[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 145 (Friday, October 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               ALBANIA'S TREATMENT OF ITS GREEK MINORITY

  Mr. PRESSLER. Mr. President, I call attention to particularly 
troubling reports of the abuse of human rights in Albania. I had the 
opportunity to discuss, at length, the deterioriating situation between 
Greece and Albania with King Constantine of Greece on September 7. On 
that same day, an Albanian court found five ethnic Greeks guilty of 
espionage and imposed prison sentences ranging from 6 to 8 years in a 
trial which, according to Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, was 
marred by procedural inadequacies and substantive shortcomings.
  The five male defendants, all members of the ethnic Greek 
organization Omonia, the civil rights organization of the ethnic Greek 
minority in Albania, originally were charged with treason and illegal 
possession of weapons. Albanian prosecutors dropped treason charges, 
which carry the death penalty, after objections from Athens. The men, 
Vangjel Papakristo, Panajot Marto, Kosta Qirjako, Irakli Sirma, and 
Theodhori Bezhani, were arrested after a raid on an Albanian 
conscripts' camp in April. Two Albanian soldiers were killed in that 
raid.
  The judge said the Greek Government had given three of the five men 
$130,000 to buy rifles in the Greek town of loaninna near the Albanian 
border. He claims their mission was to arm ethnic Greek Albanians to 
secede from Albania.
  Greece has accused Albania of staging this political trial to strike 
fear in the heart of the Greek minority in southern Albania. Greece has 
deported some 70,000 Albanians, mostly illegal immigrants since the 
dispute erupted in August. In addition, Greece has tightened border 
controls and blocked European Union aid to Albania.
  The Balkans historically have been a very volatile region. The most 
recent tensions created by the Albanians have thrown fuel on the fire. 
Kangaroo courts have no place in today's civilized world. The Albanian 
trial clearly was a sham, concocted for purely political purposes. It 
had no relationship to the standard concepts of justice observed in 
democratic countries. That trial and the subsequent convictions appear 
to be part of an effort to intimidate ethnic Greeks to abandon their 
homes in Albania and move to Greece. We have seen this type of 
intimidation before. It is the prelude to ethnic cleansing. Let us not 
allow the situation to deteriorate any further.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an article by Nicholas 
Gage from the New York Times appear in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                       Another Balkan Flash Point

       The conviction of five leaders of Albania's ethnic Greek 
     community on espionage charges in a political show trial has 
     aggravated tensions between Greece and Albania and set in 
     motion repercussions that could affect the entire Balkans and 
     even the United States.
       Observers from half a dozen foreign human rights groups 
     have described the trial, which ended Sept. 7 with sentences 
     of six to eight years in prison, as a gross violation of 
     international standards. Albanian opposition leaders called 
     the trial a political maneuver.
       The defendants said they were physically and 
     psychologically tortured during detention, and during the 
     trial they were denied the right to question the 
     prosecution's witnesses or to present their own. A 
     representative of Amnesty International, Bjorn Elmquist, 
     declared that the trial was `'a staged process'' that the 
     authorities manipulated for propaganda. And Minnesota 
     Advocates for Human Rights said in a report that ``despite 
     broad accusations and strong rhetoric, the prosecution did 
     not present direct evidence of the charge.'' The defendants 
     were convicted even though there was never proof that they 
     were in any position to know Government secrets, much less 
     pass them on to Greek agents.
       Why did the Government try these men? They are the most 
     vocal leaders of the civil rights organization Omonia (Greek 
     for harmony), founded by the Greek minority in Albania. (The 
     number of Greeks in Albania, located mostly in the southern 
     region called Northern Epirus, is put at 400,000 by Athens, 
     60,000 by Tirana and 280,000 by the Central Intelligence 
     Agency.)
       These convictions (whose appeal is being considered this 
     week) are part of a wave of persecution of Albania's Greek 
     minority launched by the Government of President Sali 
     Berisha. Since he came to power in 1992, he has forced 
     virtually all Greek officers out of the armed forces, has 
     drastically reduced Greek representation in the police, 
     judiciary and public administration, and has cut back Greek-
     language schools.
       All these measures, including the trial, are intended to 
     make ethnic Greeks in Albania feel that the are powerless, 
     have no hope of retaining their ethnic identity and must 
     abandon their homes and move south to Greece.
       The trial so angered the Greek Government that it expelled 
     more than 70,000 illegal Albanian workers. Critics in Europe 
     and the U.S. called the expulsions excessive. But Athens 
     argues that other European countries have refused to accept 
     Albanian workers, while Greece took in 400,000, who send home 
     more than $350 million a year.
       Why would Mr. Berisha provoke Greece and lose a major part 
     of Albania's vital income? The most credible explanation is 
     that the pressure on ethnic Greeks to abandon their homeland 
     is the first step in his plan to enlarge Albania 
     dramatically.
       He hopes to force the Greeks out in order to secure the 
     southern flank. Then he can encourage Albanian enclaves in 
     the former Yugoslavia to revolt and seek union with Albania 
     without worrying that Greece will take advantage of the 
     unrest to occupy Northern Epirus.

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