Antenna: News in English (AM), 97-03-20

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

News in English, 20/03/97

TITLES

• The search for a political solution continues amid unrest in Albania.
• The prime minister says cooperation is the key to a bright Balkan future.
• And, remembering the poet of the Aegean.

PANGALOS

Theodoros Pangalos visited the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where there are fears that the trouble in Albania could spill over.

With the clock winding down on the rebels ultimatum, Albania's new prime minister, Baskim Fino, says talk, not threats, is the way forward for this country on the brink of dissolution.

Fino believes that if Berisha were removed from office at this time, it would further destabilise the country.

Fino did NOT meet with Greek deputy foreign minister Iannos Kranidiotis as expected Wednesday. On Tuesday, Kranidiotis met with rebel leaders in southern Albania. The Albanian foreign minister, a supporter of president Sali Berisha's Democratic Party, protested the Kranidiotis visit. And observers say the most likely reason for the Fino meeting not happening is that the beleaguered Berisha frowned on the attempt to mediate between the rebels and he newly-appointed national unity cabinet.

More broadly, the same sources add that Berisha is unappy with international political initiatives on Albania.

After more meetings with local officials in southern Albania, Kranidiotis returned to Greece Wednesday. Asked about the Albanian government's reaction to his visit, he said prime minister Fino had invited him to make the visit when they met on a ship off the Albanian coast last week.

The Albanian police have started reasserting their control over the country, yet gangs still rob and terrorise in many areas. 21 people were killed in Korytsa alone Tuesday and Wednesday. And the armed gangs are still on the street of Arygyrokastro and Saranta. In short, the authorities appear unable to reassert firm control over the country at this time.

Another problem the interim government is facing is the rebels ultimatum. The rebels say that if Berisha isn't gone by Saturday, they may go to Tirane and forcibly remove him from office. The rebels are also considering attempting to form a national presiding council, in cooperation with the opposition parties, until the election in June.

The third problem the authorities and the rest of the nation are grappling with is the shortage of food and other essentials. Greece is helping meet the demand for food and medicine. 40 tonnes of aid were loaded ontoa ship in Corfu Wednesday. The food and medicine was collected by the city of Athens and te Meropolitan diocese of Cofu. It is hoped that within a few days the aid will have been distributed to the residents of the port city of Saranta, especially among the city's orphans.

Athens mayor Dimitris Avramouloss says he received a letter from the mayor of Tirane, asking that assistance be sent to the Albanian capital. Avramopoulos says he will visit Saranta, where he will meet with rebel leaders.

The political and social turmoil in Albania, the accompanying problems, and fears for the future have created a population of would-be refugees. Several thousand of them have made their way to Italy, paying extravagant fares for passage on ships going across the Adriatic. The Italians have distributed the refugees to camps around the country. But many have escaped, and the Italian government has declared a state of emergency until the June elections in Albania are over. On Wednesday, Italy deported 137 Albanians, calling them criminal elements.

Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos met with president Kyro Gligorov and other political leaders in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or Fyrom.

After the meeting Pangalos said Greece and Fyrom are working together to preserve peace and stability in the region. The way to succeed in their aims, he explianed, is to promote democratic regimes which respect the human rights of all their citizens, and which respect existing Balkan borders.

Fyrom is worried, like Greece, about a wave of immigrants from Albania.

Asked in Fyrom if there is a danger of the Albania crisis being "exported" to nearby countries, Pangalos replied, "there is a great risk indeed. There are the immigration pressures, and even worse".

"Worse" could be a reference to another Fyrom worry: its large, autonomy- minded Albanian minority, centred in Tetovo.

There is a similar situation in Yugoslavia: there is a restive Albanian majority in Kossovo, in southern Yugoslavia.

Over the next few weeks, says Pangalos, there will be further high-level contacts between the two neighbours.

The Greek prime minister visits Romania Thursday, for a discussion of the Albanian crisis.

In Fyrom, Pangalos was also asked about an issue separating Greece and Fyrom: the issue of Fyrom's name. Fyrom wants to call itself just plain Macedonia. Greece objects, saying that's expansionist, and an abuse of Greek heritage. But Pangalos says the two sides are trying to find a compromise solution through UN offices.

SIMITIS

Simitis said that despite the problems plaguing the region, he's optimistic that persistence, patience, and goodwill on the part of all the Balkan nations will allow leaders to guarantee economic development and a bright future for all.

