Memo on Meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger
AlbanianAmerican Civic League
717 Second Street, N.E., Suite 303, Washington, D.C. 20002
(914) 967-7410 ? Fax (914) 967-7443STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL(Sensitive comments made by Eagleburger were deleted from pages 5 and 6 of this memo at his request. They will be made public at an appropriate time. - JJD)
TO:Members of the Board
Albanian American Civic League and Foundation
TO:Members of the BoardAlbanian American Civic League and FoundationFROM:Joseph J. DioGuardi
DATE:Friday, March 27, 1992
INTRODUCTION
I just returned from Washington, D.C., my second trip this week. Today the AACL broke new ground in Washington. Through persistent and diligent action, working with the offices of Senators Pell, Simon, Dole and Congressman Lantos and having them place personal calls themselves, we were successful in arranging a meeting with Lawrence Eagleburger, the Deputy Secretary of State. This important and substantive meeting lasted over 90 minutes (1 and 1/2 hours) and caused his next meeting, with the Foreign Minister of Serbia, Mr. Jovanovich, to be delayed 30 minutes. Attending the meeting were:
Adem Demaci, Kosova
Mark Krasniqi, Kosova
Elez Bieberaj, Voice of America (official interpreter)
Larry Eagleburger, Deputy Secretary of State
William Montgomery, Executive Assistant to Eagleburger
Richard Johnson, Yugoslav Desk Officer
Joseph DioGuardi, President, AACL and AAF
SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Before going into the substantive discussions, a few things should be noted by way of background and information:
Although the State Department had arranged for an interpreter through their Foreign Language Service Department, I insisted on the presence (and use) of Elez Bieberaj for what should be obvious reasons.
The presence of Demaci, Krasniqi, Gjergj Gjokaj (Montenegro) and Jup Kastrati (Albania) was due to the work of the Organizational Committee for the 81st Anniversary of Ded Gjon Luli, in particular Lek Vataj, Luigi Gjokaj, Deda Dedvukaj, Mark Ulaj, Pashko Bojaj, and Anton Gjokaj, to name a few key members. (The Committee voted to use the Civic League for the official contacts and other arrangements in Washington.)
At the request of Adem Demaci, and because of a longstanding personal relationship with Sacir Gashi and his family, Sacir, a member of our Executive Committee, joined me on both trips to Washington as a facilitator and travelling companion to Demaci. (Demaci also insisted on staying with the Gashi family in New York.)
While the focus of the meetings — on Wednesday and Friday — was the crisis in Kosova and the need for U.S. intervention for and recognition of Sovereign Republic Status for Kosova, the presence of Professor Gjokaj and Prof. Kastriati (and my recent trip to Macedonia) enabled us to also lobby effectively for:
Substantial economic assistance, technical support and increased humanitarian assistance to Albania — now that the people of Albania have declared their will as a democratic state in last Sunday?s elections in which Dr. Berisha and the Democratic League of Albania garnered well over 60% of the vote.
Autonomous status, politically and territorially within the Republic of Macedonia, for 1-million Albanians in that Republic.
Autonomous status for the 100,000-plus Albanians in Montenegro.
Autonomous status for the Albanians of Presheva and surrounding area just outside of Kosova (within Serbia proper).
Finally, by way of background, it must be noted here that at all times and by all parties on our side it was emphasized that the Albanians in their five constituent and contiguous domiciles in the Balkans are a divided nation and not a national minority in any of these political jurisdictions where they now and have always resided before being politically gerrymandered by the south Slays and their allies after World War I and before being humanly, civicly, economically, religiously and, again, politically repressed and oppressed by two vicious and collaborating Stalinist communist regimes in Serbia (Belgrade) and Albania (Tirana) after World War II!
MEETINGS ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25. 1992. Washington. D.C. Attendees at Meetings:
Guests of Honor: Demaci, Krasniqi, Gjokaj and Kastrati
AACL:DioGuardi and Gashi
Committee for Ded Gjon Luli: Dedvukaj, Vataj, Luigi and Anton Gjokaj
Photographer:Hazir Reka
Translator:Ms. Neriman Kamberi
Other Guests: Sali Mani and Gjek Gjonlekaj
Schedule of Meetings:
10:00 a.m.Voice of America
11:30 a.m.Senate Foreign Relations Committee Reception sponsored by Senators Pell and Pressler and Senator Simon
1:00 p.m.Luncheon with key staff of Congressional offices and Media — 16 people, besides the 14 listed above, as follows:
David Binder, New York Times
Helle Bering-Jensen, Deputy Editorial Page Editor,
Washington Times
Jerry Christianson, Pell Chief of Committee Staff
Dr. Robert King, Lantos Chief of Staff
Kay King, Swett Chief of Staff
Mira Baratta, Dole Legislative Director
Mike Converse, Nichols Legislative Director
John Calvelli, Engel Chief of Staff
Grover Norquist, Washington political activist
Tom Hohemleiter, Pressler Chief of Staff
Charles Kolb, White House, Balkan Advisor
Jamie Rubin, Biden Legislative Director
Other representatives from offices of D?Amato, Porter,
Molinari, Simon and Voice of America
3:00 p.m.House Foreign Affairs Committee reception sponsored by Congressmen Broomfield, Lantos and Gilman
- Demaci was presented with a framed Congressional Record statement made that day by Congressman LantOs
- David Binder and Helle Bering-Jensen were allowed to attend the meeting
4:30 p.m.Meeting in Senator Dole?s office (for over an hour) in which he allowed all the Guests of Honor to speak their mind for Kosova, and for Albanians in Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania.
