Page 36 - AACL 25th anniversary

July Senator Dole Greets 10,000
1993
March 1994
Anniversary Celebration of
1991
Albanian American Civic League
Albanian Demonstrators in Washington and Goes to Kosova
April DioGuardi Attends Historic
DioGuardi Goes to Turkey to Win Support for Kosova
The Civic League sponsors a massive rally in Washington in front of the White House and the U.S. Capitol. More than 10,000 Albanian Americans march from the White House to Capitol Hill to demonstrate for Kosova’s freedom. Senators Bob Dole, Claiborne Pell, Larry Pressler, and Al D’Amato and Congressmen Gilman, Lantos, Porter, and Broomfield address the crowd.
Investiture of Albanian Archbishops in Shkodra
1991
Sali Berisha officially invites DioGuardi and a Civic League delegation to join him, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, and Cardinal John O’Conner in Shkodra at the historic investiture of four Albanian archbishops in the newly renovated cathedral.
DioGuardi addresses a Balkan peace conference in Istanbul, sponsored by the Balkan Solidarity Foundation, and publicly condemns Milosevic, Tudjman, Gligorov, the Greek government, Lords Owen and Carrington, and the U.S. State Department for their roles in suppressing the Albanian people of Kosova.
October The Civic League Stops
1993
U.S. Aid to Serbia
September DioGuardi Leads
The Civic League Helps Create the U.S.-Albanian Underwater Archaeological Project
The Civic League lobbies for and passes economic sanctions banning aid to Serbia under the Nickles-D’Amato Amendment to the Foreign Aid Bill.
Congressional Delegation to Albania and Macedonia
The Civic League brings a delegation of archaeologists to Tirana to organize a U.S.-Albanian cooperative underwater exploration off the Albanian coast for the purpose of establishing the true identity of the Albanian people as direct descendants of the Illyrians—the only indigenous people of the Balkans.
1992
DioGuardi leads a Congressional delegation to Albania and Macedonia to make the case (in Congress) for U.S. sponsorship of NATO membership for Albania and to press the Macedonian government to conduct an internationally- sponsored census as the first step to securing human rights and equality for the country’s one million Albanians.
January The Civic League Gets
Lantos to Introduce a Resolution for the Independence of Kosova
1994
The Civic League introduces a well-documented Congressional Resolution (H.Con.Res. 264) cosponsored by Congressmen Lantos and Gilman calling for the recognition of the independence of Kosova.
October Shirley Cloyes Joins the
Conducts First Rally Calling for U.S. Troops
March Demaci Comes to
The first rally calling for U.S. troops in Kosova is led by DioGuardi in front of the United Nations in New York City.
Washington
Joe DioGuardi meets Shirley Cloyes, then publisher of Lawrence Hill Books, who is working on a book entitled Yugoslavia’s Ethnic Nightmare, the first to bring the perspective of the anti-Milosevic, anti-war opposition inside the former Yugoslavia to U.S. readers.
May 1994
Cloyes Suggests the First Hearing on the Albanian Dimension of the Balkan Conflict
1993
April The Civic League
1992
Albanian American Civic League
The Civic League brings Adem Demaci, after 28 years in Serbian jails, to Washington to discuss the crisis in Kosova with Secretary of State Larry Eagleburger and to New York to meet with Mayor David Dinkins at Gracie Mansion, where he is honored as the Nelson Mandela of the Albanian people.
1993
Congressman Gilman Introduces a Resolution Asking Clinton to
November The Civic League Attends
Protect the Rights of the Kosovars
The Civic League Monitors Elections in Albania and Macedonia
the First International Conference for Investment in Albania
Congressman Ben Gilman introduces a resolution (H.Con.Res. 251) calling on President Clinton to report to the Congress within 60 days about the conditions in Kosova and to make recommendations for protecting the rights of Kosovars, including the possibility of establishing an international protectorate for Kosova together with other members of the UN Security Council and the European Union.
DioGuardi leads a Civic League delegation to Albania to monitor the second elections, bringing more than 50 Albanians from Macedonia in cars stocked with gas and food to help the democratic forces overcome the advantages of the Communists in the rural areas.
DioGuardi leads a Civic League delegation to the First International Conference for Investment in Albania. His speech emphasizes that the real potential of Albania is not only in its vast mineral resources, but in its diaspora of millions of successful Albanians around the world.
February 1995
DioGuardi brings Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, and John Fund of The Wall Street Journal to Macedonia to monitor the referendum on political and cultural autonomy for the one million Albanians in Macedonia.
1994
Joe DioGuardi and soon to be the Civic League’s Balkan Affairs Adviser Shirley Cloyes bring Kosova President Ibrahim Rugova and Prime Minister-in-exile Bujar Bukoshi to Washington, DC, to meet President Bill Clinton at a private reception before the annual Prayer Breakfast, to hold a press conference on Capitol Hill about Kosova’s occupation by Milosevic, and to participate in a special tour and reception at the newly opened U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
February The Civic League
1993
Introduces President Clinton to Rugova
February The Civic League Brings
DioGuardi and Cloyes create the first Congressional hearing on the Albanian dimension of the Balkan conflict, including Arben Xhaferi, Fadil Sulejmani, Iliaz Halmi, and Ismet Ramadani from Macedonia, Bujar Bukoshi from Kosova, Gjerg Gjokaj from Montenegro, and Riza Halimi from Presheva.
Arbnori to the Prayer Breakfast
The Civic League brings Pjeter Arbnori, speaker of the Albanian Parliament, to meet with Congressmen Gilman and Lantos and to attend the annual Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, as a special guest representing Albania.
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Saluting Albanian Religious Tolerance in an Age of Intolerance