesuesit e tij, kane te drejte te mendojne dhe te dyshojne per drejtesine ne keto momente. Mocioni per shkarkimin e 3 anetareve te Gjykates se Larte qe liruan nje trafikant droge, u paraqit si nje iniciative juaja e mbeshtetur edhe nga Kryeministri. A e konsideroni ate nje deshtim tuajin personal dhe te Metes njekohesisht? Se pari: Nuk mund te flitet per deshtime. Ne nuk deshtuam ne ndonje gje tonen. Nuk eshte deshtim ne kete pikepamje. E dyta: Mocioni nuk eshte nje problem personal. Jam nisur sigurisht vetem nga fakti qe eshte bere nje shkelje e hapur e ligjit, dhe nga fakti tjeter se pa bere permiresime, dhe pa u respektuar rigorozisht ligji ne Gjykaten e Larte do te jete shume e veshtire per te bere permiresime ne te dy shkallet e tjera. Ky ka qene nje mendim qe e kam thene gjithmone, rregullisht dhe ne menyre konseguente. Ambasadori Limpreht, 2 dite me pare, ka mbajtur nje fjalim te ashper per sistemin e drejtesise shqiptare, ku thote se "infrastruktura e gjykates po kalbet", dhe se "midis policise dhe gjyqtareve ekziston nje tension, ku secila pale akuzon tjetren per deshtimet ne sistem". Si e pritet ju kete perfundim, apo konkluzion te tij? Une mendoj se ka nje konstatim te vertete, ashtu sikurse mendoj se ka perpjekje per te dale nga kjo situate. Kjo eshte dhe arsyeja qe zoti Limpreht ishte ne takimin per Diten Kombetare te Drejtesise se Shqiperise. Ne qofte se zoti Limpreht nuk do te kishte besim qe ne kemi mundesi te dalim nga kjo situate, ai nuk do te ishte aty. Ne mbledhjen e fundit te Keshillit te Larte te Drejtesise ju keni kerkuar shkarkimin e tre gjyqtareve te tjere. Ne qofte se keto nuk do te shkarkohen, si do te veproni ju si minister i Drejtesise? Kjo eshte nje procedure normale. Keshilli i Larte i Drejtesise do te votoje. Detyra ime eshte qe t'i coje atje. Detyra ime si deputet ishte qe ta coja mocionin ne Parlament. Une perpiqem te bej detyren time, secili e kupton pastaj detyren e tij vet. Opinioni publik eshte ai qe gjykon me pas per te gjitha. Mimoza Pashai --------------------------------- Korrieri, 05/12/2001 --------------------------------- --------------------------------- --------------------------------- --------------------------------- --------------------------------- .oparent {display:none; z-index:1000} .ochild {display:none; z-index:1000} = 4)) {var url="http://www.korrieri.com";var title="Korrieri Online - Shqip";document.write(' Shto Adresen');}else {var msg = "";if(navigator.appName == "Netscape") msg += " Shto Adresen";document.write(msg);}// End --> Shto Adresen Fillo me ne Harta Ndihme Pyetesor Faqe e pare var site="sm7korrieri" --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Fri May 11 23:51:57 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 20:51:57 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Bugajski on Macedonia Message-ID: <20010512035157.60941.qmail@web11508.mail.yahoo.com> The Washington Times May 11, 2001, Friday, Final Edition PART A; COMMENTARY; OP-ED; Pg. A19 Macedonia on the brink; Chaos threatens former Yugoslav republic Janusz Bugajski For over a decade, political analysts have been warning that armed conflicts in Macedonia could rapidly precipitate a wider Balkan conflagration by drawing in several neighboring states. With Macedonia teetering on the edge of civil war, the nightmare is now perilously close. Persistent Albanian guerrilla attacks along Macedonia's borders are designed to precipitate a brutal government offensive against civilian targets that will permanently divide the two major ethnic communities. Extremist leaders can then pose as liberators seeking the partition of Macedonia along Bosnian lines. The Macedonian government in Skopje may be unwittingly playing into rebel hands while the European Union remains "outraged" by the spectacle but appears helpless to intervene to save the fragile state. Albanians in Macedonia harbor some genuine grievances against the government, but a resort to arms and attacks on the security forces cannot be justified by any stretch of the human rights imagination. However, it must be remembered by those who now demonize Albanians as a collectivity, that they are a small hard-core of militants and warlords who stand behind the self-styled National Liberation Army. The vast majority of the population could simply become innocent victims of the escalating battles. The newly forged national unity government, designed to include all major Macedonian and Albanian parties, may be the last chance for peace as its chances of survival remain fragile. Although President Boris Trajkovski has made some moves to integrate Albanians into various state institutions, the majority still feels excluded from decision-making. Many Albanians consider themselves second-class citizens, and given the large number of young Albanians with negligible economic prospects, armed insurgency can prove attractive. On the other side, Slavic Macedonians point out that it is the generally unfavorable economic conditions that affect all citizens regardless of ethnicity or religion and that Albanians are not being singled out for discrimination. Slavic Macedonians also fear that any further concessions to the Albanian community will provoke more far-reaching demands for federalization of the state and eventual separation. Hence, Skopje is caught in a vicious dilemma between Albanian and Macedonian nationalism. A weak response against the guerrillas could alienate it from the Slav population and lead to its downfall. But an overly strong response could alienate it from its Albanian allies in the government and also lead to its collapse. To try and achieve a viable balance, Skopje needs to separate gunmen from bystanders and avoid targeting civilians through the indiscriminate and ultimately counterproductive shelling of villages. It urgently needs help from specialist counter-insurgency commandos supplied by its NATO friends to flush out and eliminate a few dozen hard-core radicals. But above all, a bold initiative must be undertaken for a new national contract between Macedonian and Albanian leaders that will undercut the guerrilla's potential support base. This must include both symbolic steps such as constitutional changes and practical measures to ensure more extensive Albanian participation in all state organs. And for such a policy to be successful, it must be undergirded by high-level American mediation as few local actors respect the EU's resolve, stamina and capability. If the conflict escalates, Macedonia's neighbors are poised to be sucked into the crisis regardless of their wishes and objectives. While Greece may seek to create a buffer zone to protect its northern border, Bulgaria and Albania will be hard-pressed to prevent militias from operating across their territories. Meanwhile, the Serbian government may propose supplying military reinforcements for the Macedonians to combat the guerrillas - an offer that may prove difficult to refuse if NATO fails to respond adequately. And the biggest beneficiary from the resulting Balkan mess will be Moscow. Russia has been pushed out of the region during the past decade by the pro-Western orientation of most governments and by NATO military engagements in Kosova and Bosnia. Under President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin is seeking to reassert its influence in the region, not by military muscle but through its oligarchic and criminal business interests and its attempts to forge a common front against the alleged Islamic, Albanian, and American threats. Mr. Putin and company are intent on pushing NATO out of the Balkans by capitalizing on instability and chaos and disqualifying the Balkan states from any possibility of NATO membership. Balkan fatigue in Washington and Brussels play directly into Moscow's hands as America seeks to disengage while the European Union does not possess a credible security policy that carries any weight. The threat in Southeast Europe is not one of a "Greater Albania" as some naive pundits and short-sighted policy-makers have speculated. The real danger is greater chaos and instability that will assign the Balkans to a permanent gray zone generating serious security problems for all nearby regions. If Macedonia is allowed to slip toward civil war and ungovernability because of a lack of Western resolve against the gunmen and because of hesitation in pushing for a new multi-ethnic contract in Skopje, then no one should be surprised if criminals and gunmen prevail and Russian nationalism triumphs. This will help set the stage for the next collision course with the principles of European security and enlargement. Janusz Bugajski is director of East European studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Sun May 13 01:11:52 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 01:11:52 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] New Books Message-ID: An embedded message was scrubbed... From: fbieber at yahoo.com Subject: [balkans] New Books Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 10:01:05 +0200 Size: 5643 URL: From Gazhebo at aol.com Sun May 13 19:33:40 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 19:33:40 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] US Praises New Macedonia Message-ID: US Praises New Macedonia By MELISSA EDDY WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration praised Macedonian and ethnic Albanian parties Friday for forming a broad coalition government, calling it a ``major step forward'' in the effort to stop the fighting in Macedonia. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher welcomed the newly formed coalition, and urged it to begin work immediately on addressing differences between the Slav majority and ethnic Albanian minority that threaten to destabilize the Balkan nation. ``Obviously, this is a major step forward that the United States welcomes,'' Boucher said. ``We think the broadened coalition offers an appropriate vehicle for advancing interethnic reforms. We would urge the coalition parties to accelerate progress on that important agenda,'' Boucher said. The national unity government gives ethnic Albanians stronger representation in Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski's government. It also represents a key development in Macedonia's efforts to contain an ethnic Albanian insurgency that began in February, raged into late March, and flared again two weeks ago after rebels ambushed and killed eight government soldiers. Boucher condemned the continued violence, which many fear could send Macedonia sliding into civil war, and called on the rebels to ``immediately cease their acts of violence and withdraw from the occupied villages.'' The unity government emerged Friday after several days of negotiations. Talks were nearly derailed when one key ethnic Albanian party demanded the government halt attacks on the militants before talks could begin. They acquiesced Friday after the army held its fire for most of the day. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who met with political leaders when he visited Macedonia last month, sent letters Thursday night to all of the parties ``encouraging them to take this step,'' Boucher said. He said Powell has also been in touch with European Union officials, who exerted their own pressure on the parties, fearing that Macedonia - the only former Yugoslav republic to secede without bloodshed - would be drawn into yet another Balkan war. Since the beginning of the conflict, the Bush administration has expressed support for the Macedonian government's fight against the insurgents and promised to boost aid. Ethnic Albanians make up as much as one third of Macedonia's 2 million people, but complain of discrimination and second-class status. From Gazhebo at aol.com Sun May 13 19:36:06 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 19:36:06 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Macedonian Endorses Unity Govt Message-ID: <35.14f1ee5f.28307466@aol.com> Macedonian Endorses Unity Govt By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's parliament on Sunday overwhelmingly endorsed a national unity government meant to defuse a bruising conflict with ethnic Albanian insurgents. As the session convened, however, rebels attacked government positions in two northern villages and government troops retaliated with artillery and tanks, suggesting the new multiparty Cabinet was no guarantee for a permanent cease-fire. Sunday's clashes died down after nearly five hours, the army said. Leaders of the Balkan nation's main ruling and opposition parties, representing majority Slavs and minority ethnic Albanians, agreed to form the coalition in the hopes it will help bridge ethnic divisions and allow a negotiated solution to the crisis that erupted in February. ``This is the first time in history that Macedonia has a national unity government,'' said Branko Crvenkovski of the Slav Social Democratic Alliance. ``This government is not a product of love but of need, this government is created for the defeat of terrorism and violence.'' It will comprise 14 ministers and four deputy prime ministers. A total of 104 deputies voted for the new government, one lawmaker voted against it and four abstained from voting. The coalition includes the ruling VMRO-DPMNE, two ethnic Albanian parties - the Democratic Party of Albanians and the Party for Democratic Prosperity - the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia, and three other Slav parties. Deputies looked visibly relieved as they emerged from the session. Mersal Biljali, a leader of the Party for Democratic Prosperity that had hesitated to join virtually to the last minute, said, ``Under the circumstances, this government is the best we could get so we can move out of the crisis. All other solutions would lead to disaster.'' Voting on the new Cabinet was delayed when the ethnic Albanian PDP asked for a pause in the session, seeking ``clarifications'' after Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski reiterated his tough stance against the rebels, calling them ``terrorists.'' At one point, several PDP members threatened to pull out of the envisaged government, and it took several Western diplomats to convince party leaders to return to the plenary session to participate in the debate and later in the vote. ``This coalition is not a product of pressures, it is rather the result of our awareness that political differences should be overcome with a view to state interests,'' Georgievski said. For most of the day, Macedonia's army and police halted their assault on rebel positions. But Col. Blagoja Markovski said that rebel forces attacked government troops later in the day near the villages of Slupcane and Orizare and the army fired back. Markovski said that Albanian insurgents fired from heavy machine guns and the army responded with heavy artillery and tanks. There were no casualties on the Macedonian side. Macedonia has been struggling to contain the ethnic Albanian insurgency, which began in February and raged into late March before subsiding. It flared again two weeks ago after rebels killed eight government soldiers in an ambush. Ethnic Albanian rebels are demanding equal rights with the majority Slavs and are calling for the constitution to be changed. The militants of the National Liberation Army say the changes are a basic step to empowering Macedonia's ethnic Albanians, who make up as much as one-third of the country's 2 million people. The rebels themselves, however, were not invited to the bargaining table. From Gazhebo at aol.com Sun May 13 19:37:54 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 19:37:54 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] CHRONOLOGY-Key events in Macedonia ethnic Albanian rebellion Message-ID: <5a.15811d21.283074d2@aol.com> CHRONOLOGY-Key events in Macedonia ethnic Albanian rebellion SKOPJE, May 13 (Reuters) - Key events of an ethnic Albanian insurgency in Macedonia that has led to formation of an all-party emergency coalition government. Jan 22 - One Macedonian Slav policeman killed in grenade attack on police station in western village of Tearce near Tetovo, an area populated mostly by ethnic Albanians. Feb 16 - Exchange of fire between Macedonian army and unidentified group of armed men crossing into Macedonia from Kosovo near border hamlet of Tanusevci. No casualties. Feb 21 - NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers in Kosovo pledge to step up border patrols and control movements of supplies and people. Feb 23 - United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says 95 women and children have fled to Kosovo from Tanusevci. Feb 27 - Macedonia urges KFOR to tighten border controls. March 1 - NATO envoys in Skopje urge government not to use force against militants occupying Tanusevci for fear of straining inter-ethnic relations betwen Slavs and Albanians. March 4 - Two Macedonian soldiers killed near Tanusevci when their vehicle runs over mine. Another shot by sniper fire. - Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and U.S. say they back use of force against the guerrillas. - Macedonia seals border with Kosovo. March 5 - Backed by KFOR, Macedonian army launches offensive to flush out guerrillas from Tanusevci. KFOR sees some leaving. March 10 - Organisation calling itself National Liberation Army (NLA) gives political backing to fighters at Tanusevci and demands equal rights for ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. - NLA guerrillas driven out of Tanusevci redeploy nearby. March 13 - About 10,000 people march in Skopje to protest against violence in rally organised by Democratic Party of Albanians, a junior partner in the ruling coalition. March 16 - Tetovo central square hit by shells. March 14 - Fighting spreads to the heartland of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority. Heavy fire exchanged near Tetovo. March 17 - Macedonian army helicopter crashes near scene of fighting outside Tetovo killing pilot and injuring 12 policemen. March 18 - Several thousand Macedonians rally in Skopje and urge government to take tougher action against rebels. March 19 - Macedonian tanks enter Tetovo as police machine-guns and mortars rebel positions. March 20 - UNHCR says 4,000 ethnic Albanians have fled Macedonia and a further 4,000 are internally displaced. - European Union security chief Javier Solana urges Macedonia to compromise on ethnic Albanian minority demands. - Macedonian Defence and Interior ministries issue 24-hour ultimatum to rebels to surrender or face all-out attack. March 22 - Fighting in Gracani kills one policeman. March 23 - UNHCR says over 22,000 Macedonians have fled. March 27 - NATO chief George Robertson and Solana meet Macedonian leadership to discuss political solution to crisis. March 28 - Macedonian forces launch offensive to drive out insurgents from their remaining hideouts. April 2 - Macedonia says rebellion suppressed. - Macedonian political leaders open talks on resolving ethnic tension, main opposition Albanian party boycotts. April 3 - Macedonia reopens border crossings to Kosovo. April 28 - Eight Macedonian soldiers killed near Vejce, close to Kosovo border, in highest death toll so far. May 1 - Macedonian Slavs torch ethnic Albanian shops and a cafe in second largest town of Bitolja, where four of the eight killed servicemen were buried the same day. May 3 - Ethnic Albanian rebels kill two Macedonian soldiers and capture another near Vakcince, close to Skopje. May 3 - Macedonian army attacks hillside village of Vakcince with helicopter gunships and artillery fire. May 5 - Macedonia considers declaring state of war. May 6 - Red Cross says hundreds of civilians hide in basements in Vakcince and Slupcane during daily shelling. May 7 - Government backs away from declaring state of war yielding to pressure from EU and NATO. Main Macedonian parties agree to form coalition to adress minority grievances. May 11 - Last holdout on coalition, Albanian PDP, joins up. May 13 - Parliament approves new unity government by 102 votes to 1, and swears in grand coalition cabinet. From Gazhebo at aol.com Sun May 13 19:39:58 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 19:39:58 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Macedonia gets unity government; guerrillas shrug Message-ID: Macedonia gets unity government; guerrillas shrug By Douglas Hamilton SKOPJE, May 14 (Reuters) - Macedonia on Monday marshals its first national unity government of Slav and ethnic Albanian parties in a bid to subdue an Albanian guerrilla uprising that could plunge the country into civil war. Approved by 102-to-1 in a national assembly vote late on Sunday night, the grand coalition has already been dismissed by guerrillas who say that only armed struggle can win genuine equal rights for the one-third Albanian minority. They vow to fight on until invited to negotiate. The former Yugoslav republic, which became independent 10 years ago, has had two Slav-Albanian coalitions. But this is the first team to include all four main parties. Ljubco Georgievski remains prime minister. The new cabinet was immediately sworn in before President Boris Trajkovski and relieved Western ambassadors in the gallery. Diplomatic representatives of the European Union and the United States worked to the last to broker the deal, persuading the country's number two Albanian party not to let concern about the army's handling of the guerrilla crisis block an accord. "We are aware of the risk we are taking by entering this coalition government in the interests of peace," Ismet Ramadani of the Albanian Party of Democratic Prosperity (PDP) told the assembly. "Our main motive in joining is our desire to achieve safety and security for the country, but only through peace and dialogue, not by killing and being killed," he said. Ratification earlier appeared on a knife edge when Georgievski angered the PDP with what Ramadani called a "militant" speech vowing to crush ethnic Albanian rebels. The party again conferred with Western diplomats before returning to the assembly to announce its acceptance. As parliament began Sunday's session, government forces opened fire with Soviet-built tanks on the rebel-held village of Slupcane northeast of the capital Skopje, ending a day of quiet that had followed a blitz on Saturday. BROAD-BASED GOVERNMENT TO COUNTER INSURGENCY The guerrillas, commanded by a Macedonian-born veteran of a decade of Yugoslav wars last active in neighbouring Kosovo, rejected army claims to have killed 30 of their number as lies. The new all-party bloc returns the Slav socialists to power with key portfolios and gives both Macedonia's Albanian parties ministerial posts in the hope of averting civil war. Georgievski said the new government's top priority was to defeat the insurgency, which has raised fears of a broader Balkan conflict dragging in Macedonia's neighbours. Western and Macedonian Albanian leaders say stability can be restored only by ending discrimination against ethnic Albanians in employment, education and language rights. Diplomats say reform legislation must be enacted swiftly to cool the uprising. "We are faced with well-trained forces coming from the other side of the border," Georgievski told deputies. "Parties should put aside individual interests and join together to defend the country. "We have no alternative but to respond fiercely to these attacks. We will make the maximum political and military preparations possible to break the enemy." In the battle zone around Kumanovo, 30 km (20 miles) from Skopje, a senior interior ministry commander said he believed troops could evict the rebels from their mountain hideouts within hours were it not for fear of civilian casualties. Residents of a cluster of hamlets occupied by the National Liberation Army (NLA) rebels have been crammed into sandbagged basement shelters with dwindling supplies for days. The NLA denies holding them as human shields to prevent an army assault. Despite battering the villages for the past 10 days, the Macedonian army has failed to advance any significant distance. The guerrillas say long-range shelling leaves them untouched. "We haven't had a scratch," a spokesman called Commander Hoxha told Reuters by telephone from the conflict zone. From Gazhebo at aol.com Sun May 13 19:45:16 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 19:45:16 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Euro court Cyprus verdict revives Greek-Turk rivalry Message-ID: Euro court Cyprus verdict revives Greek-Turk rivalry By Claudia Parsons ANKARA, May 11 (Reuters) - Turkish and Greek rivalry over Cyprus re-surfaced on Friday after the European Human Rights Court pronounced Turkey guilty of abuses following its 1974 invasion of the Mediterranean island. Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said the Court erred in its Thursday verdict and said the judgment would not contribute to a settlement on the divided island. "It's clear that the European Court of Human Rights did not make a correct decision on Cyprus," Ecevit told reporters. "Cyprus's questions are not legal but political...The questions can only be solved if the two sides enter into a dialogue." The court said that Ankara had violated 14 articles of the European Human Rights Convention, including the right to life, the right to liberty and security, the right to freedom of thought and the right to freedom of expression. The decision was passed by 16 votes to one. However, Greece hailed the Court's condemnation of arch-rival Turkey and called for an enforcement of the verdict. "The decision by the European Court is of historical importance," Greek government spokesman Dimitris Reppas told reporters. "(The court) must now use all its means so that its decision can be put into force." The case was brought by the Cyprus government, which argued that the 27-year-old Turkish occupation of the northern third of the Mediterranean island had trampled on almost every article in the convention. Ecevit was prime minister in 1974 and ordered the invasion of the island after a brief, failed Greek Cypriot coup engineered by then military-ruled Greece. The island has been effectively partitioned since, but only Ankara recognises the self-declared Turkish Cypriot statelet. U.N.-sponsored talks for a settlement of the Cyprus issue stalled late last year when Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash pulled out, saying he would not join negotiations unless he was recognised as an equal partner in the talks. Cypriot Attorney General Alecos Markides said the ruling should strengthen Cyprus's bargaining position. "We are negotiating to find proper ways within an acceptable political compromise to restore the human rights of all the people of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots alike," he told Reuters on Thursday. Turkey refused to attend the Court's hearing when it opened last year and argued the Turkish Cypriot state was an independent entity. "Cyprus has two independent states," said Ecevit, who has streets named after him in northern Cyprus. "Even though many nations do not recognise this, it is a reality...The decision made by the European Court of Human Rights does not meet the realities of Cyprus." The court ruled that Ankara had deprived some 170,000 Greek Cypriot refugees of their rights by banning them from returning to their homes in the north, and deprived of the "right to life" about 1,500 people who disappeared during the invasion. Turkey should be held accountable for the actions of the northern Cypriot administration, the court said, adding that it "survived by virtue of Turkish military and other support." Ankara, which keeps around 30,000 troops on the island, has always denied accusations of rights violations. A settlement on the island is becoming more urgent as Turkey and the Republic of Cyprus aspire to join the European Union. Cyprus remains a key source of friction between NATO allies Greece and Turkey, especially since Greece is an EU member. Turkey became an official EU candidate in 1999 but has yet to begin negotiations partly due to concerns over its human rights record and the situation in Cyprus. Greece has indicated that Cyprus should be included in the next enlargement wave. But if the island is excluded because of its political problem, Greece's parliament is likely to block the entire expansion process. The court has not yet decided whether to fine Turkey and will issue a full verdict in a few months. As a signatory of the convention, Ankara must comply with the final ruling. From aalibali at yahoo.com Sun May 13 21:02:02 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 18:02:02 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] The Independent Message-ID: <20010514010202.22789.qmail@web11508.mail.yahoo.com> Independent on Sunday (London) May 13, 2001, Sunday FEATURES; Pg. 43 BOOKS: BLACK FARCE AND HIGH TRAGEDY; THE LATEST CHRONICLER OF THE GREEK STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM IS PRONE TO BOUTS OF DELUSIVE ROMANTICISM. BUT THEN, RECALLS MURROUGH O'BRIEN, SO ARE THE GREEKS THEMSELVES Murrough O'brien The Flame of Freedom: The Greek War of Independence 1821-1833 By David Brewer JOHN MURRAY pounds 25 At the beginning of the world, the nations stepped forward to receive their gifts from God. God was sitting - why is he always sitting? - on his throne when the Greeks, late as ever, rushed in breathlessly and demanded the gift of power. No dice, it seemed. Power had been given to the Turks, Labour to the Bulgarians, Commerce to the Jews, cunning to the Armenians... there was, in fact, very little left. "By what intrigue," roared the dispossessed Greeks, "have we been robbed of our due?" "Very well," answered God, "since you yourselves have named it, I give you intrigue as your birthright." God is renowned for his saturnine sense of humour, but to the ordinary Greeks living during the Greek war of independence, this witticism must have left a taste of wormwood in their mouths. As David Brewer reveals in The Flame of Freedom, they could have done with less intriguing from their leaders and rather more altruism. None the less, the story of the six-year struggle against the Ottoman Empire is characterised by courage as well as cowardice, by selflessness as much as self -regard. In his acknowledgements, Brewer expresses gratitude to one Nikos Kokantzis for "pointing out ways in which I may have unwittingly offended Greek susceptibilities". This does not bode well. Happily, the author seems concerned with presenting the facts as he understands them, without regard for gaudy myth-making, in an elegant and sympathetic study of the period which, however, leaves many questions unanswered and some evidence unexamined. The Greek rebellion is defined by black farce and high tragedy. A group of mercantile misfits forms the Philiki Etairia, the friendly society, and propose to start a revolution in Greece from outside Greece, with no support from anyone of substance; brigands who served the Turks use their skills against the Turks, and turn and turn again; at a time when there is no nation to govern, a national government is formed, espousing the highest ideals of European liberalism, only to scatter like an ant colony menaced by boiling water at the approach of the enemy; bright-eyed young Europeans rush to the defence of Greek liberty, only to discover that the Greeks are, oddly, no longer a nation of high-minded philosophers in togas, but a demoralised and desperate people whose hearts are Byzantine and whose ethics are Ottoman. Freebooters, aristocrats, adventurers and ascetics all collaborate - just - in a venture which fulfills the old prophecy, first uttered at the time of the fall of Constantinople, that Turkish domination of Greece would last only 400 years. This book is rich in examples of humanity and humour: stories of besieged and besiegers meeting for a quiet smoke outside the walls of a city, of beleaguered Turks wishing the enemy captain long life at his wedding. Most moving of all, perhaps, is the tale of the old woman on her deathbed asking to be buried in the clothes which her family would find in a locked chest. They find, instead of finery, the rough men's clothing which she had worn when, after the most heroic defence and the loss of thousands of Turkish lives, the Greeks of Missolonghi finally forced their way out of the doomed town. Brewer is conscientious in covering as much as he can of the motives of the other participants in this struggle - the great powers of Europe, the Ottoman Empire and its vassals - but he fails to account for a number of the more bizarre episodes. Quite why the firebrand Ypsilantis thought that he could begin the struggle for Greek independence in the Danubian principalities, whose inhabitants had good reason to loathe the Greeks, remains obscure. Likewise, Brewer finds it odd that the Orthodox Patriarch Grigorios should have been hanged by the Sultan when he had apparently done his best to recall his countrymen to obedience. There is in fact a simple explanation for this: some days before his execution, Grigorios had convened a council of his fellow hierarchs which had found itself unable to condemn the Greek revolt. The Sultan's fury, though savagely expressed, was not altogether baseless. The word "talisman" occurs frequently, but Brewer does not use it to show the nature of the Greek mentality: Byron was a talisman, but his effect on the result of the war was negligible; Bishop Yermanos was a talisman, but he died unmourned. The Greeks to this day are more concerned with the shadows cast by their monuments than with the stones themselves, and the Western failure to understand this has led to much avoidable acrimony. But Brewer himself is prone to a similarly delusive romanticism. At the beginning of chapter 10, he asserts that the Greeks have always been sailors. Later he maintains that the Turks are almost genetically unsuited to the sea. Aside from the very suspect notion of immutable racial characteristics which underlies these two complementary opinions, they fly against the facts of history; had the medieval Greeks been more alert to the possibilities of maritime commerce, then they might not have have been so thoroughly mauled by the sailing nations of Italy; and had the Turks not established absolute control over the Mediterranean by virtue of their incomparable navy then they would never have conquered North Africa. Like the landscape of the Peloponnese itself, the Greek war of independence shows mighty hills rising above depressingly arid valleys. Perhaps the Greeks are right: perhaps the most telling figure of the war is indeed the enigmatic Kolokotronis, that brave, brutal, honest, disingenuous, proud, subtle warrior who, for all his magnificent victories, did so much to undermine Greek unity when it was most needed, but who said, as the story now runs in Greece, "If we only remain united, why then we will reach even the walls of Constantinople!" "Greece expiring on the ruins of Missolonghi" (1852) by Eugene; Delacroix Independent on Sunday (London) --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Sun May 13 21:06:21 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 21:06:21 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] University of Bridgeport Press Release Message-ID: http://www.bridgeport.edu/news/ubpress/010507-01.html May 7, 2001 President of Albania to Speak at University of Bridgeport's Commencement His Excellency Rexhep Meidani, President of the Republic of Albania, will receive an honorary doctorate degree, honoris causa, at UB's ninety-first commencement on Sunday, May 13. President Meidani will also deliver the commencement address at which more than 800 undergraduate and graduate students will receive their degrees. The ceremony begins at 9:45 AM in the courtyard of the Arnold Bernhard Arts and Humanities Center (corner of University and Iranistan Avenues). This will be President Meidani's only public speech during his brief stay in the United States, according to his aides. He will be available to speak with members of the media both directly after the commencement ceremony (about 12 noon) and after the luncheon (about 2:30 PM). President Meidani has been selected to receive this highest honor from the University for his contribution to peace in the region of the Balkans, notably between Albania and Yugoslavia. Although the Yugoslavian province of Kosovo has a population of mostly ethnic Albanians, President Meidani has opposed efforts at annexing Kosovo into Albania and supported efforts to establish communication between Kosovans and the Yugoslavian government. He has also been commended by the Greek government for his efforts to protect and defend the human rights of Albanian citizens of Greek origin. He is seen as a force for stabilization in the region and is a strong ally of the United States. Albania has been making progress in democracy under his leadership. Born in 1944, President Meidani is an academic by training. Fluent in French and English, he earned an advanced degree in solid state physics from the University of Caen in France and a doctorate of specialization in solid state physics from the University of Paris. He earned his doctorate in condensed matter physics from Tirana University in Albania in 1984. During the 1970s and 80s, President Meidani was a university professor and is the author of 23 books. He has been a visiting researcher or professor at numerous colleges and universities around the world, including several in the United States. Honorary doctorate degrees, honoris causa, will also be conferred at the May 13 ceremony upon Dr. Martha MacGuffie and the Honorable George L. Gunther. Dr. MacGuffie is a renowned plastic surgeon and is being honored for her many years of humanitarian and medical services to the global community. The Hon. George L. Gunther, a Connecticut state senator and a naturopathic physician, is being recognized for his numerous years of service to the citizens of Connecticut, both in government and in medicine. He has been especially supportive of the Naturopathic Medicine program at the University of Bridgeport, which will graduate its first class on May 13. From ipilika at hotmail.com Mon May 14 12:28:11 2001 From: ipilika at hotmail.com (Iris Pilika) Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 16:28:11 -0000 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] U.N. to set out Kosovo autonomy plan Message-ID: U.N. to set out Kosovo autonomy plan May 14, 2001 Web posted at: 1621 GMT PRISTINA, Kosovo (CNN) -- The United Nations says its special representative in Kosovo will announce measures for the international body to step back from its governing role in the province. Special Representative to the U.N. Secretary-General Hans Haekkerup plans to address the people of Kosovo on Monday outlining an election date, set for later this year, and the constitutional framework that will transfer power from the international body to the people of Kosovo. The announcement will be the latest in a series of provisions set up by U.N. resolution 1244 to provide autonomy for the province. Under the new step, the people of Kosovo will vote for a 120-member assembly, that will choose the president of the region. "What's really exciting is that there are real provisions made for the minority community, " says Stacia Philips-Deshishku, spokeswoman for the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Philips-Deshishku says 10 seats on the assembly are set aside for the Serb community and 10 seats for minority groups, including Ashkali, Egyptian, Turkish, Bosniac and Gorani. The rest of the 120 seats will be determined by the voters. Haekkerup has met with leaders from the Kosovar Albanian and Serb communities to set up the process of government. The United Nations will still retain its role in policing the region, after the new government is formed. Kosovo, a province of Yugoslav Federal Republic of Serbia, has been under U.N. and NATO control since 1999, following a bombing campaign by the Western alliance to force Yugoslav troops to withdraw and end a crackdown on ethnic Albanians. