Page 39 - AACL 25th anniversary

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1999
1999
2000
April Congressman Traficant
August DioGuardi and Cloyes
September DioGuardi and Cloyes Meet
Calls Congress to Support Independence
and Indict Milosevic
Travel to a Free Kosova and Report to Congress
the Albanian Refugee Communities in Italy
Traficant introduces the Kosovar Independence and Justice Act (H. Con. Res. 1425), calling for the arming of the KLA, the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic as a war criminal, and the independence of Kosova.
DioGuardi, Cloyes, and members of the Civic League Board meet with Albanian leader Arben Xhaferi in Macedonia and make their first trip to Kosova after the NATO bombing campaign to report back to Congress on postwar conditions.
DioGuardi and Cloyes are invited by the Albanian communities in Rome, Ancona, Florence, Treviso, and Trieste that have fled the Serbian military in Kosova and economic deprivation and political persecution in Albania. The purpose of the trip is to organize a collective response to anti-Albanian racism and to strengthen the international impact of the Albanian American Civic League. From there they travel to Kosova to work with the Alliance for the Future of Kosova in preparation for the municipal elections.
The Civic League Brings Ramush Haradinaj to New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC
As the starvation, torture, mass expulsion, and murder of Kosovar Albanians continues, the Civic League holds a rally in Washington, DC, with Senator Joseph Lieberman and Congressmen Ben Gilman, Jim Traficant, Stenny Hoyer, and Tom Lantos, calling on the U.S. government to arm the KLA, to grant Kosova independence, and to indict Milosevic as a war criminal.
October 1999
November 1999
DioGuardi and Cloyes are invited by Roman Catholic Bishop Mark Sopi to attend an outdoor mass in Bizhtashin to commemorate all the Kosovars who sacrificed their lives for freedom. The first mass in free Kosova, it is attended by more than 5,000 people. They then travel to Prishtina to meet with UNMIK economic development adviser Joly Dixon and to Junik, Babaj Bokes, Peja, and Gjakova to meet with residents and local officials.
An official Civic League delegation of eighteen Civic League members, led by DioGuardi and Cloyes, meets with Arben Xhaferi in Tetova, celebrates Flag Day in Prizren and Peja at the invitation of Major General Ramush Haradinaj, and meets with Kosovar public figures and professionals in Prizren, Prishtina, and Gjakova.
Civic League Holds Rally in Manhattan with Senator John McCain to Demand the Release of Kosovar Albanian POWs in Serbian Jails
April to July 1999
DioGuardi and Cloyes visit Jewish community leaders, conduct rallies, and do press interviews for Kosova in Dallas, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee,
Ramush Haradinaj addresses the Albanian American community for the first time in a 400-person meeting in Yonkers, New York, and at the Albanian American Islamic Center in suburban Chicago, and then meets with members of the House, Senate, and State Department in Washington.
1999 Miami,andAtlanticCity. May DioGuardi and Cloyes
2000
November DioGuardi and Cloyes
Address Council of Muslim Communities’
Celebrate Flag Day in Australia and New Zealand
Benefit for Kosova in Canada
2000
DioGuardi and Cloyes are invited by the Albanian communities in Melbourne and Auckland to celebrate Flag Day and to lobby government officials in Canberra and Wellington to recognize Kosova’s right to independence under international law.
DioGuardi and Cloyes travel to Vancouver, British Columbia, to meet with the Albanian community and to address a multiethnic, multireligious dinner for the benefit of the work of Doctors without Borders in Kosova sponsored by the Council of Muslim Communities in Canada.
February
2001
Milosevic Is Indicted by the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia
DioGuardi and Cloyes travel to the Arberesh communities in Italy with National Geographic as advisers in preparation for a major 35-page article on the Albanian nation (“Albanians: A People Undone”), which is published in the February 2000 edition.
The Civic League holds a rally in midtown Manhattan calling for the release of Kosovar Albanian prisoners of war in Serbian jails. The rally is timed to coincide with Senator John McCain’s visit to New York for his presidential campaign. He addresses the rally and then members of the Civic League Board attend his fundraising reception and luncheon inside the Hyatt Regency. Cloyes turns over a list of the prisoners to his staff at the reception, and McCain, a former POW, agrees to write the first of several letters to President Clinton and, later, the Bush administration appealing for their release.
the Bush Inauguration
On May 24, 1999, Slobodan Milosevic is indicted, along with four of his military and security officials (Milan Milutinovic, Nikola Sainovic, Dragolub Ojdanic, and Vlajko Stojiljkovic) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosova. The indictment is accompanied by an international arrest warrant.
AAK President Ramush Haradinaj, former Albanian President Sali Berisha, and fifty members of the Civic League travel to Washington for the inauguration of President George W. Bush and for meetings with the State Department and members of the House and Senate.
June 1999
April AACL Convinces the House
2000
March 2001
DioGuardi and Cloyes Visit Macedonia, Kosova, and the Presheva Valley to Assess Conditions for the House International Relations Committee
January The Civic League Attends
Committee on International Relations to Hold a Hearing on How to Win the Peace in Postwar Kosova
The Civic League brings Ramush Haradinaj, Muhamet Mustafa, Bajram Rexhepi, Esad Stavileci, and Shyqyri Kelmendi to the House Committee on International Relations to present the political and economic obstacles to the reconstruction of Kosova, including the need to block access to all but humanitarian aid to Serbia until Slobodan Milosevic is indicted and the Albanian prisoners of war, illegally transported to Serbia at war’s end in violation of the Geneva Conventions, are freed.
Cloyes and DioGuardi meet with Albanian leaders, President Boris Trajkovski, and Prime Minister Lubjco Georgievski to push for Albanian rights in Macedonia on the eve of the National Liberation Army uprising in Tanusha. Cloyes implores Trajkovski not to take military action, but to solve the conflict diplomatically. They then travel to Gjilane, where they meet with Presheve Mayor Riza Halimi and then cross the border into southern Serbia to meet with Shefqet Musliu,
88 Saluting Albanian Religious Tolerance in an Age of Intolerance 39