Balkans Peace Award

 

For Immediate Release

Contact: (914) 671-8583

 

ALBANIAN AMERICAN CIVIC LEAGUE GIVES 6th ANNUAL BALKANS PEACE AWARD TO SENATORS CHARLES SCHUMER AND JOHN MCCAIN

 

OSSINING, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 11, 2006—The Albanian American Civic League will present Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and John McCain (R-AZ) its sixth Balkans Peace Award on September 14 at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The award is given annually to non-Albanian policy makers and professionals who have made a significant contribution to resolving the Albanian dimension of the Balkan conflict and to bringing lasting peace and stability to Southeast Europe.

 

This year’s award will be conferred in recognition of Senators Schumer and McCain for cosponsoring S.Res. 521, which commends the people of Albania on the 61 st anniversary of the liberation of the Jews from the Nazi death camps for their unique role in saving all Jews who either lived in Albania or sought asylum there during the Holocaust. The Civic League is honoring the senators for this important piece of legislation and for their historical support for Kosova’s independence. Senator McCain will also be recognized for his effort to secure the release of Albanian POWs who were illegally transferred from Kosova at war’s end in June 1999 to prisons in Serbia. 

 

Former Congressman Joe DioGuardi, Balkan Affairs Adviser Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi, and members of the board of the Albanian American Civic League will present Senators Schumer and McCain each with a hand-carved marble eagle from Kruja mounted on a cherry wood base with an inscription. In addition to Members of Congress, Albanian Ambassador to the United States Aleksander Sallabanda, Albanian Deputy Foreign Minister Edith Harxhi, and American Jewish Congress Executive Director Neil Goldstein will participate in the ceremony, which will affirm the partnership between Albania and the United States. It will also affirm the partnership between the Albanian and Jewish peoples, which was so essential to Kosovar survival during the 1999 war.

 

The Civic League gave its first Balkans Peace Award to General Wesley K. Clark in 2001 for the important role that he played in bringing an end to ten years of war in the Balkans waged by Slobodan Milosevic and for his intercession in the case of Agron, Mehmet, and Ylli Bytyqi—the three Albanian American brothers whose bodies were discovered in a mass grave in Serbia. The Civic League gave its second Balkans Peace Award in 2002 to Senator Joseph Biden, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for being one of the earliest and strongest opponents of Slobodan Milosevic,

AACL-Balkan Peace Award

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for being one of the staunchest supporters of U.S. involvement in the Balkans, and for

working for fifteen years to bring a just and lasting peace to Southeast Europe, especially to the Albanians of Kosova and Macedonia. The Civic League gave its third Balkans Peace Award in 2003 to Congressmen Henry Hyde, Tom Lantos, and Ben Gilman for their courage in introducing House Resolution 28 (later H.Res. 24) in support of the independence of Kosova now, at a time when the international community had sought to silence the debate on Kosova’s future. The Civic League gave its fourth Balkans Peace Award to Congressman Dana Rohabacher in 2004 for his outspoken support of the right of Bosnians and Kosovar Albanians to defend themselves against Serbian aggression in the 1990s and for his unceasing effort to convince successive administrations to recognize Kosova as an independent State. The fifth Balkans Peace Award was given in 2005 to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in recognition of her support for Kosova’s independence now and the equal status and treatment of Albanians in Montenegro.

 

Attendance at the September 14 awards dinner is by invitation only.

 

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