ATA News from Albania (96-06-07)

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From: The Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA) Home Page at <http://www.telpress.it/ata>

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

CONTENTS

[01] PRESIDENT BERISHA RECEIVES AUSTRIAN AMBASSADOR

[02] TWENTY-FIVE MEDICAL CENTRES REHABILITATED IN FIVE MONTHS

[03] LEFT OPPOSITION AGAIN CALLS CITIZENS TO "SKENDERBEJ" SQUARE

[04] NUMBER OF ILLEGAL ALBANIANS HEADING FOR ITALIAN COAST INCREASES

[05] SOCIALIST PARTY ANNOUNCES IRREGULARITIES IN 107 CONSTITUENCIES

[06] PRESS REVIEW

[07] JUNIOR BASKETBALL TEAM OF SPORTCLUB "TIRANA" IN FRANCE

[08] PRESIDENT RUGOVA MEETS WITH DELEGATION OF GERMAN BUNDESTAG

[09] RUGOVA ASKS ENGAGEMENT OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT FOR PRESENCE OF EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS IN KOSOVA

[10] U.S. SENDS AID FOR CHILDREN IN KOSOVA

[11] SOME 78 YOUTHS WIN FIRST GRADE OF ESPERANTO LANGUAGE

[12] ALBANIAN SPEAKER INTERVIEWED BY HUNGARIAN STATE TV

[13] RUGOVA ASKS EUROPE TO FOLLOW U.S. FOR GREATER PRESENCE IN KOSOVA

[14] Clinton to meet King Hussein on June 13

[15] Bosnia envoy asks U.S. to deal with poll aftermath

[16] Reporter tells of living skeletons at Omarska camp By Andrew Kelly

[17] NIS EX-CHAIRMAN ASKS REVOCATION OF CUSTODY

[18] OPPOSITE COMMENTS OF ALBANIAN PRESS ON EU SPOKESMAN INTERVIEW WITH BBC

[19] ANNOUNCEMENT OF INTERIOR MINISTRY

[01] PRESIDENT BERISHA RECEIVES AUSTRIAN AMBASSADOR

The Austrian Ambassador sent to Berisha the cordial greetings of the Austrian President Klestil and repeated his invitation to Berisha to attend a high level meeting with other state leaders in Salzburg during July.

Berisha expressed his gratitude for the help and support that Austria, this friendly country, has offered to Albania and asked the Ambassador to send to President Klestil his cordial greeting and thanks for the invitation which he answered positively to.

Berisha and Chalice expressed once more the readiness and good will their countries had to strengthen the friendship and relations between them in all fields. ake/jz/fh/sh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[02] TWENTY-FIVE MEDICAL CENTRES REHABILITATED IN FIVE MONTHS

It is a project realised in collaboration with World Bank specialists which specifies the sanitary map and the kind of medical centres according to the number of the population each of them will cover. It foresees that 500 medical centers are necessary to cover all territories of the Republic with primary health care.

It goes to 325 the number of the centres rehabilitated with funds invested by the Albanian government, World Bank and contribution of other donors and non government organisations.

During 1996 some 54 centres will be rehabilitated in 18 districts and the E.U. PHARE programme will finish 18 centers in three other districts.

This programme will be finished within 1999.A.Milo

800 THOUSAND ECU FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF PRISON OF SHENKOLL

A complete reconstruction of the prison of Shenkoll, district of Lezha, 75 km North-West of Tirana will be realised with a 800 thousand ECU fund by CE.

The Kruja construction firm engaged with the reconstruction will create better conditions for the prisoners by repairing the rooms, the electric and hydro systems, etc.

The prison leading staff has held championships for chess, football etc, which have enlivened the life of the prisoners within rules of the prison.

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[03] LEFT OPPOSITION AGAIN CALLS CITIZENS TO "SKENDERBEJ" SQUARE

This meeting is organised to protest against what the left wing opposition calls "a violent manipulation of May 26 elections" and to ask a total annulment of them.

Although the meeting is said to be "peaceful" there are signs warning use of violence by the left wing opposition which lost May 26 parliamentary elections.

The writer Dritero Agolli, former socialist deputy and chairman of the Albanian Writers and Artists' League during the years of Hoxha and Ramiz Alia's dictatorship in an interview with the ZP called for clashes.

"Opposition leaders are getting used to be true leaders, to come to the front of masses without being afraid of clashes. They are becoming leaders who lead the masses towards a final cause . . ." Agolli said.

Interior Ministry in an official statement of June 3, 1996 answering to the DP and SP demands to hold rallies at "Skenderbej" square said that rallies in this square are not approved as it is a public center. For such activities other places in Tirana would be put in their disposal.

