From: tzarros@ccs.carleton.ca (Theodore Zarros) Subject: News (in ENGLISH)- Sat, 20 Aug 1994 (Greek Press Office BBS, Ottawa). Athens News Agency Bulletin --------------------------- * Tension grows, Albanian border patrol stepped up, Speaker writes European counterparts * US envoy meets with FM * Party reactions * Amnesty International * Van der Stoel in Tirana Tuesday, CSCE observer to follow trial * AHEPA lauds President Clinton, calls for further help to Greece Tension grows, Albanian border patrol stepped up, Speaker writes European counterparts ----------------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 20/8/1994 (ANA): Greece has strengthened border patrols to block would-be illegal Albanians from entering Greece as tension grows over the trial of five leaders of the ethnic Greek political organisation "Omonia" in Tirana, accused of espionage and illegal possession of weapons. Public Order Minister Stelios Papathemelis yesterday said he would deploy extra police along the border to fend off illegal immigration. Meanwhile hundreds of Albanian immigrants were being rounded up and deported in a nation-wide sweep which might intensify as the trial continues. In Tirana, prosecutor Arben Kelesi told the BBC on Thursday it was likely that all charges may not apply to all five defendants. But analysts yesterday said the move by the Albanian prosecutor was rather an attempt to break the unity among defendants. All five "Omonia" leaders have denied charges with four retracting their confessions, protesting they had been extracted under pressure. In Tirana, ethnic Greek high-ranking "Omonia" official, Thomas Siaras, yesterday described the prosecutor's statement to the BBC as, "premature intervention in the work of the court," and also "an indirect and clear effort aimed at breaking the prevailing conviction in the framework of the ethnic Greek minority and of "Omonia" that all the accused are innocent". The defendants, all leading members of the ethnic Greek political organisation "Omonia", were arrested in April after a border incident in which two Albanian conscripts had been killed inside Albania. Tirana blamed Greece for the raid, but Athens flatly denied the charges. The trial has stoked tension between the two neighbours. US envoy meets with FM ------------------------ Athens, 20/8/1994 (ANA): Meanwhile in Athens, US envoy to Athens Thomas Niles said yesterday that the United States shared Greece's concern over the ongoing trial in Tirana. Speaking to reporters after a 90-minute meeting with Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias, Mr. Niles said that "as an indication of that (concern) we have had members of our Embassy staff present at all of the sessions of the trial and intend to continue that practice." With the exception of the Greek embassy, Mr. Niles said, the US embassy was "the only one in Tirana that has devoted that kind of attention to the trial", adding "that's a further indication of the importance that the US government attaches to the trial". Asked if he thought human rights were being violated at the trial, Mr. Niles replied that "allegations have been made" but said that he was "not sure that we're in a position at this point to render a judgement." The US ambassador said he thought it was important "that the rights of the accused by fully observed, and that we all await the outcome of the trial before judging the outcome". Asked if he would be talking to the Albanian Foreign Minister about the situation, Mr. Niles replied: "We've talked with the government of Albania about the trial. Indeed we have, yes." In another development, Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis has written to his European Union counterparts requesting their immediate intervention to protect the rights of the Greek minority in Albania. In the letter, Mr. Kaklamanis refers to the fabricated charges and unacceptable methods used by the Albanian regime against the five leading members of the ethnic Greek political organisation "Omonia" who are currently on trial in Tirana. Referring to the deep concern of the Greek parliament and people over developments in Albania, Mr. Kaklamanis stresses in the letter that it is now very difficult for Greece "to take the constant provocations of the Albanian leadership lying down". Despite repeated condemnations, Mr. Kaklamanis writes, the Albanian government is continuing the policy of suppression of the previous totalitarian regime against the sizeable Greek minority. "It is systematically restricting, also through intimidation, religious and education rights, applying psychological and physical violence, with the aim of forcing the ethnic Greek minority to abandon their homes and the country," Mr. Kaklamanis charges in the letter. Party reactions --------------- Athens, 20/8/1994 (ANA): In a letter, yesterday, to Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias, Main Opposition New Democracy party leader Miltiades Evert listed a series of measures to be enforced against Albania before the verdict of the trial. Specifically, Mr. Evert suggests that the issue of the trial and the human rights of the ethnic Greek minority in Albania should be included in the agenda of the European Union Council of General Affairs and also brought before the Geneva human rights sub-committee. The ND leader also suggested that Mr. Papoulias bring the issue before the UN General Assembly. Concluding, Mr. Evert calls on Mr. Papoulias to intensify deportation of illegal Albanians from Greece. Political Spring (Pol.An) party leader Antonis Samaras, in a statement over the ongoing trial yesterday called on the government to make clear to Greece's European and American allies that they cannot shut their eyes to the tragedy occurring in Northern Epirus. A Communist Party of Greece (KKE) representative, commenting on the illegal Albanian migration issue yesterday called on the government to increase control on the border with Albania, but said deportation of illegal immigrants should not be used as a trump card. Amnesty International --------------------- Athens, 20/8/1994 (ANA): The Greek branch of Amnesty International (AI) yesterday said it expressed concern to Tirana authorities over the arrest and alleged abuse of a group of ethnic Greeks living in southern Albania by police there. In a move that increased tension between the two neighbours, Albanian police arrested a group of ethnic Greeks for inscribing their village walls with graffiti. The international organisation said it has expressed concern to the Albanian government over the impartiality of the trial. It said it made known to Albanian authorities that it intends to send envoys in Albania at the beginning of September to investigate other cases of violations of human and minority rights. Van der Stoel in Tirana Tuesday, CSCE observer to follow trial -------------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 20/8/1994 (ANA): In reply to a message by New Democracy party leader Miltiades Evert August 5, CSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Max Van der Stoel said yesterday a highly qualified observer is to attend the trial of the 'Omonia Five' in Tirana. Mr Van der Stoel also expressed his intention to go to Tirana personally on August 23. AHEPA lauds President Clinton, calls for further help to Greece --------------------------------------------------------------- New York, 20/8/1994 (ANA-M.Georgiadou): The Greek American organisation, AHEPA, passed a resolution at the end of its congress held in Las Vegas, Nevada, this month. The text of the resolution is as follows: The Gathered Delegates of the 1994 AHEPA Convention: 1. Commend President Clinton for holding to his campaign promise to AHEPA by maintaining the 7:10 ratio of military aid to Greece and Turkey for the past two years. 2. Note that the United Nations has fixed the blame for the latest Cyprus negotiations impasse specifically on the Turkish side with Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in June saying: "The Security Council finds itself faced with an already familiar scenario: the absence of agreement due essentially to a lack of political will on the Turkish Cypriot side. 3. Recommend that the United States withhold all aid to Turkey until it withdraws its illegal occupation forces from sovereign nation of Cyprus and ends its widely condemned systematic human rights violations. 4. Note our appreciation to the US Congress for reopening the case of the five Americans and over 1,600 Cypriots "disappeared" by the Turkish invasion forces in 1974; and continue our demand that Turkey make a full accounting of those missing. 5. Call on our government to place Albania on notice that its continuing denial of human, civil and religious rights to the over 264,000 ethnic Greeks in southern Albania is unacceptable; and also protest the arrest by Tirana of five ethnic Greek Albanian human rights activists, "the Omonia Five", on trumped up charges. 6. Call on our government to insure the protection of the almost two millennia-old Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul -- the spiritual centre for more than five million American and 300 million world-wide Orthodox Christians -- by demanding Turkey end its documented harassment of the Patriarchate consistent with Helsinki Watch's recent recommendations. 7. Call for support, US support, of Greece's legitimate concerns and positions in negotiations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.