Page 35 - AACL 25th anniversary

February - October 1989
1990
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January 1991
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February The Serbian Secret Police
DioGuardi and Lantos Form the Interparliamentary Group for Kosova in Luxembourg
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With more time to devote to Albanian issues, DioGuardi and three of his former key staff, now paid by the AACL, intensify Congressional pressure against the pro-Serb State Department policy and by engaging in mass demonstrations, sending out press releases, and causing Congressional statements to be issued by our friends in Congress.
(UDBA) Under Milosevic’s Control Kill Enver Hadri
1989
Kosovar activist Enver Hadri is assassinated in Brussels, and DioGuardi is invited to give a eulogy at his funeral before thousands of mourners. Afterwards, he travels to Geneva at the request of Hadri’s widow and son to deliver to the United Nations Human Rights Commission the list of 34 peaceful Albanian demonstrators killed by Serbian authorities that was found on Hadri’s body at the time of his death.
DioGuardi brings Iljaz Ramali, speaker of the exiled Kosova Assembly, to Luxembourg to meet with Congressman Tom Lantos and Lord Nicholas Bethel of the British and European Parliaments. They sign a joint declaration proclaiming an “Interparliamentary Group for Kosova’s Protection,” as a strategy to further expose Milosevic’s occupation of Kosova.
June The First Major Rally in
April 1990
1991
Washington Is Held
Kosova Comes to Washington for the First Time
February DioGuardi Calls Milosevic
The first Washington rally is held to free Kosova from Serbian occupation and to free Albanian dissident Adem Demaci from prison.
the “New Hitler” in the U.S. Senate
1989
The Civic League sponsors a delegation of ten Albanian leaders from Kosova to testify against Milosevic’s occupation of Kosova at an historic Congressional Human Rights Caucus Hearing for Kosova in Washington and to be honored at an historic dinner at the Sheraton Hotel in New York City, attended by 2,700 Albanian Americans, to “Salute Freedom and and Democracy for Kosova.”
July Congress Passes First
DioGuardi testifies before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cochaired by Senators Joe Biden and Claiborne Pell, and makes the first public case for the independence of Kosova under international law. In the process, he compares Milosevic to Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein and issues a press release calling Milosevic the “Saddam of Serbia.”
Albanian Rights Resolution
May 1990
The June rally sparks the passage of Civic League- sponsored House (H.Con.Res. 314) and Senate (S.Con.Res 124) resolutions condemning Serbia for human rights abuses in Kosova. This leads to the immediate removal of the Serbian ambassador to the United States by Slobodan Milosevic.
DioGuardi Brings Lantos to Kosova to Expose Milosevic’s Modern Day “Warsaw Ghetto”
1991
March DioGuardi Goes to Albania
1989
with the National Republican Institute
November DioGuardi Takes First Trip
Congressman Tom Lantos and Joe DioGuardi lead a delegation to Kosova to challenge the brutal Serbian occupation of Kosova. They blast Milosevic as a modern day tyrant bent on policies that will destroy any democracy in Yugoslavia.
to Belgrade and Prishtina to Confront Milosevic
The Civic League goes to Albania with the National Republican Institute to monitor the first election in Albania and is the first organization to declare the Communist Party victory illegal and the elections a sham.
DioGuardi goes to Belgrade’s International Press Center and Milosevic’s office with a letter signed by Senator Bob Dole and twelve other U.S. Senators to free Kosova. He then makes his first trip to Kosova to witness firsthand the brutal Serbian occupation and is evicted from the Grand Hotel in Prishtina for conducting a press conference there.
Congressman Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, and Joe DioGuardi are the first U.S. officials to enter Albania in 50 years. Dictator Ramiz Alia gives them never-before-seen archives containing letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other records of the unpublicized deeds of Albanians who rescued Jews during World War II.
1991
1990
July 1990
Invitation from Croatia’s President Tudjman
January DioGuardi and Rugova
DioGuardi Banned by Milosevic
DioGuardi is officially banned from returning to Yugoslavia by the Milosevic controlled parliament in Belgrade for his press conferences in Belgrade and Kosova as “hostile acts against the State.”
DioGuardi declines an invitation to visit Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, after Tudjman publicly states that he considers Kosova to be an internal problem of Serbia.
May DioGuardi Declines
Support Democracy in Slovenia
1991
DioGuardi joins Ibrahim Rugova, head of Kosova’s democratic movement, in Ljubljana to meet with the Albanian community to promote freedom for Kosova and to support the first democratic elections in Slovenia.
June The Albanian Lobby Takes
1990
DioGuardi Leads a Delegation to Australia
Its Case to the Helsinki Commission
February DioGuardi Brings the
DioGuardi leads a delegation to Melbourne and Canberra, Australia, to enlist the help of the large Albanian community there and then Foreign Minister Gareth Evans in freeing Kosova from Serbian occupation.
DioGuardi goes to Copenhagen, Denmark, to meet the Albanian community and attend a Helsinki Commission Conference. He addresses a massive Albanian rally just outside the conference hall and conducts a press conference about human rights abuses in Kosova, showing for the first time enlarged photographs of Albanians brutally tortured and killed by the Serbian police at the direction of Slobodan Milosevic.
Congressional Human Rights Caucus to Belgrade and Prishtina
1990
DioGuardi goes to Belgrade with the staff of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, chaired by Congressmen Lantos and Porter, to conduct a press conference in Belgrade about Serbian oppression of Kosova’s Albanians. He then makes an unannounced visit to Kosova to meet leading intellectuals, journalists, and activists, including Dr. Zekeria Cana, Zenun Celaj, Bajram Kelmendi, Ibrahim Rugova, Rexhep Qosja, and Vetton Surroi.
August Six US Senators visit
Prishtina
At the request of the Civic League, Bob Dole and six other U.S. Senators visit Prishtina to see firsthand the brutality of Milosevic.
88 Saluting Albanian Religious Tolerance in an Age of Intolerance 35