The announcement called all political parties to respect the laws in power. jz/fh/z/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[04] NUMBER OF ILLEGAL ALBANIANS HEADING FOR ITALIAN COAST INCREASES

"People come from all the country, especially from northern regions, they stay overnight in our bases and then we carry them beyond the sea," owner of a speedyboat said.

A great number of Albanians have taken clandestine "passports" but many of them have fallen in the trap of Italian police and are brought home with ferryboats which stop in the port of Vlora, writes the paper.

The flux of Albanians towards Italian dream has increased along with the price for its realisation. "We may carry you and find a job for you through Italian entrepreneurs. All this costs only 2 million lira." This advertisement attracts thousands of people towards mystery, writes Gazeta Shqiptare, adding that every night, an unlimited number of speedyboats, among which some directed by Italian owners, have turned the Otranto Strait into a real bridge for people.

During the electoral campaign, SP militants said to people undertones that "if SP wins, it will organize exodus towards Italy as those of 1991." SDP deputy chairman Paskal Milo promised during his electoral campaign in Vlora "the release of the speedyboats to continue illegal emigration of people to Italy." Some Albanian left wing papers after parliamentary elections of May 26 called almost openly for massive exodus. gen/pas/xh/Z/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[05] SOCIALIST PARTY ANNOUNCES IRREGULARITIES IN 107 CONSTITUENCIES

We are publishing the full text of this press release: "The first denouncement of May 26 elections by the SP was done on May 26, 1996 at 17.30 by considering them unjust, not free and anti democratic and declared the withdrawal of all its members from electoral commissions and its candidates to prevent a confrontation foreseen by the DP and Berisha in the late evening hours when the last act of this coup d'etat would be played in Albania.

To steal the free vote and realise the "coup d'etat" a well-compiled scenario based on a very clear idea and scheme was prepared by the Secret service under the direct leadership of the DP. In this scenario an important role in realising a massive vote manipulation was played by the Central Electoral Commission which was brutally dominated by a non conscious majority and lead by fanatic party members. Berisha at the head of the election campaign and the first in the list of candidates for deputy of the ruling party was the conductor of this coup d'etat and May 28, 1996 massacre which was shown to Europe and the world through Euronews, CNN and other TV stations.

The SP besides keeping a well defined political stand towards the acts of Berisha and the Central Electoral Commission has on the other hand officially directed them complains regarding the irregularities in 107 election constituencies where the SPA has contested.

SPA position regarding poll irregularities has been and remains clear because it does not refer to technical irregularities but to the scheme and concept of manipulations which are in the essence of the strategy of the Berisha regime.

Concretely:

1. The document No 187 dated May 26, 1996 to the President of the Republic and the Central Electoral Campaign makes clear the SPA stand on the responsibility of the president and the CEC regarding manipulations which led the coup d'etat of May 26, 1996 in Albania. The document strongly demands among others the annulment of May 26 elections and repetition of elections under guaranteed democratic conditions, full competing equality strictly observed by EU, CE and U.S.

2. The document No 196, dated May 3, 1996 addressed to CEC, the SP General Committed requests the repetition of elections in all the constituencies.

Hence, SPA has clearly voiced its stand for the May 26 elections and at the same time it has made an official address to the President and the CEC regarding irregularities in these elections requesting that poll be repeated in the 107 constituencies where SP candidates have competed. fh/xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[06] PRESS REVIEW

Zeri i Popullit entitles its editorial today "Facing the dictator." The paper carries no report about the meetings of left wing opposition leaders in Brussels two days ago. The paper carries opinions of the European left on elections in Albania. ZP prints on its first page an "Invitation" that Albanian opposition makes to citizens to gather in the Scanderbeg Square on Saturday and request the annulment of the elections and their repetition.

On its fourth page ZP publishes a press release regarding irregularities the SP has denounced in 107 constituencies according to the newspaper.

"Socialists prepared the second part of the Congress," writes Republika today. It also carries a EU pronunciation that "elections should be repeated in all those constituencies in which irregularities have been observed."

"European Union sends a powerful signal to Tirana showing that it is seriously considering the electoral irregularities," writes Poli i Qendres.

Lajmi i Dites on its first page cavers the meeting President Sali Berisha had with the new Austrian Ambassador in Tirana George Chalice. Under the title "Unknown document" the paper publishes the article "Programme and regulation of the National Party" regarding the National Party founded in 1923 by Aqif Pashe Elbasani in Baden, Austria.

Tribuna carries the article "Red opposition asks the basis to invent facts." Leaders of the Red Front parties after offending their members by ordering their withdrawal from the electoral commissions now ask them to invent facts on events which have never occured.

