[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 45 (Thursday, April 21, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
            THE ALBANIAN PERSPECTIVE ON PEACE IN THE BALKANS

                                 ______


                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 21, 1994

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, a former Member of this body, the Hon. Joe 
DioGuardi, has long been a tireless advocate of the rights of ethnic 
Albanians, both in Albania proper and in the other States of the 
Balkans region. As president of the Albanian-American Civic League, Mr. 
DioGuardi was invited to address an international conference on the 
Balkan States and the problems of that region, held in Istanbul, Turkey 
from April 7 to 10. I was pleased that Mr. DioGuardi presented me with 
a copy of his speech to that conference. I have found it an informative 
presentation of the Albanian point of view regarding the conflicts in 
the Balkans and the rights of ethnic Albanians, and I would like to 
commend it to the attention of my colleagues.

             Peace in the Balkans--The Albanian Perspective

       Let me first thank the Solidarity Foundation for inviting 
     me to address this Balkan Conference as President of the 
     Albanian American Civic League. For those who do not know 
     what Albanian American Civic League is, it is an independent 
     non-governmental organization that represents not only the 
     domestic concerns of the Albanian American people but even 
     those international geopolitical and cultural interests of 
     ethnic Albanian Americans like myself.
       I was born in America, I'm proud to be American and I'm 
     proud my father was Albanian. He was born in Italy, in a 
     small Albanian village, where after 500 years the Albanian 
     language and culture still survive. He was a poor young 
     farmer who came to America for a job and managed to get that 
     great opportunity that America offers everybody who works 
     hard. That is the secret of America. You have to dream, but 
     you have to work. If you do both those things you can succeed 
     anywhere there is free enterprise and democracy. My father 
     and I know this from personal experience.
       I thank the Solidarity Foundation for this Forum and the 
     opportunity to tell the truth about what is happening in the 
     Balkans. It's important to give good information to the 
     people and to the world. Thomas Jefferson, one of the great 
     founding fathers of the United States of America, said that 
     ``information is the currency of democracy'' (like money is 
     the currency of a bank). Information promotes democracy!
       I came here also in the spirit of another great American. 
     His names was Thomas Paine. He was not as celebrated as 
     Thomas Jefferson, but many believe it was his words in the 
     Crisis Papers and in the Common Sense Pamphlet during the 
     American revolution that gave winning spirit to the American 
     soldiers at Valley Forge when they were about to collapse 
     just before the important battle at Trenton. That battle 
     turned the revolution around so that those 13 small American 
     colonies could defeat the greatest power in the world at 
     that time, Great Britain. And let us not forget that 
     Thomas Paine wrote an important book called ``The Rights 
     of Man''. He may be the quintessential human rights 
     activist of all times. Listen to his words because I came 
     here in his spirit as well. He said: ``the world is my 
     country, to do good is my religion''. Think about that. 
     What Paine meant was that when it comes to people and 
     their human rights and freedom, borders and countries are 
     meaningless, because the people transcend governments and 
     borders. The people are more important than governments, 
     political parties and borders. And mind you, he said that 
     more than 200 years ago.
       Why did communism collapse as a system? Because it put the 
     party and government above the people. Why is the U.S. so 
     strong today as a democracy? Because people come first. The 
     people in ``We The People'', the first three words of our 
     Constitution, are above the government and the parties, and 
     we must understand this even more today in order to see the 
     Balkans flourish again. It's people like Slobodan Milosevic, 
     the President of Serbia who are going the other way. He is a 
     Stalinist communist. He has never changed. He is promoting 
     the evil values of ``ethnic cleansing'' to create a geo 
     political nightmare called ``greater Serbia.'' Slobodan 
     Milosevic like Adolf Hitler will fail because he is going 
     against human nature, democracy and everything that is right.
       And, when it also comes to religion think about what Thomas 
     Pane said ``to do good is my religion''. I am Roman Catholic 
     but most Albanians are Muslims, many are Eastern Orthodox and 
     some are Roman Catholic. Albanian tolerate all religions. 
     Approximately 60% of the Albanians in the world today are 
     Muslims (90% in Kosova), 25% are Eastern Orthodox and 15% are 
     Roman Catholic. Look at Albania--the great democratic 
     President of Albania Dr. Sali Berisha is a Muslim, the 
     chairman of the parliament, Pjeter Arbnori (who spent 28 
     years in jail under the worst communism in Albania) is a 
     Roman Catholic, and the Prime Minister, Aleksander Meksi, is 
     Eastern Orthodox. So religion is not an issue with the 
     Albanian people. They tolerate and respect all religions. 
     They believe in the individual and they believe in democracy. 
     Albanians know that no religion has a monopoly on doing good.
