TEN YEARS OF THE ALBANIAN AMERICAN CIVIC LEAGUE
(Lobbi Shqiptar)

Working for the Albanian National Cause in Washington

On November 28, 1999, ten years after the beginning of the Serbian occupation, in a free, but still not independent, Kosova, Joe DioGuardi, former Congressman and founder of the Albanian American Civic League, with his wife and Balkan Affairs Adviser, Shirley Cloyes, said at the rededication of the building where the League of Prizren first met in 1878:

"Te gjithe shqiptareve ne Ballkan:
Mos keni frike,
trimi mir me vellezer e motra shume ne Amerike
dhe shok shume ne Washington."

AN HISTORIC CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR ACTIVITIES TO FREE ALBANIANS IN THE BALKANS FROM SLAVIC DOMINATION AND COMMUNISM

DioGuardi goes to Belgrade with the staff of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, chaired by Congressmen Lantos and Porter, to conduct a press conference in Belgrade about Serbian oppression of Kosova's Albanians. He then makes an unannounced visit to Kosova to meet leading intellectuals,
journalists, and activists, including Dr. Zekeria Cana, Zenun Celaj, Bajram Kelmendi, Ibrahim Rugova, Rexhep Qosja, and Vetton Surroi.

DioGuardi travels to Zagreb to meet with General Tom Berisha and the Albanian community in Croatia in preparation for lobbying the Croatian government to end the Serbian occupation of Kosova.

Kosovar activist Enver Hadri is assassinated in Brussels, and DioGuardi is invited to give a eulogy at his funeral before thousands of mourners. Afterwards, he travels to Geneva at the request of Hadri's widow and son to deliver to the United Nations Human Rights Commission the list of 34 peaceful Albanian demonstrators killed by Serbian authorities that was found on Hadri's body at the time of his death.

The Civic League sponsors a delegation of 15 Albanian leaders from Kosova to testify at an historic Congressional Human Rights Caucus Hearing for Kosova in Washington and to be honored at an historic dinner at the Sheraton Hotel in New York City, attended by 2,700 Albanian Americans, to "Salute Freedom and Democracy for Kosova."

DioGuardi leads a delegation to Melbourne and Canberra, Australia, to enlist the help of the large Albanian community there and Foreign Minister Gareth Evans in freeing Kosova from Serbian occupation.

DioGuardi attends the Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations in Brussels, Belgium, and gives a press conference about the repressive human rights onditions in Kosova.

DioGuardi testifies before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cochaired by Senators Joe Biden and Claiborne Pell, and makes the first public case for the independence of Kosova under international law. In the process, he compares Milosevic to Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein.

The Civic League goes to Albania with the National Republican Institute to monitor the first election in Albania and is the first organization to declare the Communist Party victory illegal and the elections a sham.

The Civic League introduces a well-documented Congressional Resolution cosponsored by Congressmen Lantos and Gilman calling for the recognition of the independence of Kosova.

DioGuardi and members of the Civic League Board meet with the German foreign ministry in Bonn to request support from the German government for Republic status for Kosova.

The Civic League brings Adem Demaci, after 28 years in Serbian jails, to Washington to discuss the crisis in Kosova with Secretary of State Larry Eagleburger and to New York to meet with Mayor David Dinkins at Gracie Mansion, where he was honored as the "Nelson Mandela of the Albanian people."

DioGuardi leads a Civic League delegation to Albania to monitor the second elections, bringing more than 50 Albanians from Macedonia in cars stocked with gas and food to help the democratic forces overcome the advantages of the Communists in the rural areas.

DioGuardi brings Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, and John Fund of The Wall Street Journal to Macedonia to monitor the referendum on political and cultural autonomy for the 1 million Albanian people of Macedonia.

1994

DioGuardi addresses a Balkan peace conference in Istanbul, sponsored by the Balkan Solidarity Foundation, and publicly condemns Milosevic, Tudjman, Gligorov, the Greek government, Lords Owen and Carrington, and the U.S. State Department for their roles in suppressing the Albanian people of Kosova. Civic League brings a delegation of archaeologists to Tirana to organize a U.S.-Albanian cooperative underwater exploration off the Albanian Coast for the purpose of establishing the true identity of the Albanian people as direct descendants of the Illyrians--the only indigenous people of the Balkans.