"Legitimacy of elections and illegitimacy of the opposition" is entitled Albania's editorial. It also carries on the first page the article "Soon new agreement of Albania and EU" and it says that the postponed visit of CE President Jacques Santer has no connections with elections.

Rilindja highlights the meetings Chairman of Kosova Republic Ibrahim Rugova held with a German Budenstag delegation and Doris Pack, head of the delegation of Eastern Europe in the European Parliament under the title "For a long and just solution of the Kosova question."

Koha Jone publishes a call of Helsinki International Federation and Albanian Helsinki Committee directed to Albanian government, OSCE, E.U. and the UN under the title "Declare the election invalidity!" It also publishes an interview with the SP deputy chairman Namik Dokle.

Dita Informacion on its first page writes: "Fight of nerves continues in Brussels." On this subject it also carries an article where the SP accuses the Central Electoral Commission of "allowing manipulations of vote in May 26 elections."

Gazeta Shqiptare writes "Shehu and Pellumbi: Dialogue but on conditions." It also carries a pronouncement of the Republican leader Godo: "We will not take part in the government." kled/pas/xh/fh/Z/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[07] JUNIOR BASKETBALL TEAM OF SPORTCLUB "TIRANA" IN FRANCE

During their 10-day stay in Paris they will have matches with the French and other European teams.

"Tirana" junior girl basketball team has been country's champion for years under the training of coach Arben Petrela. jz/fh/Z/

U.S. HIGH RANKING DELEGATION ARRIVES IN KOSOVA

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[08] PRESIDENT RUGOVA MEETS WITH DELEGATION OF GERMAN BUNDESTAG

The German delegation, led by Gert Pop, spokesman for foreign policy of the Green discussed with Rugova the situation in Kosova and opinions for a solution to the Kosova question.

Dr Rugova invited international community and especially Germany to be committed to the creation of premises for equal talks between Prishtine and Belgrade. He considered the normalization of relations with Belgrade as untimely and hasty but he voiced his hope that European Union countries will be committed to a correct solution for the Kosova question.

The members of the delegation of the German Bundestag took interest in the ethnic, political and social dimension of the situation and the question of Kosova.

The meeting also discussed Albanian refugees in Germany and their possible gradual return home after some indispensable premises are created in Kosova. aca/l/xh/Z/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[09] RUGOVA ASKS ENGAGEMENT OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT FOR PRESENCE OF EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS IN KOSOVA

Pack said that the question of Kosova is a permanent concern of European Parliament. She mentioned a resolution this institution has approved some time ago which demanded that Kosova's question be discussed in a special international conference. aca/l/fh/Z/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[10] U.S. SENDS AID FOR CHILDREN IN KOSOVA

The aid was mainly a contribution of pupils for the U.S. state of Maine in cooperation with the catholic Church of the Yarmouth city, the center says referring to its correspondent in Maine.

The pupils decided to gather aid after speeches in schools by the local writer Alice Mead, who visited Kosova in 1994.

Mead is the author of a book on Kosova and is expected to bring out another novel about Kosova.

The pupils say that the stories illustrated by Mead about the hard life of their contemporaries in Kosova prompted them to undertake this action.

The contained include toys, clothes for children, blankets and hygienic items. a.ca/lm/k

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[11] SOME 78 YOUTHS WIN FIRST GRADE OF ESPERANTO LANGUAGE

After the test, 78 of the participants won the first grade of this language. Also present was the representative of UEA (International Esperanto Association), Hysni Zemoski, from Macedonia. s/sh/lm/k

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[12] ALBANIAN SPEAKER INTERVIEWED BY HUNGARIAN STATE TV

Asked by reporters on the May 26 elections in Albania, Arbnori, who is attending the Conference of the European Parliaments Speakers, said that in the May 26 elections the Albanian people showed maturity and took a historic decision for the fate of Albania, opposing the return of communists to power.

Arbnori said that the Albanian left opposition cannot be compared to the Western or Hungarian left because this is only its name, but in its spirit it has revenge. The left opposition in Albania still seeks to be represented by former State Security officers and collaborators. It prepares illegal structures to double the rule of law and threatens to drag opponents and imprison reporters. Therefore, it is not worthy of keeping this name.

There is also an apparent disparity between the left incriminated leadership, which for 50 years has been preparing lists of executions, imprisonments and deportations, and its grassroots, he said.

Asked by reporters about irregularities noted during the election process in several constituencies, Arbnori said that the Central Electoral Commission is examining with responsibility every complaint (which was due to the deliberate withdrawal of the left opposition).

