[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 82 (Thursday, June 6, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       A SERIOUS CASE OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ETHNIC ALBANIANS

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 6, 1996

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call the attention of my 
colleagues to the serious case of ethnic discrimination and violation 
of human rights involving the effort to establish the University of 
Tetova in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
  Almost 2 years ago Professor Dr. Fadil Sulejmani filed formal 
documents with government officials in order to establish the 
University of Tetova in the city of Tetova in western Macedonia. 
Albanian intellectuals sought permission to establish the University 
because ethnic Albanians in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 
face severe limitations in their efforts to receive a higher education. 
Ethnic Albanians comprise as much as 40 percent of the population of 
the country. The 1991 Yugoslav census reported that ethnic Albanians 
made up 20 percent of the population of the Republic of Macedonia, but 
Albanians and other specialists, including the United States Helsinki 
Commission, suggest that the proportion is considerably higher.
  Only two universities exist currently in the Former Yugoslav Republic 
of Macedonia--the Universities of Skopje and Bitola--and only 2 percent 
of Albanian young people are admitted to study at these two 
institutions. Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, in the past Albanian young 
people had the opportunity to study at universities elsewhere in the 
former Yugoslavia--Prishtina, Zagreb, Ljubljana, and other 
universities. With the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, these 
opportunities are no longer available to ethnic Albanians from 
Macedonia. Clearly, finding additional opportunities for higher 
education for ethnic Albanian students is vitally important, and the 
establishment of the University of Tetova was intended to fill this 
important gap.

  What was the response when Professor Sulejmani attempted to establish 
a university for ethnic Albanians? The government of the former 
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia failed to respond to the filing of 
formal documents for the establishment of the university. Government 
officials refused to discuss the issue with Professor Sulejmani--
despite repeated requests for dialogue. Because the government refused 
to consider the establishment of a university or even to discuss the 
matter with Albanian academic leaders, the university opened on 
December 14, 1994. The government responded by sending several hundred 
police officers, bulldozing one university building, jailing the 
faculty for 24 hours, and conducting a campaign of harassment and 
intimidation against the students.
  Mr. Speaker, just a few months later in February 1995, a delegation 
of Americans, including former Congressman Joseph DioGuardi of New York 
and Ms. Shirley Cloyes, visited the University of Tetova. They were 
joined by Mihajlo Mihajlov, a prominent anti-Communist dissident in the 
former Yugoslavia and now living in the United States. Just hours after 
the American delegation departed from Tetova, Albanian police 
authorities arrived at the buildings where the university was seeking 
to function. In the violence which they provoked, one individual was 
killed and twenty-eight others were wounded. Some twenty-five leading 
professors and students were arrested and imprisoned. Those who were 
imprisoned in this unnecessary show of force were subsequently 
released, but their travel documents were seized by police, and 
authorities refused permission to the Albanian academic leaders to 
travel and the professors and students remain subject to intimidation.

  Mr. Speaker, the action of the government in these cases is a cause 
of serious concern to me. The ethnic Albanian population of the Former 
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia needs to have access to higher 
education, and Albanian academicians have sought to follow proper 
procedures in creating educational opportunities through establishing 
the University of Tetova. The government is using force and 
intimidation in an effort to repress the ethnic Albanian population of 
that country.
  Mr. Speaker, I can speak with some authority about the intransigence 
of the government officials on this issue. Three months ago, I invited 
Dr. Sulejmani, the Rector, and Professor Melaim Fejziu, the Vice 
Rector, of the University of Tetova to meet the Members of Congress to 
discuss this issue in Washington. Since the passports of both of these 
individuals were confiscated by government authorities, I also wrote to 
Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov requesting that the travel documents 
of these two Albanian academicians be returned to them so they could 
travel to the United States for meetings with me and other Members of 
Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, 3 weeks after my invitation was received, I had a 
response from Dr. Sulejmani and Professor Fejziu expressing their 
interest in meeting with me and my colleagues in the Congress here in 
Washington. They expressed regret, however, that their passports had 
not been returned and said that they have been given no information 
about when they might be returned.
  I have not even had the courtesy of a response from the President of 
the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. I know he has been 
recovering from an accident, but his staff presumably still functions, 
the Foreign Ministry presumably is still in operation. I am appalled 
and outraged that the government has failed to respond to my request 
and has even failed to give me the courtesy of a reply.
  Mr. Speaker, the United States is firmly and unequivocally committed 
to human rights, to the full exercise of civil rights by all peoples, 
and we are equally committed to opposing discrimination on the basis of 
ethnic, religious, racial or other grounds. I sincerely urge the 
government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to moderate its 
policies and permit the University of Tetova to go forward. I commend 
the outstanding effort by Dr. Sulejmani and his colleagues, and I 
invite my colleagues to join in applauding this endeavor.