Tirana 18 July 1999
Mirdita,

Probably the world press is not writing about it but it is big in the Albanian press. Under titles like "Albanians' bones broken, "Albanian government's dumb" and "Violent expulsion of Albanians from Greece" stories are at the frontpages of horrible things which are happening in Greece with Albanians from Albania. They talk about a clean sweeping and ethnical cleansing of Albanians who have been now in Greece for many years. Only during the last three days the local newpapers said that over 5.500 Albanian workers have been violently deported over the Greece border points with Albania. And they report that it is heard that this number will increase in the coming days. According to the testimonies of these deported people, the newspapers here say, that the Greek jails and special places such as stadiums are overcrowded with Albanians, waiting for deportation. "Shocking is not only the fact that they are forcefully deported, but also the brutal violence they have been subjected to, as a result of the blast of rasicm and wildness by the Greek police. Many of them have fractures in their bones and are covered in blood". The Albanian government however seems to do nothing about it, at least not much, the newspapers are furious about it and writing that the Foreign minister is playing under one head with the Greek government. When he, Paskal Milo, was in Athens the other week he agreed with the Greek government, who were saying that they only remove criminal Albanians from their teritory. So he is now accused of being the ambassador of Greece in Albania. Yes, the Albanian newpapers are not very soft when they are writing, and to be honest not really writing the truth either. So also in this case I rather don't know what to think, if indeed a big cleansing action is going on in Greece and football stadions are used to round up people that should have been in the foreign newspapers as well. At least that is what I think, that I haven't found the smallest artile about it in f.e. the Times or Herald Tribune is not really making me sure about the truth of these articles here, but you never know of course, maybe the rest of the world is not so interested when a few Albanians from Albania are getting thrown out from somewhere. By the way the relation between Greece and Albania is not really like brothers. Under the last Socialist minister president the realtion was better, maybe that hasn't changed so much on governmental level, but if you must believe the newspapers the people think different. Besides this accuse that Greece is throwing out Albanians, they also accuse the greek navy not taking their job patrolling the south coast under Vlora very serious. The Greece navy should patrol there, as is agreed some years ago, to stop the smuggle between Albania and Italia basically. But the newspapers say that they are doing a bad job and that some Greek and Albanian people are making a fortune and are involved at high level. The newspapers say that the smuggle from the Greek controlled part of the coast has never been so big as now. Of course these tensions between Greece and Albanian have historical backgrounds. In the beginning of this century the international powers more or less devided Albania between Greece and then the first Yugoslav kingdom, just some interventions on international level from some Albanian intellectuals at the time stopped these plans. But Albania still claims that the Greek are actually still trying to take the southern part of Albania. On the other hand Albanian nationalists say that the northern part of Greece is actually Albanian. Just for the information I talked with somebody today who just came back from Greece and stayed their some time the last months. She described that some towns in Greece were full with people from Serbia, which where on holidays there to escape the NATO bombing. And that almost every day there were big pro-serbia and anti-nato manifestations all over the country. Now that Kosov@ is not any longer under Serbian control the local newpapers are moving their attention to another part in this region. I wonder when they start writing stories of what is happening with Albanians in Macedonia, since there the situation is also tense. Maybe not as dangerous as the situation in Monte Negro but still something can happen there as well. The reality is that suddenly a new situation has been created in this area. A Serbian free Kosov@ is at least for Albanians in Macedonia, Greece, and even in Albania a kind of heaven on earth. A situation were Albanians are running their own country and it is not as poor and disorganised as Albania. Every day our Albanian friends ask about more information about Kosovar. If it is true that the roads are so good and hardly not destroyed by the war. If it is true that the electricity is working 24 hours per day. If it is true that the Pristina university is bigger and better organisaed as the one in Tirana. If it is true that people in Kosov@ earn more money. And each time I have to admit it is true. Up to now due to the Serbian oppression Kosov@ was not a very interesting country for Albanians to go to, but now it is. I wonder what this will mean, but I think that Kosov@ will have a huge amount of people coming in in the next period, year or so. Kosovarians from abroad, who have went out because of the bad political situation, but also other Albanians will come to this country. I am sure. It also can have a big influence on the "fights" for freedom from the Albanians in Macedonia and the Montenegrians in Monte Negro. You never really know how the situation in the next months will develope. This area is always full of surprises. Surprising is f.e. that some Albanian friends from me were asking what I think from a kind of international controling body for Albania. Some of them have been in the last three months in contact with so many things from which they never had expected that they could happen in their country that they lost trust in almost everything what is called justice in this country. F.e. some days ago some people went to the ministerial office for adoption, and found out there that the person working there wasn't really interested in helping with this procedure. She was interested in recieving money, she more or less asked what the person who came there to get himself informed about how he could adopt a child was willing to pay. Al least that was the feeling from the person who was with him. This was completely against all the feeling of justice and humanity of the Albanian with him. And it is just the top of the iceberg from what you come across in this country. But sometimes also something positive takes place. For example the Democratic party has decided yesterday to join the parliament again after boycotting it for almost a year. For the first time in a long time the political debates will not only take place in the newspapers but also in the parliament. Also the worldbank has decided to keep on helping this country in the future. But I am wondering what kind of "rules" they are putting up for that help. I hope that they will include something in the field of security. The last week I started to think that it would be needed that a similar NATO or international protection force should be put in place as there is in Kosov@. This is the first time in my life that I am writing something like this. But I really have the feeling that the AFOR presence in this country as it is now, is not helping a single person, besides from the persons who earn their money from AFOR for translating and office work. For the rest they are not very helpfull. The situation in the north, were yesterday the CARE and Handicaped International Belgium people had to evacuate their offices in Kukes in a hurry is not really giving you the feeling that this country is going in a direction upwards. The line above internationals are adviced not to come above in the north is getting shifted more and more to the south. Talking yesterday to some people who asked me what the international community actually thinks about this country and what they like to do for it. I answered as sceptical as I am that they would wish that the country was as isolated as it was before 1989. And if they could they would put a big wall around this country and forget all about it. I had this feelings a lot in Croatia and Bosnia as well. Why should we be taking care about Albania, let the country slowly destroy itself. It is unbelieveable that this can happen, but it is. Later in the afternoon some more of our people came back from Kosov@ on their way back home. One of them had been in Mitrovica yesterday. He visited their some people he knew from Kashar refugee camp here in Tirana. He explained that the situation in Mitrovica is getting very on the edge of fighting again. It is more or less an open rumour that the UCK is very angry on the French NATO forces, who are not allowing Kosovarians to go in the north of Kosov@. They have more or less given the French troops an ultimatum until tomorrow evening, if they, the french, would still not open the northern part of Kosov@, UCK will open an invasion themself. If these are the normal strong words are been spoken so often in this kind of situation is not clear. Anyway it is clear that the popularity of NATO is gaining. The last two nights it was quiet in Tirana, but this night the bear was out. For more than half an hour some gun fights where going on, you could very clearly hear how in a part of the town some people where trying to solve their conflicts by guns. The funny thing is that there wouldn't be anything about it in the Albanian newspapers. As nothing stood in the newspapers in the last weeks about what was happening in most of the refugees camps. If you read the Albanian newspapers or listen to the news you don't read or hear anything about that shooting at refugees returning took places, or that offices of different NGO's in the north were looted. I hope that in the coming days the situation is getting a bit better. Since in the last 3 months I made so many friends in this country that I feel sorry for them to see all these things happening here.

wam :-)