       Today if you look at the Albanian nation of seven million 
     people in the Balkans, only 3.5 million are in Albania and 
     there is another 3.5 million on the borders of Albania--2 
     million in Kosova, 1 million in Macedonia, 100,000 in 
     Montenegro and another 100,000 in Presheva, Bujanovc and 
     Medvegje. They are all together, not separated by hundreds of 
     miles like Krajina to Belgrade. Do you know why Albanians are 
     located together? Because on Nov. 28, 1912 when Albania 
     declared its independence from the Ottoman Turkish Empire, 
     The country of Albania included all the Albanian people. They 
     did not move to Kosova like Mr. Milosevic wants you to 
     believe. They did not move to Macedonia like Mr. Gligoroy, 
     the President of Macedonia wants you to believe. They did not 
     chase Greeks out of southern Albania like Mr. Papandreou, the 
     President of Greece wants you to believe. They were there all 
     the time. The Slavs came to the Balkans in the 5th century. 
     As a matter of fact, the Albanians are the descendants the 
     Illyrians. They have been in the Balkans for 6,000 years. 
     They have not moved.
       The Albanians were gerrymandered and politically 
     emasculated after Nov. 28, 1912 in order to create the now 
     failed south slave states called Yugoslavia. What they did 
     was arbitrarily draw a new border around one half of the 
     Albanian people to put them in a Slavic state. The Albanians 
     are not Slavs. They are Indo-Europeans. The Albanians do not 
     use the Cyrillic alphabet. They use the Latin alphabet. The 
     Albanians have nothing in common with the culture of Slavs. 
     Finally, the Albanians want democracy. The Slavs in Serbia 
     want communism, at least the ones who follow Slobodan 
     Milosevic. So, the Albanians are looking towards Europe and 
     America. Mr. Milosevic he is looking the other way. In fact 
     he is looking to hell as far as the Albanian people are 
     concerned. Any time you can do to people, to any people, what 
     is being done in Bosnia and in Kosova today--it is nothing 
     less than inhuman and satanic.
       Look at the logo of the Albanian American Civic League. It 
     is the symbol of the Alabanian people. It is the old 
     Byzantine symbol-the eagle with two heads, which is the 
     national flag of Albania today. This logo represents 15 
     million Albanians around the world--7 million of whom are 
     in the Balkans and another 8 million in different 
     countries. Melbourne, Australia, for instance, has about 
     20 thousand, mostly from Macedonia. The United States has 
     400,000 Albanians, including 200,000 in the New York area. 
     And what about Turkey? I'm told that at least 5 million 
     Albanians are here in the Istanbul area.
       I met with the Albanian community here last night. 
     Albanians are good citizens of Turkey, but are still proud to 
     be Albanian. They are lobbying Ankara very hard to protect 
     the Albanians in the Balkans, the way I and other Albanian 
     Americans are lobbying very hard in Washington today, as a 
     strong voice for the Albanian people. We don't represent the 
     Albanian government in either Albania or Kosova. We don't 
     represent any Albanian political party. The Civic League 
     represents the interests of the Albanian American people who 
     want to tell the truth about what is really happening in the 
     Balkans, especially against the Albanians in Kosova, 
     Macedonia and Montenegro. Now, this is our message and please 
     listen carefully. There will be no peace in the Balkans until 
     the Albanian National issue is resolved. No matter what you 
     hear about Bosnia, and we must help the Bosnian people in 
     every way, we must support democracy everywhere, especially 
     in Kosova.
       So, let me repeat there will be no peace in the Balkans 
     until the national aspirations of 7 million Albanians in the 
     Balkans is resolved! What do we mean by that? Do we mean that 
     there is a quest for a greater Albania. NO! The Albanians are 
     not looking to redraw the borders. They understand what the 
     Helsinki process means. They understand that, to be secure, 
     they must agree under Helsinki that all borders must stay the 
     way they are. But Slobodan Milosevic does not believe that. 
     He wants to change the borders by force and by blood. The 
     Albanians want to preserve the borders but within those 
     borders, they want to be respected for who they are. They are 
     not a minority. Let me repeat the Albanian people are not a 
     minority anywhere in the Balkans. They are a divided nation 
     of people, all together, in a geographic compact area.
       I have a map which I sent to the Congress of the U.S. to my 
     friend Senator Bob Dole and many other important Congressmen, 
     so that they can see the map of the Balkans including Albania 
     with 3.5 million and another 3.5 million outside Albania with 
     no separation 7 million Albanians all in the same area. 