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From ipilika at hotmail.com Mon May 14 15:31:38 2001 From: ipilika at hotmail.com (Iris Pilika) Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 19:31:38 -0000 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Kosova elections - November 17 Message-ID: U.N. sets out Kosovo autonomy plan May 14, 2001 Web posted at: 1923 GMT PRISTINA, Kosovo (CNN) -- The United Nations' special representative in Kosovo has announced measures for the international body to step back from its governing role in the province. In a televised address Monday night to the people of Kosovo, U.N. Special Representative Hans Haekkerup set November 17 as the date for elections. Haekkerup also outlined the constitutional framework that will transfer power from the international body to the people of Kosovo. "It's very important to move the political process forward so that the Kosovars themselves take care of the day-to-day problems of the citizens," Haekkerup told CNN after the announcement. "I think that will actually contribute to reduce violence here." The announcement is the latest in a series of provisions set up by U.N. Resolution 1244 to provide autonomy for the province. Under the new step, the people of Kosovo will vote for a 120-member assembly that will choose the president of the region. "What's really exciting is that there are real provisions made for the minority community," said Stacia Philips-Deshishku, spokeswoman for the U.N. Mission in Kosovo. Philips-Deshishku said 10 seats on the assembly would be set aside for the Serb community and 10 seats for minority groups, including Ashkali, Egyptian, Turkish, Bosniac and Gorani. Voters will determine who wins the rest of the 120 seats. Haekkerup has met with leaders from the Kosovar Albanian and Serb communities to set up the process of government. After the new government is formed, the United Nations will retain its role in policing the region. Kosovo, a province of Yugoslav Federal Republic of Serbia, has been under U.N. and NATO control since 1999, when a bombing campaign by the Western alliance forced Yugoslav troops to end a crackdown on ethnic Albanians. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon May 14 21:29:15 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 18:29:15 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Shekulli per mocionin ndaj Gjykates se Larte Message-ID: <20010515012915.23094.qmail@web11501.mail.yahoo.com> Pas votimit t? fsheht? dje n? Kuvend, hum mocioni i Kryeministrit Meta dhe ministrit Imami Dputet?t e PS, "pu?" Met?s Grupi parlamentar i PS-s? voton kund?r shkarkimit t? tre gjyqtar?ve Nga Arion Sulo TIRANE - Grupi parlamentar i Partis? Sociasliste i rezervoi dje nj? surpriz? t? hidhur Kryeministrit Meta n? Parlament duke votuar kund?r shkarkimit t? tre gjyqtar?ve t? Gjykat?s s? Lart?. Dje Kuvendi rr?zoi mocionin p?r shkarkimin e tre an?tar?ve t? Gjykat?s s? Lart? t? firmosur nga Kryeministri Meta, Ministri i Drejt?sis? Imami e disa deputet? t? PS-s?. Pas nj? votimi t? fsheht?, ku mor?n pjes? 112 deputet?, mes t? cil?ve ishte dhe kryeministri dhe kryetari i PS-s?, rezultoi se p?r an?tarin e Gjykat?s s? Lart?, Kristaq Ngjela, votuan pro shkarkimit t? tij 65 deputet?, kund?r 28 dhe abstenuan 19 t? till?. P?r an?tarin tjet?r t? Gjykat?s s? Lart?, Vladimir Bineri, votuan pro shkarkimit 62 deputet?, 29 kund?r dhe 21 abstenime. Nd?rsa p?r an?tarin e tret?, Lamaj, 81 vota ishin pro shkarkimit, 22 kund?r dhe 9 abstenime. Si? shihet, votat kund?r shkarkimit t? deputet?ve kan? qen? p?r secilin n? mas?n 35-40 t? tilla po t? kihet parasysh fakti se nga opozita n? sall? ishin vet?m kat?r- pes? deputet?. Kjo tregon se n? asnj? nga t? tre rastet, deputet?t e PS-s? nuk iu afruan numrit t? nevojsh?m 102. P?r t? miratuar mocionin, duheshin t? pakt?n q? 102 vota t? deputet?ve t? ishin pro. Sipas mocionit, tre an?tar?t e Gjykat?s s? Lart? kan? konsumuar nenin 140 t? Kushtetut?s dhe u k?rkuan t? shkarkohen p?r vepra q? c?nojn? r?nd? figur?n e pozit?n e an?tarit t? Gjykat?s s? Lart?. Mbledhja Gjith?ka p?r fatin e mocionit dje nga Grupi Parlamentar i PS-s? u vendos n? nj? mbledhje t? grupit n? mes t? seanc?s. Nd?rprerja u k?rkua nga PS p?r t? marr? dhe udh?zimin e fundit apo ndoshta p?r t? vendosur m?nyr?n e votimit. Burime nga grupi than? se ka pasur dy linja mendimi p?r mocionin q? ndajn? grupin e PS-s? n? deputet? af?r Met?s dhe n? deputet? af?r Nanos. Pas votimit t? fsheht?, q? zgjati m? shum? se nj? or? e gjysm?, interesant ?sht? fakti se Kryetari i PS-s?, Nano, q?ndroi n? sall? dhe ishte prezent n? momentin q? kryetari i komisionit t? num?rimit t? votave, La?o, shpalli rr?zimin e mocionit. Nd?rsa Kryeministri Meta, me t? votuar vet?, u largua pa pritur t? d?gjonte "dal vivo" hedhjen posht? t? k?rkes?s s? tij p?r shkarkimin e tre an?tar?ve t? Gjykat?s s? Lart?. I vetmi q? ndenji t? d?gjonte rezultatin ishte ministri i Drejt?sis?, Imami, i cili u shoq?rua gjat? gjith? koh?s s? votimit nga Malaj, Fino e Ngjela. Nga t? gjitha l?vizjet dhe bisedat, Imami duket se e kishte marr? vesh se mocioni do t? rr?zohej, (ishte vendosur q? n? mbledhjen e grupit), por gjithsesi nuk e jepte veten. I ?uditsh?m ?sht? fakti se odiseja e mocionit dukej se nga e h?na do t? merrte p?r mir?. Pasi vet? Kryetari i Grupit parlamentar t? PS-s?, Malaj deklaroi t? hen?n n? Parlament se "Grupi Parlamentar i PS-s? do t? votoj? pro mocionit". Por, si? duket, votimi i fsheht? ka b?r? q? deputet?t t? vendosin n? momentet e fundit sipas bindjeve personale dhe jo porosive t? Kryetarit t? Grupit. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon May 14 21:46:33 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 18:46:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Press articles on criminality in SE Europe Message-ID: <20010515014633.1153.qmail@web11508.mail.yahoo.com> The Washington Times April 20, 2001, Friday, Final Edition PART A; COMMENTARY; Pg. A16 Where terrorists stalk without fear Arnold Beichman; THE WASHINGTON TIMES On Sept. 5, 1972, the Olympic Games in Munich became the scene of a horrifying tragedy: 11 Israeli athletes were assassinated by a Palestinian terrorist group which called itself "Black September," a covert unit of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Could such an atrocity happen again? Yes. The odds are high it could happen at the 2004 Olympic Games with this difference: This time the target would be American athletes. Incredible? In Greece, scene of the 2004 Olympics, assassinations of an American diplomat, three American military officers, and the wounding with intent to kill of 30 U.S. officials has occurred over the last 25 years. Even more incredible is that during this reign of terror, there have been no arrests, no suspects, no convictions, no serious police investigations, zilch. The Greek government has done nothing - yes, nothing - to apprehend the criminals, let alone to identify them. In Greece, assassination of Americans has become established routine. Most recently terrorists bombarded the U.S. Embassy in central Athens and assassinated the British defense attache. Earlier, attempts on the lives of the Dutch and German ambassadors were made. No arrests, no suspects, no convictions, no serious investigations. Nor are Greek citizens immune from the criminality of "November 17" as the terrorists call themselves to commemorate the suppression of a student uprising by an earlier military dictatorship that took power in 1967. "November 17," in scores of operations, has killed a leading parliamentarian and wounded others, attempted to kill Greek Cabinet members, murdered or mutilated diplomats, judges, industrialists, bankers and physicians. Last year there were 100 political bombings. "November 17" uses high explosives, mortars and rocket grenades, mostly stolen from Greek police and military arsenals. Same story: no arrests, no suspects, no convictions, no serious investigations. This terrorist scorecard has been compiled by Wayne Merry, onetime State and Pentagon official, and published in an article in the Weekly Standard titled, "Where terrorists run free." Mr. Merry worked at the U.S. Embassy in Athens for three years, trying in vain to get the Greek government to do something about this reign of terrorism. "The chances the terrorists will be caught," he writes, "are very low, but the chances for more American victims are high." Mr. Merry says the immunity of "November 17" is the result of political blackmail of the present government. The ruling socialist Pasok Party "fears exposure of its own prior links with November 17" if terrorists were arrested and tried. Exempt from the normal sanctions in a democratic society against murder, "November 17" has "recruited a younger generation of killers, expanded their weaponry, tactics, and targets, and are supremely contemptuous of Greek law enforcement," he writes. The U.S. spends more money protecting embassy and consular personnel in Athens, Mr. Merry has told a House Judiciary subcommittee, than anywhere else on Earth. Former President Clinton visited Athens in late 1999 but, says Mr. Merry, "neglected even to raise the unpleasant topic of terrorism, giving Greek leaders precisely the message they wanted. Many senators and congressmen publicly wrap themselves in the POW/MIA flag, but they do not demand justice for Americans killed in the line of duty in Athens." Those Americans included: Richard Welch, a CIA officer, gunned down in 1975 in front of his wife on their way home from a Christmas party, two U.S. Navy captains, George Tsantes in 1983 and William Nordeen in 1988 and Air Force Sgt. Ronald Stewart in 1991. So far no arrests, no suspects, no convictions, no serious investigations. We are properly concerned that China, guilty of genocide in Tibet and the massacre in 1989 of its citizens in Tiananmen Square, is now seeking the 2008 Olympic Games. Shouldn't there be even greater concern about the Greek government's cowardice in confronting the November 17 criminals? What gives Athens its immunity? Will the Bush administration follow the Clinton line or will it examine shifting the Olympics to another country where Americans and other visitors can feel safe? Arnold Beichman, a Hoover Institution Research Fellow, is a columnist for The Washington Times. ========= The Washington Times April 29, 2001, Sunday, Final Edition SECTION: PART B; COMMENTARY; FORUM; Pg. B5 LENGTH: 674 words HEADLINE: Greece is a platonic place BODY: Arnold Beichman's diatribe against Greece ("Where Terrorists Stalk Without Fear", April 20) was inspired by former low-ranked State Department official Wayne Merry, who has made it his mission in life to castigate Greece for its anti-terrorism record. Even Mr. Merry, whom Mr. Beichman quotes as gospel, might feel uncomfortable with the outrageously immoderate language of his supporter, whose hyperbole reveals not merely ignorance of the facts, but a fixed purpose of denigration despite the facts. Examples: "In Greece, assassination of Americans has become established routine," or, "Most recently terrorists bombarded the U.S. Embassy in central Athens." Neither these allegations, nor another which speaks of "100 political bombings" give a true and unprejudiced picture. Nobody in Greece is pleased that a singularly elusive and tightly controlled small group of criminals, acting sporadically against targeted individuals (mostly Greeks), have so far escaped justice. This is not for lack of political will, as is claimed by Messrs. Merry and Beichman without any supportive evidence. Mr. Beichman is totally silent on the energized anti-terrorism efforts of the Greek police and security authorities, in ever-growing cooperation with their colleagues in the U.S., Scotland Yard and other European law enforcement agencies. Last September, Greek Public Order Minister Michalis Chrisohoidis signed an agreement with the United States on combating organized crime and terrorism. The FBI has operated an office in Athens for more than 10 years, and Greek counterterrorism officers are trained in the U.S. A special force has also been set up to tightly control the borders. Among recent antiterrorism measures that show the Greek government's determination to put an end to the terrorist scourge that has hit many countries around the world, including the U.S: a reward of more than $4 million has been offered, confidential hotlines have been established, a public information campaign has been launched and legislative changes foresee non-jury trials for terrorists, DNA testing and a witness protection program. Judging from the public outcry and Greek media commentary, the Greek people are outraged by terrorism's toll in terms of human lives destroyed, reputation damaged and Greek national interests compromised. The authorities will not rest until the perpetrators are brought to justice. With one of Europe's lowest crime rates, Greece remains one of the world's safest countries, receiving each year some 12 million foreign visitors who, never the target of terrorists, feel entirely secure. The issue of security is one of particular importance in view of the 2004 Olympic Games, when the eyes of the world will be focused on Athens. A comprehensive security plan, employing thousands of special security units and a citywide network of surveillance cameras has earned the approval of the International Olympic Committee. Similarly, in a comment last February dismissing Mr. Merry's warnings as groundless, the U.S. State Department spokesman mentioned the consultations between Greece and an international security advisory group for the Olympics, that includes U.S. experts. And Secretary of State Colin Powell also said in February "I am confident that the Greek authorities will do everything to make sure that the Games go off safely." Last month, President George W. Bush described Greece as "a powerful force for good in the world. . . . All the world will see this in vivid display when Athens hosts the Olympics of 2004." His father, former President Bush, when he visited Greece earlier this month, looked forward to watching the 2004 Games in Athens. Despite doomsayers like Messrs. Beichman and Merry, we are confident that in 2004, millions of visitors to Greece and billions watching on television will enjoy a unique celebration of sport and culture linking the ancient with the modern. ACHILLES PAPARSENOS The author is the press counselor of the Embassy of Greece ========= The Washington Times May 14, 2001, Monday, Final Edition PART A; COMMENTARY; EDITORIALS; LETTERS; Pg. A16 Athens provides more than spartan safety On behalf of the board of the Hellenic Association of Columbia University, I would like to respond to Arnold Beichman's April 20 Commentary column, "Where terrorists stalk without fear." We believe that Mr. Beichman's column creates a misleading impression about incidents of terrorism in Greece. Terrorism, specifically politically-motivated terrorism, is an international phenomenon. Greece, unfortunately, has had its own share of related incidents, with the terrorist organization "November 17" being at the core of the problem. The Greek government, in collaboration with U.S. and British agencies, have attempted to solve this problem over the years, but the terrorist organization still exists despite some breakthroughs in the official investigation. At the same time though, there is no doubt that Greece continues to be a very safe place for its citizens and its guests. Practically all terrorist attacks in Greece have been against particular individuals with political or military power and are not random acts of violence that would endanger the general public. The severity of terrorist attacks in Greece has been significantly lower than in most countries, and it is unfair to single it out the manner that Mr. Beichman has. We believe that Mr. Beichman's fear that American athletes and visitors attending the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens will be in danger is unrealistic. Greece, and Athens in particular, have been very successful in organizing international athletic events. For example, the World Track and Field Championship held in Athens in 1999 received international acclaim. Based on Mr. Beichman's argument, there are very few countries in the world that could and should host the Olympic Games. A bomb exploded among innocent visitors during the Games in Atlanta in 1996. Should the United Stated be forever banned from hostingany international event? We are not experts on international terrorism, but we do know that Greece is a very safe country. Athens is taking the organization of the Olympic Games very seriously, and it will not be vulnerable to terrorist attacks. ARETI TSIOLA New York === Belfast News Letter May 14, 2001, Monday NEWS; Pg. 11 CASH FOR TERROR VICTIM WIDOW THE Belfast-born widow of the British military attache murdered by Greek terrorists last year is to be offered financial compensation. The terrorist group N17 claimed responsibility for killing 52 year old Brigadier Stephen Saunders who was shot four times with a .45 calibre pistol by a motorbike gunman in a traffic jam in Athens last June. The Greek government, it was learned yesterday, will offer a substantial undisclosed sum to his widow, Heather, and daughters, Nicola and Catherine. The compensation will be offered before next month's anniversary of the murder when Mrs Saunders will address a memorial service in Athens. She said yesterday: "All contributions are welcome but I don't want this to be a means of wiping the slate clean. "I want to see those responsible brought to justice and no amount of compensation will bring Stephen back", Mrs Saunders added. The Greek government has been stung by all- egations of incompetence in bringing the terrorists to justice for the killing of both Mr Saunders and Costis Peraticos, a British citizen who was shot dead in Athens in 1997 during rush- hour traffic. He left a widow and two young sons. His murder, too, was carried out by N17 terrorists. Scotland Yard has had a presence in Athens since Brigadier Saunders' death but has been hampered by the failure of police to preserve forensic evidence in the vital hour after the shooting or even to seal the street. A Foreign Office source said yesterday: "They dealt with Saunders' murder as British police might have dealt with a traffic accident. "He was barely alive in the back of a vehicle and the police priority was to keep the traffic moving." A senior member of SO13, Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, has just returned to London from Athens to brief Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 01:04:21 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 01:04:21 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Agreement=20due=20on=20final=20name=20for=20FYROM?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=20=96=20Kathimerini?= Message-ID: Agreement due on final name for FYROM Gornamakedonia said to be it By Tom Ellis Kathimerini Following nearly a decade of negotiations, Athens and Skopje are very close to an agreement on the name under which the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be known. Officials from both countries find the solution satisfactory and believe that once this last hurdle has been removed bilateral political and financial relations will improve while Greece and FYROM will be able to develop a strategic cooperation. The crisis affecting FYROM rendered such an agreement practically possible while providing the government in Skopje with the political excuse to alter the country's constitutionally-established name, which for years it had steadfastly refused to do. Although United Nations-supervised talks between the two countries' UN ambassadors have effectively ended, Ljubco Georgievski's government argued that it would be practically impossible to secure the two-thirds parliamentary majority required to revise the constitution. But the fighting of the past few months that poses a threat to the country's very existence, and which led to an agreement on a national unity government, is expected to result in a change in the constitution that will set the Albanian minority on an equal political status with the Slav majority. This revision will include replacing the current constitutionally-established name of "Republic of Macedonia" with "Gornamakedonia" - Upper Macedonia - which Greece wants to see used as one word. As it does not contain a geographical reference (such as "Northern Macedonia," for example, would involve) the name will offer no opportunity for future territorial claims or demands for union with Greece's province of Macedonia. EU defense and foreign policy chief Javier Solana helped seal the agreement, by making clear to government officials in Skopje during his recent visit that Brussels desired a final solution on the matter of the country's name. Washington also contributed to the agreement, while UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan discussed the matter with Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou last week in New York. Papandreou briefed opposition leader Costas Karamanlis on the matter, as well as his New Democracy party's shadow foreign and defense minister, Dora Bakoyianni. According to ND sources, both Karamanlis and Bakoyianni assured the minister that they will do their best to offer support for the solution. From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 01:08:51 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 01:08:51 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] =?ISO-8859-1?Q?European=20Court=20ruling=20a=20landmark=20=96=20?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Kathimerini?= Message-ID: <104.34d3936.283213e3@aol.com> European Court ruling a landmark Great implications in law and politics By Stelios Perrakis The ruling issued in Strasbourg on May 10 by the European Court of Human Rights on a complaint lodged by Cyprus against Turkey, is a significant move from several aspects. First of all, it is a landmark in both the court's 50-year history and that of the European Human Rights Charter, since it presents several characteristics that are important for the legal, and by extension, political arena. It is the second time that this court has ruled on a case brought by one state against another (following the Ireland-UK case in 1978) and is the first ruling on such a complaint issued after the institutional changes of 1998, when the court's screening body was unified. The case concerned the situation in the northern sector of Cyprus following the Turkish invasion of 1974 and its continuing military occupation. It is the legal extension of three other complaints brought by Cyprus in 1974, 1975 and 1977 in order to have Turkey's responsibility for human rights violations in the occupied area recognized. In all three instances, the Strasbourg screening body at the time (which were the reports by the European Human Rights Commission and the Ministers' Commission) had found violations of human rights by the occupying forces. In 1994, Cyprus took recourse once again (No. 25781/94) to the court, calling for recognition of the fact that Turkey was continuing to violate human rights guaranteed by the court. The interval between recognition of the complaint (1996) and the Commission's report (1999) was a difficult one but had a positive outcome. The court began examining the case in 1999 and at a hearing before the 17-member session - which did not include Turkey - the Cypriot government succeeded in having the precedent of the Loizidou Case [In July 1998, the court awarded $652,000 in damages to Titina Loizidou to compensate her for being deprived of property she owns in Kyrena, located in the breakaway Turkish-Cypriot state in the north of the island] jurisprudence affirmed. That is, having positions taken by the court over an individual complaint apply also to complaints by one state against another. An expanded majority of 16 plus one (the Turkish ad hoc judge) ruled on 14 claims of human rights violations in the island's occupied sector, relating to four categories of persons: - Greek-Cypriot missing persons. Continuing violations of Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (inhuman or humiliating treatment), Article 5 (person freedom and safety). -Greek Cypriots who fled from their homes. Continuing violations of Article 8 (respect for private family life and homes), Article 13 (access to legal process), Article 1 of the first protocol (protection of property). - Greek Cypriots living in the Karpas Peninsula in the Turkish-controlled north. Violations of articles 3, 8, 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion), Article 10 (freedom of expression), articles 13 and 1 of the first protocol. - Turkish Cypriots living in the occupied sector. Violation of Article 6, because of the practice of allowing military courts to try civilians. This is an important claim, made for the first time. The court's ruling is significant. It is the first time it has ruled on a claim by one state against another - unprecedented at an international level - on mass violations of human rights, recognizing Turkey's responsibility for events in occupied Cyprus. It confirms and emphasizes its legal position in the Loizidou Case as applied to a series of crucial issues (international representation and locus standi of the Cypriot government, the legal non-existence of the "Turkish-Cypriot Republic of Cyprus," reference to UN Security Council resolutions, among other things). For the first time, there is reference to a violation of rights of Turkish Cypriots. Therefore, the court's ruling supports Nicosia in maintaining its determination to avert debate on a solution to the Cyprus issue leaning toward a confederation, which certain circles are promoting. It also gives further legal support to the domestic aspect of the Cyprus issue in questions, such as property and settlement, which cannot be avoided in any solution, given the terms of international law and the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Court. And of course it helps Cyprus in its accession to the European Union, indicating once again the party responsible for the problems plaguing the island. All that remains now, apart from any legal analysis, is the political exploitation of the ruling, which is the job of Athens and Nicosia. Stelios Perrakis is a professor at Panteios University. From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 01:14:08 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 01:14:08 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Questions=20on=20migrant=20legalisation=20answere?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?d=20=96=20Greece?= Message-ID: Questions on migrant legalisation answered Undocumented foreigners who have lived in Greece for at least 12 months willbe able to apply for their place in the sun come early June BY KATHY TZILIVAKIS THE NEW immigration law, which provides for a second legalisation process, has come into effect following its publication in the Government Gazette on May 2. Hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants from non-EU countries are already rushing to gather the necessary documents in the hope of one day living and working in Greece without the fear of being deported. The legalisation procedure, which offers many undocumented migrants a second chance to secure residence, begins June 5. Following is a guide, in the form of questions and answers, to help migrants through the bureaucratic maze of this new legalisation. Who can apply for a residence permit? Undocumented migrants who can prove they have been living in Greece for at least one year at the time legalisation officially starts on June 2, 2001, are eligible to apply for a residence permit. This new legalisation procedure also applies to migrants appealing a rejection by the Organisation for the Employment of Human Resources (OAED) of their application for a Green Card in the first legalisation process. Those who registered with OAED in 1998, but did not manage to submit a Green Card application, are also eligible. How can migrants prove their length of stay in Greece? The law states that proof can be a stamp of entry on their passport or an electricity, water or telephone (including mobile phone) bill. If the undocumented migrant lives in a village or town with less than 20,000 residents, they can request a document from their local council verifying they have been living there for at least one year. What if someone cannot obtain documents verifying length of stay? Undocumented migrants who do not possess proof indicating they have resided in Greece for at least 12 months have another option. They can buy 250 days' worth of social insurance stamps (ensima). For an unskilled worker, one ensimo costs 3,500 drs. A year's worth (250 ensima) is some 875,000 drs. What is the application procedure? According to the law, undocumented migrants must apply for a residence permit at their local municipality or village council no later than 2 August 2001. They must submit some sort of proof that they have been in Greece for at least one year, two passport-size photographs, a photocopy of their passport, or other travel documents or another form of official identification certified by their native country's embassy or consulate. If this initial application is accepted, the migrant will be issued a six-month residence permit. Before the six-month permit expires, migrants must apply for a residence permit that is valid for a duration of 12 months. Within those six months, migrants applying for the 12-month permit must obtain a document from the justice ministry indicating they do not have a criminal record in this country. The application for the 12-month permit must also include a certificate from a state-run hospital or health clinic which states that the individual does not suffer from a contagious disease that could pose a threat to public health. One of the requirements for the issuing of the residence permit is stable employment. Migrants must present proof that they either are working or are self-employed, and that they contribute to a social insurance fund (IKA, TEBE, OGA). Successful applicants will be issued with a residence permit valid for one year, which can be renewed based on the stipulations of the law. What about migrants who have a Green Card? According to the law, Green Cards which are due to expire before December 31, 2001 have had their validity automatically extended until June 30, 2002. Other residence permits (those issued by the public order ministry) due to expire by December 31, 2001 are also considered valid until June 30, 2002. Those holding Green Cards or other types of residence permits that must be renewed should submit an application for the new permit to their local municipality or village council. Can migrants who live legally in Greece bring family members who reside abroad? Yes. Migrants who have legally resided in Greece f or at least two years will be able to reunite with their spouse and children only. Family members are required to live in the same home as the migrant already resident in Greece. The migrant living in Greece will have to provide proof of suitable residence and a steady income that is able to support the family member/s. Migrants in Greece wishing to reunite with family members are required to submit an application to their municipality or village council. Will family members settling in Greece have the right to work? Yes. Family members do have the right to work. Note: Under an earlier version of the immigration bill, family members did not have the right to work for the first three years of residence in this country. Will migrants have to pay for their residence permits? Yes. The fee for a residence permit of 12 months' duration is 50,000 drs. A permit valid for up to two years costs 100,000 drs. A permit valid for up to six years costs 300,000 drs. From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 01:17:18 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 01:17:18 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Athens alarmed by FYROM crisis Message-ID: <3b.1484196c.283215de@aol.com> Athens alarmed by FYROM crisis Having strong interests in the neighbouring country, Greece wants to avoida refugee outflow and preserve the entity of the tiny Balkan state BY DEREK GATOPOULOS GREECE has thrown its weight behind the West's modest mediation efforts to halt fighting in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) as the conflict threatened to bring renewed instability to the region and prompt a potential refugee crisis. Foreign Minister George Papandreou met in New York with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and prepared for a May 16 trip to Albania, in a bid to further isolate FYROM's ethnic Albanian guerrillas. "We are in contact with all our colleagues in the region," Papandreou said after meetings with Kostunica and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The fighting in FYROM has brought war, following Yugoslavia's breakup a decade ago, to Greece's doorstep. Nato chief Lord George Robertson denounced the rebels as "murderers" and warned of "another bloodbath in the terrible Balkan tradition" unless the crisis is defused. He helped persuade FYROM's leadership - led by 35-year-old Premier Ljubco Georgievski - not to declare a state of war, to invite more ethnic Albanian political groups into his coalition government and bring elections forward. But to some observers, the signs of a looming civil war are becoming increasingly evident. FYROM's forces hammered rebel-held towns, as ethnic Albanian refugees streamed into Kosovo at the rate of 1,000 per day and other acts of violence between Albanians and majority Slavs broke out across the country, as far south as Bitola (formerly Monastir). The events were viewed with quiet alarm in Greece. Once fiercely at odds with Skopje over the Macedonia-name issue, Athens is now pinning hopes of regional stability on tiny FYROM's survival. Greece ended a two-year trade blockade on landlocked FYROM in 1995 and is now the country's biggest foreign investor. The country's two largest banks are Greek-owned, and FYROM's state oil refinery - now also under Greek control - is planning to build a pipeline to Thessaloniki. Foreign ministry officials briefed Greek businessmen on the crisis, while at the United Nations, talks on resolving the name dispute resumed between diplomats from Athens and Skopje. Greece favours international action over initiatives by individual countries as a way of deterring the spread of instability across the Balkans. At a Socialist conference in Berlin, Greek Premier Costas Simitis repeated the mantra. "We are opposed to any effort to change borders and the creation of new states," he said. "We want the peaceful resolution of all disputes in the Balkans." In Athens, the interior ministry hastened plans to legalise up to 500,000 immigrants living in Greece, in a process starting in June, amid fears that tens of thousands more will sneak into the country. Many Greeks view Nato's mediation efforts with scepticism. "The (ethnic Albanian rebels) have confirmed that, despite the tough rhetoric, the West does not have the means, or probably the will, to defend the status quo of borders," wrote George Kapopoulos in the Athens daily Kathimerini. Dora Bakoyianni, New Democracy's defence and foreign affairs spokeswoman, urged Nato and the European Union to take "more determined action". Other analysts think the political pressure will pay off. "I still think this (crisis) can be handled," Dimitrios Triantaphyllou of the Paris-based Institute for Security Studies, told the Athens News. "The rebels have not been able to achieve a groundswell of support among the Albanians... because ample pressure has been applied on the political elite (in Kosovo). "Pressure must also be brought to bear on the Slavo-Macedonians to make them realise that both sides must compromise in order for the country to survive... They are saying 'this is our country and we're letting you share it' - this is not the way to go about it." Triantaphyllou said Greece's options in the crisis are limited, but he welcomed efforts to talk to all sides. "Greece's concern is to avoid a refugee flow and to preserve the entity of Macedonia, or FYROM," he said. "Greece has its hands tied. It might be ready to send in troops but it cannot because of historical reasons. "It is a welcome thing to be talking to all sides. Greece is slowly coming out of the notion of Orthodox brethren, even though this was never official policy. Greece has to come to the realisation that within a decade or two, the largest group in the region will be the Albanians. "Maybe once the situation is calmer, (Greek) investors should consider Albanian areas like Kumanovo and Tetovo and see what opportunities exist there." From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 01:21:25 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 01:21:25 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] U.N. Sets Kosovo Vote for Nov. 17 Message-ID: <28.154347eb.283216d5@aol.com> U.N. Sets Kosovo Vote for Nov. 17 By FISNIK ABRASHI PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Setting a date for Kosovo's first general elections under Western auspices, the province's top U.N. administrator urged ethnic Albanians and Serbs to vote in the historic ballot. The Nov. 17 vote to elect an Assembly that will choose a president will give Kosovo's people ``a chance to influence their lives,'' Hans Haekkerup, head of the U.N. mission in Kosovo, said in a TV broadcast. ``This means that you, the people now - for the first time in your history - will be able to decide upon day-to-day affairs in Kosovo,'' he said. Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, when the Western alliance launched a bombing campaign to force former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to halt attacks on ethnic Albanians. Since then, setting up elections has been one of the province's most difficult decisions, in part because Kosovo's Serbs fear the vote will push the province further from Belgrade's orbit, giving it the status of an independent state. Haekkerup urged the province's Serbs, who boycotted last year's municipal elections, to vote, warning that minority communities ``will marginalize themselves'' if they stay away. Yugoslavia's president, Vojislav Kostunica, was supportive but ``did not commit himself'' to participate, Haekkerup said. Tens of thousands of Serbs, fearful of revenge attacks, have fled Kosovo since NATO took over. Haekkerup offered a provision that would permit them to vote in Serbia proper, but the mechanics of arranging the balloting has not yet been created. Under the plan for a constitutional and governmental framework, Kosovo - a province of Serbia - will be governed by a president, prime minister and 120-member Assembly. All but 20 Assembly representatives will be elected by direct vote. Ten seats are reserved for Kosovo's Serbs, and other 10 for other ethnic minorities. The Assembly will choose a president. The president, in turn, will select a prime minister. Haekkerup, however, would have the right to reject any decis ion or law passed by the new leaders. U.N. officials and NATO-led peacekeepers will retain control over the judiciary and law enforcement ``We will still be here and still have a role,'' Haekkerup said. ``But we will take a step back.'' From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 01:44:05 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 01:44:05 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Macedonia:=20Seeking=20Solutions=20=96=20NEWSWEEK?= Message-ID: Macedonia: Seeking Solutions Political leaders are edging closer to a coalition government. But the rebels say they will not stop fighting?and villagers are still cowering in their basements By Juliette Terzieff NEWSWEEK May 11 ? ?When I met Aledin Osmani last Sunday, he was standing in the cellar of his home in a Macedonian village called Slupcane explaining why he no longer goes outside. Hiding out with him were some 40 other members of his family, including eight children, a pregnant woman and the family?s 78-year-old matriarch. Their food supplies? Just one five-pound bag of flour, 20 cans of meat and some sausages. ? ? MANY FAMILY MEMBERS were crying quietly in dark corners, avoiding the two windows that were boarded up after the head of the family, Ramzi Osmani, died from shrapnel wounds a week ago. ?I know you will understand if I don?t show you out,? Aledin Osmani, 46, told us fearfully as we said our good-byes?minutes ahead of a tank and artillery barrage from Macedonian government forces positioned less than a mile way. ? ? ? ? When I went back to the Osmani house today, 14 family members had managed to get out of the village. The men, including Aledin, were outside, taking advantage of a temporary ceasefire to scavenge for water, food and information about the latest round of conflict in their tiny southern Balkans country. ? ? ? ? Today?s news was slightly better than usual. Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski has succeeded in persuading a key ethnic Albanian political group, the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP), to join a broad government of national unity scheduled to be formed tomorrow. ? ? ? ? The coalition government?formed largely in response to international pressure?will include political parties representing both the country?s Albanian minority and Slav majority. Its aim: to stop the latest outbreak of fighting while simultaneously having enough power to change some of the country?s laws. ? ? ? ? Inevitably, of course, that?s easier said than done. One of the coalition?s first hurdles will be winning the trust of the people and presenting some concrete plans for addressing the top issues concerning residents: government corruption, a staggering 40 percent unemployment rate, poverty and crime. ? ? ? ? Nor is significant change likely to come before the new elections, currently scheduled for January under the proposed agreement. ? ? ? ? Another problem is that the PDP remains a reluctant participant in the government. ?We were caught between pressure from outside and pressure from the painful knowledge that our people are suffering terribly under the army?s actions,? says one PDP official. ?We made a decision [to join] that we may regret later, but that seemed the only course of action at the moment.? ? ? ? ? An even bigger stumbling block is that the new coalition excludes the rebel National Liberation Army, the ethnic Albanian group that prompted the latest round of fighting by capturing a dozen northeastern villages near the city of Kumanovo on May 3. ? ? ? ? The Macedonian government refuses to negotiate with a group it sees as terrorists and which NATO Secretary General George Robertson has called ?murderous thugs out to destroy a democratic state.? ? ? ? ? The rebels, though, are refusing to back down. An official communiqu? signed by their political leader, Ali Ahmeti, insists that a coalition government ?does not help solve the situation.? ? ? ? ? Out in the field, NLA fighter Commander Sokoli delivers a blunter message. ?There can be no solution without our presence and participation,? he says from his base near Slupcane. ?They must know that any government formed without our participation will only end in more bloodshed.? ? ? ? ? The exact extent of NLA support is hard to assess. The rebels claim to have more than 3,000 soldiers in the field and the ability to mobilize another 5,000; the Macedonian government says there are only about 500 fighters?up from their estimate of 50 just two weeks ago?in the mountains. ? ? ? ? Whatever the true number, the NLA undoubtedly poses a threat to the stability of the Balkans. The group sprang into the public eye in March, when it seized control of villages near the city of Tetovo and demanded that ethnic Albanians be granted a constitutional guarantee of equal rights and an end to employment, education and language policies that favor Slavs. ? ? ? ? After two weeks of fighting, the rebel group seemed to melt away, allowing Macedonian military officials to claim outright victory against them. This month, they came back. ? ? ? ? ?Our disappearance in March was a political decision, not a military one,? says Sokoli. ?The NLA appeared to put pressure on politicians to make the changes they only paid lip service [to] for 10 years. We do not want a war, but we do want change, so we withdrew to give them a chance.? ? ? ? ? While the wrangling continues, the specter of yet another humanitarian catastrophe is looming in the region. An estimated 8,000 refugees have fled the fighting in the last week to seek shelter in neighboring Kosovo. Their arrival has doubled the number of displaced people in the U.N.-administered province. ? ? ? ? There are also thousands of civilians like the Osmanis, cowering in basements and hoping for the fighting to end. Their situation is deteriorating rapidly: when Red Cross workers reached some of them earlier today for the first time since last Sunday, they found food and medicine shortages, widespread diarrhea, food poisoning and, in at least one village, an outbreak of scabies. ? ? ? ? The organization managed to evacuate 72 of the most frail from the area, but more than 15,000 people are still in NLA-controlled villages. ?As time goes on people are more afraid of confronting Macedonian forces if they attempt to leave,? says Amanda Williamson, a Red Cross spokesman in Skopje. ?There is also a growing sense of solidarity amongst those who remain.? ? ? ? ? Aledin Osmani is one of those who plans to stay?at least for now. ?We don?t want to be refugees, we want normal lives,? he says. ?We pray, every time we hear a tank fire, that it will be the last.? Given the murky political situation, that may not happen any time soon. ? ? ? ? From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 02:01:07 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 02:01:07 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] =?ISO-8859-1?Q?A=20Diplomatic=20Race=20Against=20Disaster=20=96=20?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?NEWSWEEK?= Message-ID: <44.ddb7e71.28322023@aol.com> A Diplomatic Race Against Disaster Europe is trying to heed the lessons of Balkans wars past. But will it be enough to save Macedonia? By Rod Nordland and Juliette Terzieff NEWSWEEK The western diplomats who stalk the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia these days are mostly veteran Balkans hands. On their watch, in other parts of the region, one republic after another dissolved into ethnic violence and war. Many of them believe that forceful, early international intervention might have averted the last decade?s bloodletting. This time they?re determined to try to get it right. At first European officials cautiously suggested speeding up Macedonia?s integration into the European Union, or its membership in NATO?s Partnership for Peace. ?That was a 10-year plan,? scoffed an American diplomat. ? ? ? ?WE NEEDED A 10-DAY PLAN.? Meeting almost daily for the past six weeks, American and European diplomats in Skopje put together a scheme to avert civil war, and persuaded Macedonia to adopt it. ?If you consider that the fighting only started March 25, it hasn?t taken much time at all,? said Robert H. Frowick, special envoy for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. By comparison, when Frowick headed the OSCE?s mission to Bosnia, it took a year just for the Western countries to agree on how to implement the Dayton peace accords. Former NATO secretary-general Javier Solana was back on the scene as the West?s point man, this time as the EU?s special envoy. After a marathon 10-hour meeting with all the country?s political leaders last Monday, he sold them on the diplomats? plan for a government of national unity?which they agreed to Friday. The government divided ministries among all four major parties, two Albanian and two Macedonian, and committed itself to a program of accelerated reforms that had long been demanded by the Albanian minority. ?It gives everybody cover,? said one diplomat. And it isolates Albanian guerrillas who are running an insurgency that is gaining momentum. Conflict Guide ? Profile and facts: Country: Macedonia, a former Yugoslav republic bordering on Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, is a once-peaceful mosaic of Balkan ethnic groups, including Serbs, Albanians and Turks. Population: The ethnic groups that make up the population of just over 2 million people are Macedonian, 66.6 percent; Albanian, 22.7 percent; Turkish, 4 percent; Roma, 2.2 percent; Serb, 2.1 percent; other, 2.4 percent. Religions: Macedonian Orthodox, 67 percent; Muslim, 30 percent; other, 3 percent Languages: Macedonian, 70 percent; Albanian, 21 percent; Turkish, 3 percent; Serbo-Croatian, 3 percent; other, 3 percent? Prime Minister: Ljubco Georgievski, elected in 1998, is an advocate for an autonomous and independent Republic of Macedonia where Macedonians and Albanians would continue to live together. He has stepped up government efforts to crack down on the ethnic Albanian rebels' fight for independence and greater rights and has criticized NATO for not doing enough to stop the conflict.? The National Liberation Army: Spurred by sentiment that a substantial number of the ethnic Albanian minority feel they are being treated as second-class citizens in Macedonia, the NLA aspires for self-determination if not outright independence from the Slav-led government to form a Greater Kosovo. Reports claim that the NLA may have as many as 2,000 troops.? NATO: The alliance has no mandate to intervene militarily in Macedonia. However, U.S. and German troops from the Kosovo peacekeeping force have stepped up patrols along the border between Macedonia and Kosovo to stop supplies flowing into the region. The Bush administration and European allies have indicated that the problem was one for Macedonia's government to resolve with diplomatic and monetary aid. If the plan fails, it may well be because of what happens in the basements of a village called Slupcane. Hot in pursuit of Albanian fighters from the National Liberation Army, the Macedonian Army ordered the evacuation May 4 of 10 villages in a 20-mile-long swath of mountainous countryside near the Kosovo border. But in Slupcane and Vasince, nearly the entire population refused to leave, taking refuge in basements. Macedonia said the remaining civilians were being held by the NLA as ?human shields?; the NLA insisted it was protecting them from heavy-handed Macedonian forces. There was plenty of evidence for both positions. Either way, one well-placed shell would greatly ratchet up the stakes in a conflict that so far has had low casualties. ?This is a catastrophe,? said Buram Sadiku, a 38-year-old whose family was among 43 people sharing three underground rooms. Babies wailed, and the only light was from a single candle. ?We can?t stay and we won?t go.? On the other side, Macedonian authorities fear that if they ease the attack in Slupcane, the NLA guerrillas will once again slip back over the border into Kosovo?where lax policing from NATO forces has given them wide latitude?and emerge to attack somewhere else. ?The moment we stop fighting,? says Nikola Dimitrov, national-security adviser to President Boris Trajkovski, ?we cede the territory to them. This is our last historical chance to save the state.? That may sound apocalyptic, but it?s a judgment widely shared in the diplomatic community. Worried that the NLA was rapidly gaining followers, especially among young men in the villages, Western diplomats moved quickly. In the past month and a half an almost daily succession of dignitaries, from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to NATO Secretary-General Lord Robinson, interceded to quiet the drums of war. President George W. Bush invited Macedonian President Trajkovski to the White House. NATO sent a high-ranking general to consult with the Macedonian Defense Ministry. Macedonia: Seeking Solutions For once, rather than just reacting to a Balkans crisis, the international community had a plan. But then, so did the NLA. Striking in a remote mountainous area near Vejce, the group ambushed and killed eight soldiers and policemen on April 28. That sparked anti-Albanian rioting, with scores of shops looted in numerous towns including some in the capital, Skopje. ?I really thought that was the end of it; here we go, another ethnic war,? said one Western diplomat. Added Frowick: ?It?s a political miracle they?ve lasted this long. But they always seem to pull back from the brink.? Now that all the elected parties are at the table together, they?ll have to show real progress on reforming Macedonia?s political system if there?s any chance for the unity government to survive. Albanians want greater autonomy, increased use of their language, better representation in the police and military?goals, ironically, shared by both the Albanian parties and the guerrillas. With the NLA feeling decidedly on the outside, its leaders insist they will fight on. ?We?ve been waiting for the international community to do something, and all they do is push for war,? said Commander Sokoli, the nom de guerre of one of the NLA?s leaders, at his bunker near Slupcane. Albanian leader Arben Xhaferi worries that time is on the side of the guys with the guns. ?They are a force in this country now; their actions are driving the situation,? he said. Xhaferi, widely admired on both sides of the ethnic divide in Macedonia, calls himself a ?hopeful pessimist.? That?s better than nothing, says a Western diplomat, a veteran of several failed international efforts in the region. ?In the Balkans, hopeful pessimism sounds pretty good.? ? ? ? ? From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 02:06:12 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 02:06:12 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Tracking=20War=20Criminals=20=96=20NEWSWEEK?= Message-ID: Tracking War Criminals Del Ponte says NATO troops are ?doing nothing? NEWSWEEK Carla del Ponte has been chief prosecutor of The Hague tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda since 1999. Her determination, her record and her no-nonsense style have won her respect in Western capitals but caused run-ins with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica. In Washington for her first meeting with Bush administration officials last week, she talked about The Hague, war crimes and Slobodan Milosevic with NEWSWEEK?s Roy Gutman and Daniel Klaidman. Excerpts: ? NEWSWEEK: How do you understand the very different attitude in Washington toward the two tribunals you head and the international criminal court the United Nations is trying to establish? ? ? ? ? DEL PONTE: I think the most important difference is that the Yugoslav tribunal [and] the Rwanda tribunal will not have jurisdiction over American citizens. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Americans are happy to have justice so long as it doesn?t apply to us? ? ? ? ? It seems so. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? How is cooperation with the new government in Yugoslavia? ? ? ? ?Until the end of March, with the problems of certification [of U.S. aid to Belgrade looming], we received some cooperation: the transfer of one fugitive, the voluntary surrender of another, even the arrest of Milosevic... But after they obtained that certification, nothing. ? ? ? ? Are you surprised at that? ? ? ? ? I was very surprised especially about the attitude of President Kostunica... I was sure when we met we could fix a program of cooperation. But he was absolutely [in denial], denying even the existence of the tribunal?just accusing the tribunal, because the Serbs are only victims. I think it is really important for this country that they face the reality of what happened, not only in Serbia?but in Kosovo and Bosnia. ? ? ? ? What is the Bush administration?s attitude? ? ? ? ? I?m very positive... [I feel] that I will have full support and more support than [from] Clinton. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? The Americans recently made one arrest. Are there still war criminals moving around the American or British zones? Both claim they?ve arrested everybody. ? ? ? ? No, no. We have 38 fugitives... almost all in different territories: French, American, German and British. So there?s a lot of work to be done. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? In Paris last month Foreign Minister Vedrine said all war criminals will be arrested. Secretary of State Powell agreed, and British Foreign Secretary Cook said there were no fugitives in his zone. ? ? ? ? They must stop saying such stupidity. Sure [fugitives] are moving [from zone to zone]. But now we have Serbia saying they are not in Serbia or Belgrade... So they disappear. Our fugitives are going I don?t know where... After one year and seven months, I am disappointed and frustrated by SFOR... Nobody else has such power, such technical [superiority]. And they are doing nothing. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? You?ve been collecting data on Slobodan Milosevic for eight years. Are you ready to indict him for crimes in Bosnia while he was in power? ? ? ? ? In October, we will be ready with the indictment. ? ? ? ? What kind of pressure are the U.S. and other governments putting on Belgrade to hand him over? ? ? ? ? The United States is giving very, very good support. I am very happy about that because the European Union support is low-level. The EU... doesn?t want to put conditions [on aid]. I am counting on the Americans. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? So aid must be conditioned? ? ? ? ? That is the only, only voice they hear... I am sure it is the only way to obtain what we need to make justice. ? ? ? ? From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Tue May 15 12:20:00 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 12:20:00 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Report on Stability Pact Message-ID: An embedded message was scrubbed... From: bieberf at gmx.net Subject: [balkans] Report: Stability Pact Quick Start Package Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 11:29:55 +0200 Size: 11659 URL: From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Tue May 15 12:26:33 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 12:26:33 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] SEE-ECN: Newsletter 04/2000 and other material Message-ID: From: "Anca Elisabeta Ciuca" Dear friends, Since July 1999, the Foundation for Democratic Change was constantly looking after ways to actively support a greater involvement of the civil societies from Southeastern European countries into the democratization process of the region. The Stability Pact, especially the Working Table I proved to be an opportunity for the NGOs? of the region to grow through a more active dialogue with the Governments in order to change the existing situation for better. In periods of transition such as those currently taking place in South Eastern Europe, the necessary political, economic and social changes have to be accompanied by the growth of an effective NGO sector, as the most visible expression of a developing civil society. Participating States in the Stability Pact, especially under Working Table I, have strongly encouraged NGOs involvement in fostering peace, democracy and social stability in the region. A novel and all-embracing document has been adopted with the view to safeguard and promote the rights of the NGOs, namely the Stability Pact Declaration on NGO-Government Partnership in South Eastern Europe, (Bucharest, October 26-27, 2000). It aims at enhancing the role of NGOs as a critical complement to the state and the market and at facilitating cross-border activities and regional networks in South Eastern Europe. Such an instrument introduces a set of generally accepted norms, as to the best relationships between NGOs and public authorities. At the beginning of the year 2001, the FDC was invited by a Greek NGO, namely Cycladic Academy for Europe, to design and implement a mechanism to settle potential disputes that might occur by implementing the ?Declaration of Partnership between Governments and NGOs in the Southeast Europe?. The main way of settling disputes is that of dialogue through a Forum hosted by the specially designed web page that might be funded at the following address: http://www.cyclacadeur.org The Web Page contains relevant information concerning the civil society?s role and importance into the democratization process, as: - the ?Declaration of Partnership between Governments and NGOs from SEE? adopted by the Stability Pact at 27th October, 2000 - a deep analysis of every article of the Declaration - the European Standards (all relevant documents concerning the civil society) - a Forum for discussions that is internationally assisted through SEAF (Belgium), Cycladic Academy for Europe (Greece), and Foundation for Democratic Change (Romania). We encourage you to visit the Web Page and to send questions, also suggestions to the administrators in order to share your experiences and accumulated knowledge about the civil society in your country. Looking forward to hear from you soon, please do not hesitate to visit the page in order to increase the visibility of your efforts. Yours, Anca Elisabeta Ciuca President _____________________________________ FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE (FDC) Mailing: PO Box 56 - 45 77750 Bucharest ROMANIA Phone/ fax: 0040 1 314 39 60 Mobile phone: 0040 (0) 93 314 379 E-maiL: fdc at dnt.ro or aciuca at pcnet.ro -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: fbieber at yahoo.com Subject: [balkans] SEE-ECN: Newsletter 04/2001 Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 12:16:57 +0200 Size: 12346 URL: From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue May 15 14:04:04 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 11:04:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Kouchner at Harvard Message-ID: <20010515180404.61169.qmail@web11501.mail.yahoo.com> The Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research and the Fran?ois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights are pleased to offer two important presentations by Dr. Bernard Kouchner French Minister of Health Former UN Administrator for Kosovo Co-Founder of M?decins-Sans-Fronti?res and M?decins du Monde On May 16, Dr. Kouchner will present his views on interim civil administration and post-conflict peace building in Kosovo. Professor Stanley Hoffmann and Professor Jennifer Leaning will join the discussion. "Peace Building: The Kosovo Experience" Wednesday, May 16 2001 5:30 pm, Science Center, Hall C (At the corner of Oxford and Kirkland) On May 17, Dr. Kouchner will address issues of crises in international health and human rights and the role of the activist physician. "Access to Care As a Global Challenge" Thursday, May 17 2001 2:00 pm, Harvard School of Public Health, Snyder Auditorium 677 Huntington Avenue For more information, please contact Jenna LeMieux at jlemieux at hsph.harvard.edu, phone: 617-384-5907, or Pamela Quinn at pquinn at hsph.harvard.edu. Related Sites: Dr. Bernard Kouchner Biography Fran?ois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights --------------------------------- This page is maintained by OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS. To contact us with suggestions, comments, and questions, please e-mail: deastwoo at hsph.harvard.edu. HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 20:04:57 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 20:04:57 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] ANALYSIS-Diehard Albanian rebels face endgame, says envoy Message-ID: ANALYSIS-Diehard Albanian rebels face endgame, says envoy By Douglas Hamilton SKOPJE, May 15 (Reuters) - In what might be the endgame in the battle against ethnic Albanian insurgents in the Balkans, Serbia seems likely to defeat guerrillas on its territory more quickly than its Slav neighbour Macedonia. Both are backed by specialised NATO task forces on the Kosovo boundary and Yugoslav border, determined to choke off the flow of weapons that is the life-blood for the extremists. Both share the same strategy: isolate the insurgents politically, offer them a way out, and remove them if they do not take it. But there must be no serious civilian casualties. Circumstances, however, are different, and it shows in military tactics, on similar terrain and against similarly armed groups of insurgents separated by only a few km (miles) on either side of the Yugoslav-Macedonia border. Serbian elite troops went house-to-house on Monday to clear the village of Oraovica in an operation clearly designed to prove to NATO that there will be no repeat of Kosovo-style shelling and village burning. In Macedonia, the army and special police have shelled and rocketed guerrilla positions for 10 days in rebel-held villages with tanks, artillery, mortars and helicopter gunships, in a stand-off operation that carries inherent risks. Up to 3,000 ethnic Albanian civilians cowering in their basements are potential "casualties waiting to be counted" if Macedonian forces were to roll in with armour, said a senior envoy from a NATO power in Skopje. Macedonia on Tuesday set a "last deadline" for rebels and civilians to leave by Thursday noon or face an army assault, and extending a ceasefire in effect since Sunday. HEARTS AND MINDS The conflict, analysts say, is less a war than a struggle for the moral high ground, determined by which side is seen to act justly and with proportionate use of force in pursuit of legitimate aims. To those in Macedonia and south Serbia who think insurgency can force a re-run of the 1999 NATO intervention in Kosovo, the Western allies are flashing the constant signal: "It's over." "We're not going to negotiate with whoever has a gun," a Western source said. "They are not getting a seat at the table." So far, the Albanian rebels are not listening. They cling to a belief that enough moderate Albanians will back them to make the West change its tune and negotiate with them. Serbia and the Macedonian government are cooperating closely with Western powers to eradicate ethnic discrimination, depriving the rebels of political oxygen for the campaigns. But concrete results must get ahead of the guerrilla capacity to polarise ethnically mixed regions by the kind of shock killings that, in Macedonia last month, sparked two days of anti-Albanian riots. When Macedonia formed a Slav-Albanian government of national unity on Monday, the European Union said it expected action to address Albanian grievances "by the end of this month." Western sources believe the two guerrilla movements are linked to the same extremist "hard men" in Kosovo who control the weapons flow from financial backers in the Albanian diaspora, but not closely coordinated on an operational level. "The core of this is the small minority who refuse to live as a minority in someone else's state...it's the endgame," said a Western envoy in Macedonia. "They have to understand they lost out in Kosovo. Now they're trying to muscle in on a legitimate process where Albanians can get power through the ballot box." PUZZLE OVER GUERRILLA MOTIVES Despite Western calls for restraint, a Macedonian Army assault was launched in March to drive guerrillas from villages in the mountains above the city of Tetovo. It destroyed homes but miraculously avoided many deaths. The strategy, however, risks creating a wasteland of deserted villages in ethnic Albanian lands along the Kosovo border leaving guerrillas in the hills. In Serbia, the guerrillas have been invited to talks but rejected what one Western source called "any reasonable ideas of multi-ethnic harmony." The Serbs "know they've won provided they don't do anything stupid at this last stage," he said. NATO on Monday decided that Serbia would regain control of a guerrilla-occupied buffer zone in southern Serbia's Presevo Valley on May 24. The UCPMB guerrilla movement dug in there for the past year has warned it will fight. Western allies have told Belgrade there must be no more "scorched earth" tactics. Fighting must be handled by troops with more modern ideas and training. The Yugoslav security forces are bigger, better equipped and more experienced than Macedonia's tiny army. In Macedonia, the West is likely to counsel a waiting game. The National Liberation Army has had time to dig in, forming trench barriers to give pause to an armoured assault, and it has more potential territory to move in than Presevo offers. At the same time, NATO troops in Kosovo have reinforced efforts to choke off their supply of weapons and ammunition. From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 20:06:03 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 20:06:03 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Russia attacks UN Kosovo head over self-rule plan Message-ID: <41.b7d2655.28331e6b@aol.com> Russia attacks UN Kosovo head over self-rule plan MOSCOW, May 15 (Reuters) - Russia lambasted the U.N's governor of Kosovo on Tuesday, saying his plans for a quasi-constitution for the region before elections amounted to an appeasement of Albanian separatists. Hans Haekkerup, the head of the U.N. administration in Kosovo, unveiled on Monday a blueprint for self-governing institutions in the region ahead of elections to a provincial assembly set for November 17. "The document prepared by H. Haekkerup has a whole series of faults, which the Russian side has drawn attention to," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement. The plan has already irked members of both the region's majority ethnic Albanians and its minority Serbs. Ethnic Albanians wanted Haekkerup's plans to include a referendum on the province's future status, while Serbs feared they amounted to giving independence to Kosovo, which legally remains part of Yugoslavia but is under U.N. control. Russia, which has 3,200 peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, sided with its traditional Serb ally on Tuesday. Russia's statement said Haekkerup should have given his plans to the U.N. Security Council for approval. Having failed to do so, he would face consequences in Kosovo and Macedonia, where ethnic Albanian rebels are also active, it said. Yakovenko said the plan contained no explicit commitment to preserving Serbia's territorial sovereignty and had ignored Belgrade's complaints on various issues, including the introduction of the posts of president and government chairman. "The legal framework for future self-government in the region is elevated almost to the level of a constitution," he said, warning this could lead to temporary-self rule bodies which could boost independence-minded forces. "Amid escalating provocation by Albanian terrorists from Kosovo territory, which has already led to serious destabilisation of the situation in Macedonia...Haekkerup and supporters of this decision must take special responsibility for future events in the Balkans," the statement said. From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 20:07:17 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 20:07:17 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Albanians accept UN Kosovo plan, Serbs critical Message-ID: <104.34cf1fd.28331eb5@aol.com> Albanians accept UN Kosovo plan, Serbs critical By Beth Potter PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, May 15 (Reuters) - Kosovo Albanian leaders said on Tuesday they would support a U.N. plan which paves the way for elections but complained it did not include the possibility of a referendum on independence. Serb leaders were highly critical of the plan, branding it "unacceptable" and "very problematic" while Russia, Serbia's traditional ally, said it amounted to appeasement of ethnic Albanian separatists. U.N. governor Hans Haekkerup unveiled on Monday the blueprint for self-governing institutions for Kosovo and set November 17 as the date for elections to a provincial assembly. Leaders of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority made clear their parties would take part in the election to a 120-seat assembly. But they said not including a provision to allow a referendum on the province's final status was a mistake. "Our main dispute is with the referendum question, but we will support this document," said Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the moderate Democratic League of Kosovo party, which took more than 60 percent of seats in municipal elections last year. "This document will hold hostage the aim of the people, which is independence," Hashim Thaci, a former Kosovo Liberation Army leader who is now head of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, said just before Haekkerup signed the document on Tuesday. But Serbs said the plans gave too much power to ethnic Albanians and amounted to a reward for the attacks on Serbs which have plagued post-war Kosovo, which legally remains part of Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica said the blueprint and the elections were also prejudging a final solution for Kosovo. "Even if they wished to, Kosovo Serbs could take part only with difficulty in the scheduled elections because they are not in their homes, nor can they return to them, nor is their security and freedom of movement ensured," a DSS statement said. In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko was even more scathing. "The document prepared by H. Haekkerup has a whole series of faults, which the Russian side has drawn attention to," he said in a statement. "The legal framework for future self-government in the region is elevated almost to the level of a constitution." he added, warning that this could boost independence-minded forces. SERBS SEE DANGER Kosovo was placed under U.N. rule in June 1999 after NATO bombing to end Serb repression of the ethnic Albanian majority. The U.N. administration has a mandate to implement substantial self-government pending agreement on Kosovo's final status at some unspecified future date. Kosovo Albanians overwhelmingly favour independence. Kostunica's political adviser Predrag Simic said the blueprint would not lead to reduction of tensions as the West hoped but would only "whet the Albanians' appetites." But Serb leaders did not make clear whether they would take part in the elections. Haekkerup on Tuesday restated his stance that he does not have the power to al low Kosovo's people to vote on independence. "This does not address final political settlement, but I think it's a stepping stone to reach a final agreement at some later stage," the Danish former defence minister said. Voters in November are to elect a new assembly with 120 members and a presidency of seven. Some 20 assembly seats will be set aside for Serbs and other minorities. The assembly will elect a president, who will nominate a prime minister. All three main Kosovo Albanian leaders said they hoped to be candidates for president if chosen by their parties. After the new government was in place, U.N. administrators would "step back," Haekkerup said. But the U.N. governor will remain in ultimate control, retaining powers such as being able to dissolve the assembly. From Gazhebo at aol.com Tue May 15 20:10:38 2001 From: Gazhebo at aol.com (Gazhebo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 20:10:38 EDT Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Serbs drive out rebels, Macedonia issues ultimatum Message-ID: <88.67feefd.28331f7e@aol.com> Serbs drive out rebels, Macedonia issues ultimatum By Dragan Stankovic ORAOVICA, Yugoslavia, May 15 (Reuters) - Serbian security forces drove ethnic Albanian guerrillas from a southern village on Tuesday while neighbouring Macedonia gave Albanian insurgents 48 hours to vacate its northern hills or face an army onslaught. The Yugoslav army commander in the volatile Presevo Valley said guerrillas had quit Oraovica, retreating into a NATO-drawn buffer strip around Kosovo after a swift Serb tank and infantry offensive aimed at stamping out the threat of a new Balkan war. General Ninoslav Krstic said 14 ethnic Albanian guerrillas had been killed in fighting over the village in the past few days before his forces took control. He also said 80 rebels who had changed out of their uniforms had been captured. The guerrillas gave lower casualty figures, saying they had lost a total of five men in the intense fighting. "We had two dead today and we had no choice but to withdraw," said one commander, known as "Profi." Further clashes between the two sides look likely as a NATO-approved May 24 target date looms for the Yugoslav army to enter the only part of the buffer zone which is now off limits to it -- a guerrilla stronghold known as Sector B. After the rebels left Oraovica, Yugoslav troops manned checkpoints in the village. Broken windows bore testimony to fierce house-to-house fighting and streets were largely empty. During the fighting, mortar bombs landed in nearby Presevo. "I heard the mortar