President Berisha at a press conference Press statement on the visit of the President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, to the United States of America, 11–15 September 1995 President Berisha at a press conference A very fruitful, very important visit Press statement on the visit of the President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, to the United States of America, 11–15 September 1995 From 11 to 15 September, President Sali Berisha, invited by President Bill Clinton, paid a visit to the United States of America. On this visit he was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dylber Vrioni, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alfred Serreqi, Minister of Industry, Trade and Transport Zana Panariti, and his advisers Genc Pollo, Fatos Beja, Mimoza Vokshi, and Aida Shehu. During this visit he met President Clinton, several members of his Cabinet, senators and congressmen, businessmen and representatives of the Albanian-American community, as well as representatives of top political and military circles. During his stay in the USA, President Berisha also met with the UN Secretary-General, the Administrator of UNDP, the Executive Director of the IMF, Mr. Kamdesy, and leaders of the World Bank. At the meeting President Berisha held with President Clinton at the White House, Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of State Christopher, National Security Council Chairman Anthony Lake, Mr. Richard Holbrooke and Mr. Kus Hill were also present. In the meeting President Berisha expressed Albania’s determination to achieve the two main objectives of the Democratic Party’s program: the creation of a democratic society for all social strata wherever they may be, meaning the building of the rule of law and a market economy, as well as the country’s rapid economic development. He presented the progress of reforms and their results in Albania in terms of building the rule of law and the market economy, as well as the major changes that have taken place in institutional and legislative fields, free trade, the market economy, and the Albanian views on the situation in the region. In the meeting President Berisha stressed the importance of the support and American assistance in the achievements to date. A review was made of bilateral cooperation in the political, institutional, technical and military fields. He thanked the American President for his decision to establish the Albanian-American Enterprise Fund and asked him for the support of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), as well as for increased economic, technical and military aid for Albania, and assistance in consolidating market-economy institutions. He valued our country’s contribution to peace and stability in the region. He thanked President Berisha for Albania’s contribution to bilateral military cooperation and expressed the strong support of the USA for the consolidation of democratic institutions, for the expansion of economic assistance to our country, promising $45 million in aid, as well as the expansion of military cooperation within the bilateral framework and the Partnership for Peace, assistance in policy, communications and strengthening defense capabilities, engagement in joint exercises, and preparation of the peacekeeping company. President Berisha expressed to President Clinton his deep concern about the serious situation in Kosovo and asked for US engagement in resolving the Kosovo problem and insisted that the Kosovo issue be placed on the agenda of international efforts to achieve peace and a final settlement in the former Yugoslavia. He also asked for the lifting of the embargo on Serbia, conditioned on the achievement of a solution in Kosovo and its implementation. At the meeting at the White House, President Berisha praised American efforts to end the armed conflict and establish peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina, describing the Geneva agreement reached by Assistant Secretary of State Holbrooke as an important and optimistic step toward peace, as well as NATO’s military presence as a necessity to force the aggressors to accept peace. He informed the President that Albania can contribute to the successful completion of this effort. President Berisha committed that in the future too, Albania would continue with its policy of contributing to stability and avoiding tensions in the region. President Clinton assured President Berisha that the USA would fully adhere to the red line on Kosovo and that it would engage to the end in resolving the Kosovo problem and restoring its former full autonomy. Your country is small, he said, but the decision you have made is a great one. President Berisha also spoke with Vice President Al Gore, who will visit Albania. At lunch with Secretary of State Christopher, the issues of bilateral cooperation in the economic, technical and military fields were discussed; the latest developments in the region and the worrying situation in Kosovo were also discussed extensively. President Berisha insisted that the Kosovo issue become part of the Contact Group’s plans for resolving the crisis in the former Yugoslavia, that the lifting of sanctions on Serbia be conditioned on a fair solution to the Kosovo issue, and that Milošević be sent to begin dialogue with the legitimate representatives of the Albanians of Kosovo. At the meeting with Secretary of Defense Perry, bilateral military cooperation and its expansion in the future were discussed extensively. The American side responded with understanding to President Berisha’s requests. Secretary Perry thanked President Berisha for the port and airport facilities that Albania offered to the American army and NATO in order to successfully carry out their missions in favor of peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina. At the meeting with Treasury Secretary Rubin, President Berisha asked for the assistance of the department he heads in the privatization of the banking system, the establishment of the stock exchange, the consolidation of customs, and international cooperation. These requests found the support of Secretary Rubin. At the meeting President Berisha had with the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Deutch, it was agreed to strengthen cooperation in the exchange of information of mutual interest. During the visit to the seat of the American Congress, President Berisha had a warm conversation with the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Senator Bob Dole, to whom he presented the reforms in Albania and Albania’s position on Kosovo and the crisis in the region. Senator Dole expressed his full support for the steps taken in Albania in these three years and for the continuation of this policy, as well as his support for the Kosovo issue and for Albania’s maturation in this direction. President Berisha met Senator McCain, Chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives, chaired by Congressman Gilman, as well as the Albanian issues group in Congress, led by Congressman Engli. In all these meetings, the American legislators expressed their full support for the reform course that Mr. Meksi’s Government is following for Albania, for the country’s policy in the region, and for the pro-Western orientation of Albanian foreign policy. During the visit to the USA, President Berisha and the delegation accompanying him had a series of meetings with businessmen and representatives of major American companies, for which Chairman Scalone of the board of the Albanian-American Enterprise Fund also provided valuable assistance. In Washington, Boston and New York, three large meetings were organized with representatives of the Albanian community in America. At all three meetings, the full support of our compatriots for the Democratic Government and the policy it has pursued at home and abroad was expressed. In New York, President Berisha met at the Glass Palace with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, to whom the President asked that the resolution of the Kosovo issue be included on the agenda of Contact Group meetings. The Secretary-General committed himself to discuss this request at the earliest meeting of the Secretariat. The President also met at the United Nations headquarters the UNDP Administrator, James Speth, whom he asked to expand the program’s projects in Albania. In Washington, in the meetings the President had with the Director of the International Monetary Fund, Michel Camdessus, the country’s reforms and achievements were discussed. At the meeting with World Bank leaders, development projects and the possibilities of expanding them were discussed. In conclusion, President Berisha’s visit to Washington was a very fruitful, very important and successful visit. Press and Information Office attached to the President Tirana, 18.09.1995 PHOTO: G. XHENGO

