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Albanian Times, 96-05-14
Albanian Times
May 14, 1996
CONTENTS
[01] Berisha Campaigns in Saranda
[02] EU Ministers Welcome Agreement Plans For Albania
[03] Albanian News Agency Starts Teletext Service
[04] Pope urges help for immigrants in S.Italy
[05] Meksi Rebuffs Socialists
[06] German Aid to Albania Totals DM 87 Million This Year
[07] Austria Concerned Over Kosova
[08] US Warns Serbia Over Kosova
[09] Roman Catholic Leaders Urge Albanians to Vote
[10] Fountain Oil Expands East European Ventures
[01] Berisha Campaigns in Saranda
SARANDA, May 13 - Berisha called on south Albania's voters to support his
Democratic party in May 26 national elections, Radio Tirana said. Addressing
Saranda and other areas where Albania's ethnic Greeks are concentrated,
President Berisha promised respect for the Greek minority's rights, and called
for harmony between Albanians and Greeks. He said that a "full harmony
between the Greek minority members and the Albanians" constituted the basic
element of good bilateral relations. "The New Democracy government has helped
us a great deal, but certain officials in that (ND) government were against
us," he added. Meanwhile, Albania's opposition socialists have enlisted the
support of the Greek Socialist Party, PASOK. Greek Socialist Eurodeputy
Yiannis Roubatis said in Gjirokastra Saturday that PASOK supported the
Socialist Party in Albania's upcoming May 26 elections, except in the regions
of southern Albania, where it supported the ethnic Greek minority party "Human
Rights Union." Mr. Roubatis added that
the statement expressed official PASOK policy and himself personally.
(Albanian Times/Radio Tirana/ANA)
[02] EU Ministers Welcome Agreement Plans For Albania
BRUSSELS, May 13 - European Union foreign ministers on Monday welcomed the
European Commission's plans for an agreement with Albania that stops short of
offering EU membership. ``The Council noted with satisfaction that the
Commission will submit to it a draft mandate for negotiations with Albania
with a view to concluding a new agreement which will be an important step
towards an association agreement,'' the ministers said in a statement. The
Union plans to treat Albania differently from the other former communist
countries of the Balkans, but at the same time recognise that Tirana is not,
like Slovenia, on a fast track to membership. The Commission is seeking a
mandate to negotiate something less than a Europe agreement with its promise
of membership. (Albanian Times/Reuters)
[03] Albanian News Agency Starts Teletext Service
TIRANA, May 13 - Albania's state run Telegraphic Agency has inaugurated a new
service to provide free news and other information in the form of running text
specially encoded for TV reception. Albanian specialists believe some 100,000
TV sets in the country already have built-in decoders allowing for mass
viewing of teletext pages. The new service is a cooperation with the Albanian
Television and an Italian company. Albanians can already receive free teletext
from Italian TV stations accross the Adriatic. Albanian Telegraphic Agency
also has plans to break into the Internet, Radio Tirana said. (Albanian
Times)
[04] Pope urges help for immigrants in S.Italy
VATICAN CITY, May 11 - Pope John Paul made an appeal for help to support
immigrants in Italy's poor south. The Pope was speaking to pilgrims from
Lecce, a south-eastern province with a large number of Albanian immigrants.
Lecce police said earlier they had arrested two Albanians on charges of
shipping illegal immigrants to Italy for profit and had detained three other
Albanians and an Algerian who had already been ordered to leave the
country.
More than 100 alleged illegal immigrants were found along the coastline in
police operations during the night they said. The Italian government adopted a
controversial decree last year to expel illegal immigrants in a bid to deal
with a growing problem. Some estimates put the number of illegal immigrants in
Italy at 500,000 and rising. The Polish Pontiff also called for help for the
many young unemployed in the south. (Albanian Times/Reuters)
[05] Meksi Rebuffs Socialists
TIRANA, May 12 - Albania's Prime Minister Aleksander Meksi rejected
accusations by the opposition Socialists who have blamed police for hindering
their campaign by creating a climate of terror ahead of May 26 general
election. The Socialist Party, had said the police had illegally detained and
mistreated more than 30 of their supporters this month, destroyed their
banners and removed their party flags. "Police behaved correctly," Meksi
said. "The incidents have been staged by the Socialists themselves," he added.