whiz over my head," said Enver Memeti, an Albanian who found the bomb in his front yard. Krstic said there had been no civilian casualties in the recapture of the village seized by the rebels on Saturday. But the fightng prompted many ethnic Albanians to flee. About 1,000 refugees crossed to Albanian-dominated Kosovo on Tuesday. Some 9,000 have fled Macedonia for Kosovo in the past two weeks, raising the total since March to 20,000. Just over the mountainous border, a new Macedonian emergency government gave ethnic Albanian rebels 48 more hours to leave villages they have refused to quit despite days of shelling. The new coalition of Slav and Albanian parties admitted it expected to face more attacks after rebels fired a rocket at a security patrol. But it vowed to crush the insurgency, even if it needs longer than analysts expect the army to take in neighbouring Yugoslavia. "We should not build illusions that this whole thing will be resolved overnight," Defence Minister Vlado Buckovski said after the government set its Thursday noon deadline. "The new ministers do not have magic wands. But we are making good progress towards finding an end to this evil." FINAL WARNING The door-to-door stealth used by elite Serbian troops to fight their way back into Oraovica looked designed to prove to an anxious NATO there will be no repeat of the heavy shelling and village burning tactics they employed in Kosovo in 1998-99. But Macedonia has an extra headache restricting it to largely ineffective long-range bombardment -- villages seized by National Liberation Army (NLA) guerrillas just 30 km (20 miles) from the capital Skopje are still home to thousands of ethnic Albanian peasants who have not heeded calls to leave. "This is the last deadline we are giving to the civilians to leave the villages and the terrorists to leave their positions," government spokesman Antonio Milosovski said. "After this we will take adequate measures to finally eliminate the threat." To ensure the message gets through to villagers reportedly deprived of electricity, and hence unable to receive radio and TV warnings to leave, the army will drop leaflets into the area by helicopter. Rebels bent on armed struggle, who seem able to occupy Albanian-majority villages at will, will be harder to convince. RACE AGAINST TIME The NLA has popped up throughout the northern hills since it surfaced in February. Banished from talks, it vows to fight on. Serbia and Macedonia have the support of special NATO task forces on a three-way frontier with Kosovo, determined to stem a flow of weapons sustaining the extremists. Both countries hope political efforts to isolate gunmen by working to rebalance ethnic rights will make them disappear or clear the decks for a decisive military strike. But concrete progress on equality for ethnic Albanians in jobs, education and language rights is needed quickly before more shock killings that polarise ethnically mixed communities. Earlier on Tuesday, guerrillas fired a rocket in an abortive ambush of a police and army convoy in the village of Lisec, just outside the mainly Albanian northwestern town of Tetovo. An attack in the same region last month killed eight Macedonian soldiers, triggering anti-Albanian riots and the killing of two more police, which prompted the latest army offensive. From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue May 15 22:18:04 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 19:18:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Korrieri Message-ID: <20010516021804.56102.qmail@web11505.mail.yahoo.com> Arben Imami: Jaho, me 12 shtator ne Tirane Arben Imami: Jaho, me 12 shtator ne Tirane Arben Imami, pritet te jete sot, deshmitari i pare qe duhet te deklarohet sot konkretisht rreth Jaho Salihit, per ceshtjen e 12 shtatorit 1998. Dites se vrasjes se deputetit demokrat Azem Hajdari, per te cilin 24-vjecari tropojan pas arrestimit, e ka pranuar se eshte ekzekutori. Ministrit te Drejtesise se Shqiperise, i duhet te jape nje shembull kurajoje qytetare, kur sot, pas betimit per te thene "te verteten dhe vetem te verteten", do te thote gjithcka ka dijeni per ngjarjen tragjike. Ne ate kohe, Imami ka qene minister i Reformes Institucionale. Sipas deshmise se dhene para grupit "Hajdari" pas ngjarjes ai eshte njohur me deklaraten e Partise Demokratike se njeri nder vrasesit e deputetit te saj, badigardit Besim Cerja dhe plagosjes se Zenel Nezes, ishte edhe Jaho Salihi. Te nesermen, ai ka takuar ministrin e Rendit Publik, Perikli Teta, te cilit i ka rrefyer nje detaj, qe mund te ndihmonte per te vertetuar pikerisht kete moment te deklarates se Berishes. Badigardet e Imamit, i kishin treguar se ata kishin njohur Jaho Salihin ndersa ai shetiste rrugeve te Tiranes, me 11 dhe 12 shtator 1998. Ky moment, duket se mjaftonte per te vertetuar akuzen e demokrateve se Mulosmani, shefi i rendit i Tropojes, naten e atentatit kishte qene ne Tirane. Nje thenie qe me 13 shtator ne mengjes, ministrit te Rendit, Teta, ia ka pohuar me gojen e tij ne zyre edhe Fatmir Meta, shefi i Komisariatit te Policise se Tropojes. I cili kishte pranuar se ishte takuar diten e krimit me vartesin e tij Salihi, i cili i kishte marre per pak ore makinen dhe celularin. Keto deklarata hidhnin poshte alibine e vete te akuzuarit, i cili pretendonte se kishte qene ne shtepine e tij ate nate, ne Bujan, te Bajram Currit. Deshmitari minister, i ka pohuar theniet gjate deshmise se dhene ne Prokurori. Thenie te cilat do t'i duhet t'i riperserisi edhe sot. Por kete radhe ne sallen e gjyqit, perballe vete Jaho Salihit. Sekuestrimi politik Policia shqiptare ka bllokuar dje paradite nje sasi armesh, destinacioni i te cilave ishte nderkohe i percaktuar, lufta ne Maqedoni. Sipas njoftimeve policore transporti i tyre po behej nen fatura te rrema dhe me destinacion fals. Ky eshte vetem njeri aspekt i problemit, ai teknik. Tjetri, aspekti politik, eshte me i thelle se sa kaq. Ndalimi i armeve me destinacion Maqedonine, eshte bere ne nje moment te ngarkuar politik. Deri me sot, Qeveria e Tiranes ne asnje rast nuk ka mbeshtetur levizjen e UCK - se ne republiken fqinje, edhe pse nje pjese e rendesishme e shtypit ka qene kritike per kete problem. Nga ana tjeter, Tirana dhe Meta personalisht, ne nje sere takimesh kane harmonizuar qendrimet me ato te komunitetit nderkombetar dhe kane perkrahur zhvillimet politike atje. Ne te gjitha vizitat diplomatike qe kane synuar Tiranen, Shqiperia ka perseritur faktin se armet dhe njesite guerrilase nuk kane hyre nga ne dhe nuk kane akses pertej kufirit shqiptar. Por sekuestrimi i armeve te djeshme dhe rreptesia me te cilen ka reaguar qeveria, duket se ka te beje me shume me situaten politike ne rajon. Pas krijimit te koalicionit te gjere qeveritar ne Shkup dhe pas vendimit te perbashket te partive politike shqiptare per te marre pjese ne te, duket se presioni ndaj UCK - se eshte rritur mjaft. Ndaj tyre eshte dhene nje ultimatum me konsensusin e perendimit dhe nga ana tjeter, edhe Shqiperia eshte angazhuar per te mos njohur asnje tentative te tyre per te qene pale. Sipas burimeve qe citojne Qeverine e Tiranes, nese UCK nuk reagon ne dy ditet e ardhshme, qendrimi i Shqiperise do te jete edhe me i ashper se kaq. Duket se Shqiperia ka vendosur me se fundi te jete e ashper me luftetaret ne Maqedoni, jo vetem per t'i qendruar kritikave te Komunitetit Nderkombetar, por edhe e bindur se vazhdimi i luftes atje mund te krijoje shume probleme per shqiptaret ne rajon. Sekuestrimi i djeshem i armeve, eshte vetem i nje politike te ashper, qe sidoqofte nuk ka munguar deri me sot. --------------------------------- Korrieri, 05/16/2001 --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Wed May 16 10:22:10 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 10:22:10 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] =?ISO-8859-1?Q?TOC:_Jahrb=FCcher_f=FCr_Geschichte_und_Kultur_S=FCdosteuropas_(JGKS)_-_History_and_Culture_of_South_Eastern_Europe.?= Message-ID: An embedded message was scrubbed... From: fbieber at yahoo.com Subject: [balkans] TOC: Jahrb?cher f?r Geschichte und Kultur S?dosteuropas (JGKS) - History and Culture of South Eastern Europe. Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 15:37:00 +0200 Size: 4521 URL: From kbejko at hotmail.com Wed May 16 14:34:03 2001 From: kbejko at hotmail.com (Kreshnik Bejko) Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 14:34:03 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Some Serendipity Message-ID: Human and social capital What money can?t buy May 10th 2001 >From The Economist print edition How education and friends enrich MONEY?S not everything, but can it buy you happiness? Governments of the rich countries that belong to the OECD in Paris worry about the links between economic growth and well-being. People may be richer, but does economic progress damage the ties that hold societies together? And are those ties essential to the acquisition of skills and attitudes that help an economy to flourish? Such questions are fashionable with policymakers these days. In a report* published on May 10th, the OECD offers a few answers. The concept of human capital?of an individual?s skills and knowledge?is familiar enough. But social capital?the networks and shared values that encourage social co-operation?is woollier and far harder to measure. It is also not obvious that ?capital? is the right word for anything so nebulous. However, the report argues that the two ideas may be closely linked?to each other and to well-being. Better education goes with better health: more educated people smoke less, take more exercise and are less likely to be overweight. (One finding suggests that people take 17 minutes more exercise a week for each extra year of schooling.) Education also seems to go with greater happiness, although social ties and good health are even more important. These, too, are connected: old people without friends or relatives appear to have a higher risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer?s disease. The report finds no evidence that greater prosperity has depleted ?social capital reserves?. Indeed, while some argue that social and civic involvement has declined in America, it appears to be stable or rising in most OECD countries, perhaps because higher education goes with more volunteering and social participation. Plenty of unresolved points remain, especially about the direction of causality. Do healthy people have more friends, for instance, or do friends keep you healthy? A bigger issue, on which the report offers some tentative thoughts, is what governments can do. They have lots of ways to boost human capital, through education and training. But would a minister for social capital make life easier for families, volunteers and old folk?and how? He would need to be a good networker. --------------------------------- To be or not to be (Shakespeare) To be is to do (Socrates) Do be do be do (Sinatra) --------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From juniku at hotmail.com Wed May 16 18:53:25 2001 From: juniku at hotmail.com (Uk Lushi) Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 22:53:25 -0000 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Do YOU want to do something good and worthy?! Message-ID: HTML attachment scrubbed and removed -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: e-mail invitation.doc Type: application/msword Size: 33792 bytes Desc: not available URL: From juniku at hotmail.com Wed May 16 18:57:36 2001 From: juniku at hotmail.com (Uk Lushi) Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 22:57:36 -0000 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Do YOU want to do something good and worthy?! Message-ID: HTML attachment scrubbed and removed -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: e-mailinvitation.doc Type: application/msword Size: 33792 bytes Desc: not available URL: From aalibali at yahoo.com Wed May 16 22:42:41 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 19:42:41 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Washington Times Message-ID: <20010517024241.4499.qmail@web11504.mail.yahoo.com> The Washington Times May 16, 2001, Wednesday, Final Edition PART A; COMMENTARY; Pg. A17 Familiar quagmire developing in Macedonia Amos Perlmutter The current Macedonian quagmire is no different from than those in Bosnia and Kosovo. All are cataclysmic events that will continue to destabilize the Balkans. The price in blood and loss of property will continue to rise. As long as Macedonia is challenged, there will be no stability or peace for Yugoslavia. Nothing is more clear than the effort on the part of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) thugs and assassins to destabilize Macedonia in the name of greater Albania. Only naive, shortsighted writers are not aware that what is taking place is based on aspirations for a greater Albania. Whether this ideology is fulfilled is not relevant. What is relevant is that hoping to take advantage of a tired Western Europe and a Bush administration that wants to get out of the Balkan quagmire only strengthens the commitment of the KLA bandits and those who have been coerced to support them in Macedonia and Montenegro. The KLA will eventually challenge Bulgaria and Greece, as well. They hope that all will fall like dominoes one after the other. Those "humanitarians" who tried to save the Balkans from Slobodan Milosevic have committed two political crimes. The first criminal act was on the part of the United States and Western Europeans in their attempt to destroy the Milosevic regime - and, thus, Yugoslavia - at a cost of $30 billion, by bombing its industrial and economic centers. This was no victory. The annals of history will put the onus on Bill Clinton who bombed Serbia to divert the attention of the American people from his personal problems. The next political crime is being committed now, i.e. NATO support of the KLA and its ilk without exercising responsibility or control. Thus, in the effort to end Mr. Milosevic's ethnic cleansing, NATO willy-nilly gave a hand to the KLA, which is engaged in destabilizing the area. In a most significant analysis by Cato Institute Vice President Ted Galen Carpenter, "Waist deep in the Balkans and sinking," (Policy Analysis, April 20), the author writes "since NATO assumed control of Kosovo, there has been a massive reverse ethnic cleansing as Albanian nationalists have driven nearly 90 percent of the province's non-Albanian people from their homes. And now the Kosovo Liberation Army and its offshoots have expanded armed conflict into southern Serbia and Macedonia." Mr. Carpenter points out that the West is wearing blinders and ignores the KLA outrages in Kosovo, "proponents of current U.S. policy circulate far-fetched myths about the nature of the struggle in the Balkans. Having ignored the accurate warnings about the KLA issued by critics of the original Kosovo mission, interventionists are repeating the same kind of errors." The West has given Albanian nationalists bases of operation from which they "foment insurgencies across the borders." According to Mr. Carpenter, the reality is that aspirations for a greater Albania include not only Kosovo, but also parts of Yugoslavia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece. NATO's quasi-imperial domination of Kosovo shares only the bad aspects of imperialism, and not its contributing factors. Imperialism played a key role, despite its detractors, in creating a more modern political and state system in a number of cases in modern times. In Kosovo, NATO has failed to establish authority, government, a representative system,and certainly no democracy. It does not govern by virtue of its mission, i.e. humanitarian intervention, but in a haphazard fashion, oscillating between carrots and sticks for the KLA. In a pernicious way, NATO has given legitimacy to the KLA bandits. One of the most serious issues left from the NATO bombing and domination of Kosovo is the status of Albanians elsewhere. It is argued, especially by Western Europeans, that, if the Macedonians provide equal rights to their Albanian minority, all will be fixed. That is political nonsense. The KLA is not interested in the role of minorities and their status in the Macedonian government. They are interested in toppling it. Former NATO Commander Wesley Clarke writes ("Don't delay in Macedonia," The Washington Post, March 30), "Kosovo's people deserve self-rule. Albanians elsewhere - Macedonia, southern Serbia - deserve fair and lawful treatment." Why not establish self-rule for the Irish? Or maybe Xavier Solana, the former NATO secretary-general and a father of the bombing of Yugoslavia, should suggest self-rule for the Basques. Other minorities can be found in democratic Western Europe, which would easily qualify for self-rule. The very idea of self-rule coming from a former NATO commander clearly demonstrates that, despite the fact he spent so much time in the Balkans and so many hours with the dictator Mr. Milosevic, he needs to study the history of the Balkans once again. Self-rule in the Balkans means that one ethnic group designs the destruction of another in the name of independence. The purpose of the KLA is not to accommodate their Albanian brethren in Macedonia, but rather to destroy the regime. Mr. Clarke is not the only Western leader who advocates the need for "accommodation" between governments and their minorities. In Western democracies and the United States, minorities seek to be part of the system. However, the Albanian minority that supports the KLA has no intention to become part of a Slavic Macedonian State. They want to abolish it. I wholeheartedly endorse the views expressed by Paula Dobriansky and David B. Rivkin in their article "Out of the Balkans" in the Jan. 30 edition of The Washington Post. They clearly argue that the United States is the world's only truly global power and that "the withdrawal of U.S. 'peacekeepers' would neither destroy NATO, destabilize Europe nor undermine U.S. global leadership." Ted Galen Carpenter concludes, as do I and many others, that the United States and Europe after the Cold War have different security needs and interests. "It is time to pass the tainted chalice to the Europeans." Amos Perlmutter is a professor of political science and sociology at American University and editor of the Journal of Strategic Studies. Illustration, NO CAPTION, By Barbara Cummings Los Angeles Times Syndicate --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Thu May 17 07:56:56 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 04:56:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Interesting website Message-ID: <20010517115656.49639.qmail@web11504.mail.yahoo.com> http://www.eda-zari.de/ --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Thu May 17 23:34:40 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 20:34:40 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Kadare Message-ID: <20010518033440.48769.qmail@web11504.mail.yahoo.com> NJ? TAKIM ME KADAREN? Nga Nehat Islami Gjat? jav?s s? kaluar, forcat e armatosura maqedonase kan? bombarduar pozionet e luft?tar?ve shqiptar? rreth Kumanov?s. Ka pasur shum? viktima civile si edhe disa qindra sht?pi t? shkat?rruara. Megjith?se komuniteti nd?rkomb?tar ka arritur t? bind? qeverin? p?r t? zgjeruar koalicionin qeveritar, ekziston frika se konflikti mund t? p?rshkall?zohet dhe t? dal? jasht? kontrollit. A ?sht? nj? gj? e till? e paevitueshme? KADARE: Gj?ja m? e r?nd?sishme n? k?t? moment ?sht? t? ndalen vrasjet dhe bombardimet e fshatrave t? shqiptar?ve. T? bombardosh popullin t?nd nuk ?sht? rruga e drejt? q? duhet ndjekur. Rruga e drejt? ?sht? dialogu. Njer?zit q? jan? t? aft? t? sjellin paqen n? rajon duhet t? ulen n? tryez?n e bisedimeve dhe k?tu t? diskutohen t? gjitha temat pa p?rjashtim (Dhe jo si? ka ndodhur n? t? kaluar?n kur disa tabu kan? penguar bisedimet). Un? po pres dhe shpresoj q? U?K-ja t? gjej? vendin e saj n? procesin e paqes n? Maqedoni. T? gjith? duhet t? punojn? p?r t? shp?tuar Maqedonin? nga p?rshkall?zimi i k?saj lufte. Ka njer?z q? thon? se "p?r sa koh? q? shqiptar?ve u shkelen t? drejtat, duhet t? vazhdoj? lufta". Kjo nuk ?sht? e drejt?. I vetmi veprim i drejt? ?sht? t? ulen arm?t. Radikalizimi i vazhduesh?m i opinionit mund t? ?oj? n? krijimin e nj? Libani n? Ballkan dhe kjo do t? ishte nj? katastrof? p?r t? gjith?, pavar?sisht origjin?s s? tyre etnike. Ne nuk duhet t? lejojm? q? kjo psikoz? t? shtrihet edhe m? tej. A e konsideroni ju Shqip?rin? si nj? faktor stabiliteti n? k?t? pjes? t? Ballkanit dhe p?r zgjidhjen paq?sore t? ??shtjes s? Kosov?s? KADARE: Nj? Shqip?ri me paqe dhe stabilitet do t? jet? nj? ndihm? e madhe p?r shqiptar?t kudo q? ndodhen. Rruga m? e mir? p?r Shqip?rin?, q? t? ndihmoj? sot Kosov?n n? p?rpjekjet e saj t? drejta p?r pavar?si, ?sht? t? tregohet si nj? shtet serioz dhe i stabilizuar me institucione t? forta demokratike, nj? vend i cili ?sht? shk?putur nga ajo anarki n? t? cil?n ?sht? zhytur disa her? gjat? dekad?s s? fundit. ?do hap drejt stabilitetit n? Shqip?ri ndihmon n? m?nyr? direkte aspiratat e Kosov?s p?r pavar?si. Cili ?sht? mendimi juaj p?r vazhdimin e gjendjes s? tensionuar n? Lugin?n e Preshev?s? KADARE: Un? mendoj se Shqiptar?t n? lugin?n e Preshev?s do t? ken? arritur nj? fitore t? madhe, n?se arrijn? t? sigurojn? t? drejtat njer?zore sipas standarteve demokratike nd?rkomb?tare. Kjo do t? ishte nj? fitore e madhe dhe nj? sukses njer?zor, n?se ata lejohen t? jetojn? nj? jet? normale aty ku jan? dhe mos t? vuajn? si? kan? vuajtur m? par?. Ata tani b?jn? pjes? n? nj? shtet tjet?r, nj? minoritet si shum? t? tjer? n? Ballkan. N? Shqip?ri ka nj? minoritet grek, ka minoritete n? Bullgari, Maqedoni dhe vende t? tjera si edhe n? Kosov?. N?se ne pranojm? nj? parim moral, at? t? respektimit t? minoriteteve, at?her? ky parim duhet t? zbatohet kudo dhe jo vet?m at?her? kur ?sht? n? interesin ton?. Problemi i minoriteteve ekziston n? t? gjith? Evrop?n dhe shqiptar?t n? Preshev? jan? pjes? e k?tij problemi, k?shtu q? ata kan? t? drejt?n absolute t? jetojn? dhe t? konsiderohen si t? barabart? me qytetar?t e tjer? t? Serbis?. Askush nuk mund t? mohoj? q? kjo ?sht? nj? k?rkes? e drejt? e tyre dhe nj? k?rkes? morale. Ju keni th?n? disa her? se koncepti i nj? "Shqip?rie t? Madhe" ?sht? produkt i armiqve t? shqiptar?ve. Cilin keni para sysh kur thoni k?t?? KADARE: Un? mendoj se populli shqiptar ?sht? p?rpjekur shum?, dhe m? n? fund ka arritur sukses, duke i treguar komunitetit nd?rkomb?tar se k?rc?nimi i s? ashtuquajtur?s "Shqip?ri e Madhe" nuk ?sht? aspak real. P?r mendimin tim, kjo ka qen? nj? fantazm? e krijuar n? rrethet antishqiptare, me q?llim q? t? justifikohej n? nj? far? m?nyre vazhdimi i mbajtjes n?n presion t? popullit shqiptar. P?r fat t? keq, kur komuniteti nd?rkomb?tar ka kuptuar q? ky rrezik nuk ekzistonte, ??shtja ?sht? rip?rt?rir? p?rs?ri. Ju e dini q? nj? parti politike n? Shqip?ri, pak koh? m? par?, ka dal? haptazi n? mb?shtetje t? nj? "Shqip?rie t? Madhe" dhe ka pasur edhe deklarime nga grupe ekstremiste, individ? apo grupe m? t? vogla, t? cilat e kan? ringjallur k?t? fantazm?. Tani, kjo ??shtje duhet t? p?rcaktohet qart?: populli shqiptar ka t? drejt?, si t? gjith? popujt e tjer? n? bot?, t? ket? nj? d?shir? instinktive q? nj? dit?, n?se krijohen kushtet e duhura dhe n?se shqiptar?t do t? d?shirojn? di?ka t? till?, t? rikrijojn? nj? hap?sir? t? p?rbashk?t shqiptare. Por shqiptar?t nuk d?shirojn? t? arrijn? k?t? gj? me dhun? dhe as nuk duan ta arrijn? tani menj?her?. Kjo hap?sir? unike e shqiptar?ve, n?se nj? dit? do t? krijohet, duhet t? krijohet n? nj? Ballkan krejt?sisht demokratik dhe t? integruar. Pra, n?se Ballkani do t? integrohet n? Evrop?, n?se kufijt? nd?rmjet shteteve b?hen m? pak t? r?nd?sish?m dhe zhdramatizohen, n?se ka l?vizje t? lir? t? njer?zve, kulturave dhe mallrave, ?sht? e kuptueshme q? nuk ka asnj? arsye p?r t? krijuar nj? doktrin? t? ve?ant? p?r popullin shqiptar, e cila do t'i ndalonte shqiptar?t t? g?zonin di?ka q? t? gjith? popujt e tjer? e kan?. Historia ka treguar se popujt e Ballkanit nuk kan? qen? kurr? n? gjendje t? zgjidhin problemet e tyre pa nj? nd?rhyrje t? fuqive t? m?dha. T? gjitha vendet e Ballkanit d?shirojn? t? an?tar?sohen sa m? par? n? Evurop?. ?far? i pret shqiptar?t n? k?t? rrug?? KADARE: Shqiptar?t jan? m? t? interesuarit nga t? gjith? popujt e tjer? n? Ballkan p?r t'u bashkuar me Evrop?n. K?rkesat e shqiptar?ve, t? drejtat dhe lirit? e tyre mund t? plot?sohen n? kuad?r t? Evrop?s. ?sht? n? interesin e shqiptar?ve q? i gjith? rajoni i Ballkanit t? afrohet m? shum? me Evrop?n. ?far? mendoni p?r Shqip?rin? tani, rreth ndryshimeve q? kan? ndodhur n? vend gjat? viteve t? fundit? KADARE: Shqip?ria po zhvillohet, por kjo ?sht? m? tep?r merit? e vitalitetit t? shqiptar?ve, sesa e strukturave t? saj politike. Shqiptar?t e duan jet?n dhe kan? nj? d?shir? t? madhe p?r t? fituar koh?n e humbur. N? Shqip?ri ka nj? aktivitet shum? t? madh ekonomik. P?r fat t? keq, shteti nuk po e b?n si duhet pjes?n e tij, p?r t? ndihmuar k?t? aktivitet. Ekzistojn? probleme t? m?dha, kryesisht p?r sa u p?rket marr?dh?nieve t? Qeveris? me opozit?n. S? fundi, kam v?n? re disa p?rmir?sime: ka m? pak presion politik, dhe kjo ?sht? nj? shenj? e mir?. Ekziston nj? tendenc? tani p?r t? k?rkuar kompromise, por ende jemi larg asaj q? do t? d?shironim ne p?r nj? progres t? v?rtet? politik n? Shqip?ri. Edhe Serbia duket se po ndryshon. Miloshevi?i ?sht? arrestuar, por shoq?ria serbe ende gjendet nd?rmjet atyre q? k?rkojn? ndryshimin e v?rtet? dhe t? tjer?ve, t? cil?t p?rpiqen ta pengojn? at?. Sipas jush, edhe sa koh? do t? duhet q? Serbia t? shoh? n? sy t? kaluar?n e saj dhe t? zhvilloj? t? ardhmen? KADARE: Historia na ka treguar se shplarja e nj? vendi nga barbaria politike k?rkon koh? t? gjat?. Nevojitet koh? p?r t? spastruar nj? vend, p?r t? zhdoktrinuar dhe p?r t? larguar helmin e grumbulluar p?r nj? koh? t? gjat?. Do t? ishte shum? naive t? mendohej se Serbia do t? zhvillohet dhe demokratizohet krejt?sisht brenda nj? t? ardhmeje t? af?rt. Kjo do t? jet? nj? betej? e gjat?. Popujt e Ballkanit duhet t? p?rpiqen t? pastrojn? nd?rgjegjen e tyre nga krimet e kryera n? t? kaluar?n. Edhe ata intelektual?, t? cil?t kan? marr? pjes? apo kan? nxitur dhe organizuar krime n? Ballkan, duhet t? gjejn? forc?n morale p?r ta b?r? nj? gj? t? till?. Pa nj? hap n? k?t? drejtim, popujt nuk mund t? shkojn? p?rpara. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Thu May 17 23:45:39 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 20:45:39 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Lord Robertson's speech Message-ID: <20010518034539.25123.qmail@web11505.mail.yahoo.com> May 17, 2001 Speech by NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson at the Albanian Atlantic Association Tirana, Albania Minister(s), Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me start by saying what a great pleasure it is for me to be in Tirana today, and to address this important gathering organised by the Albanian Atlantic Association. I want to recognise especially the man at the helm of the Association, Alfred Moisiu, who is an old friend of the Alliance and someone with whom I always enjoyed working when he was still his country's Defence Minister. I am quite sure Alfred is doing an equally splendid job leading the Albanian Atlantic Association. My Staff and I look forward to continuing to cooperate with him, as well as with the Albanian Government, in advancing Albania's relations with the Alliance. We have a solid basis to build on. NATO's relations with Albania have both widened and deepened significantly in recent years. One reason has been the interest of the Alliance in working with Albania to help stabilise the troubled Balkans region. But equally important in fostering our relationship have been the strong efforts made by Albania to cooperate with, move closer to, and eventually join the Alliance. It is on these two dimensions of our ever-closer relationship that I wish to focus my remarks today. Let me start with the Alliance's effort to bring greater stability and security to South East Europe, and to integrate all the countries of the region into the broader community of European democracies, which is where they belong. I think that, on the whole, despite a number of lingering problems and occasional serious setbacks, we are seeing important progress in the right direction. Kosovo, for example, has undergone a dramatic transformation. Only two years ago, it was the scene of terrible violence. Now, it is largely safe and secure. Despite the occasional upsurge, overall numbers show that the level of violence is consistently going down. Refugees have felt sufficiently safe to return to their homes. Free and fair local elections have allowed the development of democratic self-governing institutions. Ultimately, the success of NATO's Kosovo campaign has been total: Kosovo is protected, the dictatorship abolished, the dictator imprisoned. With the disappearance of the Milosevic regime, the future of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has become a lot brighter as well; and with it the entire region's prospects for lasting peace, stability and prosperity. Under a democratic leadership, Yugoslavia has been keen to overcome its image as an outcast and become a responsible neighbour to the other countries in the region, and a constructive partner to the wider international community. And then there is Bosnia. Several recent outbursts of old-fashioned nationalism and ethnic hatred cannot disguise the fact that real progress has been made in that country as well. Refugees have returned, roads and houses have been reconstructed, and communities rebuilt. New, democratically elected institutions are supporting inter-ethnic rehabilitation. Bosnia was very much a tortured country six years ago. Now, it is a country at peace - a fragile peace, perhaps, and buttressed by a robust international presence, but peace nonetheless. A peace that creates the foundations for the people of Bosnia to build a self-sustaining society. We are seeing very clear examples of positive change throughout South East Europe. At the same time, however, it is evident that there is still a lot of work to be done. Of course, this is first and foremost a responsibility for the countries in the region themselves, for individual governments that need to implement domestic reforms and work together with neighbouring countries. And it is equally evident, that the international community must continue to encourage and support such efforts, and to help create a favourable environment for them to succeed. As far as the Alliance is concerned, I see four areas on which I believe we must focus in the short to medium term. Let me mention them to you, in no particular order of priority. In Bosnia, we must counter the attempts of hard-liners to establish self-rule for Bosnian Croat areas, in breach of the Dayton Peace Agreement and the legitimate state institutions. All Bosnian Croats must be made to understand that the interests of their community are best served by cooperating with the legitimate authorities of the Federation and with the High Representative. As before, NATO will not tolerate any acts of violence. In Kosovo, we must build on our success, and extend peace and security to all the Kosovars, regardless of their ethnic identity. This principle is firmly enshrined in Security Council Resolution 1244, and the international community is determined to uphold it. Above all, this means that the violence against minorities must stop. But neither will we tolerate acts of aggression such as those perpetrated against representatives of the international community in recent weeks. A third priority for the Alliance is to complete successfully the phased and conditioned release to the Belgrade authorities of the Ground Safety Zone, the buffer zone between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia. Two thirds of the zone have already been released without any major difficulties. The remaining part overlaps with the Presevo Valley, where NATO and the European Union have in recent months been engaged in facilitating a political dialogue between the Serb authorities and the ethnic Albanian community in the region. It is clear that the release of this part of the zone will require considerable restraint on both sides, and a number of confidence building measures by Belgrade, notably an amnesty for those who lay down their arms. NATO's fourth, and currently perhaps most pressing, priority in South East Europe is to help preserve the security, stability and territorial integrity of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Irresponsible acts of aggression by ethnic Albanian extremists risk undermining peace in a country that is a successful example of a functioning democracy in the Balkans. Let there be no mistake: the international community will continue to isolate the ethnic Albanian extremists, diplomatically and militarily, until they understand that their insurgency cannot and will not succeed, and that they have to pursue their aspirations through political means. I was in Skopje just last week, together with the European Union's High Representative Javier Solana, to stress this point, and to encourage the authorities to continue to show restraint, speed up the inter-ethnic dialogue, and form a broad coalition government. I welcome the formation of a government of national unity over the weekend. The people have stepped back from the edge of catastrophe. The degree of consultation and coordination between NATO and the EU on this particular matter is unprecedented, and the UN and the OSCE are engaged as well. This shows the strong determination on the part of the entire international community to preserve peace and stability, not just in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, but in the region more widely. It is obvious that there is a regional dimension to the unrest in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and indeed a risk of the hostilities spilling over and destabilising neighbouring countries. For this reason, KFOR has stepped up measures in the south of Kosovo to prevent people and supplies from slipping across the border. And I am both pleased and grateful that, with this same objective in mind, we have been able to initiate cooperation with the Albanian authorities to control the border of Albania with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. I am equally grateful for the strong political statements made by Prime Minister Meta on behalf of the Albanian Government, condemning the violence and supporting the line taken by the international community - including to dispel the notion of a "greater Albania". I welcome and encourage further such expressions of support, including by politicians who are not currently in power, as well as by the Albanian media. If we want to get the crisis in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia under control - and surely that is what we all want - it is absolutely crucial to refrain from making any statements simply for political reasons that will actually worsen the situation. I am confident that the Albanian Government, for its part, and indeed the people of Albania, will continue to pursue a measured approach towards this security challenge that we face together. My confidence is based on the seriousness with which successive Albanian Governments have supported the Alliance's engagement in South East Europe over the past several years, most crucially during the Kosovo crisis at the beginning of 1999. A further reason for my confidence is the enthusiasm with which successive Albanian Governments have responded to the Alliance's policy of partnership and cooperation, right from the inception of this policy at the beginning of the 1990s. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, This year, we celebrate ten years of partnership and bridge building. Ever since 1991, through the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, and later the Partnership for Peace and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, we have developed a network of security partnerships that stretches all across Europe, and even to the southern shores of the Mediterranean. It is a network that is truly inclusive and flexible, based on practical cooperation and a shared desire to support one another in dealing with common security challenges. Albania has been keen to play its part in this security network; and has used the opportunities which PfP and the EAPC offer in advancing its own security interests. But it has also been keen to make an active contribution to European security where it can, such as by contributing to SFOR and KFOR, supporting activities under NATO's South East Europe Initiative, and of course acting as host to KFOR's communications zone (West), a vital part of the logistic support for KFOR. NATO, for its part, has been glad to have Albania among its Partners, and to keep the country as engaged as possible. The EAPC and PfP nations have been used to good effect. NATO's PfP Cell here in Tirana has proved a very useful instrument for liaising with the Albanian authorities and streamlining cooperation in a wide range of areas. Allies are of course also well aware that attaining NATO membership is the Albanian Government's strategic objective; an objective supported by all the nation's political parties and an overriding majority of the population. We want to help Albania as much as we can. Indeed, these last few years, in the context of PfP and later also our Membership Action Plan, we have made a considerable effort to help Albania in meeting some of the difficult challenges it faces. I want to highlight just three of these challenges. The first one is economic reform. It is an area where NATO as such can make only a limited contribution. Yet it is an area that is crucial in order to benefit from working with NATO and eventually joining the Alliance. I know that all of you are realistic people, and that I won't offend anyone here by saying that there is still a lot to do in this regard. Allies are pleased to note, however, that the foundations of a functioning market economy have been put in place, and that Albania has achieved some positive results in macro-economic stabilisation - such as raising production and limiting inflation - despite continuing serious budget problems. Closely related to the challenge of economic reform is the critical need to get a grip on crime and corruption. We recognise the considerable determination shown by the Albanian Government. A number of very encouraging initiatives have been taken, but what will matter in the end will be their successful implementation. I am glad that the Alliance has been able to make a contribution in this field by reviewing, together with the Albanian authorities, their overall strategy on border security and border control. A third area, and one where the Alliance obviously has a lot to offer, is defence reform. Over the past few years we have worked closely, and rather successfully, with the relevant Albanian authorities on various aspects of this crucial challenge. Welcome progress has already been made towards the establishment of a new command and force structure, improvement of living conditions of the military, better education and training for the military, and increased interoperability with NATO forces. NATO is keen to continue working with Albania on these and other priorities. But, ultimately, it is the actual implementation of defence reforms that will count. Much will depend on the availability of sufficient resources. And, so I am about to make the same point in my speech here today that I have been making time and again before audiences in Allied and Partner countries: money has to be found, and spent wisely on defence priorities, if we are to meet the critical security challenges of the 21st century. It is clear, though, that in the case of Albania, not just defence reform, but also other critical reforms, and indeed the transformation of your entire society, are all crucially dependent on the success of your economic reform process. