Page 42 - AACL 25th anniversary

Anniversary Celebration of
Albanian American Civic League
an emergency meeting with Congressman Henry Hyde to explain why the violence that resulted in the death of 19, primarily Albanians, and the was neither orchestrated nor inherently about interethnic strife.
February The Civic League meets inside the
Cloyes DioGuardi Publishes “Jewish Survival in Albania & the Ethics of ‘Besa’”
2005
January 2006
On March 17, the Civic League officially launches the International Campaign for the Independence of Kosova Now at a meeting with Congressman Henry Hyde in Washington. An electronic petition drive, calling on President Bush to support the passage of H.Res. 28, begins on the Civic League website.
U.S. Capitol Building with Congressmen Lantos and Rohrabacher on the night of President Bush’s State of the Union Message to discuss AACL plans for 2005.
Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi publishes “Jewish Survival in Albania & the Ethics of ‘Besa’” in Congress Monthly, the magazine of the American Jewish Congress, about the unique role that Albanians played in rescuing Jews during the Holocaust. This is a groundbreaking contribution to the subject.
June 2004
Cloyes submits a statement for the Transnational Radical Party’s report to the 61st Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights about human rights violations against Albanians in the Presheva Valley, focusing on the January 7, 2005, murder of sixteen-year-old Dashnim Hajrullahu by a Serbian army border guard.
March 2006
The Civic League gives its fourth Balkan Peace Award to Congressman Dana Rohrabacher for his courageous efforts to change Bush administration policy in Kosova.
2005
Congressmen Hyde, Lantos, Rohrabacher, and Gilman Receive 1 Million Petitions in the US Capitol, Calling on President Bush to Recognize Kosova’s Independence
May On its fifteenth anniversary,
DioGuardi and Cloyes travel to Kosova to work with hundreds of volunteers conducting the petition drive in support of H.Res. 28. By September, more than a million signatures, including Kosova Serbs, Roma, Turk, Ashkali, and Bosniaks, are collected.
the Civic League Hosts a “Salute to Albanian Tolerance, Resistance, and Hope: Remembering Besa and the Holocaust”
Congressmen Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Tom Lantos, the Committee’s, Ranking Democrat, and Dana Rohrabacher, and former Congressman Ben Gilman hold a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol building with the Civic League Board of Directors to receive one million petitions signed by mainly Kosovar Albanians, calling on President Bush to recognize the independence of Kosova now. Chairman Hyde subsequently delivered the petitions to the White House.
July 2004
The Albanian American Civic League hosts a “Salute to Albanian Tolerance, Resistance, and Hope: Remembering
Cloyes submits testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on “U.S. Foreign Policy towards Southeast Europe:
th
Besa and the Holocaust” on the occasion of the 60 anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps and in honor of the Albanians who saved every Jew who resided in or managed to escape to Albanian lands during World War II. Congressman Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, gives the keynote address. Fine art photographer Norman Gershman, who photographed the Albanians and their descendants who saved Jews from the Holocaust, Harvey Sarner, author of Rescue in Albania, and Michael Fishman, President of Local 32BJ of Services Employees International, which includes 5,000 Albanian members, are honored guests.
2004 Unfinished Business in the Balkans.”
May 2006
Cloyes publishes an article entitled “The Serbian Lobby Attempts to Hijack U.S. Foreign Policy on Kosova,” exposing the connection between the Serbian lobby in Washington (the
October
Congressmen Hyde and Lantos hold a second House International Relations Committee hearing on Kosova’s final status.
The Besa Project Begins
Congressman Henry Hyde holds a House International Relations Committee hearing on the independence of Kosova. Bishop Sopi, Fr. Lush Gjergji, the Hon. Ardian Gjini, and Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi testify.
The Civic League gives its fifth annual Balkan Peace Award to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a senior member of the House International Relations Committee.
Congressman Tom Lantos
Urges PM Djukanovic to Reinstate Tuzi’s Commune Status
The Civic League travels with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher to Albania, Montenegro, and Kosova. Rohrabacher meets with President George Bush and the head of the
Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija); lobbyist for Serbia, James Jatras of the Venable law firm; Venable’s creation of an “American Council for Kosovo”; and a spate of articles and ads in the U.S. press designed to undermine U.S. government support for Kosova’s independence by miscasting Albanians as a potentially terrorist Muslim force in the heart of Europe.
DioGuardi and Cloyes travel to Aspen, Colorado, for a preview of Norman Gershman’s photographic exhibit of Albanians who saved Jews during the Nazi Holocaust.
July 2005
June 2006
2004
Senators Schumer and McCain Introduce S. Res. 521, Recognizing Albanians for Their Rescue of Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust
November DioGuardi and Cloyes Travel
to The Hague for the Opening of the Trial of Fatmir Limaj, Isak Musliu, and Haradin Bala
At the urging of the Civic League, Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and John McCain (R-AZ) introduce a Congressional resolution (S.Res. 521) recognizing Albanians for their tolerance and heroism in saving Jews during the Nazi Holocaust.
DioGuardi and Cloyes travel to the opening of the trial of Fatmir Limaj, Isak Musliu, and Haradin Bala at the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague as part of a Civic League-sponsored public relations campaign to oppose the establishment of a false parity between the perpetrators of Serbia’s genocidal war against Kosovar Albanians and the Kosova Liberation Army, the people’s defenders.
Congressman Tom Lantos sends a strong and comprehensive letter to Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, urging him not to pass the Capital City Bill and to reinstate Tuzi’s status as a commune.
Cloyes and DioGuardi travel to Kosova to warn the government that, as Kosova moves closer and closer to becoming an independent state, the Serbian lobby in Washington is intensifying its effort to derail Kosova’s independence, and to call for diplomatic action.
January 2005
Congressmen Lantos and
Hyde Introduce a Revised Resolution in Support of Kosova’s Independence Now at
July 2005
September 2006
The Civic League gives its sixth annual Balkan Peace Award to Senators Charles Schumer and John McCain in recognition of their co-sponsorship of S.Res. 521 and
the Start of the 109
th
Congress
Congressmen Lantos and Hyde introduce a revised and updated version of H.Res. 28 (now H.Res. 24) in support of Kosova’s independence now. New provisions include the call to end the de facto partition of Mitrovice and to facilitate the return of Albanians to their pre-war homes in northern Kosova and the Serbs to theirs in the south.
National Security Council to explain why the U.S. government should recognize Kosova’s independence and support the new government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha in Albania.
for their historical support of Kosova’s independence. Albanian Deputy Foreign Minister Edith Harxhi and American Jewish Congress Executive Director Neil Goldstein attend the ceremony in the U.S. Capitol.
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Saluting Albanian Religious Tolerance in an Age of Intolerance