     Albanians are asking for equality in Macedonia. They don't 
     want to be treated as second class citizens. They want to be 
     treated equal to the Macedonian Slavs. They believe they have 
     as many people as the Macedonian Slavs, and they want to have 
     a fair census taken to prove it. If Macedonia wants to be a 
     sovereign State. If it wants aid from the U.S., it must count 
     all of its citizens because Macedonia is a multi-ethnic 
     state. Albanians believe the Macedonian Slavs represent 40 
     percent (1,000,000), the Albanians represent another 40 
     percent (1,000,000), with the other 500,000 being Turks 
     Gypsies, ethnic Bulgarians, Serbs etc. So we tell Mr. Gigorov 
     to treat the Albanians fairly and they will treat you fairly. 
     The Albanian people want to be equal with the Macedonian 
     Slavs in making the Macedonian state strong. And it should be 
     a strong independent state to withstand the rampant 
     chauvinism in the region.
       When it comes to Kosova what do the Albanians want? The 
     Albanians in Kosova are not looking to join with the Albania. 
     That is the propoganda of Milosevic from 1989 when he began 
     to suppress the Albanian people there and forcibly took away 
     their autonomy. The Albanians of Kosova have declared their 
     independence under international law. And why do they want 
     independence? Well just look at what the Serbs have done to 
     Bosnia. They can't trust the Serbs! Look at what the Serbs 
     for 50 years have done to the Albanians in Yugoslavia. They 
     need their independence and they should have it.
       Legally, Kosova deserves to be an independent state. When 
     it was part of Yugoslavia, Kosova was treated equally with 
     Serbia and the other Republics in the confederal presidency. 
     Kosova voted equally with Serbia. So it always had been 
     considered an independent unit of the former Yugoslavia. And 
     now there is no Yugolsavia! There is only an outlaw, renegade 
     state run by a war criminal called Milosevic. It is not even 
     recognized by the U.N. and the U.S. And, Albanians do not 
     want to be part of that outcast state! Kosova wants to be 
     it's own sovereign Republic and there is a legal basis for 
     it.
       Let me go on now to Mr. Papandreou because in southern 
     Albania there is big propoganda today about the so called 
     400,000 Greek minority there. That is not the case and that's 
     why I put these reports together for you from the CSCE 
     (Helsinki) High Commissioner on Human Rights and the 
     Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. They count 
     only 58,000 Greeks in Albania! And they report that the 
     Greeks have elected members of the Albanian parliament, Greek 
     newspapers, many businesses (go to Tirana and you'll see all 
     the Greek stores that are opened) and even Greek schools. So, 
     what is Papandreou doing? He is naive and is being used by 
     Milosevic to discredit the President of Albania, Dr. Berisha, 
     by saying that the Greek minority in Albania is being treated 
     the way the Serbs are treating the Albanians in Kosova. That 
     is sheer nonsense! There is no moral or other equivalency 
     between the issues of Kosova and the Greek minority in 
     Albania! But it is this kind of gross misrepresentation that 
     sounds like the truth, if it goes unresponded. The Greeks in 
     Albana are treated fairly. Is life for Greeks in Albania 
     perfect. Probably not. But life for Albanians in Kosova is 
     like lifing in Hell. Please read the reports I have 
     distributed from independent and well recognized 
     international groups.
       Let me conclude my talk by mentioning a few people. First 
     let me recognize Judge Bardhyl Cavushi from Kosova. He's in 
     the audience. Just before he came here the Serbs ransacked 
     his house. They damaged his files and books. Talk about the 
     rule of law! Here is a judge who now has to worry about his 
     family, his libary and will happen to him when he returns to 
     Kosova from this Conference. They are likely to detain him 
     and probably torture him and throw him in jail. That is the 
     rule of law in Serbia!It is happening day in and day out to 
     many Albanians. But, you don't here it. And why don't you 
     hear it? Because Milosevic has thrown out the Helsinki 
     commission. He has thrown out all the human rights groups. 
     Miloservic doesn't want you to see what he is doing. Just 
     like Adolf Hitler didn't want you to see the concentration 
     camps. Milosevic doesn't want you to see his dirty work unit 
     it is too late.
       Let me also recognize Dr. Negib Sacirbey and his son 
     Ambassador Mohammad Sacirbey for all they are doing to help 
     their great President, Alija Izetbegovic, to reach a just 
     peace for the oppressed people of Bosnia. While nothing can 
     be compared today to the atrocities we have seen against the 
     innocent civilians of Bosnia, let us not forget that the 
     Serbs are conducting another form of ethnic cleaning in 
     Kosova, including raping young Albanian women in front of 
     their families, torturing those detained, banging down doors 
     at night, etc. . . There is constant intimidation because 
     Milosevic wants to see the Albanians leave. He wants to 
     fulfill the medieval dream of Stephan Dushan. He wants a 
     greater Serbia and, even worse than that, he is following 
     what was written by Vaso Cubrilovic in 1937 on ``The 
     Expulsion of the Albanians'' (in effect ``The Extermination 
     of the Albanians''). This is what the Albanians are facing 
     today and the world hardly knows about it.
