ON THE WAY OF PROPERTIES SCANDAL IN SOUTHERN ALBANIA, ESPECIALLY IN HIMARA REGION

EXCLUSIVE- World Bank Demolished Albania Village

By Besar Likmeta and Gjergj Erebara in Tirana

World Bank project meant to safeguard Albania’s coastal zones was used to selectively demolish parts of a village in southern Albania and leave many families homeless, according to an internal report , which additionally notes allegations of corruption and efforts by World Bank officials to cover up the events .

An internal report of the International Development Association, IDA, obtained by Balkan Insight, shows that a World Bank project on coastal zones management in southern Albania aided the demolishment of informal settlements in the village of Jale, in disregard to the Bank's policies of forced displacement.

The investigation by an inspection panel found that World Bank management failed to comply with its policies with respect to the design, appraisal and implementation of the project, harming the local people affected by it.

The probe also found that WB assisted the demolition by pressuring local construction police to take action and by supplying them with equipment and aerial photos.

see more: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/16349/

THE DOUBLE STANDARTS OF ALBANIA TO NATO

www.gazeta-agon.com

Slovenia postpones vote on Croatia, Albania NATO accession

The parliament's vote on the ratification of Albania's and Croatia's NATO accession protocols was postponed on Thursday as a result of an announced obstruction by the opposition Slovenian Democrats (SDS). Prime Minister Borut Pahor said the international credibility of Slovenia was now at stake.

The SDS has 28 members in parliament, and their vote is seen as crucial for the 2/3 majority required. The SLS and SNS parties has said they would vote against the accession of Croatia/Albiania in NATO.

Despite what would be considered as a short lived setback, Slovenian Parliament president Ivo Vajgl says he is expecting the ratification to go forward without problems.

FM Bakogianis to visit Tirana and W. Balkans

Foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, as Chairperson of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), will embark on Tuesday, February 2, on a series of visits over the next two weeks to the Western Balkan countries, foreign ministry spokesman George Koumoutsakos announced on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Bakoyannis will visit Belgrade, where she will have meetings with the Yugslav leadership, followed the following day by a visit to Pristina, where the largest of the OSCE's 19 missions is headquartered and where she will hold talks with representatives of international organizations headquartered there.

The following week, on February 9, Bakoyannis is scheduled to visit Tirana, while on February 11 she will go to Tiflis, for talks with governmenet officials in both countries.

In between, on February 4, Bakoyannis will inaugurate an international conference on the theme "Profiles of states in an internationalized environment - Possibilities and prospects for Greece" that is being organised in Athens by the Greek Politics Specialist Group under the aegis of the foreign ministry.

Continues the nationalist protest for the trial in Tepelena district. The protesters burned the greek flag

On the way of "multi ethno culturalism of Albania". How in albania the greeks and albanian live in peace?

A new protest is organized in front of the Distinct Court of Tepelena as the trial against Orgen Hasanbegaj and Luan Halili. The latter were arrested because they organized a civil protest in Toc, Tepelena against Vasil Bollano and Spiro Ksera’s anti-Albanian actions.

Vasil Bollano is the mayor of Himara and Spiro Ksera is the Prefect of Gjirokastra. This trial which has been going on for months in the District Court of Tepelena against two defendants Orgen Hasanbegaj and Luan Halili is absurd by "democratic standards" albanian media said.

According to media this process has been imposed by Prefect Ksera and the leader of "Omonia" Bollano, against whom the protesters have protested. "This is a flagrant violation of the human rights and freedom of thought. Their protest was in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Albania” the protesters said.

These two youngsters are now in the quality of the defendant because they organized a protest against anti-Albanian claims of Bollano and Ksera, according to whom, the South of Albania is Vorio-Epir territory. The police declared the protest anti-Albanian and arrested the youngsters with the excuse that protest was illegal.

The protest was suported by the "Mjaft" Moviment (The Soros Fondation) and the PM Spartak Ngjela came especialy from Tirana.

see video: http://www.top-channel.tv/new/artikull.php?id=141587

USA must change the policy in Balkan

Robert Gelbart to the "Voice of America "

I was the past few years, very upset because the administration policy toward the Balkans and other regions that Bush completely ignored, at least the first four years, while the next four attention concentrated almost exclusively on Kosovo. The Balkans is a very important region. The United States should closely cooperate with the European Union, Russia and other countries, in order to maintain profit from the past decade.