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have just characterised you as realistic people. I also consider myself a realist, and hope to have painted a realistic picture here today. A picture of a NATO Alliance strongly committed to restoring peace and stability in a critical part of Europe; determined to help South East Europe shed its "Balkan" past, and embrace its European future. Albania is an integral part of this objective. It is a country that has been eager to take its rightful place as a European nation. By offering forces to the NATO-led operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, and by lending political support to the goals of the international community, most recently in the face of the crisis in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania has demonstrated that it wants to be not only a consumer of security, but indeed a provider of security. NATO is grateful to Albania for taking such a constructive approach. The Alliance will continue to rely on you, and work with you to help you meet the many difficult challenges that you face. Albania, in turn, can rely on NATO. Rest assure that we will not let you down in your European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations. Thank you. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Thu May 17 23:47:04 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 20:47:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Financial Times Message-ID: <20010518034704.53752.qmail@web11506.mail.yahoo.com> Financial Times (London) May 18, 2001, Friday London Edition 1 Why we welcome Greeks bearing gifts: From theatre to weapons, Michael Kustow explores how deeply rooted our spirit is in ancient Hellenic culture By TO THE IRONIES OF MYTH AND HISTORY IN THE MANDOLIN Greece - its plays, poems, statues, laws, landscape, politics and philosophy, its light, its tastes, its islands, its "wine-dark sea" - keeps murmuring its siren songs in our ears. From the lachrymose but picturesque melodrama of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, to the ironies of myth and history in the Trojan war theatre saga Tantalus, Greece is still stroking the senses and stirring the spirit. Artists go on reaching into the well of Greek stories and argument. In his final creative surge, Ted Hughes picked up Ovid and re-voiced riddling Greek myths, unpacked Aeschylus and Euripides. The poet Christopher Logue continues his 40-year "account" of Homer's Iliad, bringing it into the age of cinema and missiles named after Greek gods - Poseidon, Trident. Tony Harrison's most recent foray into classical Greece is the decidedly modern feature film Prometheus, in which the golden effigy of our age of industry and technology journeys through a Europe depleted by pollution, consumerism and racism. In the West End, Fiona Shaw creates a commanding, contemporary Medea. In Ireland, Katie Mitchell's Electra touches the nerve-ends of rage and revenge. The quarrel over the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens continues to expose the curatorial paternalism of the British Museum. Paul Cartledge's recent BBC series The Greeks re-examined the golden age of 5th-century BC Athens and the collapse of its empire. On Sunday Radio 3 turns over a day's programming to all things Greek. The culture and politics of 5th-century BC Athens underpin our cities and political assemblies, our sports and our science, our myths and our heroes. The concepts, the wars, the drama and arguments made in Greece half a millennium before Christianity, the exclusions, boundaries and demarcations that were set in classical Athens, have become a kind of DNA code of our culture. But we've come a long way since Shelley famously announced in 1821, "We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts have their root in Greece." For a long time, Greek antiquity has ceased being simply the idol of Hellenophiles; it has also become what contemporary cultural analysts call a "site of struggle". Multiculturalists call it a cultural conspiracy. Feminists decry its dismissal of women. It's attacked as a model of ethnocentrism, a museum of Dead White European Males, a high-minded hall of fame founded on slavery. How has the ancient Greek legacy gone through such dizzying changes since antiquarians began digging up classical trophies for their collections half a millennium ago? The thing we call "classical Greece" has been as fiercely fought over as the battlefield of Marathon. Look at all the ways it's been used to reflect what we need to see of ourselves. In 19th-century Britain, Pericles and Plato supplied role-models for empire-builders. For today's radical Left, the Athenian system, albeit excluding women and slaves, is a template for radical democracy. An artistic inspiration to sculptors from Canova to Antony Caro, neo- classical art based on Greece was also an aesthetic imposition William Blake felt he had to combat. In France recently, ultra-rightwing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen's henchpeople justified their xenophobia by reference to classical Athens' treatment of foreigners, whom they called "barbarians". Conversely, ancient Greece has also been a benchmark for multiculturalism, as in Martin Bernal's controversial "Black Athena" which contends that ancient Greeks were black or coloured migrants from Egypt. What we call "classical Greece" is, in today's critical vocabulary, a "construction". The materials of which it was built were statues, vases, columns, tombs, and above all texts - Homer and Plato and Euripides, laws and decrees heaped with laundry lists in the jumble of history. Many of the most precious had been held in Byzantium, in whose Greek-speaking capital Constantinople a fabled treasury of classical Greek culture had been preserved. After it fell to the Turks in 1453, the trickle of objects became a flood. By the 18th century, with the age of Enlightenment and the Encyclopedists, there was an appetite to find a history and meaning in these breathtaking samples of disinterred Greek art. It was provided by one of the most brilliant and appealing Helleno-maniacs of his time, Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Besotted with the art of classical Greece, this German schoolmaster found a job as a cardinal's librarian at the Vatican. Every day he scrutinised the white marble statues of ancient Greece - or at least their Roman copies. Moved by their ideal male beauty - he was a homosexual - Winckelmann wrote rhapsodically about the "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" of Greek art, and his books set a new touchstone for Europe's artists and intellectuals. But like many German Hellenophiles of the 18th and 19th centuries, Winckelmann never got to Greece. It was almost as if there was a terror of actually embracing the reality of his ideal. An English aristocrat toyed with the idea of taking him there as her tour antiquarian. "I have never wanted anything as passionately as this," Winckelmann wrote. "I wouldn't mind losing a finger, in fact I wouldn't mind losing my balls, for a chance of getting to Greece." The pilgrim who was prepared to castrate himself was murdered in Trieste by a young thief he had invited to his room, boasting of priceless Greek coins he had there. The Greek siren song echoes on. I hear it most clearly in the theatre, the least material and most mercurial of ancient Greek benefactions to us. Not only Tantalus, but a galaxy of productions has shaken our stages: Peter Hall and Tony Harrison's Oresteia, Peter Hall's Oedipus plays and Lysistrata, and Tony Harrison's Dionysiac Trackers, built on the fragments of a wildly disrespectful satyr play. Perhaps the reason why Greek theatre is such a significant resonator of the Greek spirit now is that in a time of tragic, apparently insoluble and violent conflicts, in the Middle East, the Balkans, Rwanda, Northern Ireland, it shows us how to face the worst. It confronts us with the ultimate mystery - how, with all our cleverness, we still go on hating and hurting, trapped in nets of crime and retaliation. "We've had 2,500 years of philosophy, psychology, science," says playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, "and not one of them has yielded some final understanding. Going back to the Greek plays you begin to sense this suspicion, in a kind of horror, that the human being is ultimately not just irrational, but unknowable." Faced with atrocity, suffering and pain, there's a human instinct to break down, howl, rage, and so to lose language. In a television age, we allow ourselves a brief moment of compassion or indignation before the newsreader moves on. In their theatre, the Greeks kept violence off the stage, out of sight. But they did not keep it out of mind, or out of heart. And through their theatre, with its impassive, eloquent masks, they preserved the power of language - "speech, thought light as wind" as Sophocles puts it. And this is the biggest difference between our image-saturated world and theirs, so like and unlike ours. Michael Kustow's 'Possessed By The Greeks' is on Radio 3 on Sunday at 4.00pm, part of Radio 3's Greek Day. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Thu May 17 23:50:15 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 20:50:15 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] The Guardian Message-ID: <20010518035015.5199.qmail@web11507.mail.yahoo.com> The Guardian (London) May 18, 2001 Guardian Leader Pages, Pg. 28 Nigel Clive; Intelligence Officer Whose Memoirs Preceded Spycatcher Nigel Clive, who has died in Athens at the age of 83, was one of the few former members of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to have produced a memoir covering at least part of his undercover activities. A Greek Experience, 1943-48, was published in 1985, shortly before the Spycatcher trial began in Australia, where it was claimed, on behalf of the Crown, that M15 and SIS operatives never ventured into print. Defence lawyers acting for the former agent Peter Wright appeared, however, to be unaware of this earlier work, which they could arg- uably have used as a precedent for allowing Wright's memoirs to be published. Following a distinguished school and university career at Stowe and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read history, in 1940 Clive was recruited, in characteristically haphazard fashion, by the inter-services liaison committee, as MI6 in the Middle East was known. His first instruction was to purchase a dinner jacket. In December 1943, under the pseudonym Jim Russell, codenamed Jute and equipped with a copy of Das Kapital, Captain Clive was parachuted into Epirus in north-westem Greece. He had been disconcerted when told that his first concern should be to avoid the fate of his predecessor, a Greek- American who had been shot dead, for purported collab-oration, by a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the prodigal son of SIS and, at times, its bitter rival. Clive's main task was to gather military intelligence in preparation for a possible Allied landing on the west coast of Greece. Inadequately briefed, he found it impossible to steer clear of the treach- erous shoals of occupation politics. Indeed, he rapidly developed a fascination for Greek politics that remained until the end of his life. Unlike some SOE operatives, he never looked on the Greeks as white wogs', nor did he regard acquiring fluency in Greek as a waste of time. Although there existed in Greece (and still, to some degree, exists) a widespread belief in the omniscience and omnicompetence of the British intelligence service, Clive rapidly came to realise that SOE's understanding of the complex politics of occupied Greece was more acute than that of his masters in SIS. He got on well with his SOE colleagues and - thanks to his own resourcefulness and the courage and ingen-uity of his Greek contacts - was soon able to build up an impressively detailed picture of the German order of battle. The shine was taken off his achievement, however, when he learned that his rudimentary ciphers, and probably those of SOE, had been cracked by the staff of General Hubert Lanz, commander of the XXII Armeekorps, which was garrisoned in Jannina, and whose activities Clive was seeking to monitor. He was also dispirited to learn that his reports to Cairo on the civil war that had broken out between rival Greek guerrilla organisations were being transmitted neither to SIS headquarters in London, nor to the Foreign Office, which was becoming increasingly alarmed at the growing strength of the communist resistance. After the war, Clive continued to serve in Greece until 1948. Subsequent postings with SIS, about which he was reticent, included Jeru- salem, Baghdad, Tunis and Algiers. Between 1966 and 1969, he headed the information research department, the Foreign Office's propaganda arm during the cold war. His last posting, between 1970 and 1980, was as adviser to the OECD secretary-general. In retirement, Clive was a stalwart of the Anglo-Hellenic League, wrote on Greek politics, spoke at conferences on Britain's wartime entanglement in Greek affairs, and frequently reviewed books of Greek interest. Besides writing the account of his wartime experiences, he translated Marianna Koromila's In The Steps Of Odysseus, based on a memoir written by Yanko Danielopoulos, whose varying fortunes threw much incid-ental light on the fate of the Greek mercantile diaspora on the shores of the Black Sea in the 20th century. Clive was awarded the mil-itary cross in 1944, the OBE in 1959 and was made CMG in 1967. He is survived by his wife, Maria Tambakopoulou, whom he married in 1949. Richard Clogg Nigel David Clive, diplomat, intelligence officer and Hellenophile, born July 13 1917; died May 6 2001 --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Fri May 18 00:00:20 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 21:00:20 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Gazeta Korrieri Message-ID: <20010518040020.6081.qmail@web11507.mail.yahoo.com> 313- Durda takon 2 avokate greke 313- Durda takon 2 avokate greke Padrinoja i kokaines, realizon takimin surprize. Dy nga juristet me te paguar helen, kane depertuar deri ne qeline e tij, me ndihmen edhe te ambasades greke ne Tirane. Tani mund te shpjegohet enigma, se perse ka heshtur 42-vjecari i akuzuar Elida Domi Dy avokate greke takojne Frederik Durden ne qelite e burgut 313. Pasi ka nderhyre vete ambasada greke ne Tirane, cifti i avokateve ka mundur te depertoje brenda burgut, ku kapo i narkotrafikut te kokaines, qendron i arrestuar qe prej 3 shkurtit te ketij viti. Avokatet e Greqise, te cilet kane mbrojtur dhe ceshtjen e hapur nga Durda pas sekuestrimit te anijes "Privilege" ne Spanje, kane biseduar per disa ore me Durden, pa ndermjetesine e askujt tjeter. Ata e kane cilesuar takimin e se merkures ne mbremje thjesht per arsye personale dhe askush nuk ka mundur te mesoje nga komunikimi i tyre. Nderkohe mesohet se te njejtet avokate kane "luftuar" ne emer te Durdes, qe ky i fundit te fitonte serish anijen qe kishin bllokuar ne veren e vitit te shkuar. Ne kohen kur anija priste "mallin" e shtrenjte nga Venezuela per te hyre me pas nga Adriatiku ne Shqiperi. Avokatet kane qendruar per dy dite ne Tirane dhe vizita e tyre eshte komentuar si motivi, i cili ka bere qe Durda te qendroje i heshtur per muaj me radhe. Ndoshta, duke pritur nje keshille nga mbrojtesit e tij te vjeter. Te marten pasdite, dy avokatet burre e grua, kane mberritur ne Hotel Rogner, ku jane regjistruar per te qendruar dy dite. Aq sa per te takuar klientin e tyre qe e kishin njohur qysh prej nje viti, atehere kur ai kishte kerkuar ndihme per te rimarre anijen e tij. Frederik Durda, i njohur me psudonimin Aleko Papa, me te cilen kishte regjistruar dhe mjetin e lundrimit, ka jetuar per nje kohe te gjate ne Greqi, ku kishte dhe vilen me lukzose ne Athine. Aty mendohet se ka njohur dhe avokatin grek, te njohur ne rrethet e Greqise, si nje nder me te miret. Durda bashke me te vellane Stefan Zonjen, pak kohe pas sekuestrimit te anijes "Privilege", kane paguar avokatin per ta nxjerre pronen nga masa e sekuestros se policise. Ceshtja eshte radhitur ne ato civile, pasi behej fjale per sekuestrim prone. Por, nuk arriten dot ta fitonin. Pasi me 2 shkurt u shkaterrua rrjeti mbarekombetar i kokaines dhe tashme anija eshte bllokuar si prove materiale kunder trafikut te organizates. Si hyne greket ne burg Jane paraqitur si avokate, por duke thene se kane ardhur nga Greqia per pune personale, me Frederik Durden. Por, leja nuk ka qene e lehte per t`u marre. Me pas jane drejtuar ne ambasaden greke dhe kane kerkuar ndihme, duke thene se rruga e tyre nuk mund te shkonte kot. Gati 24 ore me vone, ambasada ka mundur qe te prese miratimin, qe shtetasit e saj te realizojne qellimin per te cilin kishin ardhur ne Shqiperi. Ne takimin e se merkures ne mbremje, ne dhomen e bisedimeve te tyre nuk ka hyre askush, madje as ndonje nga hetuesit e ceshtjes, pasi eshte respektuar vizita e konsideruar personale. Vete Durda ka prenotuar dy avokate mbrojtes shqiptare, por duket se greket, nder me te njohurit, i jane nevojitur atij per keshilla per mbrojtjen e tij nga akuza e ngritur zyrtarisht prej 2 shkurtit. Por, ende nuk dihet nese ata kane kontaktuar dhe me koleget e tyre shqiptare. Deri tani Frederik Durda nuk ka dhene asnje shenje komunikimi per hetuesit e ceshtjes, duke i lene ata te shpresojne pas ketij takimi. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From ipilika at hotmail.com Fri May 18 10:05:10 2001 From: ipilika at hotmail.com (Iris Pilika) Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 14:05:10 -0000 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Fwd: Kouchner briefs Message-ID: >From: "ALBANIA 2001" >Reply-To: 2001ajb-owner at yahoogroups.com >To: alb2001 at f155.beld.net >Subject: [2001ajb] Fwd: Kouchner briefs >Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 20:44:38 -0400 > >See summary below from Lili Kepuska of Kouchner's talk at Harvard. > >---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- >From: Lili Kepuska >Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 16:57:02 -0400 > > > >Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 16:50:27 -0400 > >To: massnaac at yahoogroups.com > >From: Lili Kepuska > >Subject: Kouchner briefs > >Cc: > >Bcc: > >X-Attachments: > > > > > >This info was what I was able to take notes on. > >Who ever was there please add to the info so the rest of the community > >will be informed. Unfortunately there was no handouts > > > > > > > >Bernard Kouchner was a the head of UN Administration for Kosova July 99 > >through January 2001 he referred to himself as a dictator of Kosova > >jokingly or not depending on whose point of view. > >He started his talk by saying the operation was not a peace keeping but > >peacemaking operation since the conflicts were still going on. > >He gave a short overview of the situation prior to NATO Bombing, touched > >on the fact that Dayton was a beginning rather then an end to diplomatic > >efforts. He was among the supporters of having the Kosova question >brought > >to the discussions in Dayton. He was very careful to point out that >Kosova > >was under Apartheid regime and that they succeeded in their civil > >disobedience efforts and in creating a parallel society. He believes that > >the UCK was formed by young people inpatient with lack of response to > >their peaceful efforts. > > > >He described his beginning in Kosova where he went with only a staff of >30 > >people and what he found there. He said Albanians were a population >with > >a stripped identity, > > > >120,000 damaged houses > > > >He faced two major obstacles: > > > >From within: > >OSCE an organization that was in charge of finances and very disappointed > >that it had to operate under UN > > > >European Union in charge of economic rebuilding and pretty strong headed > > > >UNHCR not prone to except authority therefore very difficult to manage > > > > > >NATO forces that were not under the authority of Kouchner administration. > >Just to keep the channels of communication open he had to meet every day > >for one hour with military. > > > >400 to 500 NGO's that were impossible to control. > > > >In all of this the good news for him as a doctor was the fact that during > >this winter there was not an epidemic, old people did not die in large > >numbers as feared, hospitals were restored > > > >In February 2000 there was no electricity or heat due to Serbian non > >maintenance of power plants. > > > >What was very interesting to him and something Albanians should be proud > >of, is that there was no major protests or complains > > > >One of the major undertaking was the demilitarization of the UCK. Taking > >into consideration Ireland, UCK was cooperative and they did turn in > >about 10,000 weapons. > > > >According to partial information since not all mass graves have been > >excavated the number of dead people is presumed to be 10,000 and that >6000 > >are missing. > > > >Internal struggle among Albanians was a very difficult factor. > > > >Kouchner and his team in the beginning had neither power nor money to be > >able to enforce any solutions > > > >He was able to get Rugova, Thaci, Qosja and Martin (I think I did not > >ketch the name of the Serb representative) to meet twice a week > >A very successful campaign based on his opinion Is the date set for > >November 19 for General elections with substantial autonomy as the goal. > > > >What did we learn from the Kosova Peace keeping operation? > > > >The right to interfere, based on the toady's statistics by NGOs the > >biggest threat to human right is the government within sovereign borders. > > > >No police officers available immediately was a recipe for disaster due to > >the fact that the crime and revenge killings were running rampant. It >took > >one year and a lot of pressure to even bring 1000 police officers on the > >ground. > >Urban Development was not organized the team of experts in rebuilding > >should have been available right away > > > >He thinks the idea to rebuild the judicial system based on Yugoslav model > >was plain stupid and premature > > > >The overall picture is much better than it is told. > > > >Considering the results of the first free and fair elections where there > >were no irregularities, where the Albanian people showed their maturity >by > >electing a democratic government, where the people that had occupied >these > >posts as per their right that they fought for Kosova peacefully released > >their positions to the will of the people. > > > >His questions is: what will the world do in regard to Kosova and its > >independence when Montenegro that is Orthodox and only 600.000 is leaving > >the federation? > > > >On the question of Mitrovica he danced his way out of it by not being >able > >to publicly admit it was a screw up. > > > >Considering the scope of the problem it was not exactly unpredictable >that > >a flash point remains. > > > >My personal views on Kouchner are: > >He was impressed with elections that were so peaceful in an environment > >riddled with hatred and ethnic tensions, > > > > > >The questions from the public > > > >What about Mitrovica? > >He played the role of the politician, no straight answer > > > >Belgrade and why to Bomb it? > >He believes that they deserved it and it was inevitable > > > >What about 40% of the population that is under the age of 18. > >He believes they are being taken care of!!! And UNICEF is doing "great" > > > >What about Yugoslav Ambassador and his seminars titled "Development of > >Yugoslavia and the birth rate of Albanians" where do you see the > >connection on this topic? > >He did not understand the question. > > > >The other tow speakers were very good but I was not able to take notes > >since I did not have enough paper.. Next time I will try to do better. > > > > > >Thank you, > >Lili > > > >*************************************************************************** >Lili Kepuska >Undergraduate Academic Administrator >Foreign Languages & Literatures >Bldg. 14N-310 >(617) 253-4550 - work, (617) 258-6189 - fax >lilik at mit.edu > > > >-- >ALBANIA 2001 >Investment and Finance >Suite #72 >Rruga Ismail Qemali, Pallati Fratari >Tirana, Albania >Telephone: 355-4-230700 >Telephone: 355-38-21-63603 (Mark Kosmo -- Cell Phone) >Telephone: 355-38-20-26031 (Diana Rodi -- Cell Phone) >Fax: 355-4-230700 >E-Mail: alb2001 at icc-al.org > > >ALBANIA 2001 >Investment and Finance >Suite #417 >160 Commonwealth Avenue >Boston, MA 02116 >Telephone: 781-843-1056 >Telephone: 617-262-6665 >Fax: 617-262-2340 >E-Mail: alb2001 at beld.net > >-- _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From e_dusha at hotmail.com Fri May 18 15:48:37 2001 From: e_dusha at hotmail.com (e_dusha at hotmail.com) Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 15:48:37 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] An article for you from an Economist.com reader. Message-ID: <200105181949.PAA16839@adserverdb.economist.com> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - AN ARTICLE FOR YOU - FROM AN ECONOMIST.COM READER Dear Albsa, Elton Dusha (e_dusha at hotmail.com) wants you to see this article on Economist.com: Ilir Meta Albania's prime minister has to lift his people out of the mire--and keep them out of regional violence HE MIGHT have become a champion weight-lifter. Instead, Ilir Meta chose politics--in which, as prime minister of Albania, he needs much the same qualities: muscle, persistence and an ability to pick the right moment for an all-out effort. His job is to heave his hard-pressed country out of the clutches of traffickers in drugs, weapons and illegal migrants; and, now, to resist the extremists who are trying to create an ethnic-Albanian fief in neighbouring Macedonia. (more ...) http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=627408 Go to the address above to read the full story. (Please note that this is a premium story which requires payment or an Economist.com subscription. If you are not logged in as an Economist.com subscriber, and you go to the address above, you will be presented with various options for gaining access to this story.) Or go to http://www.economist.com for more global news, views and analysis from the Economist Group. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ABOUT ECONOMIST.COM - Economist.com is the premier online source of global news, views and analysis. Visit http://www.economist.com for worldly insight as well as market information and exclusive resource libraries. Register at Economist.com to get free e-mail newsletters, screensaver and special offers. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ABOUT THIS E-MAIL - This e-mail was sent to you by the person at the e-mail address listed above through a link found on Economist.com. We will not send you any future messages as a result of your being the recipient of this e-mail. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - COPYRIGHT - This e-mail message and Economist articles linked from it are copyright (c) 2001 The Economist Newspaper Group Limited. All rights reserved. http://www.economist.com/help/copy_general.cfm From aalibali at yahoo.com Sun May 20 23:16:20 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 20:16:20 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Reaction to Greek Helsniki Monitor Message-ID: <20010521031620.18730.qmail@web11506.mail.yahoo.com> GHM/MRG-G Statement to UN WGM: Unrecognized National Minorities in Albania, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Macedonia, Slovenia and Turkey GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR (GHM) MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE Address: P.O. Box 60820, 15304 Glyka Nera Telephone: (+30-1) 347.22.59. Fax: (+30-1) 601.87.60. e-mail: office at greekhelsinki.gr website: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Partly or Fully Unrecognized) National Minorities (Statement to the UN Working Group on Minorities, 7th session, Geneva, 14-18 May 2001) The existence of a minority is "a matter of fact, not a matter of law" said the International Court of Justice in the interwar period. "General Comment by the Human Rights Committee on Article 27 of the ICCPR (UN 1994)," states inter alia that: "The existence of an ethnic, religious or linguistic minority in a given State party does not depend upon a decision by that State party but requires to be established by objective criteria." UN CERD has issued two recommendations on the right of minorities to self-identification (Recommendation VIII of 1990) and on the uniform criteria to be applied by all states for the recognition of the presence of minorities in their territory (Recommendation XXIV of 1999)."I know a minority when I see one" has said the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM). It is therefore unfortunate that some states continue to claim that minorities exist only when defined by domestic laws, and refuse to recognize national minorities when "they see them." Respect for the identity of any minority is the prerequisite for a country to be considered that it respects minority rights. Minorities that are not recognized are inevitably discriminated against and many of their rights are curtailed. It is recommendable that the Working Group of the U.N. Commission of Human Rights, along with regional institutions like the OSCE HCNM, engages in a study of the issue and help the countries that do not recognize (some of) their minorities -like the European countries mentioned below- to adjust their constitution, legislation and/or practice so as to formally recognize the existence of minorities that the international community anyhow acknowledges, irrespective of these countries' positions. The latter are in many cases criticized by intergovernmental bodies like the HRC, UN CERD and ECRI. As ECRI stated, France's "republican model" rejects the concept of minority groups among French citizens. But "ECRI considers that, de facto, such groups exist and that ? the rights of individuals connected with the identity of these groups of the population of France are limited" (p. 12). France replied that "the legal concept of 'minority' does not exist in French law" (p. 26) as it is incompatible with "the principles of the indivisibility of the nation" (p. 25). France's other related arguments therein were inspired by strong assimilationism. Scholars and minority rights activists have shown that constitutional amendments are necessary but also possible for the development of a multicultural concept of the Republic: after all, the French constitution is being amended frequently, including as recently as in 2000, on other matters. A similar "republican model" based on the "indivisibility of the nation" exists in Turkey, except that that country is obliged by the Treaty of Lausanne to recognize its non-Muslim minorities. So, Turkey rejects the concept of ethno-national minorities like the Kurds, and moreover considers the non-Muslim communities as religious minorities, even though they aspire to be ethnonational: for example, Turkey's Greeks cannot call themselves Greeks ("Ynanli") but only Greek-Orthodox ("Rum"). Its neighbor Greece, with an ideological construct of a "100% homogeneity" to quote the Athens Journalists' Union president among many others, is the other OSCE country besides Turkey that refuses to recognize the presence of ethno-national minorities, like Macedonians and Turks, while recognizing only one religious minority, the Muslims, as imposed by the Treaty of Lausanne. The latter are denied the right to call themselves and their associations Turks and Turkish (but allowed to call themselves and their groups Pomak or Roma). Restrictions of the freedom of association and expression of Macedonians and Turks have been criticized by ECRI, while CERD has appealed to Greece to respect self-identification and apply its General Recommendations VIII and XXIV (see above). Somewhat similar is Slovenia's position. In its 2000 recommendations for that country CERD "notes that different minority groups are provided by law differentiated protection measures in different areas of daily life, such as political representation, access to media, education and culture. The Committee notes that minority groups, such as Croats, Serbs, Bosnian and Roma, do not enjoy the same level of protection from the State party as the Italian and Hungarian minorities. In this connection, the Committee recommends that the State party, in accordance with article 2 of the ICERD, ensure that persons or groups of persons belonging to other minority groups are not discriminated against." The reason is that besides Italians and Hungarians, the other and more numerous groups are not recognized as minorities. It is ironic, but also indicative of its direction, that the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe has decided to fund an institute on minorities as a joint Greek-Slovenian venture. Macedonia also has a legalistic approach: it formally recognizes some minorities -including in an interpretative declaration to the FCNM- and provides them, at least on paper, with a large array of rights. But other minorities, like -mostly recently established- Bosniaks or -historical ethno-national "rivals"- Bulgarians, though probably more numerous than the recognized Aromanians, are denied recognition. Bulgarian parties and associations are denied registration. Across the border, Bulgaria "reciprocates" by recognizing a large array of "minority groups" -that it does not like to call minorities though- but refusing to include Macedonians among them, and restricting their freedoms of association and of assembly. ECRI acknowledges the presence of an "ethnic Macedonian identity," notes that complaints for violations of the right to assembly won admissibility at the ECHR, and "hopes that Bulgarian authorities will take steps to ensure that all groups in Bulgaria effectively enjoy the right to peaceful assembly." Finally, Albania recognizes a Greek and a Macedonian minority, but only in the Southern regions. Those who identify as Macedonians and Greeks outside these minority regions are denied the minority rights granted in the south, including minority classes at state schools. The 2000 Himara municipal election tensions were related to an effort of the Greek minority to have its existence recognized, which was successful insofar as even the OSCE ODIHR reported that "in Himara, ? there is a Greek-speaking minority." In a statement to the 2000 OSCE Implementation Review meeting, in response to a related GHM/MRG-G statement, Albania declared that "the boundaries of minority zones result solely from the course of Albania's history." In the forthcoming census, Albania did not include questions on national identity and religion (unlike in previous ones) to avoid seeing its official policy on minorities refuted by census data, even though ECRI recommended the inclusion of such questions. ____________________________________________________ GHM Board: Panayote Dimitras, Orestis Georgiadis, Dimitrina Petrova, Alan Phillips, Gregory Vallianatos. MRG-G Spokesperson: Nafsika Papanikolatos International Advisory Committee: Savvas Agouridis, Teuta Arifi, Ivo Banac, Vladimir Bilandzic, Marcel Courthiade, Loring Danforth, Fernand de Varennes, Eran Fraenkel, Victor-Yves Ghebali, Henri Giordan, Krassimir Kanev, Will Kymlicka, Remzi Lani, Theodore S. Orlin, Magda Opalski, Dimitrina Petrova, Alan Phillips, Aaron Rhodes, Vladimir Solonari, Patrick Thornberry, Stefan Troebst, Boris Tsilevich, Tibor Varady, Marc Weller. Affiliation to International Organizations: Consortium of Minority Resources (COMIR), Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), Minority Rights Group International (MRGI), OneWorld.Net, South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO). ====================Albania's Reply in UN WGM to GHM on Non-recognition of Minorities Reply by Albania I wish to comment briefly on the declaration of the Greek Helsinki Monitor held this morning. ? First I would like to emphasize that Albania follows a constant protective policy towards its national minorities. The Albanian constitution and other relevant legal acts are undoubtedly the most democratic compared to other former communist countries as well as to other countries in the region or even further. Albania has also ratified many international instruments in this field, suffice is to mention that we have ratified the Framework Convention on the Protection of national Minorities. The domestic and international acts are fully put into practice as well. Just to give an example, in Albania are held classes even with 1-2 minority pupils. I would like to emphasize also that the Greek minority is placed only in Southern Albania. ? In Himara there was an electoral incident created from outside intervention. Himara is not and has never been a minority zone, despite the fact that some of its inhabitants may speak the Greek language. ? The census of population in Albania is being done in close co-operation with international organizations, including UN Institutions, particularly with UNDP. The registrations forms prepared for this census have been modeled according to those of European Union's states. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon May 21 08:32:43 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 05:32:43 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Kathimerini Message-ID: <20010521123243.25186.qmail@web11504.mail.yahoo.com> Papandreou and Powell get together Olympics, terrorism, Balkans, Cyprus, American forces in Greece and energy on agenda at first official meeting At the first official meeting between Papandreou and Powell to take place today (they are shown here at a meeting in Brussels two months ago), all the vital issues concerning both countries will come up, in the presence of the entire State Department leadership. By Tom Ellis Kathimerini WASHINGTON - Preparations for the 2004 Olympics, the fight against terrorism, cooperation in the Balkans, the status of the American armed forces in Greece, a review of Greek-Turkish relations and the Cyprus issue are on the agenda at the first official bilateral meeting between Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and his American counterpart Colin Powell today at the State Department. Also under discussion will be Greece's participation in the network conveying energy resources from Central Asia to Europe, and American interest in the prospect of weapons sales to Greece when the next stage of the armaments program is implemented. The meeting will include a working dinner and will last about an hour and a half. According to one American official, the fact that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will attend the meeting, and Undersecretary for Political Affairs Marc Grossman will attend the meal is an indication of the importance Powell ascribes to the event. Immediately after the State Department meeting, Papandreou will be received at the White House by Vice President Dick Cheney, a powerful figure in the Bush administration, and then he will visit Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. Terrorism For the first time in years, a Greek foreign minister, who has come to Washington to meet the head of American diplomacy, is in a strong position, thanks to recent moves by the Greek government. The improvement in Greece's image, which is reflected in this year's State Department report, will assist Papandreou, who will be under much pressure in private in connection with arrests of suspects and sentences of those responsible for the murders of American officials in Athens over the past 26 years. Both the Bush government and the outgoing US Ambassador to Athens Nicholas Burns seem to have realized that any public criticism on the sensitive issue of terrorism is usually counterproductive. For this reason, on both occasions when Powell himself was asked to comment on the issue, he expressed his confidence in Greece's ability to organize a safe Olympic Games. An American official noted that it would be wrong to assume from Powell's positive public statements that the US is satisfied and will lift the pressure when it is concerned about the delay in passing the bill on terrorism. Terrorism will be the main issue at Papandreou's meeting today with CIA chief George Tenet at CIA headquarters. As for the Balkans, the foreign minister will attempt to highlight the role of Greece and to reinforce the close cooperation that has developed between the two governments in dealing with the crisis in FYROM. Following the departure of Madeleine Albright, the reversal of the humanitarian approach to developments in the Balkans and the diminished influence of the Albanian lobby in Washington, the policies of both countries are almost identical. At the same time, Washington strongly supports Greek investments in the Balkans, for example, by the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, using the American company Motorola's know-how. Powell will ask Papandreou for confirmation of the Greek offer of $500 billion in economic aid over the next five years, none of which has yet been deposited. Powell will show particular interest in the status of the American armed forces in Greece, and will press for a signature to the agreement that has been outstanding since 1998, and which covers American forces active in the region (Larissa command and KFOR). He will argue that the Greek refusal to sign the agreement is not consistent with close cooperation in the Balkans. But Greek diplomatic sources say that for the present Athens will not agree. Papandreou will call on the US to urge Turkey to resume the proximity talks between Greek-Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. He will also ask the US to support Cyprus's EU accession bid, and not to permit Ankara or Denktash to virtually hold the Republic of Cyprus hostage. Congress members from both parties made the same request in a letter to Powell last week. The Bush government will not take a stand on the issue, so that it is able to exert pressure on both sides during the crucial phase in 2002. It will confine itself to an expression of support for the Helsinki agreement, which in fact allows for every eventuality. "For the moment, our position is that we want to see Cyprus reunited and the whole island accede to the EU," an American official told Kathimerini recently. Powell will ask for understanding and flexibility in dealing with the Turkish demand to participate in decisions concerning the European army. Energy sources Given the Bush government's emphasis on energy and the close connections of all its leading members with the oil industry, it would be useful if the Greek foreign affairs minister were to present Cheney and the other officials he talks to with ideas for the potential involvement of Greece in the oil pipeline from the Caspian to the West. Besides, even the US National Energy Policy, which the White House made public last Thursday, calls on Powell to encourage Greece and Turkey to improve the gas supplies to Europe by combining their existing and future natural gas pipelines and oil pipelines. The Americans want to participate in Greece's next purchase of weapons systems, once it has been decided when that will take place. Lockheed Martin is pushing to sell its Joint Strike Fighter to Greece to replace the Eurofighter, while General Dynamics wants to supply the Greek army with the latest M1A2 tanks. During his five-day stay in Washington, Papandreou will also meet Congress members, including Republican Senate leader Trent Lott, and he will speak to four security foundations in Washington: The Foreign Affairs Council, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Heritage Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson Center. Tom Miller, the new US Ambassador to Athens Papandreou's visit takes place just a few days after the announcement of the forthcoming appointment of Tom Miller as the new US ambassador to Athens for the crucial years 2001-04. His tour of duty will coincide with the terms of Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis and US President George W. Bush, and the run up to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Miller is currently US ambassador to Sarajevo, and is a former special State Department coordinator on the Cyprus issue. He has a profound knowledge of Greece and Greek issues and speaks Greek. He has had two former postings to the US Embassy in Athens; In the 1980s he was an attache and in the 1990s he was charg? d'affaires. It will be interesting to see how he handles the terrorism issue, as he is known for his sensitivity on this matter. He has served in the State Department's anti-terrorism service, and he knew Captain William Norden, who was murdered in Greece in 1987. Miller was the man who made the announcement in 1995 outside Andreas Papandreou's villa in Ekali of an agreement between the then-prime minister and Kiro Gligorov on the change in FYROM's flag and constitution. In 1997-99 Miller served as a special State Department coordinator for the Cyprus issue, and since 1999 has been US ambassador in Bosnia. He was a colleague of Richard Holbrooke, working with him on the FYROM issue, in his attempts to halt the war in Bosnia, and later on the Cyprus question, when the architect of Dayton became the president's envoy. Tom Miller will replace Nicholas Burns in the summer, or autumn at the latest. (Yesterday, Burns was appointed by Bush as ambassador to NATO, pending confirmation by the Senate.) --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From kbejko at hotmail.com Mon May 21 10:27:13 2001 From: kbejko at hotmail.com (Kreshnik Bejko) Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 10:27:13 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Quote of the Day Message-ID: Following the departure of Madeleine Albright, the reversal of the humanitarian approach to developments in the Balkans and the diminished influence of the Albanian lobby in Washington, the policies of both countries[Greece and US] are almost identical. Kathimerini Newspaper _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From rlukaj at bear.com Mon May 21 11:19:02 2001 From: rlukaj at bear.com (Lukaj, Richard (Exchange)) Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 11:19:02 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] REMINDER: NAAC LUNCH WITH RICHARD HOLBROOKE TODAY Message-ID: NAAC LUNCHEON WITH RICHARD HOLBROOKE, FORMER US AMBASSADOR TO THE UN Place: Bruno's Restaurant 58th Street (Between 2nd and Third Avenues) Time: 1:00 p.m. Price: ($100/person) > From kbejko at hotmail.com Mon May 21 12:32:10 2001 From: kbejko at hotmail.com (Kreshnik Bejko) Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 12:32:10 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] WorldCup Update Message-ID: Saturday, June 2 2:00 PM - Dish Network, DirecTV, TVN, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable Digital - NYC Though it is still early in the qualifying process, this match could be a crucial one for both Albania and Greece if either nation hopes to make the trip to Japan/Korea. Germany, with four wins in their first four matches is threatening to run away with Group Nine, and the automatic berth that come with it, leaving England, Finland, Albania and Greece hoping for the runner spot and a place in the UEFA Playoff pool for one of the four or five other available spots. (One UEFA team will playoff with a team from Asia). Both Greece and Albania have managed only one win and three losses in their four previous matches. Greece beat Finland 1-0 in Athens last July, while Albania beat Greece in their previous meeting in Tirana, 2-0. The Greeks, who have only mustered three goals in qualifying, dodges two huge bullets this week. First, a judge exonerated AEK star amd National team captain Thodoris Zagorakis in his doping case. Zagorakis had tested positive twice for higher than allowed testostorone levels, but the judge ruled the increased levels were not attributable to outside or banned substances. Zagorakis had already missed a friendly against Croatia while awaiting the ruling. An even larger problem for the Greeks was avoided, when the Hellenic Football Association, the Greek Government and FIFA reached an accord intended to bring the Greek government's involvement in the Football Association into compliance with FIFA guidelines. Among other potential sanctions, FIFA was threatening to suspend the FA. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From e_dusha at hotmail.com Mon May 21 19:19:19 2001 From: e_dusha at hotmail.com (e_dusha at hotmail.com) Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 19:19:19 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Ilir Meta Message-ID: Me falni per ate e-mailin e pare! Charlemagne Ilir Meta May 17th 2001 >From The Economist print edition Albania?s prime minister has to lift his people out of the mire?and keep them out of regional violence HE MIGHT have become a champion weight-lifter. Instead, Ilir Meta chose politics?in which, as prime minister of Albania, he needs much the same qualities: muscle, persistence and an ability to pick the right moment for an all-out effort. His job is to heave his hard-pressed country out of the clutches of traffickers in drugs, weapons and illegal migrants; and, now, to resist the extremists who are trying to create an ethnic-Albanian fief in neighbouring Macedonia. Mr Meta?s ex-communist Socialist Party is hoping to win a second four-year term in the elections in late June. It will remind the voters of the way it restored order, more or less, after months of anarchy following the collapse in 1997 of a series of fraudulent pyramid savings schemes. Mr Meta himself, only 18 months in his post, will point to his personal achievements during the Kosovo war, when, as deputy prime minister, working closely with international aid organisations, he handled the influx of at least 450,000 ethnic-Albanian refugees. The solid victory that seems likely would much strengthen him against Fatos Nano, a discredited former prime minister who has hung on as party chairman and still wields considerable influence. Starting young Mr Meta, now 32, is one of Albania?s first professional politicians. As an economics student at Tirana University, he helped launch the transition to democracy, taking a leading role in the demonstrations in 1991 that persuaded President Ramiz Alia to open up Albania?s borders after almost 50 years of self-isolation and abolish the one-party system. But rather than join the newly formed Democratic Party, he shrewdly preferred to help reshape the Socialists, and set up their pro-EU youth movement. Since his promotion to prime minister?his predecessor gave up after failing to unseat Mr Nano as party leader?Mr Meta has concentrated on improving co-operation with the western countries whose help Albania needs to build up its crumbling infrastructure. Aid from Germany has surged since his government cracked down on imports of stolen Mercedes cars. Relations have also improved with Italy and Greece, Albania?s biggest investors and trading partners, and host to many Albanian migrant workers. The $500m-odd that the migrants send home every year is one reason for the boom in trade and construction that should help the economy to grow by 7% or more this year, for the third successive year. Foreign investors are starting to return. Greek companies have acquired Albania?s fast-growing mobile-phone operator and a licence to set up a second cellular network. An Italian group has leased the biggest chrome mine, and a Turkish outfit has started processing scrap metal at an elderly Chinese-built steel plant. Albania still has far to go, however. Its hopes of joining the queue of candidates for EU membership were dashed last year, when it failed to meet conditions to negotiate a stabilisation and association agreement. The rule of law is still less than solid. Mr Meta?s critics say the government?s control of Albania?s traditionally lawless mountain regions ends at dusk. Drug smugglers are estimated to earn as much as the migrants send home. And the glitzy apartment blocks going up in the port of Vlore indicate that shipping illegal migrants across the Adriatic is still a flourishing business. Western diplomats praise Mr Meta?s efforts against crime, but say he should do more about civil-service corruption?easier said than done, when $650 a month is a junior minister?s wage. No Greater Albania for him Other Balkan leaders think well of Mr Meta. Ethnic-Albanian rebels may battle in Macedonia, but he dismisses dreams of uniting all ethnic Albanians under a single flag. ?Greater Albania is a project that doesn?t exist even in our minds,? he says. ?Our priority is to leave behind our historical backwardness and start closing the gap between Albania and the rest of Europe.? Visiting Kosovo last December, he carefully avoided talking about its Albanians? dreams of breaking away from Yugoslavia. If Mr Meta betrays a trace of resentment towards the neighbours, it is envy of Macedonia?s success in signing its EU stabilisation pact in spite of that country?s increasing instability. This good sense may not prove a vote-winner. Some other Albanian politicians are less willing to ignore the idea of Greater Albania and worry about roads or water supplies; among them Sali Berisha, the mercurial former president from the north of the country who now leads the opposition Democratic Party. Unlike his predecessors, Mr Meta has avoided being drawn into an open feud with Mr Berisha. But as the election campaign heats up, candidates, especially in the northern and eastern districts adjoining Kosovo and the ethnic-Albanian region of Macedonia, will be tempted to bang the nationalist drum. There are worrying reports too of guerrillas crossing into Macedonia from border areas. Extended families live?and guerrillas recruit?on both sides of this mountainous frontier. Guns for the rebels in Macedonia pass across it. Even where the Albanian government?s writ runs, which is not everywhere, its army and police, despite new equipment and training supplied by international donors, have trouble controlling the borders. Yet, given his aims, Mr Meta?willingly enough?has to resist, as best he may, the nationalist (or merely criminal) groups and the pressures of those who go along with them. West European governments and the United States were happy to side with Kosovo?s ethnic Albanians when that meant undermining Slobodan Milosevic. With his downfall, they have changed track. They do not want Macedonia split along ethnic lines, and would aid no Albanian government working towards that. Nor would the resultant chaos encourage the EU to admit any south Balkan country, let alone one that had helped to cause it. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon May 21 21:24:43 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 18:24:43 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Albanian Daily News Message-ID: <20010522012443.99542.qmail@web11506.mail.yahoo.com> Turkey Tackles Cham Issue TIRANA - Tirana?s taboo issue of the chiefly Moslem Chams who were forced to leave Greece for Albania or Turkey from the First World War was pressed upon by Turkey?s Foreign Ministry in a statement and report at the weekend. The Chams lived in an ethnically-mixed area in north-western Greece, and were expelled in two waves, when Athens was awarded the Epirus region from the Balkan Wars of the 1912-1914 period --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon May 21 21:35:58 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 18:35:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Event in London Message-ID: <20010522013558.61982.qmail@web11503.mail.yahoo.com> The Independent (London) May 22, 2001, Tuesday First Edition; COMMENT; Pg. 2 A BALKAN WAR JOURNAL NO 2 A Balkan War Journal No 2: Two Kosovar Albanians, forced to leave their homes at gunpoint by Serb forces, are reunited at the border of Kosovo and Montenegro in the winter of 1999. Ron Haviv's picture can be seen in the exhibition Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal, which runs until Friday at the Freedom Forum in central London. Mr Haviv will give a talk about his photographs at the gallery at 6.30pm on Thursday. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon May 21 21:43:12 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 18:43:12 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Greece - Albania Football Match on DirectTV Message-ID: <20010522014312.44755.qmail@web11508.mail.yahoo.com> --------------------------------- GREECE VS. ALBANIA The Greek and Albanian national teams take the field in this World Cup qualifying game. LIVE! Saturday, June 2 2:00 p.m. (ET) Order by remote on Channel 101. Only $19.95 Card and schedule subject to change. --------------------------------- --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From ipilika at hotmail.com Tue May 22 15:12:14 2001 From: ipilika at hotmail.com (Iris Pilika) Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 19:12:14 -0000 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Fw: Albania's Lost Girls Message-ID: > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Nightline" >To: "Nightline Mailing List" >Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 1:23 PM >Subject: Albania's Lost Girls > > > > TONIGHT'S SUBJECT: Thousands of young girls disappear from Eastern > > European countries every year. Many of them end up working as >prostitutes > > throughout Europe. Some are kidnapped, some are enticed with false >offers, > > but one way or the other, they end up in the new slave trade. > > > > ---- > > > > During the Kosovo war, we spent months in Albania, just over the border. > > We were waiting for the U.S. troops there to enter the war with their > > helicopter gunships and long-range missiles. They never did. So we had a > > fair amount of time to look around the country. It is incredibly poor. > > Albania's communist ruler was eccentric, to say the least. He built tens > > of thousands of one-man concrete bunkers all over the place, for a >Soviet > > invasion that never came. When the communists were finally thrown out, > > they left a legacy of poverty, an economy in ruins, a country in chaos. > > Thousands of people just stand around the main square of the capital all > > day. They have nothing to do. > > > > So it should come as no surprise that any chance to get out, to go > > somewhere to build a better life, would be really attractive. And > > unfortunately, that pitch works. Thousands of young women, girls >actually, > > are convinced to leave home. Unfortunately, those promises of a job in > > another country usually mean prostitution. And worse, many are simply > > kidnapped, and their families never see them again. They are smuggled > > across the sea to Italy, a short boat trip, and then literally sold as > > slaves. You can imagine how they are treated. And they end up in cities > > all over Europe. Some families have lost more than one daughter. A lucky > > few escape and make it back home. Others end up dead far from their >homes. > > > > It's a horrible situation. And it's tough to stop. People in Albania say > > that organized crime literally runs the country. And there are certainly > > crime organizations in Italy and throughout Europe. And there is a > > voracious market, looking for young girls, and willing to pay. > > > > How do you stop it? And how do you stop it in a country where the > > criminals are the ones who have the money, enough to pay off almost > > anyone? This is one of those stories where you say, "That couldn't > > possibly be going on. This is 2001." Well the year is right, and it is > > going on. And it looks like it will keep going on for a long time. > > > > Tuesday, May 22, 2001 > > > > Leroy Sievers > > Executive Producer > > Nightline Offices > > Washington, D.C. > > > > > > > > > > > > ----------- > > If you have questions or comments regarding this message or a recent > > "Nightline" broadcast, please do not hit reply; simply click on this >link > > to send your message directly to the "Nightline" staff: > > >http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/Nightline/Nightline_email_form.html > > > > Or log on to the new "Nightline" Message Board: > > http://boards.go.com/cgi/abcnews/request.dll?LIST&room=nightline > > > > Chat with "Nightline" guests and find articles, transcripts and video > > excerpts on our Web site at: > > http://abcnews.go.com/Sections/Nightline/ > > > > You can unsubscribe to the "Nightline" e-mail at: > > >http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/dailynews/nightlineunsubscribe.html > > > > Ask your friends to sign up! Send them this link: > > http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/DailyNews/nightline_login.html > >=================================================================== >| Want to UNSUBSCRIBE from the Arberesh mailing list? | >| Go to http://www.leaptoad.com/lists/unsubscribe.shtml | >=================================================================== > >PLEASE REMEMBER - DO NOT SEND ATTACHMENTS TO THE MAILING LIST! > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue May 22 18:47:42 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 15:47:42 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Konfirmohet traktati i ekstradimit USA - Shqiperi Message-ID: <20010522224742.70209.qmail@web11506.mail.yahoo.com> Bernard Martinaj do t? gjykohet nga drejt?sia amerikane Tirane- P?rfundimisht, Bernard Sadik Martinaj do t? ekstradohet p?r n? SHBA. Dje nj? trup gjykues i gjykat?s s? Tiran?s vendosi q? i akuzuari p?r vrasje dhe tentativ? vrasjeje n? Nju-Jork t? transferohet n? qelit? amerikane p?r t?iu n?nshtruar gjykimit sipas ligjeve t? k?tij shteti. Bernard Martinaj do t? gjykohet nga drejt?sia amerikane, e cila e akuzon at? si autor t? nj? vrasjeje t? kryer kat?r vjet m? par? n? Nju Jork. K?shtu vendosi dje gjykata e rrethit te Tiran?s pas zhvillimit t? shum? seancave gjyq?sore p?r ekstradimin apo jo t? 25 vje?arit nga La?i, Bernard Martinaj. Nj? vendim i till?, i marr? nga kryetari i trupit gjykues, Kreshnik Omari, sjell dhe konkretizimin pas 68 vjet?sh t? marr?veshjes s? ekstradimit midis Shqiperis? dhe SHBA-s?, e n?nshkruar n? 1 Mars t? vitit 1933 nga Ministri i Jasht?m shqiptar i asaj kohe Xhafer Vila dhe Herman Bernstein, i d?rguari i Jasht?zakonsh?m dhe Minist?r Fuqiplot? i SHBA-s?. Duke hedhur posht? pretendimet e mbrojtjes p?r pavlefshm?rin? e k?saj marr?veshjeje trupi gjykues konkludoi se ajo (marr?veshja) ?sht? n? fuqi p?rderisa asnj?ra pal? s?ka k?rkuar shfuqizimin e saj. 25 vje?ari Bernard Martinaj, nga La?i, akuzohet nga drejt?sia amerikane p?r vrasjen e shtetasit jugosllav Bojan Randujovic dhe vrasjen e mbetur n? tentativ? t? shtetasit amerikan Xhon Baki, n? Nju Jork n? korrik ?97. Aktualisht ai vuan d?nimin n? burgjet shqiptare pasi nj? vit m? par? u kap nga policia e Tiran?s me nj? sasi prej 325 gram? canabis, pasaport? dhe let?rnjoftim falco, vepra p?r t? cilat u d?nua me tre vjet heqje lirie. P?r ekstradimin e 25 vje?arit Martinaj, fillimisht shteti Amerikan iu drejtua ministris? shqiptare t? Drejt?sis?, e cila iu p?rgjigj pozitivisht k?rkes?s dhe e kaloi ??shtjen n? organet e drejt?sis? shqiptare, e cila dje vendosi ekstradimin e tij n? SHBA, nd?rsa mbrojtja q? p?rfaq?sohet nga avokati Maks Haxhia mund t? apeloj? ket? vendim brenda 10 dit?ve. N? seanc?n e djeshme ka marr? pjes? vet?m n?na e t? akuzuarit, Bernard Martinaj. Ka munguar edhe prokurori i ??shtjes, Ardian Visha dhe K?shilltari Juridik i Ambasad?s Amerikane, Paul D?Emilia. N? seancat parardh?se, n?na e t? pandehurit q? pritet t? udh?toj? drejt Amerik?s p?r t?u gjykuar atje, ka reaguar me nervoziz?m her? pas her? ndaj dy p?rfaq?suesve t? akuz?s. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Thu May 24 10:24:35 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 10:24:35 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Greece - Albania Football Match at Pier 4 Message-ID: GREECE - ALBANIA FOOTBALL MATCH AT ANTHONY'S PIER 4 The World Qualifier Football Match between Greece and Albania will be shown at Anthony's Pier 4 Restaurant on June 2, 2001, 2:00 p.m., courtesy of Mr. A. Athanas, Honorary Council of Albania in New England and Honorary Chairman of VATRA. Admission is free. For more information, please call 617-482-6263. From aalibali at yahoo.com Thu May 24 11:58:51 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 08:58:51 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Papandreu per Greqine e Madhe dhe Ballkanin Message-ID: <20010524155851.13531.qmail@web11503.mail.yahoo.com> Papandreu p?r Kosov?n 24 May 2001 15:07 UTC Ministri i jasht?m grek George Papandreou tha se n? Ballkan kemi t? b?jm? me dy lloj bot?kuptimesh t? ndryshme, nj?ri q? k?rkon zgjidhjen e problemeve me an? t? dhun?s dhe tjetri q? k?rkon zgjidhje me rrug? demokratike. Ndonj?her?, tha zoti Papandreou, tek disa popuj t? Ballkanit ekziston frika se ata mund t? dalin t? humbur dhe politikan?t e shfryt?zojn? k?t? frik? p?r q?llimet e tyre. Popujt e Ballkanit, tha ai, nuk ka p?rse ta ndjejn? veten t? humbur, sepse ekzistojn? mund?sit? q? t? gjitha pal?t t? dalin t? fituara. Zoti Papandreou tha se problemet n? Ballkan nuk mund zgjidhen me an? t? ndryshimit t? kufijve. N? rast se krijohet nj? precedent i till?, tha ai, kjo nuk do t? ket? fund. Por nj?koh?sisht, tha ministri i jasht?m grek, duhet t? krijohen kushtet q? pakicat komb?tare t? cilat jetojn? brenda k?tyre kufijve t? g?zojn? t? gjitha t? drejtat. I pyetur se si e shikon ai statusin e ardhsh?m t? Kosov?s zoti Papandreu tha: ?Mendoj se s? pari, kemi nj? propozim t? ri t? Kombeve t? Bashkuara p?r zgjedhjet n? Kosov?. Ky ?sht? nj? hap i ri i r?nd?sish?m q? do t? lejoj? shqiptar?t e Kosov?s por edhe t? gjitha grupet e tjera etnike t? marrin pjes? n? zgjedhje dhe t? zgjedhin p?rfaq?suesit e tyre. Prandaj, aty do t? kemi nj? p?rfaq?sim zyrtar t? k?tij rajoni. Kjo do t? na lejonte ne t? ecnim drejt hapit tjet?r, drejt diskutimeve t? r?nd?sishme dhe serioze midis qeveris? jugosllave, udh?heqjes kosovare dhe komunitetit nd?rkomb?tar. Si? e dini, Kombet e Bashkuara jan? shprehur shum? qart? mbi zgjidhjen n? kuadrin e rezolut?s 12-44 t? OKB-s?. Por, se cila do t? jet? me sakt?si zgjidhja, k?tu natyrisht ka nevoj? t? madhe p?r diskutim. Kur them diskutim dhe dialog, e kam gjithashtu fjal?n p?r krijimin e masave t? m?tejshme t? besimit midis serb?ve dhe shqiptar?ve. Prandaj un? jam shum? i g?zuar p?r faktin se qeveria e Shqip?ris? dhe qeveria e Jugosllavis? kan? vendosur tashm? marr?dh?nie, se ato tani takohen dhe diskutojn? me nj?ra-tjetr?n. Ne mund ta zgjidhim problemin n? nj? m?nyr? t? moderuar. M? lejoni ta shtroj ??shtjen ndryshe: N? fund t? fundit, ajo q? ka r?nd?si t? madhe ?sht? q?, pavar?sisht se cila do t? jet? zgjidhja, kjo t? jet? nj? zgjidhje e cila t? dal? nga dialogu dhe nga nj? proces paq?sor. Kjo ?sht? me interes p?r t? gjith?. Do t? doja t? p?rmendja edhe di?ka tjet?r po aq t? r?nd?sishme. T? gjitha vendet tona kan? patur aspiratat e tyre. Ne grek?t kemi patur iden? e Greqis? s? Madhe dhe kemi dashur t? ?lirojm? popullatat greke kudo n? Ballkan. Prandaj, ne i kuptojm? shum? mir? ndjenjat e shqiptar?ve, qofshin ata kosovar? apo shqiptar? t? Shqip?ris?. Ne e dim? se ?do t? thot? kjo n? Ballkan, ne e dim? se ???sht? kjo ndjenj?. Por ajo q? ndryshon ?sht? se sot ka nj? alternativ? tjet?r dhe kjo alternativ? ?sht? se ne po b?hemi pjes? e Bashkimit Evropian. Shqip?ria ?sht? n? procesin e nj? etape shum? t? r?nd?sishme, q? mund t? quhet faza paraprake e bisedimeve p?r marr?veshjen e asocimit dhe stabilizimit. Kjo ?sht? nj? faz? n? prag kandidatur?s dhe kandidatura ?sht? faza para an?tar?simit n? Bashkimin Evropian. Brenda Bashkimit Evropian ka l?vizje t? lir? t? njer?zve dhe t? kapitaleve, dhe ka nj? infrastruktur? q? lidh pjes?t e ndryshme t? Evrop?s. Pra n? fakt, pak r?nd?si ka n?se jeton n? k?t? apo at? an? t? kufirit. Prandaj m? duket se ka shum? r?nd?si q? t? shikojm? se si mund t?i lidhim me nj?ra tjet?rn popullatat e ndryshme shqiptare, p?rmes infrastruktur?s, p?rmes zhvillimit ekonomik, p?rmes stimujve p?r krijimin e bizneseve t? vogla e t? mesme, p?rmes veprimtarive kulturore, n? m?nyr? q? t? ket? nj? zhvillim t? fuqish?m t? kultur?s shqiptare. Ne duhet t? shikojm? mund?sin? q? prania shqiptare n? Ballkanin e gjer? t? b?het shum? e r?nd?sihme dhe konstruktive dhe un? jam i sigurt se ajo mund t? b?het e till?. Un? e di se shqiptar?t n? Greqi kan? qen? shum? t? r?nd?sishm? dhe shum? konstruktiv? p?r ekonomin? ton?. Pra mendoj se kemi t? b?jm? me disa alternativa t? ndryshme dhe kjo na lejon t?i zgjidhim k?to ??shtje shum? t?v?shtira n? Ballkan me nj? rrug?m? t? moderuar dhe m? paq?sore?. Marre nga Zeri i Amerikes --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Thu May 24 13:10:25 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 10:10:25 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] The Washington Post Message-ID: <20010524171025.71818.qmail@web11506.mail.yahoo.com> Before the Next Balkan Bloodbath E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version Subscribe to The Post By Nicholas Gage Tuesday, May 22, 2001; Page A21 As battles mount in Macedonia between Albanian insurgents and government forces, the likelihood grows that the Balkans will remain engulfed in conflict for years to come. If the violence continues its southern trajectory, it may well envelop Greece and Turkey, NATO allies but traditional enemies, and turn the whole region into the kind of enduring battleground it became during the first quarter of the last century. With the Serbs crushed and Slobodan Milosevic under arrest, the most powerful threat to stability in the region is Albanian nationalism. Like Serbs, Albanians see themselves as a fragmented nation. The borders of the Albanian state fixed in 1913 left almost half of them outside it. Other Europeans have long accepted having large minorities in neighboring countries, but nationalism is still an intense force among Albanians, and many still dream of uniting all their people into one nation. While Albania itself is too weak militarily to promote a regional drive for a greater Albania, there are enough arms and fervent nationalists in the Albanian enclaves of the former Yugoslavia to fuel a conflict in the area that could be even more devastating than any we have seen so far. Two years after 37,000 NATO troops moved into the largest of these enclaves, Kosovo, they have not been able to fulfill their mission of restoring peace to the region. The campaign by Kosovar Albanians in Kosovo has so far forced more than 100,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians to flee the province. Encouraged by their success in Kosovo, Albanian nationalists, flush with funds raised from supporters abroad and from drug trafficking and prostitution at home, have moved on to their next target -- Macedonia. In response to the mounting violence, the United States has strengthened its contingent of troops sent to Macedonia several years ago and has increased its military involvement with Albania. But, as Michael Roskin, formerly of the U.S. Army War College, has written, "What precisely will U.S. peacekeeping forces do in Macedonia? If the Albanian areas of Macedonia attempt to secede, will we have to stop them in order to preserve Macedonia's territorial integrity? If fighting erupts between Albania and Macedonia could there be U.S. troops on both sides? Do we, in fact, have a policy?" Other than urging moderation, we do not have a clearly thought-out policy for ending the mounting conflict in Macedonia any more than we do in Kosovo. As long as Albanian nationalism is not contained with a strategy that will end ethnic strife in the southern Balkans as a whole, it is certain that the conflict we are now seeing in Macedonia will spread southward and reach the borders of Greece. Lest anyone think this is a phantom fear, let me point out that when former Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos met with Kosovo Liberation Army leaders in Tirana two years ago, they made it clear to him that they had claims on Greece as well as Macedonia. He told reporters later that he was "amazed with what great politeness and calm they told me" about their demands. Are the southern Balkans then doomed to become the bloody battleground in the new century that they were at the start of the last one? If the West continues to pursue a piecemeal approach to dealing with conflict in the region, the answer is yes. But if it learns from its mistakes and develops a comprehensive strategy for dealing with ethnic tensions in the region, further bloodshed can be avoided. How? The United States must call an international conference on the southern Balkans to deal with the main cause of conflict in the region: the treatment of minorities. The key to the success of such a conference is to base it on the principle that the same rights have to be shared by all minorities in the region -- Christian minorities in Albania as well as Albanian minorities in the former Yugoslavia. If that is done, Albanians will be forced to scale back demands for their enclaves in the former Yugoslavia, because they will have to give the same rights and the same political status to Christian minorities in Albania itself. A successful conference on the southern Balkans, based on shared rights and on the inviolability of borders, is the best way to end the conflict in Macedonia and the threat of a wider war in the region. It will also give all the countries concerned the chance to focus on what their people need most -- economic development. Everyone involved will be a winner. Two years ago, in an article I wrote for this newspaper [op-ed, April 26, 1999], I proposed a similar conference as a way of ending the conflict then raging in Kosovo and preventing it from spreading southward, as it now has into Macedonia. After the article appeared, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called me and asked me to come to Washington to discuss the idea further with her and her staff. I flew down and met with her for more than an hour after first meeting with her top aides for an hour and a half. At the conclusion of the meeting she told me that she agreed that a conference would have to be held eventually on the southern Balkans to resolve minority issues in the region in a comprehensive way and to put an end to the conflict they instigate. But she said it would be necessary to "deal with Milosevic first." By the time Milosevic was forced from power; however, she too was on her way out, and nothing has been done to pursue the idea of a comprehensive solution to the Balkan crisis. The time to act on such an approach is long overdue, and the new administration should recognize that it offers the best way to finding a way out of the Balkan quagmire. Nicholas Gage has written extensively on the Balkans. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From AQeli at rushu.rush.edu Thu May 24 13:28:20 2001 From: AQeli at rushu.rush.edu (Albi Qeli) Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 12:28:20 -0500 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] (no subject) Message-ID: http://www.balkanweb.com/lajmengakosova/lajmekosova4.htm#lajmi2 BUJANOC - Atentat Ridvan Qazimit nj? nga komandant?t e U?PMB. Sipas burimeve t? cituara nga Kosovapress "sot n? or?n 12,40 n? fshatin T?rnoc t? Bujanocit, ai ?sht? q?lluar nga nj? oficer serb n? prani t? Shawn Sullivan, i d?rguari i posa??m i Xhorxh Robertson n? Lugin?n e Preshev?s". Lajmi nuk ?sht? konfirmuar nga burime t? pavarura. ad/ko (BalkanWeb) According to Kosovapres, one commander of the Albanian guerrillas was killed by a Serb officer in the presence of Shawn Sullivan, the special representative of Mr. George Robertson. This news has not been confirmed. If true, this is an outrageous news. From aalibali at yahoo.com Thu May 24 23:40:33 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 20:40:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Ethet e Arit - Gazeta Shqiptare Message-ID: <20010525034033.86614.qmail@web11508.mail.yahoo.com> AKTUALITET Ethet e Arit te Guri i Boj?s Nisin k?rkimet LIBRAZHD Realitet apo ?nd?rr? "Kjo ?sht? dilema q? ?sht? ngulitur si gozhd? n? mendjen e qindra librazhdasve lidhur me zbulimin e vendndodhjes s? nj? shpelle-legjend? n? malin e Mirak?s, ku dyshohet t? jen? fshehur qindra kilogram? ar dhe mjaft diamante e perla t? ?muara, mjaft dekada e ndoshta shekuj m? par?. Fjala ?sht? p?r shpell?n Guri i Borjes n? fshatin Mirak?