THE ALBANIAN AMERICAN CIVIC LEAGUE
…CHANGING
HISTORY FOR FIFTEEN YEARS…
Albanian father and an Italian mother, and he had no
prior political
experience.
September At Joe DioGuardi’s 45th birthday
celebration, his Albanian roots are
1985 discovered when Kosovar Albanians who had supported
his election to
Congress, overheard his
father, Joe, Sr., then aged seventy-two, speaking
in Albanian to his
younger sister. Thereafter, the
Albanian community
lobbied Joe about
Kosova, reminding him of his connection by bloodline
to the Kosovar
Albanians.
June After much
lobbying by Albanian Americans from around the United
1986 States, who
adopted Joe DioGuardi as their Albanian American
Congressman, and after
much research by Joe’s staff, the first resolution
(H.Con.Res. 358) to
protect Albanian human rights in the former
Yugoslavia is
introduced by Joe in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The next day, Joe’s
friend, Senator Bob Dole, introduces the same
resolution in the U.S.
Senate (S.Con.Res. 150).
Caught by surprise, Serbian officials enlist their Russian and Greek
sponsors to use their lobbies in Washington to attack DioGuardi as a
provocateur and to get their friends in the State Department to kill the
resolution.
The battle lines for Albanian human
rights and freedom are drawn openly
in Washington for the first time, and DioGuardi, surprised and stung by
the vehement opposition to his seemingly innocuous Resolution for basic
human rights, meets the challenge by personally lobbying over one
hundred Congressman in the following twelve months to gain their
support.
DioGuardi Is Reelected to Congress
November
With
elections every two years in the House of Representatives,
1986 DioGuardi, known by some as the
accidental congressman, works hard to
win a second term against the
well-known political figure, Bella Abzug,
who brought national attention to
the race.
DioGuardi and Dole Introduce an Expanded Version of a
Resolution for Albanians in Kosova
June
DioGuardi, after resuming his intense, personal lobbying efforts in the
1987 House, reintroduces an expanded
version of the 1986 Resolution for justice
for Albanians in Kosova (H.Con.Res.
162)—this time with fifty-seven
Congressmen. Senator Dole accommodates Joe by reintroducing the same
Resolution in the Senate (S.Con.Res. 150).
July Slobodan Milosevic,
a Serbian banker, deceives his personal and political
1987 mentor in Yugoslavia and seizes control of the Communist
Party and the
Presidency of Yugoslavia. An ardent nationalist, who unlike his
predecessor, Marshal Tito, openly disdains the Albanian
people of
Yugoslavia , he calls for their suppression and total
control as “enemies of
the state.” He
also tries to promote his agenda in Washington and against
DioGuardi by enlisting the support of his former American
colleagues,
Henry Kissinger (former Secretary of State), Larry
Eagleburger (former
Ambassador to Yugoslavia), Messrs. Brent Scowcroft and
Scanlon (former
State Department officials in Yugoslavia), Maryland
Congresswoman
Helen Bentley, a Serbian American and ardent Serbian
nationalist
supported by the Greek lobby, including Senator Paul
Sarbanes, also from
Bentley’s home State, and Congressman Jim Moody, who
openly dealt with
and supported Serbs in Congress.
The U.S. State Department Exposes Its Pro-Yugoslavia, Anti-Albanian Policy
1987 former colleagues and friends of Milosevic, who
worked hard behind the
scenes to promote Serbian
dominance in Yugoslavia and to disparage
DioGuardi and the Albanian case for human rights, sends a letter to
Congressman Dante Fascell, then chairman of the House International
Relations Committee. The letter denounces the DioGuardi Resolution as an
affront to U.S. friend and ally Yugoslavia, and blames the Albanians of
Kosova for crimes against the Serbian people there.
First Congressional Hearing on Kosova
Authorized
Department in getting a
Congressional Hearing on his Resolution, which for
the first time openly exposes the barbaric and egregious abuse of human
rights by Serbs against the defenseless Albanians of Kosova.
June
DioGuardi
leads a massive demonstration by Albanians from around
1988 America in New York City in front of the United Nations
and in Washington
in front of the White
House and the Capitol, to make the U.S. press and
public more aware of the
desperate plight of Albanians in Yugoslavia,
especially in Kosova.