Many times I observed that Serbia is a central country in the Balkans and must help it to progress and to consolidate democracy and stability. If it does not, the whole region will suffer negative consequences. I think that now in Serbia we have a very good government headed by President Boris Tadic. Serbia, as the whole world, affected the global economic crisis.

The United States should closely cooperate with the European Union and Russia, to the Balkans remained positive on the course, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo and relations with Serbia. In regard to Russia, the United States need a new beginning, despite the recent rhetoric, given that both countries have an important role and the need to find a model of constructive cooperation.

New container port to be built in Albania

Albania awarded a 35-year concession to the British-Swiss Zumax AG group Wednesday for a euro1.18 billion ($1.55 billion) container terminal for ships in southwestern Albania. The Transport Ministry said St. Gallen, Switzerland-based Zumax AG will build the terminal at the Vlora port, 85 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of capital, Tirana, with a three-million container annual capacity.

Its construction is expected to start in April or May this year and to be completed in four years, according to Kevin Paja, the group's representative in Tirana. The group also has asked the government to create a free-trade zone where the terminal is to be located and to build an airport in the Vlora area. The group expects more than 4,000 companies to exploit the container terminal in a free-trade zone.

"NATO increasingly confronts an existential crisis, reflected by three mutually reinforcing trends – inconsistent and fast-paced enlargement policy, problematic internal cohesion and inadequate military spending. Researcher Alexander Melikishvili offers cases that point to the challenges NATO faces: The separate quests by Albania and Georgia for NATO admission reveal inconsistent admission standards on democratic governance and rule of law; ...

NATO’s Double Standards Make for a Hollow Alliance

The military alliance is only as strong and effective as its weakest links

Alexander Melikishvili
YaleGlobal, 26 January 2009
"Russians are coming: Russian invasion of Georgia may threaten Europe, but does not increase its eligibility for NATO membership"

WASHINGTON: As events of the past year demonstrate, NATO faces an existential crisis, reflected in the three aspects underpinning its operations – an inconsistent enlargement policy, diminished internal cohesion and inadequate military planning. Unless NATO can overcome these weaknesses, excitement in Europe about a new era of cooperation with an Obama-led United States may turn out to be premature and groundless.

see more: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=11868

SAE USA Coordinator Theodore G. Spyropoulos today appealed to new President Barack Obama to review all U.S. policies and practices relating to Hellenic issues.

Mr. Spyropoulos stated that America’s Hellenic community looks forward to a change in US policies involving issues of interest to Americans of Hellenic heritage, “a review by your administration of the U.S. foreign policy that has demonstrated ignorance of history, has continued to fan the fires of conflict in the Balkans and is destabilizing Southeastern Europe”.

Specifically, the Coordinator of SAE USA highlighted the Greek National Issues of the conflict on Cyprus, the violation of Greek airspace by Turkish Fighter planes, the blatant issues of human and religious rights in connection with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the continued violation of human rights affecting Greeks in Northern Epirus (Albania), and last but not least the outstanding issue of agreeing upon the name for FYROM acceptable to Hellenes which would be a positive reversal of existing U.S. policy.

The entire text of Mr. Spyropoulos’s letter follows:“Americans of Hellenic heritage, and SAE USA Region and myself, proudly congratulate you on the solemn occasion of your inauguration as the 44th President of this great country, the United States of America.
“We listened to your inspiring inaugural speech with renewed hope for our nation and a strengthened resolution about the principled role America should play internationally as it follows the rule of law and seeks justice when conflicts rise.

“We have also been following with awe the positive response your election and speeches have drawn in Greece and in Europe in general. We have been very pleased and honored on your behalf to receive praising remarks about our new President from sources that have been critical in the past. It is obvious that the world is ready to embrace American leadership with admiration and hope.

“Therefore, even at this early date in your consideration of international issues, we, Americans of Hellenic descent, wish to bring to you a number of issues in American foreign policy that are of interest to us as a community: “The island of Cyprus remains largely occupied by Turkish invasion armies while Turkish fighter planes routinely violate the Aegean airspace of Greece, a member of ΝΑΤΟ and of the European Union. At the same time, basic religious and human rights are violated constantly as in the paradigmatic case of the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople accentuated by the continued forcible closure of the Theological School of Halki.