-Plane t? komun?s s? Polisit n? rrethin e Librazhdit, 72 kilometra larg kryeqytetit. Dyshimet Brez pas brezi n? zon?n e Polisit, fshat pran? t? cilin gjendet dhe Guri i Borjes, kan? qarkulluar fjal? se shekuj m? par? n? mjaft vende t? saj m? t? pasurit kan? groposur sasi t? shumta ari, diamanti e perla nga m? t? kushtueshmet. Goj?d-h?nat shpesh b?jn? fjal? edhe p?r periudha t? tilla q? shkojn? deri n? koh?n e Sk?nderbeut. Pjesa m? e madhe e tyre lidhen me epok?n e sundimit t? princit Gjergj Golemi (Araniti), i cili ka qen? i plotfuqish?m i k?tyre an?ve n? at? koh?. P?r zbulimin e vendndodhjes s? k?tyre pasurive t? ?muara, u tunduan keqas dhe mjaft gjeneral? t? luft?s pushtuese nazifashiste n? periudh?n 1939-1944, por m? kot. Gjat? koh?s s? sundimit komunist p?r rreth 50 vjet k?rkimet kan? qen? n? m?nyr? individuale, por t? fshehura, pasi ligjet e koh?s t? nd?shkonin r?nd? p?r p?rdorimin e trafikimin e monedhave t? floririt. Sipas disa statistikave jozyrtare t? koh?s, qeveria komuniste n? zon?n e Polisit n? vitet 1944-1975 ka mbledhur e sekuestruar t? pakt?n 100kg ar, ?ka e b?n shum? t? besueshme legjend?n e sotme. Para dhjet? vjet?sh n? disa vende t? cil?suara si varreza t? arit, si? jan? Varri i princit n? Quk?s, Varri i kalor?sit te Guri i Sk?nderbeut, Varri i bukuroshes n? af?rsi t? rrug?s "Egnantia" n? fshatin Xhyr?, Varri i austriakut n? lagjen "Almeto" t? Polisit u pa hapja e grabitja e gjith?kaje q? ishte varrosur n? to. K?rkimet e NATO-s Para tre vjet?sh ushtar?t e NATO-s n? Shqip?ri p?r disa net me radh? inspektuan te Guri i Borjes. Kjo nuk u shp?toi fshatar?ve t? zon?s dhe as banor?ve t? lagjes, t? cil?ve, pas k?saj, iu shtuan s? tep?rmi shpresat, se legjenda e "shpell?s s? floririt" ?sht? m? shum? sesa realitet. Forcat e NATO-s, ashtu si? e pushtuan fshehurazi Gurin e Borjes, ashtu edhe ik?n brenda dy jav?ve. Pas largimit t? tyre u sul?n qindra e qindra kurioz? nga t? gjitha an?t, por pa mundur dot t? arrinin te vendi i thesarit shum?shekullor. Nisma Guri i Borjes ose "shpella e floririt" ?sht? b?r? kryefjala e ?do bisede pothuajse n? shumic?n e familjeve librazhdase q? nga mesjeta. P?r ?do dit? mali ?sht? i rrethuar nga uniforma policie, t? cilat vijn? aty me furgona me fenelin? nga Tirana, misionin e t? cil?ve fillimisht nuk e ka ditur askush. Mir?po kur 10 alpinist? t? ardhur me nj? makin? POLICIA 10-38 t? Tiran?s i jan? drejtuar "shpell?s s? floririt" fjala ka marr? dhen?. N? shpell? ?sht? gjetur thesari p?r t? cilin nuk kishin l?n? aparatur? pa p?rdorur kushedi se sa njer?z. Por, p?r t? par? nga af?r se ?far? b?hej atje, ne shkuam vet?. N? fshatin Mirak?-Plane k?rkojm? rrug?n p?r te shpella-legjend?. Shk?lqimi, nj?ri prej atyre q? ka qen? disa her? te Guri i Borjes, nuk heziton t? na shoq?roj?. Kur kishim b?r? as gjysm?n e rrug?s, nj? furgon policie tip IVEKO na parakalon. "Ja, k?ta jan?", na thot? udh?rr?fyesi yn? i cili p?rsh?ndetet me ta. Gjat? gjith? rrug?s t? gjith? sa takojn?, na tregojn? sipas variantit t? tyre di?ka p?r "Shpell?n e floririt". Kur ne arrijm? n? vendin ku ndodhet ajo, pas 45 minutash rrug? n? k?mb?, pam? se forcat e policis? ishin shp?rndar? n?p?r shpatin e malit t? Mirak?s. Aty ku ka ndaluar IVEKO e policis?, punojn? p?r thyerje gur?sh g?lqeror? Rexhep e Sherif Terziu, t? cil?ve policia ua ka ndaluar t'u japin sqarime "vizitor?ve t? rastit". Shpella Nj? grup i madh alpinist?sh t? veshur me uniform? policie komunikojn? nga faqja e shk?mbit me radio me shefin e tyre, i cili mundohet q? t? mos nxjerr? (p?rve? p?rsh?ndetjes me ne) asnj? fjal? tjet?r. Megjithat? banor?t e lagjes fillojn? e tregojn? vet? ?far? kan? par? t? b?het k?to tri dit? p?rreth "shpell?s s? floririt" te Guri i Borjes. Sipas tyre, gjat? k?tyre dit?ve n? lagje jan? ngjitur mjaft furgon? me polic? e alpinist?. "Thon?, se jan? gjendur dokumente t? vjetra, sipas t? cilave n? shpell?n q? gjendet n? mesin e malit tep?r t? thepisur, jan? fshehur sasi tep?r t? m?dha ari e diamantesh. Kjo ?sht? v?rtetuar edhe nga k?rkimet me aparatura", tregon nj? banor i k?saj zone, disa prej fjal?ve t? policis?. Si? m?sohet, persona t? angazhuar p?r t? hyr? n? zem?r t? malit, aty ku ndodhet shpella, jan? t? specializuar dhe autorizuar nga shteti. Nga sa b?het e ditur, n? shpell? njeriu mund t? zbres? deri n? 7 metra thell?si, pasi aty ?sht? nj? der? guri disaton?she, me nj? dritare t? vog?l n? mes, pas s? cil?s nuk dihet se sa metra thell? mund t? jet? depozituar thesari i lasht?sis?. Deri tani "misioni" ?sht? mbajtur sekret. ?do gj? ruhet nga uniformat blu, t? cilat as vet? nuk e kuptojn? se ?far? po ndodh n? malin shk?mbor me alpinist?t k?rkues t? autorizuar nga shteti. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From vmro-mnm at bredband.net Fri May 25 10:46:36 2001 From: vmro-mnm at bredband.net (VMRO-MNM) Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 16:46:36 +0200 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] The Macedonian Revolutionary Organization VMRO-MNM (Macedonia For The Macedonians)! Message-ID: <02ff01c0e529$81d1bd00$534670d5@bredbandsbolaget.se> The Macedonian Revolutionary Organization VMRO-MNM (Macedonia For The Macedonians)! Web Site: http://www.vmro-mnm.com May 13, 2001 Is there any "justice"? ...NO! Is there any "democracy"? ...NO! Is there any "solidarity"? ...NO! Is there any "truth"? ...NO! A "war" has been going on for over 2 months with "Albanian", balistic terrorists and the Western World's terror and barbaric organization NATO. It is called war, by the western media, between the Macedonian Army and Albanian "partisans" and rebels. For the Macedonian organization VMRO-MNM and the Macedonian nation their is no war between the Macedonian Army - or Special Forces as they are also called - and the "Albanian" balistic terrorists. This Army in Macedonia consist of young Macedonian boys, doing their military service. Nor do they fight under the country flag of the Macedonian nation but under a non-Macedonian flag - the Fan. The Macedonian flag is the sun with 16 beams, the symbol of Kutles. Many of our young boys have been brutally murdered, slaughtered, massacred by cold blooded terrorists. These terrorists are the "Albanian" balists from Caucasus, controlled by the Western World's terror and barbaric organization NATO. The pictures of the young Macedonian boys, brutally massacred, are terrible to watch. They who are responsible are NATO and the "Macedonian" government. This war in Macedonia is not about "'Albanians" being discriminated and without human rights. That is only lies and propaganda. The war is between Tirana and the anti Macedonian government who has not kept the "promise" they did long time ago about dividing Macedonia between "Great Albania" and "Bulgaria". Here you can see how the Western World has planned to divide Macedonia. This map from London is new but they try to make us believe their lies about the date of the map. It is now that they are planning to create a "Great Albania". The media must immediately stop its propaganda. The pictures of the Macedonian boys, brutally massacred, has not been shown on TV or published in the newspapers. But when it concerns the friends of the Western World, the propaganda of the "Albanian" balists, their lies are shown and published. And sentences as "Poor Albanians", "What is happening to the Albanian people", are used, for example, in Western countries as the Former Scandinavian Province of Sweden. The media must also stop its provocations against Macedonia concerning the use of sentences as "Macedonian slaves" or "the Slavic population of Macedonia". The "Albanian" terrorists want more and more, more land; a "Great Albania" for their rabbit-farming. The Balkans is not enough for them. Give them a helping hand and they will take everything. An excellent idea to stop the war is that the countries in the Western World bring all the "Albanians" - their "partisans as they call them - to them. This new "coalition" government that the Western World has formed indicates that it is the Western World that decides in Macedonia - who is going to be in the government and in the parliament - but not the Macedonian people. The Western World must gather its terror soldiers, its terror organization and leave Macedonia. Stop organize thousands of "Albanians" on Macedonian territory and giving them food, medicine and military equipment. It is the Western World's specialists, officers that is training them. We say; get out of the country! The Western World's media must stop "babbling" their lies about the "per cent's" of "Albanians" that are living in western Macedonia. The "Albanians" are a minority in our country. They are also foreigners and immigrants. They should stop talking about that Macedonia must give them rights. They have more rights than the natives. The Macedonian Organization VMRO-MNM demand that the false name FYROM and the false classification Macedonian slaves will not be mentioned or commented. The only "label" for our nation is Macedonia, the Macedonian nation/people and the Macedonian country. Nor do we wish to see the damned Flag - the Fan - displayed anywhere in the world. Only the sun with 16 beams, the symbol of Kutles is acceptable. Ljupco Mircevski-Trepet President of the Macedonian Organization VMRO-MNM -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Fri May 25 14:55:36 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 11:55:36 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Stephanopoulos on Suli resistance anniversary Message-ID: <20010525185536.93382.qmail@web11501.mail.yahoo.com> [03] PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC TO HONOR SOULI HEROES The President of the Hellenic Republic Kostis Stephanopoulos is to attend commemorative events in Souli, Epirus, on Sunday, May 27, honoring the town's legendary resistance to Ottoman Turkish rule in the 19th century. Souli's inhabitants, the Souliotes, lived in fort-like villages in the mountains and remained independent during most of the occupation of Greece by the Ottoman Turks. They fought successfully (1790?1802) against Ali Pasha, the Turkish governor of Ioannina. In 1803, however, Ali Pasha massacred many of them after concluding a false truce. In what has become a historic point of reference, 63 Souli women leapt to their death from a cliff, many holding their babies in their arms, preferring to die than succumb to the Turks. MPA - 25 May 2001 --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Fri May 25 22:41:33 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 19:41:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Financial Times Message-ID: <20010526024133.49877.qmail@web11503.mail.yahoo.com> Financial Times (London) May 25, 2001, Friday USA Edition 2 Macedonia outraged by Albanian parties' amnesty deal for guerrillas By STEFAN WAGSTYL The US and the European Union yesterday denounced an agreement between Albanian guerrillas and ethnic Albanian political parties in the governing coalition in Macedonia, even though a senior US diplomat negotiated it. The Macedonian government has also expressed its outrage at the deal, under which the rebels agreed to withdraw in return for an amnesty and a veto over political decisions involving ethnic Albanian rights. The Slav-dominated government, backed by Nato, is opposed to any negotiations with the fighters, let alone agreements granting them a political role. President Boris Trajkovski yesterday urged the ethnic Albanian parties to scrap the deal or risk the collapse of the coalition. The US diplomat involved was Robert Frowick, who was serving as the personal envoy of Mircea Geoana, the Romanian foreign minister and current chairman of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Mr Frowick has been working in Macedonia for about six weeks, helping to narrow differences between the Slav and ethnic Albanian parties. He has also been involved in efforts to persuade the guerrillas to withdraw from Macedonia into United Nations-administered Kosovo. OSCE officials said they did not know exactly what Mr Frowick had been doing. Mr Frowick, who hurriedly left Skopje for Bucharest, could not be contacted for comment. The EU said: "If anyone had any illusions that the so-called NLA (National Liberation Army) has international support anywhere, they had better forget them." The incident could undermine the coalition government in Macedonia which was formed less than two weeks ago under heavy international pressure. It could also damage relations between Macedonia and the international community, which has pressed Skopje to continue inter-ethnic dialogue and exercise restraint in military operations. Mr Frowick's role remains unclear. He has extensive knowledge of the Balkans and of international diplomacy, having joined the US foreign service in the early 1960s and been an ambassador since 1986. Macedonian officials said it was unlikely that he blundered. They pointed out that, of the western powers, the US has long been the closest to ethnic Albanian fighters, including the Kosovo Liberation Army, which enjoyed strong ties with the Central Intelligence Agency. Meanwhile, the Macedonian army yesterday stepped up its attacks on the guerrillas. Soldiers entered the outskirts of villages occupied by guerrillas for the past three weeks. www.ft.com/europe --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Fri May 25 22:44:25 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 19:44:25 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] London Free Press Message-ID: <20010526024425.88561.qmail@web11502.mail.yahoo.com> London Free Press May 25, 2001 Friday, Final Edition DERVISHI'S MIND ALL ON CITY STEVE GREEN, FREE PRESS SPORTS REPORTER For someone waiting for a certain phone call, Gentjan Dervishi is showing a remarkable ability to focus on the task at hand. And that task for the 22-year-old playmaking midfielder is to help London City get off to a quick start to its 2001 Canadian Professional Soccer League season, which opens tonight at Cove Road Field against the expansion Toronto Supra. City's MVP last season, Dervishi is hoping to get a call from one of several European clubs offering a tryout. That call could come as early as next month from teams such as Austria Vienna, Dusseldorf in Germany, Den Bosch in the Netherlands or Chateauroux in France. But he's not letting it occupy his thoughts right now. "I like to take it one thing at a time," he said yesterday, "and right now that's London City. If I've got my mind on four of five different things, that won't help. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. "I feel for this team. I'm not just here to play a game and then go home. I'd like this team to build and go on to great things. "There's always a chance (to come back to City), but if I go, I want to make it in Europe," added Dervishi, who came to Canada from his native Albania when he was 16. "This is the right time. I'm ready." And should the call come, he'll leave with many fond memories of London, the team and the city. "The people," he replied when asked what he'd remember most. "And the support I got from the team and (general manager-coach) Harry Gauss, who put a lot of trust in me. So many people have helped me through my career, they're like my brothers. "Plus, I was able to finish high school at Westminster, which was really good for someone who didn't speak English (when he arrived). It's one of the best schools in the city." London City went 2-11-1 last season but Dervishi said things weren't as frustrating as some might believe. "I knew the team was young and it was more like the beginning of something," he said. "I actually have high hopes for this year. We're still young, but we've got the will to play, the desire from all the players, and with help from the experienced players, we'll be all right. "We've got a lot of talented players, too many for me to name them all, and that makes it a bit easier for me, but I still feel I must be a leader." Starting with tonight's game. The Supra may be one of the four new CPSL teams -- the Montreal Dynamite, Ottawa Wizards and Brampton Hitmen are the others -- but Dervishi expects a tough match. "I've played against some of their players and they're good. They're like (defending league champion) Toronto Olympians." Gauss couldn't be faulted for hoping Dervishi stays the whole season but "we're not in that mindset," he said. "The good part about this is it's all a foundation for what he wants to do with his life, and that's to be a professional soccer player. He has all the tools; this just adds to his resume." "The thing is, when you think of our team, it's an incubator. We develop young players and they go on to other teams, and we make no bones about it. The reason we have so many young players is they know we showcase them." Notes: Gauss said CPSL expansion appears to be proceeding ahead of schedule, with Alberta and B.C. coming in as separate divisions next year, two years early. A Quebec division was already in the works for next year, with the Dynamite and Wizards joining it. Ottawa, however, has expressed an interest in remaining in the Ontario league, Gauss said, adding a vote on that will likely be taken in August. GAME GUIDE What: London City vs. Toronto Supra in Canadian Professional Soccer League season opener. Where: Cove Road Field, German-Canadian Club. Kickoff: 8:38 p.m. Tickets: $6 at the door; advance tickets $4 for adults, $3 for children, students and seniors, available at the German-Canadian Club. photo by Ken Wightman, The London Free Press; London City midfielder Gentjan Dervishi has all the tools to be a pro, City GM-coach Harry Gauss says. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From mentor at alb-net.com Sun May 27 02:58:49 2001 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 02:58:49 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] DPA LEADER XHAFERI: "The representatives of 'NLA' are no terrorists"; 'NLA' occurred "as a result of the dissatisfaction of the people Message-ID: DPA LEADER XHAFERI: - "The representatives of 'NLA' are no terrorists" - 'NLA' occurred "as a result of the dissatisfaction of the people - Macedonia Albanian's requests are "reasonable and guarantee the territorial integrity of the country" - "MACEDONIA WILL EXIST IF IT CHANGES ITS CONSTITUTION" http://www.mia.com.mk DPA LEADER XHAFERI: MACEDONIA WILL EXIST IF IT CHANGES ITS CONSTITUTION Sofia, May 26 (MIA) - "The representatives of 'NLA' are not terrorists, as the terrorists do not have political leaders, do not wear uniforms and do not have political program," DPA leader Arben Xhaferi stated in his interview for Bulgarian daily "Monitor". As MIA reports, Xhaferi stresses that the so-called 'NLA' occurred "as a result of the dissatisfaction of the people", underlining that "those that are self organized, have political program and political representatives." According to DPA leader, Macedonia will exists only if it changes its Constitution. Unless it fulfills the requests of the Albanians, which are reasonable and guarantee the territorial integrity of the country, "Macedonia will fall in constitutional crisis." Assessing that "the international community supports the demands of the Albanians in Macedonia," Xhaferi stresses that it is being worked on establishing peace and demilitarization of the so-called NLA, which would create conditions for political dialogue. He thinks that the negotiations will end by November, and by then the demands will be fulfilled. According to Xhaferi Macedonia is a small state, which cannot resist the permanent political and military pressure as well as the destabilization of its institutions. At the end of the interview for "Monitor", DPA leader Arben Xhaferi concludes that "if Macedonia continues with its ethnic stubbornness, ethnic states will be established as the only possible model for establishing peace on the Balkans." sa/vd/16:41 From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon May 28 12:43:21 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 09:43:21 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Mother Teresa Message-ID: <20010528164321.78929.qmail@web11501.mail.yahoo.com> Mother Teresa One Step Closer to Beatification Last updated: --> May 28, 2001 10:14 AM ET CALCUTTA, India (Reuters) - A report on Mother Teresa will be submitted to the Vatican in August to decide on the beatification of the nun who died in 1997 after years of service to the poor, an Indian archbishop said Monday. The Diocesan Commission was set up in July 1999 after Pope John Paul granted a special dispensation to put the nun of Albanian descent on the fast track to sainthood in response to requests from Roman Catholic bishops around the world. Normally, church rules call for five years to pass after a person dies before the procedure for sainthood can begin. Beatification is the first step toward canonization. "The Diocesan Commission into 'the life, virtues and reputation of sanctity' of Mother Teresa will hold its closing ceremony on August 15," Calcutta Archbishop Henry Sebastian D'Souza, who is overseeing the inquiry, told Reuters. He said the report would include details on an "alleged miracle" by Mother Teresa. The process of beatification requires confirmation of one miracle. No details were given. "The commission has examined all events during her life. Doctors' certificates are attached. For a miracle to be accepted, it has to be organic, immediate and irreversible and cannot be explained by natural causes," D'Souza said. D'Souza said he was sure the Nobel Prize winning nun would be beatified. "There's evidence she could be declared a saint. I'm sure it (beatification) will happen," D'Souza said. "Given the nature of the case and how well known Mother Teresa is, it may be possible to beatify her faster. It depends on the Roman congregation." Mother Teresa, born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, at Skopje, Macedonia came to India in May 1937 to teach at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta. She was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1979 for her work among the needy in Calcutta, her adopted home town from where she ran the worldwide order, Missionaries of Charity, she founded 52 years ago with 12 members. The order had established itself in 123 countries with 4,000 members by 1997. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Mon May 28 21:49:06 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 18:49:06 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Book Review: Sfikas & Williams (eds.), Ethnicity and Nationalism in East Central Europe and the Balkans. Reviewed by Florian Bieber Message-ID: <20010529014906.68464.qmail@web11507.mail.yahoo.com> Note: forwarded message attached. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu Subject: [balkans] Book Review: Sfikas & Williams (eds.), Ethnicity and Nationalism in East Central Europe and the Balkans. Reviewed by Florian Bieber Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 20:46:42 -0400 Size: 16766 URL: From kbejko at hotmail.com Tue May 29 10:34:06 2001 From: kbejko at hotmail.com (Kreshnik Bejko) Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 10:34:06 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] For those aspiring MBAs! Message-ID: By Melissa Hankins >From The Wall Street Journal When Beatrix Vagacs, a 26-year-old Hungarian, was admitted to the M.B.A. program at the State University of New York at Binghamton two years ago, it seemed to her like a dream come true. Ms. Vagacs, a former manager at a Budapest technology company, desperately wanted to live in the U.S. and to work in management consulting. She thought her degree would clinch the deal. When the time came to land a job, however, Ms. Vagacs was shocked to learn that an M.B.A. isn't necessarily a ticket to success. She expected to earn at least $80,000 as a newly minted M.B.A., but she has already been turned down for positions three times because she isn't a U.S. citizen. Every consulting firm that has interviewed her, she says, wants to hire her for about $20,000 a year and send her back to Budapest. "I thought it would be much easier to get a job here than it has been," she says. "So did many of my foreign classmates. People are having a lot of trouble." With her May 20 graduation fast approaching, Ms. Vagacs gave up hope of staying in the U.S. Instead, she'll be doing research for a university in Japan -- a far cry from her original expectations. Foreign students are pouring into U.S. business schools in steadily increasing numbers to earn a prized American M.B.A. degree and the big salary it usually fetches. After getting a taste of life in the U.S., students like Ms. Vagacs crave jobs that will prolong their stay. But recruiters aren't exactly beating down their dorm-room doors. In fact, some business schools say nearly half of the recruiters that visit their campuses flatly refuse to meet international students. And Ray Palmer, the M.B.A. placement director at the University of Connecticut, says that a hiring manger for a financial-services company once told him: "My policy is, if I can't pronounce the name, I throw the resume away." Companies complain that foreign M.B.A. students often lack knowledge of U.S. culture and fluency in English. But the onerous visa process is the major reason that companies resist hiring them. Within 12 months of graduation, foreign nationals must be sponsored by a company for an H-1B visa to stay in the U.S. But the government will issue a maximum of only 195,000 such visas a year. Most companies won't discuss their policies on hiring foreign nationals. But one that will, Eastman Kodak Co., says through a spokesman, "We do not recruit foreign students or hire aliens because it could take time to get them on board." Schools Benefit Even so, most business schools still actively recruit foreign students. "The business world today is very much a global village," says Don Martin, the University of Chicago's associate dean of enrollment. "It's important for domestic students to know how to interact in an environment that doesn't revolve around one culture." Foreign students also are a good revenue source for the schools. Many don't have access to all the scholarships that domestic students can qualify for, so they end up paying full tuition. What's more, some schools want to improve their reputations by raising the average GMAT score of their applicants, and foreign students often perform quite well on the standardized business-school entrance exam. Daniel Smith, chairman of the M.B.A. program at Indiana University, says, "Foreign students are a dilemma for us because they're so hard to place. We get very good applicants, especially from Asia, but they want to stay in the U.S." The trouble is "the government only has so many visas to give," Mr. Smith says, "and companies are using them up for their research and technology side rather than their business side." Despite their placement problems, Indiana, along with such schools as the University of Chicago, Dartmouth College and the University of Maryland, are seeing an increase in foreign applications and enrollment. Last year, Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where the student body is one-third international, saw its foreign applications surge 85% from the 1998-99 academic year, compared with a 27% increase for U.S. students. While many business schools say international students represent about a third of their enrollment, foreign students outnumber U.S. citizens at a few M.B.A. programs. The business school at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., has 70% foreign enrollment. Yet only 49% of the foreign students were offered U.S.-based jobs by shortly after graduation last year, compared with 100% of the U.S. students. Some business schools are trying to make their foreign nationals more marketable. Dennis Grindle, the career-management director at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, guides them through a series of seminars on visa issues, personal image, etiquette and networking. SMU also helps some foreign nationals with "accent modification" and communication skills. "We teach them ?How to Americanize yourself without losing your heritage,'" Mr. Grindle says. Mr. Grindle also has formed an international job club on campus where students meet for "accountability, support and job-search leads." He says members must bring in job leads each week -- three for the group at large and two for themselves. Mr. Grindle himself promises to show up with as many leads as each student brings. The personalized attention definitely seems to help: All but two of SMU's 19 foreign M.B.A. students found jobs in the U.S. last year. Some foreign nationals wouldn't mind going back home, but they simply can't afford to return. Siti Syahwali, a graduating Indiana University student, is perfectly willing to work in Indonesia. But she wonders how she could ever repay education loans when all her M.B.A. will earn in Jakarta is $11,000 a year. A big oil company wanted her to be a financial analyst in its Indonesian operations, she says, but she sat before company officials in shock when they offered her $11,000. She says she didn't make any objections at the time because "she wasn't raised to act like that." But like Ms. Vagacs, she was expecting about $80,000. "It's not decent," Ms. Syahwali says. "It doesn't reflect my American schooling. I would like to be paid according to my education." With the amount of money she's been offered, she says, it would take her more than 50 years to pay off her education debt. "A lot of American companies would like to hire non-U.S. nationals for their global operations," says Maury Hanigan, who runs her own consulting firm in New York. "But if they pay them on a U.S. scale, they may make more money than their [local] managers, and that could throw the company into turmoil." Some companies are becoming a bit more flexible. Bill Ziegler, global director of recruiting for Accenture, the management-consulting firm formerly known as Andersen Consulting, reports a slight increase in his company's recent hiring of international students. And he expects the number to grow. The global economy will give Accenture "even more reasons to look across country borders for candidates," Mr. Ziegler says. Some Exceptions Sometimes companies ignore their own policies against interviewing foreign M.B.A. students. Farhad Divecha, a charismatic 24-year-old University of Illinois student from Bombay, says he was crushed during his interview with recruiters from agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. When the recruiters discovered he wasn't a citizen, he says, they abruptly cut the meeting short. Afterward, Mr. Divecha told his French roommate, who was also interviewing with Cargill, to tell recruiters he would help pay for his own visa. His roommate got the job, he says. "I know now that there can't be a corporate policy on hiring foreign students that can't be broken," Mr. Divecha says. Cargill didn't return phone calls seeking comment. Mr. Divecha's experience with Cargill isn't uncommon, says Mr. Palmer, the M.B.A. placement director at the University of Connecticut. He advises students to try and try again. Companies will often drop their restrictions on hiring foreign nationals, Mr. Palmer says, if an impressive candidate is persistent enough to nail down an interview. And remember that pronunciation-challenged financial-services recruiter? Mr. Palmer says even he ended up hiring a Chinese UConn student -- one whose last name surely left him tongue-tied. -- Ms. Hankins is a reporting assistant for The Wall Street Journal in New York. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com From pilika at yahoo.com Tue May 29 11:28:45 2001 From: pilika at yahoo.com (Asti Pilika) Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 08:28:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Amnistia Message-ID: <20010529152845.56159.qmail@web14201.mail.yahoo.com> Jam kureshtar te di se pse bashkesia nderkombetare qenka kaq kunder amnistise per luftetaret shqiptare ne Maqedoni. Duket sikur atyre do t'u interesonte kjo gje. C'mendoni ju? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/ From aalibali at yahoo.com Tue May 29 13:23:11 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 10:23:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] 14 Qershor - Bese e Pergjithshme ne Kuvendin e Pajtimit - Puke Message-ID: <20010529172311.17732.qmail@web11505.mail.yahoo.com> Albanians break chains of blood On June 14, in an unprecedented gathering in a remote town, thousands will seek to end generations of vengeance By Stavros Tzimas Kathimerini On June 14, hundreds of Albanians will gather in a remote town to try to break the chains of blood feuds that have held thousands of people captives in their own homes for generations, prisoners of a murderous cycle of revenge. The representatives of 500 families, of a total of 2,500 who are involved in vendettas, will meet in Puka, about three hours north of Tirana, to "pardon the blood," in other words to state publicly that they will stop killing each other according to the kanun, the medieval judicial custom which demands revenge for murder through seven generations. All will be done in accordance with the kanun, which, apart from revenge, also determined other customs and matters in local communities. Representatives of every family involved in a vendetta will form, along with the leaders of every village involved, a kuvend burrash, or assembly of men, which will declare in public their word of honor, that the cycle of blood - which in some cases may have started decades ago - is ending once and for all. The signing of this "eternal besa" (using the largely untranslatable Albanian word for a vow, a truce, a code of honor) will be done in the town square at the end of the kuvend. At dawn the next day, the 3,000 self-imprisoned members of the 500 families will have the right to leave their houses without being killed by their rivals in revenge murders. This reconciliation was achieved by the hard work and persistence of the National Reconciliation Committee, which is made up of intellectuals and social workers and is aimed at making the people of Albania (mostly the northern parts) understand that, at the dawn of the 21st century, they cannot continue to resolve their differences with guns. This is an historical initiative, never before undertaken in Albania, said Gjin Marku, president of the reconciliation committee. "For the first time in the history of kanun is such a reconciliation taking place. Through this public besa we want to send a message to the other families who are divided by blood, that the slaughter has to stop at long last," he said. President Rexhep Mejdani, Prime Minister Ilir Meta, representatives of political parties, western diplomats, international humanitarian organizations, and others, have been invited to attend in an effort to mobilize all those who can contribute toward healing the terrible social wound that plagues Albania at a time that it is looking for a way to join Europe. The meeting between the world of the besa and the law in Puka is mostly symbolic, as the problem of the vendetta in Albania is not limited to the 500 families who have agreed to become reconciled. According to the National Reconciliation Committee's figures, a total of 2,500 families (including 1,000 children) are trapped in their homes in northern Albania, condemned to spend their whole lives inside in order to escape the dictates of the kanun. It is estimated that those in hiding at home or in the hills come to a total of about 20,000, while 4,000 have been killed in vendettas in the last decade, following the collapse of a totalitarian Communist system that ruled Albania since World War II and used violence to stifle such forms of behavior. The total absence of a state machinery, along with the age-old custom of carrying guns, created ideal conditions for the return to the vendetta after 1991, especially in the regions of Shkoder, Leka Dukagjini, Kukes and Puka. In the town of Shkoder, there is a neighborhood, Kirash, which is called the "neighborhood of blood." About 3,000 people are confined here, organizing their own defense, in order to escape revenge. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell? -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at yahoo.com Wed May 30 11:22:31 2001 From: aalibali at yahoo.com (Agron Alibali) Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 08:22:31 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Book Review Message-ID: <20010530152231.29412.qmail@web11502.mail.yahoo.com> May 30, 2001 A war to end all scores Helle Bering After "Pearl Harbor," will the next Hollywood epic be "Kosovo"? If some studio decided to do it, this movie would probably not be famous for the heroic action scenes. The Kosovo operation featured American and British bombers high in the sky so as to be out of reach of any Serbian anti-aircraft fire and to preclude any loss of pilots? lives. On the ground, meanwhile, you would be seeing cursing Serbs in Belgrade shaking their hands at the invisible enemy above. There would be endless streams of desperate Albanian refugees trudging through mud and burned out villages in Kosovo, and there would be the awful evidence of the Serbian ethnic cleansing campaign that precipitated it all. This could the stuff of a gut-wrenching East European existential drama, but hardly a Hollywood extravaganza. In all, it was a strange war. As Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley K. Clark writes in "Waging Modern War," a fascinating first-hand account of the operation, "In fact, we were never allowed to call it a war. But it was of course. This was modern war, the first fought in Europe in half a century, and the first ever fought by NATO." "The Alliance and its members nations weren?t under attack. This war wasn?t about national survival, or the survival of democratic systems of government. . . .Modern war is different. Operation Allied Force was limited, carefully constrained in geography, scope, weaponry, and effects. Every measure of escalation was excruciatingly weighed. . . There was extraordinary concern for military losses, on all sides. Even accidental damage to civilian property was carefully considered. And 'victory? was carefully defined." In this definition of modern warfare, all lines are blurred. Civilians and combatants become indistinguishable, as do political and military measures. Conflict between politicians in Washington and Europe and military leaders on the ground is inevitable, and intrigue and old-fashioned personality conflict make for engaging reading. For Gen. Clark, Operation Allied Force in Kosovo clearly took on overtones of Vietnam, where political "signals" were considered more important than military victories. It has been no secret that during the operation in the spring and summer of 1999, Gen. Clark was constantly at odds with his superiors at the Pentagon, who wanted to hold him back as best they could, and who hated the idea of further intervention in the Balkans. In the end, the Pentagon brass took revenge on the outspoken and publicity-seeking general, denying him the glory of victory (such as it was) and cutting his tour of duty short after less than three years. This sent him into premature retirement in Little Rock, Ark., of all places, so it is no wonder the man is miffed. Particularly, Gen. Clark has scores to settle with then-Defense Secretary William Cohen, who was adamantly opposed to the use of ground troops. Mr. Cohen apparently went so far as to exclude his own top commander from Pentagon planning meetings. Another favorite target here is vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Ralston, who yelled back at Clark in the spring of 1998, "Look, Wes, we?ve got a lot on our plates here. We can?t deal with any more problems." Well, just a year later, those same problems had spun completely out of hand and required intervention. Yet another score to be settled is the case of the famous Apache attack helicopters, which the Pentagon had promised Gen. Clark to fight Serbian troops in Kosovo, who were terrorizing the Albanian civilian population. The helicopters, as will be recalled, took weeks and weeks to travel the modest distance from Germany to Albania. In the end they never saw combat. Among the book?s truly memorable scenes is the showdown with British Gen. Sir Michael Jackson over the airport in Pristina, capital of Kosovo, where Russian troops turned up most unexpectedly in June of 1999. The scene features the elegant and keen-eyed Gen. Clark vs. the craggy and growling Gen. Jackson, who refused to obey the NATO commander?s orders to block the Russians on the airport runway. "Sir, I am not starting World War Three for you...," Gen. Jackson told him, and flat out refused to take orders from Washington. The spat could contain one of the lessons of modern warfare that when push comes to shove, the NATO command structure collapses and national governments still have the ultimate control over their soldiers. "What I saw in the Kosovo conflict was the significant difficulty the U.S. armed forces and some of its leaders faced in adapting to the requirements of a new situation," writes Gen. Clark. "I think these difficulties were in part due to organizational factors, such as the Armed Forces? effort to cling to the 1991 Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, as the model for future operations, rather than facing up to an ambiguous, tense, highly political coalition environment in which military actions would face tight restraints, constant high-level oversight, and continuing public scrutiny." Now all of this way well be true. Does not the fact that we always fight the last war , however, suggest that if we prepare for another Kosovo in Europe we will be missing the point again? Where in Europe will the next Kosovo occur? Having posed that question to EU officials, who advocate a European rapid reaction force to deal with such contingencies, I have yet to receive an answer to that question. Kosovo may simply be Kosovo, a unique problem. In fact, this may not be the only shape of modern warfare, and we would to well to be prepared for more than ethnic conflicts and humanitarian interventions. --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Personal Address - Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From webmaster at liriakombtare.com Wed May 30 14:26:35 2001 From: webmaster at liriakombtare.com (liriakombtare) Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 14:26:35 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] =?iso-8859-1?Q?Vdekje_t=EB_gjith=EBve_armiqve_t=EB_U=C7K-s=EB?