       So let me finally conclude by saying shame on you Mr. 
     Milosevic! Shame on you for following the traditions of Adolf 
     Hitler by fanning the flames of ultra-nationalism to create 
     such barbaric conditions on the Albanian and Bosnian people 
     in the Balkans today.
       And, shame on you Mr. Papandreou. Shame on you because you 
     are naive to follow the ultranationalist policies of 
     Milosevic. You should know that this is not in the interest 
     of the good Greek people. And, by the way, all people are 
     good. The Serbian people are good. The Bosnian people are 
     good. The Macedonian and Albanian people are good. It's their 
     governments that stink and we condemn those leaders who 
     misrepresent their people. So Mr. Papandreou, you are naive 
     for following Milosevic because you have forgotten that the 
     dream of greater Serbia has always included the port of 
     Salonika. Consider yourself lucky to have poor, but 
     democratic and peace loving Alabania on your border, and not 
     Serbia!
       And, shame on you Mr. Gligorov, because you are dishonest. 
     You speak good words to the Albanians in Skopje. Your words 
     are good, but your deeds are not. You are treating the 
     Albanian people like second class citizens. Just look at the 
     report of the unrepresented Nations and people organization. 
     It was just issued and talks about how inferior the public 
     roads and facilities, including the schools, are in 
     Albanian towns and villages compared to those in 
     Macedonian towns and villages. Yet the Albanian people are 
     working hard to make a strong state in Macedonia. So shame 
     on you Mr. Gligorov for not keeping your word to give the 
     Albanians in Macedonia an equal partnership with the 
     Macedonian slavs who now control them as second class 
     citizens.
       And, shame on you Mr. Bush. Shame on you because you said 
     you stood for democracy and you knew that the Albanian people 
     supported you. What you did to the Albanian people after they 
     got Senators Nickles and D'Amato to amend the foreign aid 
     bill and take foreign aid away from Serbia was 
     unconscionable. Your Secretary of State, James Baker, who was 
     badly counciled by his undersecretary Mr. Eagleburger, 
     certified incredibly that Serbia was in compliance with 
     International Human Rights Conventions in Kosova. If you had 
     taken the aid away from Serbia in 1991, Bosnia and Kosova 
     would not be in such a terrible crisis today.
       And, shame on you Mr. Clinton! Shame on you because you ran 
     for the presidency and you promised the Albanian and Bosnian 
     people a lot when it came to bringing peace to the Balkans. 
     But you have delivered even less than President Bush. Just 
     look at what your Defense Secretary, Mr. Perry, said a few 
     days ago in connection with Bosnia. Specifically he said 
     ``safe havens'' like Gorazhde ``shouldn't count on us to 
     help''. So shame on you Mr. Clinton and Mr. Perry!
       And, shame on you Mr. Tudjman because as President of 
     Croatia you sold out the Albanians in 1990 when you tried to 
     buy peace with Mr. Milosevic by appeasing him in saying that 
     Kosova was an internal problem of Serbia! Kosova is a Balkan-
     European problem and it is now going to be a world problem if 
     we don't set up an international protectorate or U.N. 
     trusteeship there right away. Mr. Tudjman, you finally woke 
     up by joining with the good Bosnian people in a Confederation 
     in Bosnia. Wake up again and go meet with Dr. Rugova, the 
     President of Kosova, and stand together with him to show Mr. 
     Milosevic that Croatians and Albanians stand together against 
     Serbian barbarism and chauvinism. Milosevic is only winning 
     because he is Croatian enough to take on one battle at a 
     time. First Kosova in 1989, then Slovenia in 1990, Croatia in 
     1991 and now Bosnia. He is too smart to take on more than one 
     nation at a time and you are naive for letting him do it. So 
     shame on you Mr. Tudjman.
       And, shame on you Boutros Ghali! You should know better 
     than passing UN resolutions that you do not support. This 
     creates false hope for the Bosnian and Albanian people and 
     more ``green lights'' for Serbian atrocities. So shame on you 
     Boutros Ghali.
       Finally let me say that the two most important countries in 
     the world for solving the Balkan crisis are Turkey and the 
     United States. Turkey is an essential part of NATO and can 
     resolve this problem in the spirit of that great Turkish 
     President and leader Turgut Ozal who willingly and rightly 
     tried to assert his and Turkish democratic values to solve 
     the Balkan crisis before he died. So I ask Prime Minister, 
     Tansu Ciller, and President, Suleiman Demirel, to follow in 
     his footsteps.
       Thank you for having me here.
       In Turkish--tesekkur ederim!
       In Albanian--falemnderit shume!
       And, in plain old American--God be with you all.

                          ____________________