“Under previous and in fact the most recent administrations, American foreign policy has sidestepped the issues of human and minority rights for Greeks in Northern Epirus in Albania, and has “jumped the gun” as it ignored history and dismissed Greek peaceful attempts to resolve differences with the government of FYROM.

The U.S. administration, by acting unilaterally and in a very undeserved way against Greece and in opposition to the practice of almost every other nation in Europe officially recognized a new FYROM name that is the basis for indefinite conflict.

“Mr. President, as America’s Hellenic community we look forward to a review by your administration of the U.S. foreign policy that has demonstrated ignorance of history, has continued to fan the fires of conflict in the Balkans and is destabilizing Southeastern Europe.
“With much anticipation for new beginnings that will be based on the principles of truth and understanding, I am,

Respectfully Yours,Theodore G. Spyropoulos Coordinator SAE USA”

Karatzaferis`s accuse addressed to George Papandreou

During the parliamentary session on January 23, the President of LAOS Party George Karatzaferis, accused the leader of PASOK Georges Papandreou as responsible of blocking the Northern Epirus issue.

"As also listened to Mr. Papandreou mentioned, and actually moved, because the makes rare occasions, the grandfather of the George Papandreou. You know, I greatly appreciate the history and work of George Papandreou. It should not think George Papandreou today. To appreciate him for his work of this I believe the name. Rigth we want long way to appreciate for his work. But there is a difference. I know the grandfather George Papandreou agree at least 90-95%. I am not sure that the PASOK today agrees. First, the first had some specific positions with partners Left. I do not know whether to apply today you. Second was for specific positions Northern Epirus you do not have never" Karatzaferis said.

PASOK and ND where tow politic parties group that voted the SAA agreement with Albania.

Albania to allow headscarf ID photos

Authorities in Albania have decided to allow Muslim women to wear headscarves while being photographed for ID cards. Albania began issuing new identity cards this month, but Muslim community leaders to complained that the government's passport agency was not allowing headscarf photos.

Interior Ministry spokesman Fatmir Konja said Friday that such photos will be accepted as long at the headscarves do not obscure a person's facial features. Albania is mostly Muslim with large Orthodox Christian and Roman Catholic minorities. Practicing religion was banned until Communism fell in 1990.

Albania has begun issuing new IDs and biometric passports and hopes to adopt international standards for identity documents.

THINKING DEFENSE, THINKING SECURITY

By Special Correspondent
Copyright: http://www.rieas.gr/

In times of dire economic straits, thinking and talking defense and security is an unpopular subject given the economic outlays and the implied sense of risk involved. Greece is in such straits and voters are in foul mood. Hit by the world economic slump, and paying the price of years of mismanagement and corruption, Greece is on the receiving end of a huge double whammy: the cash box is empty, save the last usurious-interest foreign loan, and prospects of a genuine rebound, in the middle of an unprecedented global crunch, are extremely slim.

Nevertheless, Greece needs to, and must, think defense and security urgently. Here’s why.
On the outside:

Turkey grows more menacing by the day. Turkish warplanes fly as if Aegean skies are theirs to enjoy and keep. Turkish sea-air exercises bracket Greek islands, large and small, and simulate various pre-invasion tactics. Turkish warships make “honest” navigation “mistakes” and appear near the shores of Athens --unmolested. Turkish ground forces along the eastern frontier remain at battle strength.

The rest of the Balkans is in slow boil. Kosovar Albanians, emboldened by Kosovo’s “independence” by Caesarian section courtesy of the US, haven’t given up the dream of a “greater Albania.” FYR Macedonia, for all of Skopje’s macho-man antics in connection to the lingering name dispute with Athens, has little to celebrate over its “multicultural” synthesis comprising a strong Albanian minority permanently unhappy with the posture of the Slav majority. A splendid, little war is not entirely impossible right at Greece’s northern doorstep as it nearly happened in 2001, when irregular “Macedonian” Albanians nearly tore the Slav-dominated Skopje government to pieces.

more see: http://rieas.gr/images/RIEASEDIT.pdf

Albania’s New Identity Documents to Ease EU Visa Regime

21 January 2009 | The Albanian government has started issuing new and improved identity cards and passports, seen as a key requirement for the liberalization of the visa regime with the EU and the implementation of European election standards.