DioGuardi
and Congressman Lantos Confront the
September DioGuardi works with his friend and colleague Congressman Tom
Lantos,
1988 a prominent Jewish American Congressman from
California and Chairman
of the Congressional Human
Rights Caucus, to arrange a high level meeting
with State Department
officials and the Ambassador from Yugoslavia to
confront our flawed and
failing U.S. foreign policy in the Balkans.
The
meeting, spearheaded by
Lantos, an ardent supporter of Albanian human
rights, is a great success
and Milosevic recalls his ambassador to the United
States in a show of contempt.
November In a bitterly fought election campaign against
former NY Secretary of State
1988 and multimillionaire liberal Democrat Nita Lowey,
DioGuardi loses his seat
in Congress the way he won
it—by a very slim margin. The loss is a
great
surprise to all, but was
due to many factors, including Vice President Bush’s
poor Presidential election
results in New York (Governor Mike Dukakis won
New York State in 1988),
the work of the Greek lobby on behalf of Lowey,
and illegally unreported
money used at the last minute to smear DioGuardi,
for which Lowey was fined $3,500 by the FEC two years later.
January Undaunted by his loss,
DioGuardi announces that he will run again for
1989 Congress after redistricting in
1991, and proceeds to form the Albanian
American Civic League to continue to lobby the
U.S. Congress and the Bush
administration on behalf of the Albanians in
Yugoslavia, especially in
Kosova.
Feb.-Oct. With
more time to devote to Albanian issues, DioGuardi and three of his
1989
former key staff, now paid by the AACL, intensify Congressional
pressure
against the pro-Serb State
Department policy and by engaging in mass
demonstrations, sending out press releases, and
causing Congressional
statements to be issued by
our friends in Congress.
June The first Washington rally
is held to free Kosova from Serbian occupation
1989 and to free Albanian dissident Adem Demaci from
prison.
July The June rally sparks the passage
of Civic League-sponsored House
1989 (H.Con.Res. 314) and Senate (S.Con.Res 124) resolutions
condemning Serbia
for human rights abuses in
Kosova. This leads to the immediate
removal of
the Serbian ambassador to
the United States by Slobodan Milosevic.
November DioGuardi goes to Belgrade’s International Press
Center and
1989 Milosevic’s office with a letter signed by Senator
Bob Dole and
twelve other U.S.
Senators to free Kosova. He then makes
his first
trip to Kosova to
witness firsthand the brutal Serbian occupation and is
evicted from the Grand
Hotel in Prishtina for conducting a press conference
there.
January DioGuardi joins Rugova in Ljubljana to meet with the
Albanian community to
1990 promote freedom for Kosova and to support the first
democratic elections in
Slovenia.
DioGuardi Brings the Congressional Human Rights Caucus to
Belgrade and Prishtina
February DioGuardi goes to Belgrade with the staff of the
Congressional
1990 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.
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.
April The Civic League sponsors a delegation of ten Albanian leaders from
1990 Kosova to testify against Milosevic’s occupation of
Kosova 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
and Democracy for
Kosova.”
DioGuardi Brings
Lantos to Kosova to Expose Milosevic’s
Modern Day “Warsaw Ghetto”
May Congressman Tom Lantos and Joe DioGuardi lead
a delegation to
1990 Kosova to challenge the brutal Serbian occupation of Kosova. They blast
Milosevic as a modern day
tyrant bent on policies that will destroy any
democracy in Yugoslavia.
July DioGuardi is officially banned from returning
to Yugoslavia by the
1990 Milosevic controlled parliament in Belgrade for his
press
conferences in Belgrade and Kosova as “hostile acts
against the
State.”
DioGuardi leads a delegation
to Melbourne and Canberra, Australia to enlist
the help of the large Albanian community there and then
Foreign Minister
Gareth Evans in freeing
Kosova from Serbian occupation.
DioGuardi and Lantos Form the Interparliamentary Group
for Kosova in Luxembourg
January DioGuardi brings Iljaz Ramali, speaker of the exiled
Kosova Assembly, to
1991 Luxembourg to meet with Congressman Tom Lantos and Lord
Nicholas
Bethel of the British and
European Parliaments to sign a joint declaration
proclaiming an
“Interparliamentary Group for Kosova’s Protection,” as a
strategy to further expose
Milosevic’s occupation of Kosova.