PHOTO: A. DHIMITRI

Yesterday morning, the Secretary General of the PDSH, Mr. Tritan Shehu, received the Director of the International Republican Institute for Central and Eastern Europe, based in the USA, Ms. Clare Seckler, who was accompanied by Mr. Peter Dickinson, Thomas Peterson and Randy Sifka. Mr. Tritan Shehu introduced the American friends to the current situation in the country, to the achievements of the PD in these years of its governance, and to the renewal of all PD structures at the base. He then spoke about the success of President Berisha’s visit to the USA, which he described as an expression of the further strengthening of the very good relations between Albania and the USA. At the end of his remarks, Mr. Tritan Shehu stressed that the aid of American international institutions has been extremely useful for the triumph of democracy in our country, which we are convinced will continue in the future too for the good of consolidating democracy in Albania, so that the irredeemable communists will never return to power. At the end of this meeting, the American guests, after highly valuing Albania’s comprehensive preparation within the framework of the institutionalization of democracy, expressed their readiness to help the PD even more in the parliamentary elections of ’96. PDSH Spokesman UKZENEL BUÇPAPAJ

A joke very “small” by Pashko - I have the constitutional right to choose and to decide whom I wish. If I wish to choose a former agent, that is my business and the business of the secret ballot... Thus declares Gramoz Pashko in a 17 September interview in the newspaper "Koha jonë". According to Pashko, politics is an open game in which even the devil or a saint may penetrate and even rise to the top of political forces, from former agents and spies of the State Security to the inquisitors of genocide, the criminals of the red nomenklatura... Such statements do not surprise you, especially when made by “politicians” of Pashko’s type, whose route into Albanian politics is not known and where they seek to take the water. Pashko and some others cannot come to terms with the idea that politics can make a difference, that the laws which Parliament may approve must take the monsters out of politics, monsters who, in their zeal to serve evil, have not even today broken away, turning into denouncers of democracy. SAMI MILLOSHI