= Message-ID: <01e601c0e936$1d8783a0$614c8aac@hppav> www.liriakombtare.com ANALIZE Dr.Mehdi HYSENI KONTINUITETI I VDEKJES KLINIKE TE DIPLOMACISE SE SHQIPERISE(!) Bombardimet, djegia dhe pla?kitja e fshatrave t? komun?s s? Likov?s, t? Kumanov?s, t? Tetov?s, t? Shipkovic?s, vrasja dhe plagosja e qindra civil?ve shqiptar? kryesisht f?mij?, gra dhe t? moshuar, katastrofa humanitare n? barna , n? ushqime dhe n? dh?nien e ndihm?s p?rkat?se mjek?sore (si rrjedhim i marrjes s? vendimeve arbitrare-antiligjore dhe antihumane, t? d?nueshme sipas s? drejt?s humanitare nd?rkomb?tare, dhe sipas s? drejt?s s? luft?s, s? pari Qeveria e Koalicionit, e m? pas edhe ajo e ashtuquajtura "Qeveri Uniteti"(q? t? dyja k?to qeveri, t? strukturuara me ministra e lider? t? dy partive kryesore shqiptare n? Maqedoni), ( m? se dy jav? me radh?) ndaluan ekipet mjek?sore, shoqatat e asociacionet e ndryshme humanitare nd?rkomb?tare dhe vendore, q? t'u jipnin ndihm?n e nevojshme urgjente t? t? gjith? t? plagosur?ve , si dhe t? t? gjith? t? tjer?ve , t? rrezikuar nga mungesa e madhe e barnave dhe e ushqimeve. Gjithashtu, d?bimi me dhun? e terrorizim t? organizuar shtet?ror, b?ri q? me mij?ra shqiptar? (t? t? gjitha moshave) t'i braktisin vatrat e tyre st?rgjyshore , si pasoj? e makineris? nd?shkuese t? forcave policore dhe ushtarake sllavomaqedone, e t? strehohen n? Kosov?, n? Shqip?ri etj. Mir?po, e gjith? kjo mynxyr? e llahtarshe q? pllakosi popullin shqiptar n? Maqedoni (si pretekst i likudimit te Ushtris? Clirimtare Komb?tare), s' b?ri kurrfar? "p?rshtypje" q? n? ndonj? form? t? ringjall? diplomacin? shqiptare nga vdekja e deritashme e saj klinike. Nj? q?ndrim i k?till? indiferent dhe pasiv, jo vet?m se ?sht? absurd dhe paradoksal ndaj gjith? asaj q? po ndodh me shqiptar?t dhe me UCK-n? n? Maqedoni dhe n? Lugin?n e Preshev?s, por mbi t? gjitha ?sht? edhe i d?nuesh?m, sepse drejtp?rdrejti dhe t?rthorazi ?sht? komplementar me synimet dhe me interesat e politik?s pushtuese t? regjimeve antidemokratike t? okupatorit sllavomaqedon kund?r shqiptar?ve n? trojet e theksuara etnike. Hipokrizia e politik?s dhe e diplomacis? s? "treshit aktual"(Mejdani, Meta, Milo) ndaj viktimizimit t? interesave vitale t? shqiptar?ve n? Kosov?, n? Maqedoni, n? Preshev?, n? Bujanoc e n? Medvegj?, nuk mund t? shpjegohet ndryshe ve?se si modus operandi, ku si n? kuptimin e ngusht?, ashtu edhe n? at? t? gjer? mund t? krahasohet vet?m me p?rmbajtjen e filmave klasik? t? Holivudit, t? cil?t pasqyrojn? n? m?nyr? besnike luft?n e eg?r nd?rmjet politikan?ve t? koorruptuar dhe gangster?ve t? grupeve t? ndryshme t? mafiave, t? prirur vet?m nga interesat e ngushta vetjake, e n? d?m t? inetersit t? p?rgjithsh?m t? shoq?ris?. N? t? v?rtet?, ky ?sht? nj? lloj terrorizmi q? n? vazhdim?si synon p?r t? krijuar fush?veprim t? majftuesh?m manovrimi, q? zhvillohet n? dy kahe, s? pari, ka p?r q?llim p?r t? ruajtuar privilegjet dhe fam?n e protagonist?ve t? theksuar (t? nd?rlidhur dhe t? mb?shtetur nga qendrat e ndryshme t? mafiave te jashtme), dhe s? dyti, ka p?r q?llim q? t? mbaj? pezull situat?n e tensionuar, p?r t'i n?nshtruar dhe frik?suar ato forca p?rparimtare demokratike, komb?tare dhe patriotike, q? me ?do kusht luftojn? p?r t? eliminiuar dukurit? m? negative dhe m? regresive n? shoq?ri, p?rkat?sisht t? hedhurinave t? brendshme dhe t? jashtme, q? rrezikojn? dhe d?mtojn? p?r vdekje interesin komb?tar dhe shtet?ror. Kush e detyroi UCPBM-n? t'i dor?zoj? arm?t para agresorit serb?! S'ka dyshim se ne, e n? ve?anti UCPBM-ja p?rjetoi ?astet m? t? r?nda, me rastin e dor?zimit t? arm?ve dhe t? braktisjes s? territorit etnik shqiptar, si dhe t? p?rsh?ndetjes lamtumir?se (por jo edhe t? p?rgjithmonshme) me v?llez?rit dhe me motrat, t? cil?t me gjak dhe me sakrifica mbinjer?zore, e ndihmuan luft?n dhe rezistenc?n tyre ?lirimtare. Por, s? fundi u detyruan t? heqin dor?( u gjet?n para aktit t? kryer nga diktati dhe nga forca e imponuar e t? gjith? armiqve t? huaj dhe t? berndsh?m t? shqiptar?ve) nga lufta e p?rbashk?t ?lirimtare. Gjith? k?t? tragjedi t? r?n? s?rish mbi kurrizin dhe mbi fatin e pupullit shqiptar t? Lugin?s s? Preshev?s, m? s? miri e ilustorjn? k?to vargje t? filozofit dhe t? poetit t? Rilindjes shqiptare, Ndre Mjeda:"VDEKJEN MENDOVA SE ME VJEN KURDO, POR SE ME LENI VETEM, S'MENDOVA JO! Kjo psher?tim? stigmatizuese, e shprehur n? m?nyr?n figurative poetike, n? rastin ton? konkret, shtron patjet?r k?to pyetje t? pashmangshme: -Kush e tradhtoi dhe e la at? n? balt?n e gjall? t? rezervatit kolonial serb? Kush dhe pse e plagosi p?r vdekje UCPBM-n?, kur ajo me sukses ishte duke zhvilluar betejat e p?rgjakshme kund?r agresorit serb? Kush i tradhtoi bashk?kombasit tan?, n? ?astin vendimtar historik, n? ?astin kur kishte filluar lufta p?r jet? a vdekje, p?r t'u skapulluar p?rfundimisht nga kthetrat e sundimit t? eg?r kolonial shekullor serbomadh; kur liria kishte filluar t? trokiste n? portat e tyre, p?r her? t? par? n? historin? e trojeve t? kolonizuara shqiptare, si rrjedhim i zhvillimit t? luft?s (pothuajse dyvje?are) ?lirimtare komb?tare t? UCPBM-s?, qyshkur t? shk?putur nga trungu etnik shqiptar m? 1878, n? saje t? vendimeve diskriminuese t? Kongresit t? Berlinit. Dihet se zgjidhja e konfliktit shqiptaro - sllavoserbomaqedon me rrug? dhe me mjete paq?sore, (ashtu si? parashikojn? edhe normat e ligjet e s? drejt?s dhe t? sistemit juridik pozitiv nd?rkomb?tar) si dhe bashk?punimi rajonal dhe aderimi n? asociacione e pakte t? ndryshme me karakter integrues evropian ?sht? n? interes t? Republik?s s? Shqip?ris? dhe t? shqiptar?ve n? Ballkan, por jo me ?do kusht dhe, n? forma t? ndryshme diktati q? d?mtojn? thelb?sisht interesat strategjike t? Shqip?ris? dhe t? shqiptar?ve n? Kosov?, n? Maqedoni dhe, n? Kosov?n Lindore, si? ndodhi me arritjen e Marr?veshjes (s? imponuar) p?r demobilizimin e UCPBM-s?, t? n?nshkruar n? Llu?an, m? 21 maj, 2000 nga Shon Saliven (i d?rguari special i NATO-s) dhe Shefqet Musliu, komandanti i Shtabit t? P?rgjithsh?m t? UCPBM-s?. Pavar?sisht nga p?rmbajtja e deklaratave t? pal?ve n?nshkruese dhe nga "duartrokitjet frenetike" t? armiqve t? UCPBM-s?, p?rkat?sisht t? shqiptar?ve n? Lugin?n e Preshev?s, se me p?rfundimin e k?saj Marr?veshjeje ?sht? arritur nj? hap i madh drejt vendosjes s? procesit t? paqes dhe t? siguris? n? rajonin e theksuar, q? kryesisht ?sht? i populluar nga etnikumi shqiptar, p?r pal?n n?nshkruese shqiptare (edhe pse jemi t? vet?dijsh?m se n? momentin m? kritik, u gjend para aktit t? kryer, pik?s?pari, p?r shkak t? "p?rsh?ndetjes lamtumir?se" t? politik?s zyrtare shqiptare dhe t? trysnis? s? bashk?sis? nd?rkomb?tare) ?sht? nj? humbje e pakompensueshme, rrjedh?n e kobshme fatkeqe t? s? cil?s e paralajm?roi edhe vrasja mizore e luft?tarit t? devotsh?m t? ??shtjes komb?tare shqiptare Ridvan Cazimit nga dora tinzare e okupatorit shekullor serb (Komandant Lleshit, cili nj?herazi ishte edhe p?rfaq?sues legjitim i UCPBM-s?, p?rkat?sisht i pal?s shqiptare n? procesin negociator me pal?n kund?rshtare serbe dhe me at? nd?rkomb?tare). S'ka dyshim se pasojat e k?saj Marr?veshjeje, t? ashtuquajtur paq?sore, do t? ndihen me vite t? t?ra jo vet?m mbi kurrizin e popullat?s s? atjeshme shqiptare , por ato do reflektohen n? m?nyr? negative, duke r?nduar dhe provokuar edhe m? tej pozit?n dhe statusin e shqiptar?ve n? Kosov? , n? Maqedoni dhe n? Mal t? Zi. Si n? aspektin politik, ashtu edhe n? at? t? s? drejt?s nd?rkomb?tare, p?rfundimi i k?saj Marr?veshjeje mbi demilitarizimin e UCPBM-s?, ?sht? b?r? n? m?nyr? t? nj?anshme, n? disfavor t? pal?s shqiptare, duke mos p?rfilluar parimin e p?rgjithsh?m t? reciprocitetit. Rasformohet dhe demobilizohet vet?m faktori ushtarak kryengrit?s-UCPBM, faktor ky q? ishte n? funksion t? drejtp?rdrejt? t? mbrojtjes s? popullat?s shqiptare nga ushtrimi i reprezalieve, i terrorizmit shtet?ror dhe i agresionit gjenocidal serb. Nd?rkaq, n? an?n tjet?r favorizohet pala agresore serbe, e cila jo vet?m q? nuk ?sht? detyruar (nj?soj si pala kryengrit?se shqiptare), t? demobilizohet dhe t?rhiqet n? t?r?si nga rajonet e theksuara, duke u z?vend?suar me forcat paqeruajt?se nd?rkomb?tare, por i mund?sohet q? t? sjell? forca t? panum?rta ushtarake e policore speciale, si dhe arsenal t? pakontrolluar armatimesh. Megjith? vler?simet pozitive (t? papritura, q? madje i kan? "befasuar" edhe qarqet m? t? larta zyrtare t? pushtuesve serbomedhenj t? Beogradit) t? aktor?ve t? ky?ur n? rrumbullak?simin e k?tij "dokumenti paq?sor" , si dhe t? "spektator?ve" t? deklaruar nga tribuna e "Marakan?s", t? cil?t edhe k?saj radhe (sikurse gjat? dekad?s s? fundme t? shekullit XX, prijatar? t? shpalosjes s? flamurit t? nacionalshovinizmit t? eg?r, si rrjedhim u manifestua fenomeni i gjenocidit serb mbi popullat?n shqiptare n? Kosov? dhe pjes?n e saj Lindore), t? prir? nga Nebojsha Coviq, u shfaq?n si "feniksi" n? rolin e mbrojtjes s? paranoj?s kolektive p?r t'i "shp?tuar" shqiptar?t e Preshev?s, t? Bujanocit dhe t? Medvegj?s nga ushtria e tyre ?lirimtare-UCPBM-ja(!) Marshruta e tyre nd?shkuese, jo vet?m se u kuptua "drejt" dhe u p?rkrah parezerv?, por edhe u shoq?rua solemnisht nga ana KFOR-it, edhe pse t? gjitha "rekuizitat e tyre sportive" ishin me simbolet e m?parshme t? hollokaustit serbo?etnik ndaj shqiptar?ve, t? cilat s'kishin p?suar kurrfar? "avarie" nga bombardimet e aviacionit t? Aleanc?s Veriatlantike (mars-qershor 1999). Pra, n? thelb, q?llimet djall?zore grabit?are t? politik?s s? regjimit "demokratik" t? dr.Vojislav Koshtunic?s, (vazhdim?si e politik?s s? spastrimit etnik t? regjimit paraprak t? Slobodan Milosheviqit) t? projektuara n? frym?n e "reformave" dhe t? "demokratizimit", u konkretizuan me sukses n? Marr?veshjen midis KFOR-it dhe Beogradit, marr?veshje kjo, e cila i b?ri t? mundur Serbis?, q? t'i rikthej? forcat e veta militariste n? Sektorin B t? Zon?s s? Siguris? Tok?sore midis Kosov?s dhe Serbis?, gj? q? kjo ?sht? n? kolizion flagrant me Marr?veshjen tekniko-ushtarake t? Kumanov?s dhe me Rezolut?n 1244 t? KS t? OKB-s?. Pra, n? rastin konkret nuk kemi t? b?jm? me kurrfar? Marr?veshjeje paq?sore ngase pik?s?pari demilitarizimi nuk ?sht? b?r? nga t? dyja pal?t n? konflikt (si nga aspekti i faktorit njeri, ashtu edhe n? at? ushtarak), por vet?m nga pala e d?mtuar shqiptare, gj? q? kjo ?sht? n? shp?rputhje t? plot? si n? kuptimin e parimit politik t? arritjes s? kompromisit, ashtu edhe n? at? t? aplikimit t? standardeve t? s? drejt?s nd?rkomb?tare. Gjithashtu, element tjet?r q? k?t? Marr?veshje e karakterizon si t? nj?anshme dhe t? imponuar nga faktori nd?rkomb?tar, ?sht? edhe parashikimi i "amnistis? s? rezervuar" p?r pjes?tar?t e ?mobilizuar t? UCPBM-s?. Q? tani, ky "pozicion juridik" ?sht? v?n? n? pik?pyetje, dhe ?sht? tejet i paqart? sepse nj? num?r i konsideruar i luft?tar?ve t? UCPBM-s?, ka filluar t? (p?rpunohet), duke u detyruar q? t? kaloj? n?p?r "filtra" keqtrajtues dhe t? p?rndjekjes, t? qendrave nd?shkuese-korrektimi n? Kosov?, p?r t? konstatuar "identitetin" e tyre t? m?parsh?m, p?rkat?sisht "faj?sin?" e tyre t? ligjshme, n? m?nyr? q? definitivisht t? p?caktohet statusi i tyre n? jet?n civile, ku sipas t? gjitha gjas?ve, do t? jet? i nd?rlikuar dhe me peripeci t? v?shtira ngase (si rrjedhim i akuzave dhe i proceseve t? montuara politike gjyq?sore sipas Projektit susbstancial t? multietnikes dhe t? paqes "m?shiruese" p?r shqiptar?t e Lugin?s s? Preshev?s, t? "dhuruar" nga mediatori-z?vend?skryeministri i qeveris? serbe, Nebojsha Coviq) regjimi pushtues kolonial i Serbis?, n? saje t? ndihm?s s? drejtp?rdrejt? t? bashk?sis? nd?rkomb?tare, n? skajshm?ri tendencioze dhe t? kund?rligjshme me t? gjith? instrumentet e s? drejt?s humanitare nd?rkomb?tare, q? tani ka filluar t'i v?r? n?n hipotek? luft?tar?t e UCPBM-s?, duke i akuzuar pa kurrfar? baze t? argumentuar ligjore, se kin?se gjat? luft?s s? p?rgjakshme mbrojt?se t? popullat?s civile shqiptare kund?r agresorit serb, pask?shin kryer "krime" kund?r civil?ve serb? atje(!?) P?r realizimin e nj? q?llimi t? k?till? t? ndyr? shovinist serbomadh, administrata nd?rkomb?tare (KFOR+UNMIK), tanim? ka nd?rtuar nj? burg t? posa??m n? Dubrav? t? Istogut. Vall?, athua ky Institucion nd?shkues sh?non prologun e "amnistimit" t? UCPBM-s?, apo ?sht? "sihariqi" m? i merituar p?r koncensusin e politik?s kozmopolite shqiptare, q? p?r hir t? rreshtimit dhe t? disiplinimit t? saj n? "vorbull?n" e interesave dhe t? objektivave strategjike afatgjata t? Aleanc?s "s? moderuar" sllave n? Ballkan dhe n? dimensione m? t? gjera nd?rkomb?tare( n? ve?anti n? disfavor t? ??shtjes s? pazgjidhur shqiptare n? Ballkan), fatkeq?sisht sakrifikoi interesat jetike t? shqiptar?ve n? Preshev?, n? Bujanoc dhe n? Medvegj?, si dhe nxori nga "loja" finale UCPBM-n?, duke e detyruar q? t'i dor?zoj? arm?t para agresorit kolonial serb. S? fundi, duhet t? n?nvizojm? faktin se, p?r shkak t? mistifikmeve politike dhe t? manipulimeve propagadistike t? aktor?ve t? Aleanc?s "s? moderuar"sllave antishqiptare dhe antiper?ndimore n? Ballkan, si arritja e Marr?veshjes p?r ripacifikimin e Lugin?s s? Preshev?s, marr?veshjet e deritashme p?r "bombardimin paq?sor" t? Zon?s s? Siguris? Tok?sore Kosov? - Serbi, si dhe mb?shtetja iracionale dhe parezerv? e Bashkimit Evropian dhe e NATO-s Qeveris? agresore t? Lup?o Georgievskit p?r t? shtypur me zjarr dhe me hekur shqiptar?t, duke p?rdorur strategjin? e tok?s s? djegur t? regjimit kolonial pushtues t? Serbis?, jan? prova t? pakund?rshtueshme (megjith? periudh?n dhjet?vje?are t? transicionit, q? karakterizohet nga kriteret dhe nga vlerat e saj, t? projektuara "n? favor" t? integrimit t? vendeve t? varf?ra t? Evrop?s Juglindore dhe t? asaj Qendrore), q? d?shmojn? se p?r shqiptar?t e kolonizuar nga sllav?t n? Ballkan, n? vend t? ndryshimeve territoriale gjeopolitike, ?sht? rezervuar vet?m ndryshimi i statusit politik. www.liriakombtare.com -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Wed May 30 18:28:32 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 18:28:32 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Conference in Washington Message-ID: SETTING the BALKAN AGENDA Thursday, May 31, 2001 9:15 A.M.- 4:30 P.M. CSIS 1800 K Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. Fourth Floor Conference Room: 9:15 AM - 9:45 AM Media Availability Janusz Bugajski, director, CSIS Eastern Europe Project Bruce Hitchner, chairman, Dayton Peace Accords Project B-1 Conference Level: 10:00 AM -12:00 Noon Session I: Post-Dayton Achievements and Shortcomings Chair - Bruce Hitchner Jane Sharp, senior research fellow, King's College, London Jim O'Brien, former U.S. special envoy to the Balkans Jan Eliasson, ambassador, Embassy of Sweden Igor Davidovic, ambassador, Embassy of Bosnia-Herzegovina Ivan Grdesic, ambassador, Embassy of Croatia Milan Protic, ambassador, Embassy of Yugoslavia Miodrag Vlahovic, Center for Regional Studies, Montenegro 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Lunchtime Keynote Address Chair - Robin Niblett, CSIS senior vice president Keynote Speaker -Greg Schulte, senior director, European and Eurasian Affairs, National Security Council 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM Session II: Outstanding Problems Chair - Janusz Bugajski Roy Gutman, diplomatic correspondent, Newsweek Minna Jarvenpaa, senior adviser to President Ahtisaari of Finland Daniel Serwer, United States Institute of Peace Pieter Stek, World Bank 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Session III: Policy Recommendations Chair - Janusz Bugajski and Bruce Hitchner Alex Reyn, ambassador, Embassy of Belgium Robert M. Beecroft, senior coordinator for Bosnia implementation, State Department Robert L. Barry, ambassador, former head of OSCE Mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina Paul McCarthy, National Endowment for Democracy From azemgalica at yahoo.com Thu May 31 02:49:24 2001 From: azemgalica at yahoo.com (Azem Galica) Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 23:49:24 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Shkrim idiotesk i gazetes maqedonase "vecer" per gjoja ndrim territorial mes Maqedonise dhe Shqiperise In-Reply-To: <01e601c0e936$1d8783a0$614c8aac@hppav> Message-ID: <20010531064924.68926.qmail@web14304.mail.yahoo.com> Maqedonasit: Ne marrim Pogradecin, ju Tetov?n Nd?rkoh? q? konflikti n? Maqedoni mes shqiptar?ve dhe ushtris? maqedonase sa vjen dhe ashp?rsohet, kur mij?ra civil? shqiptar? vazhdojn? t? q?ndrojn? n?n bomba, akademik?t maqedonas "futen n? betej?" me nj? propozim p?r zgjidhjen e kriz?s. K?shtu, pasi jan? mbledhur jav?n e shkuar n? Shkup, n? nj? Konferenc? p?r Ballkanin n? Mileniumin e Tret?, ku merrnin pjes? dhe akademik? shqiptar?, kan? arritur n? p?rfundimin se mund?sia e nj? bashk?jetese mes dy popujve ?sht? shkat?rruar n? pak muaj luft? dhe se zgjidhja e vetme do t? ishte nj? ndarje territoriale dhe zhvendosja e popullsis?. Lajmi ?sht? botuar t? m?rkur?n n? faqen e par? t? gazet?s s? dyte maqedonase "Vecer" dhe ka shkaktuar shum? polemika mes politikan?ve. Presidenti Trajkovski e ka konsideruar po dje si "absurde", nd?rsa partia e Cervenkovskit e ka quajtur si "nj? hap t? sigurt drejt luft?s civile". I vetmi q? e ka marr? n? konsiderat? iden? e akademik?ve maqedonas ka qen? Stojan Andov, kryetari i Parlamentit. "Akademik?t nuk e bejn? kot nj? propozim t? till? - ?sht? shprehur ai - mund t? jet? nj? zgjidhje p?r Maqedonin?". Nd?rsa dje pasdite Kryetari i k?saj Akademie, Gjorgji Efermov, n? nj? konferenc? p?r shtyp t? dh?n? n? kulmin e polemikave, ka rikonfirmuar ekzistenc?n e k?tij plani, i cili do t? p?rfshihet brenda nj? strategjie q? do t? paraqitet jav?n e ardhshme. Kryetari i Akademis? Shqiptare t? Shkencave, Ylli Popa, i cili ka marr? pjes? n? mbledhjen e jav?s s? shkuar n? Shkup, i pyetur nga Gazeta, shpjegoi se "Gjat? seancave t? takimit t? Akademive nuk ?sht? diskutuar p?r nj? gj? t? till?. Ka patur vet?m nj? moment, gjat? nj? pushimi n? kafe, kur nj? koleg maqedonas i tha nj? akademiku shqiptar se zgjidhja m? e mir? do t? ishte q? shqiptar?t e maqedonasit t? shk?mbejn? territoret. Kjo, sipas tij, - p?rfundon Akademiku Popa, pasi bashk?jetesa etnike ?sht? e pamundur". Sipas profesor Ylli Pop?s, nuk u diskutua p?r detaje dhe "nuk u takon akademive t? merren me plane t? tilla". Plani A do t? vazhdojn? t? jetojn? s? bashku n? nj? t? ardhme t? af?rt apo t? larg?t shqiptar? e maqedonas? P?r t? mos patur m? gjakderdhje, zgjidhja m? civile, sipas Akademik?ve maqedonas, ?sht? th?nia e nj? "lamtumire" reciproke. Intelektual?t maqedonas flasin gjithnj? e m? shum? p?r nj? plan gjeopolitik me shk?mbime popujsh dhe territoresh mes Shqip?ris? dhe Maqedonis?. Sipas k?tij plani, Maqedonia duhet t? heq? dor? nga nj? pjes? e territoreve t? saj n? Per?ndim: nga Dibra deri n? malin e Mavroves, zon?n e Gostivarit drejt Malit Sharr , p?rgjat? lumit Vradar deri n? pik?n kufitare t? Jazinc?s, p?rfshi Tetov?n dhe fshatrat e krahin?s s? Pollogut, ku jeton popullsia shqiptare n? shumic?. Nd?rsa Shqip?ria, duhet t? dor?zoj? liqenin e Ohrit, liqenin e Presp?s duke p?rfshir? dhe Pogradecin, ku sipas tyre jetojn? maqedonasit etnik?. Shqiptar?t e Kumanov?s, Shkupit, Manastirit dhe Strug?s duhet t? trasferohen n? pjes?n per?ndimore t? Maqedonis?. Maqedonasit e Tetov?s dhe pjes?ve t? tjera t? l?na n? dispozicion t? shqiptar?ve. Kjo rishp?rndarje duhet t? b?het pa dhun?, me marr?veshje dhe do t? zgjes? - sipas projektit maqedonas - tre muaj, ashtu si ndodhi n? Kroaci. Q?llimi i k?saj ideje mes akademik?sh bazohet n? modelin me territore etnikisht t? pastra q? do t? zgjidhte konfliktet n? Ballkan. Raste t? tjera N? projektin e akademik?ve maqedonas ?sht? shpjeguar se pse nuk mund t? funksionoj? nj? shoq?ri multietnike. "Esht? e kot? q? NATO, Bashkimi Evropian k?rkojn? t? krijojn? shoq?ri shum?etnike n? vendet e ish-Jugosllavis?, kur kjo formul? nuk ka funksionuar asnj?her?. Ka pasur vet?m zgjidhje t? p?rgjakshme si n? Bosnj?, ku jan? krijuar tre realitete monoetnike, ose si n? Kosov? ku ndodhet vet?m nj? enklav? serbe. Edhe propozimi i zv/kryeministrit serb Nebojsha ?ovi?, shkon pik?risht n? k?t? drejtim, kur flet p?r ndarje territoriale t? Kosov?s. P.S. Ky shkrim eshte marr nga "Gazeta Shqiptare"(eshte permbajtja e shkrimit origjinal) por toponimet i ndryshova sepse ishin shkruar sllavisht. Ne shkrimin origjinal flitet pak me shume per ndryshimet ne mes te shiptareve dhe popullates sllave por s'e ndjeva te nevojshme ta perkthej. Shqiptaret s'e falin Shkupin, Kumanoven, Ker?oven, Strugen dhe Ohrin(siq thone maqedonasit) e ku te ja japin Pogradecin qe i takon shtetit shqiptar.Sidoqofte maqedonasit le te fluturojne sepse do ngelin me gisht ne goje apo dikund tjeter... Sidoqofte ky ishte nje shkrim interesant. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ From albboschurch at juno.com Thu May 31 09:53:33 2001 From: albboschurch at juno.com (albboschurch at juno.com) Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 09:53:33 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Kosovar Youth to Visit Albanian Orthodox Cathedral Message-ID: <20010531.095356.-370053.6.albboschurch@juno.com> Kosovar Youth to Visit Boston's Albanian Orthodox Cathedral Boston - Fifty-five youngsters and their school teachers from Waterbury, CT shall visit Saint George Albanian Orthodox Cathedral on Saturday, June 2, 2001. The youth are former refugees from the crisis which enveloped their homeland in 1998 and have since settled with their families in the U.S. The educational project of their school system fosters democratic awareness as well as acquiant the newcomers with the diversity of the Albanian community in the New England region. They shall attend liturgy, tour the Cathedral and visit the gravesite of Archbishop Fan S. Noli, a heralded churchman, scholar, poet and author who had served as Albania's Premier in 1924. From webmaster at liriakombtare.com Thu May 31 11:43:43 2001 From: webmaster at liriakombtare.com (liriakombtare) Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 11:43:43 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] =?iso-8859-1?Q?shp=EBrndani?= Message-ID: <004601c0e9e8$872c8460$375b2c04@hppav> TE DASHUR VELLEZER, TE DASHUR DREJTUES TE "LIRIA KOMBETARE", TE DASHUR BASHKELUFTETARE TE SE NDRITSHMES UCK! Kam nderin dhe k?naq?sin? e posa?me q? t'iu p?rg?zoj nga zemra p?r kontributin JUAJ t? pa?muar q? jeni duke e dh?n?(n? k?to ?aste t? v?shtira, por vendimtare p?r t? dal? p?r jet? e mot nga thundra e hekurt koloniale sllavomaqedone)p?r afirmimin e luft?s ?lirimtare komb?tare e antikoloniale t? UCK-s?-jet?simin e k?rkesave legjitime dhe legale t? popullit shqiptar n? Maqedoni. Gjithashtu, JU fal?nderoj p?r bashk?punimin objektiv dhe t? sinqert?, me shpres? dhe me bindje t? fort? se bashk?punimi yn? do t? jet? n? funksion t? drejtp?rdrejt? t? mb?shtetjes pa rezerv? dhe t? ?uarjes p?rpara t? objektivave dhe t? luft?s s? shenjt? t? UCK-s,q? ?sht? faktori vendimtar p?r realizimin e t? drejtave natyrore-historike, komb?tare e politike t? popullit shqiptar n? Maqedoni. Cdo p?rpjekje q? synon p?r t? eliminuar (mbi ?far?do baze qoft?)UCK-n? nga skena politike e ushtarake,do t? jet? vet?m VETEVRASJE dhe KAPITULLIM (sikurse, mjerisht q? ndodhi me UCPBM-n?)para agresorit sllavomaqedon! VDEKJE TE TE GJITHE ARMIQEVE TE UCK-s?! POSHTE TRADHTIA! RROFTE UCK-ja! Me p?rzem?rsi, Dr.Mehdi HYSENI, Boston,m? 31.V.2001 -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Thu May 31 12:14:56 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 12:14:56 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Interesting Conference in Germany Message-ID: Announcing the conference "Voice or Exit: Comparative Perspectives on Ethnic Minorities in 20th Century Europe" (Humboldt-Universitaet Berlin, June 14 to 16, 2001). The program can be accessed on the web via: http://www.demographie.de/minorities The conference papers are available online, however, they are password protected. Please contact authors individually to get the papers. Email addresses of paper givers are available freely at the conference website. Program Organizing Committee: Rainer Muenz, Humboldt University Berlin Rainer Ohliger, Humboldt University Berlin William Safran, University of Colorado at Boulder Zsuzsa Toereok, Central European University Budapest The conference is supported by the German Marshall Fund, Office Berlin Thursday, June 14, 2001 I. Opening and Welcome Rainer Muenz and William Safran (1.30 - 2.00 pm) II. Keynote Speech (2.00 - 3.00 pm) Andreas Wimmer (University of Bonn/Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin): Shadows of Modernity: State Building and the Politicisation of Ethnicity Break: 3.00 - 3.15 pm III. Panels First Session: Perspectives on the Past I: Central Europe during the Interwar Period (3.15 - 4.45 pm) Chair and Discussant: Rainer Ohliger (HU Berlin) Daniel E. Miller (Univ. of West Florida) Colonizing the Hungarian and German Border Areas during the Czechoslovak Land Reform, 1918-1938 Chad Bryant (Univ. of California, Berkeley) What's a German? Ethnic Politics and the Czech Minority in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, 1939-1945 Winson Chu (Univ. of California, Berkeley) Between Regionalism and "Volksgemeinschaft": German Political Organizations in Poland, 1918-1939 Coffee Break (4.45 - 5.15 pm) Second Session: Perspectives on the Past II: Southeastern Europe during the Interwar Period (5.15 - 6.45 pm) Chair and Discussant: Guenter Schoedl (HU Berlin) Onur Yildirim (Middle East Technical University, Ankara) The Exchange of Populations: A Viable Solution to Inter-Ethnic Conflicts? Lessons from the Turco-Greek Exchange of Populations of 1923 Theodora Dragostinova (Univ. of Florida) Between Two Motherlands: Changing Memories of the Past within the Greek-Bulgarian Minority and Refugee Communities, 1906-1939 Mila Mancheva (CEU Budapest) Threat or Alternative: Kemalist Revolution and State-Minority Relations in Inter-war Bulgaria Dinner, Restaurant Zwoelf Apostel, Georgenstrasse, S-Bahnboegen (8.00 pm) Friday, June 15, 2001 Breakfast (9.00 - 9.30 am) IV. Panels Third Session: Perspectives on the Post-communist Present I: Minority-Majority Relations under Transition (9.30 - 11.00 am) Chair and Discussant: Rainer Muenz (HU Berlin) Carina Korostelina (National Tavrida Vernadsky University) The Multiethnic State-Building Dilemma: National and Ethnic Minorities' Identities in Ukraine Mykola Ryabchuk (Kyiv-Mohyla Academy) Who is the Biggest Fish in the Ukrainian Pond? Redefining Minority-Majority Relations in a Post-Soviet Country Slawomir Lodzinski (Warsaw University) Improvement by Law: The Policy towards National Minorities in Poland after 1989 Coffee Break (11.00 - 11.30 am) Fourth Session: Perspectives on the Post-communist Present II: Minority-Majority Relations under Transition (11.30 am - 1.30 pm) Chair and Discussant: Zsuzsa Toeroek (CEU Budapest) Jana Barthel (Humboldt Univ. Berlin) The Representation of Roma in the Czech Republic Narcisa Grigorescu (CEU Warsaw) Local-Centre Relations from an Ethnic Perspective: A Study on the Hungarian Community in Romania Irina N. Molodikova (Center for Ethnic Regional Studies, Moscow) The Russian Diaspora after the Economic Crisis and the Beginning of the Second Chechen War: Latvia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan in Comparison Meike Wulf (LSE London, University of Uppsala) Old and New Conceptions of the "National Self" and the "Other" in Estonia Lunch (1.30 - 3.00 pm) Fifth Session: European Responses to Ethnopolitical Challenges: Institutional Representation and Monitoring (3.00 - 5.00 pm) Chair and Discussant: Sonja Puntscher-Riekmann (University of Vienna) Melanie Ram (George Washington University) European Union Aspirations and Obligations: The EU Influence on Minority Rights in Candidate States Antoine Roger (Univ. Bordeaux) The Influence of the European Union on Political Orientations of Ethnic Minorities: Comparing Post-communist Bulgaria, Romania and Latvia Christophe Scheidhauer (Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Paris): The European Bureau for Lesser used Languages, a Key Actor to Understand European Policies towards Regional or Minority Languages Coffee Break (5.00 - 5.30 pm) Sixth session: Nation-State Responses to Ethnopolitical Challenges: Representation vs. Ethnic Unmixing (5.30 to 7.00 pm) Chair and Discussant: Piet Emmer (Rijksuniversiteit Leiden/ Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin) Tobias K. Vogel (New School University, New York) The Rise of Humanitarianism and Ethnic Unmixing in the Balkans Zoltan Kantor (Teleki Laszlo Institute, Budapest) Hungary and Hungarians Abroad: Double Citizenship or Special Status? Andrea Krizsan (CEU Budapest) The Role of Specialised Bodies in Regulating Racial Discrimination - The Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities as Institution for Integration Barbecue Garden Party, [Ihnestrasse 25, Berlin-Dahlem (if the weather allows so, alternatively free evening (from 8.00 pm on)] Saturday, June 16, 2001 Breakfast (9.00 - 9.30 am) IV. Panels Seventh Session: Illustrative Case Studies I (9.30 - 11.00 am) Chair and Discussant: William Safran (University of Colorado at Boulder) Ayse Betul Celik (State University of New York, Binghamton) The New Voices of the Kurds: Kurdish Associations in Istanbul in the 1990s Robert Greenberg (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Balkan Dialects, Migrations and Ethnic Violence: The Case of the Bosnian Serbs Sebastian Schroeder (Humboldt Univ. Berlin) Lithuania's Polish Minority: A National Minority in the Period of Political and Economic Transformation Coffee Break (11.00 - 11.30 am) Eighth Session: Illustrative Case Studies II (11.30 am - 1.00 pm) Chair and Discussant: William Safran (University of Colorado at Boulder) Margit Feischmidt (University of Pcs) Ethnic Restratification and Ethnic Pillarization: Comparing Structural Processes in the Multiethnic Transylvanian City of Cluj Anahit Minasyan (CEU Budapest) The Promised Land: Armenian and Jewish Experiences in the Second Half of the 20th Century Jens Woelk (Trento University, Faculty of Law and European Academy of Bozen) The Case of South Tyrol: Lessons for Conflict Resolution? Contact: ethnic at rz.hu-berlin.de T. 030/2093-1937, -1918 Fax : 030/2093-1432 http://www.demographie.de/minorities From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Thu May 31 12:16:11 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 12:16:11 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] CfA: Summer School, Balkan students return home, 2-13.7.2001, Konjic Message-ID: An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Dzemal.Sokolovic at isp.uib.no Subject: [balkans] CfA: Summer School, Balkan students return home, 2-13.7.2001, Konjic Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 09:27:05 +0200 Size: 3678 URL: From aalibali at law.harvard.edu Thu May 31 12:23:20 2001 From: aalibali at law.harvard.edu (aalibali at law.harvard.edu) Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 16:23:20 +0000 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Interesting Story Message-ID: <0016c2323161f51VOA-2@voa-2.chntva1-dc1.genuity.net> Iris Pilika I thought you might find this interesting. http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=E57BD233-5552-11D5-841900508BF9712A Agron Alibali From iliri at hotmail.com Thu May 17 11:14:45 2001 From: iliri at hotmail.com (F_L_I _R_I) Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 15:14:45 -0000 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] message Message-ID: HTML attachment scrubbed and removed -------------- next part -------------- [ The following attachment was DELETED when this message was saved: ] [ A Application/VND.MS-POWERPOINT (Name="TOTEM_TANTRA.pps") segment of ] From mehollim at hotmail.com Tue May 29 14:40:05 2001 From: mehollim at hotmail.com (Mimoza Meholli) Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 14:40:05 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] Fwd: Please read! Message-ID: HTML attachment scrubbed and removed -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed -------------- next part -------------- [ The following attachment was DELETED when this message was saved: ] [ A Application/VND.MS-POWERPOINT (Name="innocentkids.pps") segment of ] From rlukaj at bear.com Wed May 16 21:52:34 2001 From: rlukaj at bear.com (Lukaj, Richard (Exchange)) Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 21:52:34 -0400 Subject: [ALBSA-Info] NAAC Dinner on June 8th - Please pass to your friends! Message-ID: May 16th, 2001 Dear Friend: I am writing to ask you to join us for our Fifth Annual Awards Dinner on June 8th at the renowned Windows on the World Restaurant in New York City (World Trade Center), and to place an advertisement in our souvenir dinner journal. Please print out the attached invitation, reply card, and journal ad form. In addition, I have attached a PDF file which includes the NAAC Annual Report and a recent letter we received from Governor Pataki, who could not join us with Mayor Guiliani at the NAAC hosted Celebrity Golf Tournament. As you know, every year we honor a number of people who have made a difference in the lives of the Albanian people. This year we will honor James P. Rubin and Bianca Jagger. Jamie Rubin is the former spokesperson for the State Department. During his tenure in that office, he also served as a senior advisor to Secretary Madeline Albright. Mr. Rubin played a pivotal role during the war in Kosova in helping to unify the Western powers in a common mission to end the genocide. He also directly engaged in talks that helped unify the Albanian parties and led to the end of the war. Bianca Jagger is a human rights activist. She was very active in calling attention to the suffering of the Albanian people of Kosova and adopted the prisoners issue as her own. Shortly after the end of the war, she traveled together with NAAC to the region to assess the damage caused by the war and to help focus attention on the plight of families whose loved ones were still in prison. In addition to presenting our honorees, we will also have a live artistic performance and a number of dignitaries join us. The proceeds of the dinner will support NAAC's mission to promote peace, democracy, and prosperity in the Balkans. See the NAAC web site and affiliate web sites below: http://naac.org/ http://www.hopefellowships.org/ http://www.handofhope.org/ Thank you in advance for your help. I look forward to seeing you on June 8th. Sincerely, Richard S. Lukaj Chairman Board of Trustees National Albanian American Council <> <<22201_NAAC_annual_report.pdf>> <> Effective immediately, we have engaged Cristina Gjomarkaj Verger to contribute her skills and various talents to ensure another successful NAAC event. She orchestrated our recent successful Hands of Hope Golf Tournament for those of you not familiar with her. In addition, we have confirmed the performing artist Eda Zari who will be performing for the first time in the United States. She known internationally as the Celine Dion of Albanian singers. She is a superstar! Don't miss the opportunity to see her. See her web site below: http://www.eda-zari.de/ Lastly, please see the attached photos from our most recent event, the Hands of Hope Celebrity Golf Tournament: http://www.handofhope.org/golf_photos-2001.html ____________________________________________________________________________ _______________________ National Albanian American Council Washington Office 2000 L Street, N.W., Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036 (202) 416-1627 Fax: (202) 416-1628 Email: NAACDC at aol.com New York Office P.O. Box 1900 Murray Hill Station New York, NY 10156 (212) 213-9789 (212) 685-4570 (Fax) Email: Cristina.Verger at HandofHope.org -------------- next part -------------- [ The following attachment was DELETED when this message was saved: ] [ A Application/MSWORD (Name="e-mail invitation.doc") segment of about ] -------------- next part -------------- [ The following attachment was DELETED when this message was saved: ] [ A Application/OCTET-STREAM (Name="22201_NAAC_annual_report.pdf") seg ] -------------- next part -------------- [ The following attachment was DELETED when this message was saved: ] [ A Application/OCTET-STREAM (Name="Scanned.pdf") segment of about 41, ]