It should be noted that key congressional staff attended all meetings an took copious notes for future congressional action. The statements, discussion, questions and answers at all meetings were substantive and, we believe, very useful.
MEETING WITH LARRY EAGLEBURGER. Friday, March 27(3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.)
The meeting started with the usual courtesies and introductions and can be characterized as cordial but firm in tone and very useful but less than satisfactory on Kosova in substance and agreement (which was not unexpected).
Eagleburger allowed Demaci, Krasniqi and me to make statements first. He listened attentively and took notes along with his executive assistant and the Yugoslav desk officer. Prior to the discussion following these statements, he presented us copies of the State Department?s recently published 1991 Yugoslavia Country Report citing pages of numerous human rights, etc., violations by Serbian authorities in Kosova. Taking this opportunity, I presented him with:
Press release on Adem Demaci
R ecent memorandum on the terrible conditions in Kosova, written by Isuf Berisha, President of the Association of Philosophers and Sociologists of Kosova.
Recent letter by me to Dr. Libal of the German Foreign Ministry outlining the reasons whey there is no alternative to an independent Albanian State or Republic of Kosova.
The memo of 1937 by Vaso Chubrilovic on the ?Expulsion (and extermination) of the Albanians.? (In handing it to Eagleburger, I made the comparison of this memo to Goering?s memo to Adolf Hitler on the ?Solution of the Jewish Question.? (Eagleburger is of the Jewish faith and I believe our message was not lost on him.)
On His Background and General Thinking:
- he says he spent seven years in Yugoslavia
- he says he predicted the breakup of Yugoslavia before the conflict in Croatia and Slovenia
- he still feels that Kosova has the greatest potential for real bloodshed
- he says he has and is trying hard to influence the Serbs to change their thinking on Kosova but feels the Serbs are ?outrageous? and admitted to us he doesn?t know how to deal with them (except through diplomatic and economic pressure which he describes later).
- he feels that Milosevic is ?playing with dynamite? and he told him so when they last met three years ago
On U.S. Policy:
- human rights violations in Kosova are the top concern as shown by their broad and specific coverage in the State Department Country Report for 1991 on Yugoslavia
- U.S. is not trying to put Yugoslavia back together
- U.S. will recognize new political entities only if arrived at through negotiations and only if human rights of all constituent nationalities in each Republic, etc., are represented.
Nevertheless, he feels the U.S. will recognize the former Republics soon.
On Kosova:
- since the U.S. will not put troops in former Yugoslavia, he feels the strongest lever the U.S. has is the question of recognition of the Serbian Republic as an independent state. The Serbs are very sensitive about this, particularly because of substantial financial implications to their economy which is now in ruin.
- he said he told the Serbian authorities recently that they should take nothing for granted in negotiations for recognition.
- on prodding from me about the lack of UN and EC monitors in Kosova, he felt strongly that CSCE (Helsinki) human rights monitors should be in Kosova and would look into that immediately
- he said the greatest challenge the U.S. faces is how to create the conditions in Kosova for Albanians to be free, secure and perhaps, even independent, without bloodshed..
On Albania:
- U.S. will now look to support Albania much more
- before November elections there will only be a ?continuing resolution? for foreign aid but he will try hard to steer money from other Eastern European countries to Albania
- after elections with Bush as President again, and with our Civic League?s lobbying efforts with the Senate and House foreign operations appropriations committees, the U.S. is prepared to do a lot for Albania.
- he noted that an economically strong and politically stable Albania could speed the process for Kosova?s independence.
On Macedonia:
- Eagleburger noted that what the Albanians are looking for in Macedonia (and Montenegro & Presheva) is what the Serbs are looking for in Croatia and therein may lie the solution for Albanians in Macedonia. (Eagleburger cited Chapter II of the EC Conference Draft Settlement engineered by Lord Carrington, which he felt must be applied equally in establishing any requested autonomy for the benefit of those concentrated nationalities such as the Albanians who are spread around the other Republics.)
- Eagleburger said he was assured by the President of Macedonia, Gligorev, and the Foreign Minister, Malevski, that they are aware of the needs of the Albanians in Macedonia. He felt that both Gligorev and Malevski were sincere about their willingness to treat the Albanians fairly within Macedonia.
- Eagleburger said that any hopes of U.S. recognition for Macedonia depended on their dealing with the minorities and other nationalities fairly.
- Eagleburger feels that the Macedonia issue must be dealt with before the Serbs try to get involved and assert themselves in that Republic once again.
- I explained to Eagleburger that I recently returned from my second trip to Macedonia and that the Albanians there are united together in their quest for political and territorial autonomy within the Republic of Macedonia.
CONCLUSION
While we didn?t hear everything we wanted to hear from Mr. Eagleburger, the above analysis of the lengthy discussion has many positive elements for Albanian leaders to ponder. This first meeting, in my view, was a major breakthrough for our lobby. It was clear from the discussion that he knows and respects the work of the Albanian American Civic League and he went out of his way to refer to conversations he has had with Senators Pell and Simon and Congressman Lantos about our work for Albanians.
I feel the door is now open for us to return to see him when the situation warrants. Our challenge now is for the Albanian leaders in Kosova and the other Republics to devise a strategy for implementing our national goals in Kosova, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Presheva.
Hopefully, we have learned an important lesson that it is only when we are organized, focused, and speak with one voice in Washington, that we can have any success on our complex national issues.
Joseph J. DioGuardi