The new biometric passports, which will cost 60 euro each, were hailed by Prime Minister Sali Berisha as “first-class documents” that would enable Albanians to “travel more freely abroad,” the Southeast European Times reported recently.

Issuing reliable, high-security personal identification documents and stepping up of the fight against organized crime are the two main conditions Albania has to fulfill before the EU could ease its visa requirements for the country’s citizens, as BalkanTravellers.com reported last October. see more..http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/984

The resignation of Vice/Chairman of UHRP Thomas Mitsos going to establish a new party

Following the elections in 28 June, Mr Mitsos proposed change of statutes UHRP and converted into the National Ethnic Party that is only the Greek National minority. Mr Mitsos aims at a party acting in Gjirokaster, Saranda, Delvina and Himara and the creation of an Annex resident in Greece where are more 70% of northern epiriotean.

The imediate was responded the secretary general of the UHRP Leonard Solis, who urged to M. Mitsou to establish his own small party. Mr. Solis sais that; ''throughout the KEAD is panalbanian party and the conversion of the party in the Greek national minority is a wrong idea against the albanian costotution. We are here to solve the problems and not to create artificial tension ...''

The Greek minority in Albania and its rights: Theory and practice

by Fanis Malkidis*

On 15 January ratified by the Parliament (with the votes of party New Democracy and PASOK), the Stabilization and Association Agreement Albania-EU. The issue of integration of Albania in the EU, which is directly linked to the respect and the existence of the Greek minority in Albania, which for years despite contrary comments prosecuted, launched in 2003.

The meeting of the Ministerial Troika of the EU in Albania (Tirana, 13.1.2003), confirmed the EU commitment to the European perspective of Albania calling on both to take the responsibility to fulfill all the conditions of conditionality of the Stabilization and Association Process, which includes the full respect and protection of the rights of the Greek national minority. This confirmed the «Agenda for the Western Balkans: moving towards European Integration» which was adopted during the EU Summit in Thessaloniki (19-20.6.2003).

In June 2006, Albania, with the consent of Greece had signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU agreement which includes issues of minorities, the elimination of discrimination against them. To join an EU candidate country must meet all the requirements set, namely Albania minority state with serious problems obliged to adapt its legislation and administrative or other practices of the acquis communautaire, ensuring the identity of these groups. ¨ We believe that this has not happened so far. Since 2003 the EU has urged Albania to take responsibility to fulfill all terms of the agreement between conditionality which include full respect and protection of the rights of the ethnic Greek minority, stressing that progress in the negotiations and the approach of Albania the EU will depend solely on its ability to meet its commitments.

Greece was brought to the Agreement between Albania and the EU parliament for ratification. There, from government side stated that the agreement marks the start of the accession process in Albania, thus the neighboring country is committed to radical cuts in the economy, justice, law and human rights. It also reported that «as a Greek state, standing next to minority practice, the concern is ongoing. Distributed free text books for the Greek language. The property, firmly and consistently highlight the minority side and we are in direct contact with representatives of the minority to a fair resolution of cases involving their properties ».

On the side of PASOK, by the rapporteur said that «the agreement with the Albanian put over their heads a council that will monitor the protection of minorities, we deny it;». The fact is that despite the theoretical approaches and the occasional free content, substance and effect positions in Greece and Albania, protection and enforcement of the Greek minority in Albania does not exist. The minority continues to be prosecuted, while on the other hand is quite a lot from the Albanian side, even with non-akompso and diplomatic way, the issue of Tsamis and Albanian immigrants in Greece. Major problems such as education of members of the Greek minority, religious freedom, return to the beneficiaries of private, community and church property, the non-implementation by the Albanian side of the commitments on human and minority rights, terrorism, and still worse .

In the nationalist climate in Albania is developing a series of actions by the Albanian government turned against the Greek minority to definitive removal of the Greek population. Today, apart from theory, the main objective should be the respect and full enjoyment of rights of the Greek minority. If this happens, we can proceed further cooperation and bilateral relations, otherwise should the policy of Greece towards Albania to be reviewed and epanacharachthei, with the interests of the Greek minority and not others.

*: http://www.malkidis.info/en/

Posters call for dismissal of ethnic Greek mayor in southern Albania

Posters calling for dismissal of ethnic Greek Vasil Bollano, mayor of the southern town of Himara, appeared in Tepeleni town. The posters urged residents to oppose Bollano's attempts to "detach" the Himara region from Albania.