DioGuardi and Cloyes create the first Congressional hearing on the Albanian dimension of the Balkan crisis, including Arben Xhaferi Fadil Sulejmani, Iliaz Halimi, and Ismet Ramadani from Macedonia, Bujar Bukoshi from Kosova, Gjergj Gjokaj from Montenegro, and Riza Halimi from Presheva.

The Civic League makes the addition of Albania to the "Righteous among Nations" section of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum a reality. Three Jewish congressmen, Gilman, Lantos, and Nadler, cohair and speak at a League-sponsored ceremony and reception commemorating the installation. The connection is made for the first time between the ethnic cleansing in Kosova and the genocide of the Jewish people in the minds of Jewish American leaders.

DioGuardi, Cloyes, and Yugoslav dissident Mihaljo Mihaljov travel to Macedonia at the invitation of Albanian leaders there to monitor the opening of the University of Tetova on February 15. On the morning of their departure, the Macedonian government attacks the university, killing a student, wounding hundreds, and jailing professors.

2,000 Albanian Americans flock to the UN for a Civic League- sponsored rally to protest the crackdown on the University of Tetova on February 21. Congressman Gilman addresses the crowd.

DioGuardi and Cloyes participate in a ceremony at Vlora to mark the signing of the U.S.-Albanian cooperation agreement for underwater exploration of the Albanian Coast.

A delegation from Macedonia led by Arben Xhaferi comes to Washington to discuss increasing threats to the University of Tetova and to meet with the Albanian community in New York. The Civic League sponsors a UN rally in support of the University of Tetova and its jailed founders.

Cloyes testifies at a Congressional hearing on human rights and democracy in Albania and exposes the role of Nicholas Gage of the Panepirotic Federation and the Albanian Communists in attempting to overthrow the Berisha government.

The Civic League shifts the focus of a Congressional hearing with Balkan envoy Robert Gelbard from Bosnia to Kosova. Under questioning instigated by the Civic League, Gelbard is forced to retract his earlier, erroneous depiction of the KLA as a "terrorist"organization. The retraction creates a storm in the Western media, and overnight the attempt to "criminalize" the KLA is halted. After the hearing, the Civic League holds the first rally on Capitol Hill in support of the Kosova Liberation Army.

DioGuardi testifies before the Congressional Helsinki Committee, calling for U.S. intervention in Kosova before Milosevic kills more Albanians.

Al D'Amato in the Senate and Chris Smith in the House pass Civic League-sponsored Resolutions calling for the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic as a war criminal.

Congressman Jim Traficant, with international legal expertise retained by the Civic League, introduces H. Con. Res. 312, calling the Clinton administration to recognize the legal right of Kosovar Albanians to self-determination and independence from Serbia.

Cloyes begins work with the Transnational Radical Party on the documentation to be submitted to The Hague to indict Milosevic as a war criminal.

DioGuardi and Cloyes travel to Rome to meet Pope John Paul II and to Bajram Curi, Albania, to meet with the Albanian refugees in the care of the UNHCR at the request of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and to meet with leaders of the KLA.

DioGuardi and Cloyes go to Rambouillet, France, to speak at a KLA-sponsored demonstration outside the peace talks.

DioGuardi, Cloyes, and Congressman Jim Traficant are keynote speakers at an international conference in Tirana on Kosova and peace and stability in the Balkans. They make the case for the independence of Kosova at a press conference with Sali Berisha and on Albanian TV and radio. DioGuardi, Cloyes, and Traficant also confront Albanian President Pandelli Majko about his failure to publicly support the independence of Kosova.

Cloyes testifies after Senator Bob Dole, Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick, and Henry Kissinger before the House International Relations Committee in support of U.S. troop deployment in Kosova.

The Civic League holds a rally in front of the UN, calling the U.S. government to arm the KLA and deploy troops to defend the people of Kosova. DioGuardi, Cloyes, and Congressman Traficant march with 5,000 demonstrators to the Serbian mission.

The Civic League holds a second rally in front of the UN with Jewish leaders to protest the ongoing genocide in Kosova. April Traficant introduces the Kosovar Independence and Justice Act, H. Con. Res. 1425, calling for the arming of the KLA, the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic as a war criminal, and the independence of Kosova.

As the starvation, torture, mass expulsion, and murder of Kosovar Albanians continues, the Civic League holds a rally in Washington, DC, with Senator Joseph Lieberman and Congressmen Ben Gilman, Jim Traficant, Stenny Hoyer, and Tom Lantos, calling the U.S. government to arm the KLA, to grant
Kosova independence, and to indict Milosevic as a war criminal.