The President of the Republic will issue the special decree on the development of the elections in those constituencies.

Arbnori also stressed that the new parliament will concentrate on the preparation and approval of the constitution, on improving the privatisation law package and the building of an efficient banking system. a.ke/lm/k

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[13] RUGOVA ASKS EUROPE TO FOLLOW U.S. FOR GREATER PRESENCE IN KOSOVA

Rugova reiterated in Friday's news conference that the U.S. office in Pristina is a historic event for Kosova and thanked the United States and President Clinton for the opening of the office.

"In his message conveyed through the high ranking delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State Kornblum, President Clinton guarantees that he will try to realise the rights of the Kosova people and we thank him for having Kosova at the center of attention," Rugova said.

Referring to the Albanian-Serb dialogue after the opening of the U.S. Office, Rugova said that the dialogue was a process which the office would also help accelerate. a.ca/lm/k

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[14] Clinton to meet King Hussein on June 13

It will be the first meeting between the two leaders since conservative hardliner Bejamin Netanyahu's victory in the Israeli elections, which is expected to slow if not stall the push for a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arabs.

Hussein will be in the United States on a private visit and the meeting "will be an opportunity for him and the president to get together and talk about bilateral issues and the peace process," White House spokesman David Johnson said.

The meeting is certain to be low-key since Clinton will be hosting Irish President Mary Robinson on a state visit the same day.

REUTER

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[15] Bosnia envoy asks U.S. to deal with poll aftermath

Muhamed Sacirbey, envoy of President Alija Izetbegovic, made clear at a news conference that his government had submitted only reluctantly to U.S. pressure for an election.

He also suggested that while the Moslem-led Sarajevo government was willing to take part in the vote it might have to reconsider if opposition parties in the Moslem-Croat federation boycotted the poll.

Izetbegovic and other Balkan leaders agreed at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Geneva last Sunday to hold elections by Sept. 14 in both the federation and the Serb part of Bosnia. A firm date is expected to be set following a meeting of key powers next week in Florence, Italy.

Sacirbey said his government did not believe conditions now existed for a free and fair vote, largely because Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic, both accused of war crimes, were still in power.

"The only real credible position that we can take is to say let's move ahead with elections, but for those who are ready to short-change the necessary conditions for free and fair elections then you must take the consequences," he said.

"You must give us some real commitment as to how you will deal with those consequences, including the real potential for new pressures to divide Bosnia and of course new conflict."

Bosnian Moslems fear the elections will bring to power in the Serb half of Bosnia supporters of Karadzic who will refuse to cooperate with the Moslems and Croats, reinforcing the partition of the country.

Sacirbey said Izetbegovic's agreement to the Geneva document was taken under "great pressure" from the United States, which fears that if the elections are not held the Dayton peace agreement for Bosnia will fall apart. He said Bosnia's leaders feared being isolated as the sole opponents of elections when Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman were in favour.

Sacirbey said opposition parties in the Bosnian federation were more hostile to elections than the government. "I'm here only to speak on behalf of a government. I can't speak on behalf of an opposition. If all the opposition says they're going to boycott, is it credible for the governing party to say we will participate?"

REUTER

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[16] Reporter tells of living skeletons at Omarska camp By Andrew Kelly

Ed Vulliamy, one of the first reporters to visit the Omarska and Trnopolje camps in August 1992, was testifying in the trial of Bosnian Serb Dusan Tadic who is accused of atrocities at the camps during the "ethnic cleansing" of Bosnia's Prijedor region.

Vulliamy of the Guardian newspaper went to the camps with an ITN television crew at the invitation of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic who had said the visit would disprove media reports that Moslem prisoners were being maltreated.

At Omarska the journalists watched as groups of detainees, supervised by armed guards, jogged into a canteen where they were given a minute to eat a bowl of stew and a piece of bread.

Vulliamy said it was immediately apparent that some of the prisoners were in an appalling physical condition: "They were very thin, others in reasonable condition, others skeletal."

"When they were eating, they were eating as if...they hadn't eaten for a very long time, as if they hadn't seen food for a while. It was a fairly sobering sight," he said.

Under the constant watch of Serb guards, the prisoners were reluctant to respond to the reporters' questions.

"The physical state of some of them told us more than their words...as to what kind of treatment they were getting. There was really very little to go on in terms of interviews and words. They were manifestly scared, scared stiff."

Vulliamy said he could not forget how one man had told him: "I do not want to tell any lies but I cannot tell the truth."

Others, he said, remained silent but had communicated with their eyes. "There is something inimitable about somebody staring at you in that way, saying: Look at me and try and work out for yourself what I'm trying to say."