Earlier, alternate foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou met with Richard Shifter, special advisor to US secretary of state Madeleine Albright. Papandreou said they discussed two aspects of the Albania crisis: how to secure the shipment of aid there; and how to ensure that public order is gradually restored to the troubled land, so that normal political instiutions can start working again.

EVERT

Evert's letter follows his weekend visit to rebel areas in southern Albania.

Greece's main opposition leader warns that the situation in Albania contains serious dangers for the security of the region. He adds that any peaceful settlement means Albanian president Sali Berisha leaving his post; support for the new cabinet of prime minister Baskim Fino; and the dispatch of an international peacekeeping force and international economic aid to Albania.

CYPRUS

Antenna Cyprus broadcast a 1974 photo of three Cypriot soldiers wounded during the invasion. The parents of one of them came forward immediately, saying they're son is still missing.

The picture of the three young Cypriots, wounded during Turkey's invasion of their country and taken to a Turkish hospital, raises the question once more, wit emphasis: What happened to the 1600 people still listed as missing, 22 years after the Turkish attack?

The picture was given to a Greek-Cypriot in London by a Turk, who had served in Cyprus in 1974. The Greek-Cypriot in turn gave the photo to a relation, Michalis Kostas.

One of the men in the picture, the one with black, curly hair, was wounded in the leg. Another, then around 20 years old, has a chest wound, and his face is covered in bruises. The third man, even younger, is wearing a cross around his neck.

Kostas, a resident of Larnaca, says, "Because a member of my family is also missing, I felt it was my duty to go public with the photo, in the hope that it may help locate the missing people in it".

Soon after Antenna Cyprus broadcast the picture, Philippos and Irini Petrou, the parents of the man at the left, called the station for more information. They then visited the station with their daughters and other relatives, and talked about their tragedy on the news.

The picture renewed their hopes that the son they lost over two decades ago may still be alive somewhere.

Hundreds of viewers called Antenna Cyprus, saying either saying they recognised the people in the picture, or that they had fought alongside them against the Turkish invader.

Antenna has turned the photo over to Takis Chrisotpoulos, the Cypriot commissioner on humanitarian affairs. He says a the matter will be looked into further.

ND

New Democracy's leadership candidates are chasing after the votes of "undecided" congress delegates who will elect a new party leader at the party congress that starts Friday.

In all, 3,602 delegates will take part in the proceedings.

Souflias also takes a shot at opponent Kostas Karamanlis, MP, saying he wouldn't give his relatively young and inexperienced rival an important ministry post if he were elected prime minister.

Touring Crete, Karmanlis says in an interview of his own that if HE'S elected, he will put an end to what he says is the tendency for the party leader to give preference to his own people over those in the party not closely associated with him. People close to Karamanlis are confident their man will win the contest.

But MPs close to current party leader Miltiades Evert think THEIR man has the right stuff. Dimitris Sioufas says Evert will be re-elected because he has the political stands to get New Democracy elected to power.

SOUFLIAS

Souflias, who believes the rivalry between party leader Miltiades Evert and former prime minister Constantinos Mitsotakis has weakened the party in recent years, said that if elected, he'll be the leader of EVERYONE in the party, and exclude no one.

He wants the party leader's term set at four years; it is currently a lifetime term, but Souflias says that's bad, because it means there's no easy way for members to express their desire for a change.

In the same spirit, Souflias also said he will try to make the party work more collectively.

The leader's job is to unite and inspire the ranks, he added.

Souflias said that he wants to ensure that the party's political views are made crystal clear and concrete to the people.

Greece doesn't need generalisations, but specific solutions to real problems, he explained, saying THAT is what prime minister Simitis has not provided.

ELYTIS

Antenna takes a look back at what the poet had to say about one of his greatest inspirations: Homer's wine-dark the Aegean Sea, and the islands that dot it.

Odysseas Elytis has been called the poet of the Aegean.

And he never begged to differ.

From one of the Aegean's most magnificent spots, the island of Patmos, Elytis admitted that sea and its islands were a major source of inspiration to his art.

"The Aegean holds a special importance for me," he says. "It was the center of what we call the Greek spirit, it contained the essence of what we call the values of the Greek spirit. There are places which are only beautiful, and other places which are also important because a civilisation grew up there. The Aegean houses both beauty and civilisation."

Elytis believed that made the Aegean unique. "I don't think there's anywhere else where you can see this constant interpenetration of land and sea", he explained, "and this clarity. That's what makes the physiognomy of Greece unique".

And, in the poet's own words, it's also at least part of what makes his poetry special to the people of Greece.

© ANT1 Radio 1997

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