Why did the journalists of "ZP" and their satellites remain silent yesterday at President Berisha’s press conference? Why did they ask no questions? How did they become dumb? Who ordered them? Did Pellumbi order them, Doko, or what happened? Have you taken good care of brother Brozi? Could it be that they have repented for all the lies they told their readers during the President’s visit to America? Who will answer these questions? Editor-in-chief Gelliç or the editor-in-chief of the editors-in-chief and deputy editors-in-chief, Ruçi? Why did the journalists of "ZP" remain silent? Had they taken their heads with them? Did they have questions in their heads? Or did they have in their heads the questions of Pellumbi, Dokle, Hajdaraga, Ruçi? Who will answer these questions? Will Lani answer, or the deputy editor-in-chief? Or will Shqipyri, the deputy editor-in-chief’s deputy editor-in-chief, answer? I.B.

Half-baked people usually say half-baked things. Such is the so-called comment by Astrit Kola in the newspaper Aleanca of 15 September, who does not even dare to put down his own name, though it is not hard to see that it is the hand of alias Vladimir Prela. The apprentices of Sofo Lazri, raised in the incubator of pretence and fed on the crumbs of Nexhmije of the Central Committee of the PPSH. His intellectual misery begins and ends with the lies he invented about the truths of President Berisha’s visit to Washington. The thesis of the capricious Shturxhina Kola about the direct analogy between the Greek minority in Albania and the national rights of the Albanian people in Kosovo is a thesis that stems from the filthy hatred of Belgrade, where the petty tyrants of Tirana, just like the charcoal burners of B., have long been informing Washington together with Soro. His cynicism toward the undeniable success of Berisha’s visit is not at all surprising. It is cynicism in that cell which in fact has died in democracy, but which tries to survive on the miserable leftovers of Milošević’s kitchen. To Kola’s shadow, or to his boss Vladimir Prela, and to his entire slug-like Sofo Lazri clan, together with the house pet, we say to you: your deeds will end up in the garbage bin together with your black chronicles. Albania is not the fiefdom of scoundrels, who keep themselves in high position, but in truth have been and will remain classic bastards who eat shame for bread. DUKAGJIN HATA

Bujar Muharremi, RTV: During your visit to America there were some leaflets against the USA and against Albania’s ties with this country. During this trip the socialists withdrew completely from parliament. Do you see these developments as an attempt to dim the results of this visit. Answer: Journalist Peter Lucas, in an article published in the "Boston Globe", described your not going to Boston University as the act of a statesman. Anything more broadly about the Greek lobby’s responses to intervene in this issue? Answer: Regarding the leaflets. The leaflets, of course, were distributed by elements of Albanian extremism, which carry the mentality, attitude and old psychology, and it is an attempt, completely and utterly failed, but I am at least certain that other centers may know more about this problem in detail. Those who remain faithful to Marxism may have more ideas about these activities. In any case, I would say, they are Don Quixote-like acts. Regarding the abandonment of parliament, I can say that the gesture of the left-wing extremists had absolutely no reflection or impact on my visit to Washington. They know very well, in the USA and in the democratic countries, that such acts are based on ideological intolerance, a complete lack of parliamentary culture. To walk out of parliament because the prime minister must certainly come that day and at that hour means to adopt an intolerant and tyrannical attitude toward another power. Powers are separate, and in a democratic country they are obliged to The leaflets, of course, were distributed by elements of Albanian extremism, which carry the mentality, attitude and old psychology, and it is an attempt, completely and utterly failed. (To be continued on page 2)

The President of the Republic, Mr. Sali Berisha, after the successful completion of his official visit to the USA, will give a press conference before journalists. At the opening of this conference, Mr. Berisha stated that the purpose of this meeting with you is to provide you with more direct information about my visit to Washington