Bollano has urged Greece not to sign the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the EU and Albania unless Tirana grants full property rights to the ethnic Greek minority living in the Himara region. Many Albanians perceive it as a first step towards seeking autonomy for the region.

The Tribunal of Tepelena is going to denied tow Albanian boys as organisators of illegitimate national meeting in Tepelena last month against the president of Omonia Bollano and Prefect of Gjirokaster Ksera.

Getting Chummy Over Chameria (Northern Epirus - Southern Albania)

by Dean Kalimniou
Australian Macedonian Advisory Council
January 16, 2009

"It does not seem to be a good year for Greece. Greece seems to be losing ground on the Macedonian issue, it seems to have lost any sort of edge it ever may have had over Turkey and sits idly by as the Ecumenical Patriarchate is threatened by the Grey Wolves, with the tacit approval of the powers that be. Now Albania is repeating its irredentist claims and insulting the highest officer of Greece".

When the Greek Consul-General was asked why he has never deigned to respond to the invitation of the Panepirotic Federation of Australia's invitation to him to attend the annual doxology celebrating the liberation of Ioannina and the declaration of the autonomy of Northern Epirus in 1914, he smugly retorted: "Well, what do you want me to do? Invade Albania and kill all the Albanians so that you can all go and live there?" On another occasioned, he warned darkly: "Stop referring to Northern Epirus and then we will talk."Indeed, right up until the end of the Cold War.

Greeks who dared to voice concern over human rights abuses against Greeks in Albania were generally referred to as hyper-nationalistic, ultra-right wing radicals by certain sections of the Greek community and the press. Even after the fall of Communism, when it was apparent to all that the 'paradise' that Hoxha's Stalinist regime was supposed to be, was nothing more than hell on earth, those persons who had built their reputation and pride upon the maintenance of their particular ideology, found it hard to sympathise with the hapless Northern Epirots who have been persecuted for well on a hundred years now.

In scenes reminiscent of 1923, when Asia Minor refugees fled genocide to re-settle in Greece and were called Turks, the Northern Epirots who fled poverty and persecution to settled in Greece after 1992, were called Albanians and treated as objects of derision. Further, despite the fact that the various Epirot organizations that exist throughout the world have consistently striven to showcase human rights abuses in Albania, their task is Herculean. For they do not have to convince world opinion alone.

Firstly, they have to convince a doubting or contemptuous Greek world that is totally ignorant of what lies beyond its front fence and which, in its smug bourgeois comfort, still persists in labeling people who are only interested in the human rights of the Greek minority in Albania as fascists, that a sizeable minority just to the north of them is being harried out of its ancestral home and that further, its persecutors are making demands on Greek territory.

more see analyse: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/88045

EX FM THEODOROS PANGALOS ON THE CENTER OF THE GREEK NATIONALISTS STORM

According to weekly newspaper "Elefteros Kosmos" Pangalos during the debate in occasion to be voted the agreement of SAA with Albania by the Greek parliament, other all sad that: "Northern Epiriotes, those that do not stay in this country (Greece), are not considered part of the Greek nation. Others who live here, must be respect according to Greek constitution and laws".

The declarate has inspired the Greek nationalist organisation, which urge the former FM of Greece Theodoros Pangalos to ask for pardon for Norther Epirus people that have suffered systematically by the Albanian state.

Similar accuses addressed to Pangalos are made by the president of LAOS Party Georges Karatzaferis and other member of the Greek parliament during the seance debate.

see more: http://elkosmos.gr/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1861&Itemid=1

Macedonia Protests Over Greek Minister Comments

Skopje has officially protested at the European Commission in Brussels over comments by the Greek Culture Minister that Macedonia will soon dissolve and be carved up between a 'Greater Albania' and a 'Greater Bulgaria'.

Macedonia’s mission in Brussels condemned the statements by Antonis Samaras as “counterproductive” for bilateral relations, and expressed concern that no one in Athens had denounced them yet, local A1 TV said.

Skopje and Athens have been locked in a dispute over Macedonia’s name for 18 years. In April last year Greece blocked Macedonia’s NATO invitation arguing that use of the name implies territorial claims over its own northern province that is also called Macedonia.

more see: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/15990/