February DioGuardi testifies before the U.S. Senate Foreign
Relations Committee,
1991 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 and
issues a press release
calling Milosevic the “Saddam of Serbia.”
March The Civic League goes to Albania with the National
Republican Institute to
1991 monitor the first election in Albania and is the first
organization to declare the
Communist Party victory illegal and the elections a sham.
May DioGuardi declines an invitation to visit
Croatian President Franjo Tudjman,
1991 after he publicly states that he considers Kosova to be an internal
problem of
Serbia.
June DioGuardi goes to Copenhagen, Denmark, to
meet the Albanian community
1991 and attend a Helsinki Commission Conference. He addresses a massive
Albanian rally just outside
the conference hall and conducts a press conference
about human rights abuses in
Kosova, showing for the first time enlarged
photographs of Albanians
brutally tortured and killed by the Serbian police
at the direction of Slobodan Milosevic.
July The Civic League sponsors a
massive rally in Washington in front of the White
1991 House and the U.S. Capitol. More than 10,000 Albanian Americans march
from the White House to
Capitol Hill and demonstrate for freedom for Kosova.
Senators Bob Dole, Claiborne
Pell, Larry Pressler, and Al D’Amato and
Congressmen Gilman, Lantos, Porter, and Broomfield address the
crowd.
August At the request of the Civic League, Bob Dole and six
other U.S. Senators visit
1991 Prishtina to see firsthand the brutality of Milosevic.
October The Civic League lobbies for and passes economic
sanctions banning aid to
1991 Serbia under the Nickles-D’Amato Amendment to the Foreign
Aid Bill.
The Civic League
Gets Lantos to Introduce a Resolution for the
Independence of
Kosova
January The Civic League introduces
a well-documented Congressional Resolution
1992 (H.Con.Res. 264) cosponsored by Congressmen Lantos and
Gilman calling for
the recognition of the
independence of Kosova.
March The Civic League brings Adem
Demaci, after 28 years in Serbian jails, to
1992 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 is 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 one million Albanians in Macedonia.
1993 Parliament to meet with Congressmen Gilman
and Lantos and to attend
the annual Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, as a special guest
representing
Albania.
DioGuardi Attends
Historic Investiture of Albanian Archbishops in Shkodra
April Sali Berisha
officially invites DioGuardi and a Civic League
1993 delegation to
join him, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, and
Cardinal
John O’Conner in Shkodra at the historic investiture of
four
Albanian archbishops in the newly renovated cathedral.
DioGuardi
Leads Congressional Delegation to Albania and Macedonia
September DioGuardi leads a Congressional delegation to
Albania and
1993 Macedonia to
make the case (in Congress) for U.S. sponsorship
of
NATO membership for Albania and to press the Macedonian
government to conduct
an internationally-sponsored census as the
October Joe DioGuardi meets Shirley Cloyes, then publisher
of Lawrence Hill Books,
1993 who is working on a book entitled Yugoslavia’s Ethnic
Nightmare, the first to
bring the perspective of the anti-Milosevic, anti-war opposition inside
the
former Yugoslavia to U.S. readers.
Investment in Albania
November DioGuardi leads a Civic League delegation to
the First
1993 International
Conference for Investment in Albania.
His speech
emphasizes
that the real potential of Albania is not only in its
vast
mineral resources, but in its diaspora of millions of successful
Albanians
around the world.
February Joe DioGuardi and Civic League Balkan Affairs
Adviser Shirley Cloyes bring
1994 Kosova President Ibrahim Rugova and Prime
Minister-in-exile Bujar Bukoshi
to Washington, DC, to meet
President Bill Clinton at a private reception
before the annual Prayer
Breakfast, to hold a press conference on Capitol Hill
about Kosova’s occupation by
Milosevic, and to participate in a special tour
and special tour and
reception at the newly opened U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum.
March DioGuardi addresses a Balkan peace conference in
Istanbul, sponsored by the
1994 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
The 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.
April The first rally calling for U.S. troops in
Kosova is led by DioGuardi in front
1994 of the United Nations in New York City.
May Congressman Gilman introduces a resolution (H.Con.Res.