The journalists were denied access to the prisoners' sleeping quarters and were driven instead to Trnopolje.

The television crew's pictures of emaciated prisoners behind barbed wire at Trnopolje provoked an international outcry and led the Bosnian Serbs to close the camps almost immediately.

Tadic, who denies all charges against him, showed no emotion as he watched the disturbing images on a video monitor.

Dressed smartly in a suit and tie and flanked by two guards, he seemed relaxed as he took notes during Vulliamy's testimony.

His trial will move into its sixth week next week when the first eyewitnesses to Tadic's alleged crimes are due to appear.

Tadic, a former bar-owner and karate teacher is accused of murdering, raping and torturing Moslems after the Bosnian Serbs seized power in the Prijedor area of northwest Bosnia in 1992.

Up to now the prosecution has sought to portray the general context in which his alleged crimes occurred.

Created by the U.N. Security Council in May 1993, the criminal tribunal for former Yugoslavia is the first international body for the prosecution of war crimes since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials held after World War Two.

To date the tribunal has indicted 58 suspects -- 46 Serbs, nine Croats and three Moslems -- six of whom are being held at the tribunal's detention centre.

The two most prominent indicted suspects are Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander General Ratko Mladic, both of whom remain at large.

REUTER

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[17] NIS EX-CHAIRMAN ASKS REVOCATION OF CUSTODY

The demand was made by the accused himself and his lawyers.

At the end of Friday's sitting, the court's jury decided to give the verdict on June 12 after examining the testimony provided by both sides.

Kocollari, who has been under arrest since March 5,1996, is accused of illegally ordering, in complicity with the former Interior minister in the Technical government of 1991, Vladimir Hysi, the destruction of documents of the Interior Ministry Archives, thus seriously harming state interests.

According to the charge, in December 1991, Kocollari "has ordered the destruction of documents, a thing which does not allow the uncovering of the truth".

Kocollari's punishment may range from the fine to seven years imprisonment.

Prosecutor Arjan Sultafa presented several materials destroyed in various districts by order of Kocollari, saying that these are only a part of the destroyed materials. pas/lm/k

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[18] OPPOSITE COMMENTS OF ALBANIAN PRESS ON EU SPOKESMAN INTERVIEW WITH BBC

Zeri i Popullit carries the said interview entitled: "Elections in Albania should be held fairly and freely". The SP organ says about the interview: "Albania is amidst a political crisis". This paper as well as Koha Jone of June 6 say that according to the spokesman, EU Commission President Santer and Lamberto Dini, Italian Foreign Minister, currently chairing the EU, exclude Albania from their Balkan tour precisely because of this reason.

This, (postponement of Berisha-Santer talks), according to Zeri i Popullit and Koha Jone, is a "considerable disdain" towards President Berisha.

On the same interview, Poli i Qendres says (without publishing the interview) that: "The EU is notifying Tirana that it is seriously considering reports on election irregularities".

The newspaper Albania, under the title: "A new agreement between Albania and the European Union soon", says that the comments by the socialists' newspaper and the independent "Koha Jone" (on the canceling of Santer's visit to Albania, as a critical view of the election result) were dismissed by the EU spokesman himself in his interview. "The same people - the left opposition members- continue to dream of Albania's isolation", the paper says. The paper carries in full the interview of Vecter and stresses that: "The postponement of the visit of the European Commission president Santer to Tirana has nothing to do with the voting, but with the fact that the election process has not yet ended in Albania".

Republika, carrying in full Vecter's interview, cites Vecter as saying that: "The elections should be repeated in all those constituencies in which irregularities are ascertained".

In his Friday interview with radio BBC, the EU spokesman also says that :"The EU is expecting the OSCE final report before concluding on the election development and results on May 26 in Albania".

According to Vecter "The EU will insist on the re-run of elections in those constituencies where irregularities have been observed". In his interview Vecter says that the EU aims at promoting ties with Albania. lm/k

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[19] ANNOUNCEMENT OF INTERIOR MINISTRY

Police forces of the Shkodra commissariat and Malesi e Madhe in a blitz operation arrested him and intercepted his nine weapons, giving in this way another blow to the arms traffic.

Also in Shkodra, police forces arrested Fejzi Kasem Mehmeti, 37, for wounding with fire weapon Gjon Ujka while quarreling for personal motives on June 3, 1996.

Forces of Commissariat 3 caught in Tirana on Thursday Ahmet Mexhit Cuka, 24, and his brother Mehdi Cuka, who had attempted to shoot with "Zestava" automatic weapon the citizen Ismir Doku in his house. But they were very soon intercepted by police. a.ke/lm/k

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