On Friday, a senior Socialist Party member said ``(The Democratic Party)...has
provoked us, created a climate of terror and manipulation...hindering the
holding of free, democratic elections.'' ``Free and democratic elections have
been gravely compromised by the Democratic Party and Berisha,'' Gramoz Ruci,
an Interior Minister under the former communist regime, said in a statement
read out at a news conference. The opposition says it has also been
hamstrung by a state committee set up by the Democratic government to vet candidates for the May 26 elections. So far, 143
candidates have been rejected, including 40 from the Socialist Party and three
from the Democrats. (Albanian Times/DPA, Reuters)
[06] German Aid to Albania Totals DM 87 Million This Year
BONN, May 11 - German government has allocated a total of DM 87 million in
development aid for this year, according to the German Ministry for Economic
Cooperation. The aid includes a DM 48 million soft credit for the
reconstruction of Tirana airport, the Ministry said. (Albanian Times)
[07] Austria Concerned Over Kosova
TIRANA, May 10 - Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel
expressed concern over tension in Kosova and backed Albania's call for
dialogue between Belgrade and the mostly ethnic-Albanian region. "It is
important a dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade starts and international
observers, at best from the U.S. and the European Union, participate,''
Schuessel told a news conference in Tirana. ``It is important that the
autonomy they had in former Yugoslavia be given back to the (ethnic)
Albanians,'' he added. Schuessel said he opposed any suggestion of border
changes and was satisfied at Albania's call for the Kosovo problem to be
resolved through negotiation. ``I am pleased to have the guarantee from
Albania that it supports this peaceful way,'' he said. Albanian Foreign
Minister Alfred Serreqi said the Kosova problem would be solved through
respect for the right of self-determination of the ethnic Albanians.
(Albanian Times/Reuters)
[08] US Warns Serbia Over Kosova
WASHINGTON, May 9 - The United States warned Serbia on Thursday that an
``outer wall'' of sanctions would remain in place until the situation markedly
improved in its mainly Albanian Kosova province, where
violence has risen recently. U.S. officials also said Secretary of State
Warren Christopher had given orders to go ahead as quickly as possible with a
plan to station a U.S. diplomat in the Kosova capital of Pristina. State
Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Christopher expressed concern over
the rising violence in Kosova during a 45-minute meeting on Wednesday with
Albanian Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi. ``The secretary said that the
government in Belgrade would have to show substantial progress on Kosova
before the so-called outer wall of sanctions would be removed, at least by the
United States,'' Burns told a news briefing. Burns said Christopher wanted to
proceed rapidly with a plan agreed in February with Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic to place an officer of the United States Information Agency in
Pristina. ``We have identified an officer and now need to move that officer
and his personal effects to Pristina to take up residence there,'' Burns said.
``The secretary on Monday said in a
meeting we had here he wanted that person to be on the ground as soon as
possible ... because of the concern we have for the situation there,'' he
said. (Courtesy of Reuters)
[09] Roman Catholic Leaders Urge Albanians to Vote
TIRANA, May 8 - Albania's Roman Catholic clergy took the unusual step of
calling on all Albanians to vote in the May 26 general election, saying it was
their sacred duty to do so. The ex-communist state's two archbishops, two
bishops and Pope John Paul's nuncio in Albania, Ivan Diaz, signed the
statement urging people to take part in the election despite what they called
the difficult economic situation in the country. "The voting day is a sacred
day so we should respond to the sacred call to decide our fate," said the
statement. "We should not be discouraged by the ever hard economic situation
that we have inherited from the bitter past," the Roman Catholic leaders'
statement said. "We...pray to God that through the voting...real democracy can
win once and for all for the honour and the glory of God and the benefit of
the whole nation," it said. The statement seems to be a veiled support for
Berisha's Democratic Party, although it did not openly back any one party.
(Albanian Times/Reuters)
[10] Fountain Oil Expands East European Ventures
HOUSTON, May 13 - Fountain Oil Inc. announced today that the Kashtan
Petroleum Ltd. joint venture, in which Fountain is a major participant,
had
received the formal license to proceed with the development of the
Lelyaki Oil Field in the Pryluki region of Central Ukraine. The venture
enhances Fountain Oil Inc.'s growing portfolio of international projects which
includes Albania, western Ukraine, Russia, and now central Ukraine," company
officials said. Fountain Oil Inc. is actively acquiring and developing a
portfolio of oil and gas properties. The company also owns a patented
technology for electrically enhanced oil recovery used to increase the
production of paraffinic oil and heavy oil. (Albanian Times)
This material was reprinted with permission of AlbAmerica Trade & Consulting
International. For more information on ATCI and the Albanian Times, please
write to AlbaTimes@aol.com
Copyright © ATCI, 1996
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