251) calling on
1994 President Clinton to report to
the Congress within 60 days about the
conditions in Kosova and to make recommendations for protecting the
rights
of Kosovars, including the possibility of establishing an international
protectorate for Kosova together with other members of the UN Security
Council and the European Union.
February
DioGuardi and Cloyes
create the first Congressional hearing on the
1995 Albanian dimension of the Balkan
conflict, including Arben Xhaferi, Fadil
Sulejmani, Iliaz Halmi, and Ismet Ramadani from Macedonia, Bujar
Bukoshi from Kosova, Gjerg Gjokaj from Montenegro, and Riza Halimi
from Presheve.
1995
Nations” section of the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum a reality.
Three
Jewish congressmen, Gilman, Lantos, and Nadler, cochair 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.
February
DioGuardi, Cloyes, and Yugoslav dissident Mihaljo Mihaljov
1995 travel to
Macedonia at the invitation of Albanian leaders there to
monitor the opening of
the University of Tetova on February 15.
attacks the university,
killing a student, wounding hundreds, and
jailing professors.
The Civic League
Calls a UN Rally to Protest Crackdown on the University of Tetova by the
Macedonian Military
Two thousand 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.
for “Our Lady of Shkodra”
May DioGuardi and Cloyes travel
to Rome, Genazzano, and Shkodra to
1995
commemorate the miracle of “Our
Lady of Shkodra” with a large
delegation of Albanians
from the United States and Europe.
July DioGuardi and Cloyes
participate in a ceremony in Vlore to mark the
1995 signing of the U.S.-Albanian cooperation agreement
for underwater
archaeological exploration
of the Albanian Coast—a project that they
facilitated between
the Institute of Archaeology in Tirana and the
University of Miami.
DioGuardi and Cloyes Join
Congressman Gilman on an Official Visit to Albania
August DioGuardi and Cloyes join Congressman Ben
Gilman for an official visit
1995 in Tirana with
Albanian President Sali Berisha and his cabinet to discuss
national security
issues for the United States and Albania in the Balkans.
DioGuardi and
Cloyes Make the Case in Turkey Against Milosevic and for the Independence of
Kosova
September DioGuardi and Cloyes travel to Istanbul, Turkey, to
speak about the Balkan
1995 conflict and to make the case for the independence of
Kosova at the
National Press Center
and at a seminar with key members of the faculty for
international affairs at
the University of Marmara.
January Ben Gilman introduces a resolution calling for the
Macedonian
1996 government to
guarantee the national rights of the Albanian population,
to officially recognize the University of Tetova, and to
free the university’s
imprisoned founders (H.
Con. Res. 103).
June Congressmen Lantos, Nadler, Gilman, and
Traficant speak out on the House
1996 floor and on C-SPAN in support of H. Con. Res
103.
July A delegation from Macedonia led by Arben
Xhaferi comes to Washington to
1996 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.
January The Civic League gets Congressman Gilman to
immediately reintroduce the
1997 Resolution for the University of Tetova and Albanian rights
in Macedonia
(H.Con. Res. 36).
June DioGuardi and Cloyes lead a Civic League delegation
to Albania to monitor the
1997 second round of presidential elections and to attend rallies
and press
conferences with the democratic
leaders. Under questionable
circumstances, the
Berisha government loses the
election and the Socialist Party under Fatos Nano
comes to power.
The Civic League
Responds to the Macedonian Military Attack
on Gostivar and
Tetova
July The Civic League brings
Arben Xhaferi, Fadil Sulejmani, and Milaim Fejziu to
1997 meet with Congressmen Gilman and Traficant and the State
Department,
following the Macedonian
government’s military attack on the cities of Gostivar
and Tetova, which left three
dead, a hundred wounded, and four hundred jailed.
The Civic League holds a rally
outside the UN to demand the release of
Gostivar Mayor Rufi Osmani and
Tetova Mayor Alajdin Demiri from prison.
Afterwards, the delegation meets
with the representative of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees in New
York about the Macedonian attack on
Albanian municipalities and the
Serbian occupation of Kosova. In response to
an almost universal press
blackout in the West, the Civic League
produces a
videotape entitled “Crisis in Macedonia.”
The Civic League Begins
Distribution of Rescue in Albania to the House and Senate
October At the Civic League’s
request, Congressmen Lantos and Gilman write
a