Source: http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/projects/albania/reports/footnotes/alb07n.htm#title
Accessed 07 June 2000
International Crisis Group

Footnotes to:
Albania State of the Nation
International Crisis Group
 

  1. ICG interview, Tirana, May 1999.

  2. For convenience and familiarity to an international readership the English terminology, Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is used throughout the report. The Albanian terminology, is Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës (UÇK).
  3. Several refugees fell victim to Albanian criminals. For example, at the end of August, three Kosovo Albanians, returning to Kosovo from Switzerland were found murdered and robbed inside a bullet-ridden car near the northern town of Kukes. See also 'Desperate Kosovo refugees are preyed on by smugglers - and worse', International Herald Tribune, 25 May 1999. In contrast to this, the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania was particularly anxious to offer assistance to the Kosovo Albanian refugees, in order to dispel any notion that the Church might be more sympathetic to fellow Orthodox Serbs than to the predominantly Muslim Kosovo Albanians. During the war in Kosovo, there were several organised attacks upon Orthodox buildings in Albania, which appeared to be aimed at destabilising relations between different religious communities. Three Orthodox churches - the Church of the Assumption, near the village of Delvina, the Church of Christ's Resurrection just outside the town of Saranda, and the Church of St. Geogios in the village of Metohi, also near Saranda - were set on fire by unidentified arsonists. All the churches were in the south of the country in the area inhabited by Albania's Greek Orthodox minority. Despite this, the Albanian Orthodox community, numbering some 20 per cent of the population, gave an enthusiastic reception to the refugees. The Church itself responded by establishing a social, development and relief office, which together with ACT (Action by Churches Together) Network implemented a large-scale emergency relief program.
  4. Reuters, Tirana, 16 September 1999.
  5. A report from the Ministry of Labour states that the level of unemployment throughout the rest of the country increased during 1999 due to the privatisation of many state-owned enterprises and the migration of people from rural to urban areas. 240,000 people are now registered as unemployed.
  6. Albanian Economic Tribune, 23 July 1999.
  7. See 'Kosovar Refugees in Albania Poll', British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, September 1999.
  8. See 'Kosovar Refugees in Albania Poll', British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, September 1999.
  9. Albania Daily News, 2 December 1999.
  10. UPI, 14 October 1999.
  11. UPI, 14 October 1999.
  12. CNN, 16 July 1999.
  13. The New York Times, 17 July 1999.
  14. ICG interviews, 17 November 1999.
  15. For a particularly alarmist view of the dangers of a 'Greater Albania' see, Greater Albania: Concepts and Possible Studies, Belgrade, 1998.
  16. The forms of town names in Kosovo most familiar to an international readership are used throughout the report. For a list of Serbian and Albanian names of these towns, see Appendix.
  17. For a detailed account of the formation of the Albanian state see Miranda Vickers, The Albanians: A Modern History. London and New York, 1999.
  18. ICG interview with Fatos Nano, Tirana, 28 December 1999.
  19. Press statement, Prime Minister's Office, 23 August 1999.
  20. Goranis are Muslims who speak a language akin to Macedonian and live in a collection of 20 villages, eight of which are in eastern Albania, three in Macedonia, whilst the rest are in Kosovo's south-western tip.
  21. Koha Jone, 1 December 1999.
  22. This was the first time that Berisha had received Thaci, and was an implicit acceptance of Thaci's role during the Kosovo conflict, as well as his continuing importance in contemporary Kosovo Albanian politics. In a conciliatory gesture, Berisha has invited Thaci to co-operate with his Democratic Party. Both Nano and Arben Xaferi, in their meeting in Skopje last December, agreed to give their support to Thaci's party in the forthcoming local and general elections.
  23. UPI, 12 January 1999.
  24. The Albanian Language University in the western Macedonian town of Tetova, which opened in 1995, is not officially recognised by the Skopje authorities because legally all higher education in the country must be taught in the Macedonian language.
  25. ICG interview, Podgorica, September 1998.
  26. In 1941 the Cham Leader Daout Hoxha was murdered, allegedly by Greek police and his head displayed around various border villages.
  27. For an account of the Chami during World War II, see Nigel Clive, A Greek Experience: 1943 - 1945, London, 1985.
  28. Albania Daily News, 28 December 1999.
  29. Albania Daily News, 28 December 1999.
  30. Albania Daily News, 28 December 1999.
  31. ICG interviews, Tirana, December 1999.
  32. Albania Daily News, 18 January 1999.
  33. Azem Hajdari was shot dead by unknown gunmen whilst he was leaving the Democratic Party headquarters on 12 September, 1998. His funeral two days later turned into an attempted coup d'etat when DP supporters stormed government building and temporarily occupied the Prime Minister's office and the State Television centre.
  34. Koha Jone, 14 December 1999.
  35. Albania Daily News, 18 December 1999.
  36. Thirty-year-old Illir Meta has a bachelor's degree in economics. In 1996 he became Secretary for Foreign Relations, and was three times elected to Parliament - 1992, 1996 and 1997 - representing his birthplace, the mountainous district of Skpar, some 120 miles South of Tirana. In October 1998, Meta was appointed the Deputy Prime Minster of Majko's government after Nano's resignation, and was the governmental manager of the 1999 Kosovo crisis.
  37. Shekuli, 4 November 1999.
  38. Eastern Europe, Vol. 12, No. 21, 5 January 2000.
  39. Albania Daily News, 13 November 1999.
  40. ICG discussions with Fatos Nano during 1997, 1998 and at the National Day reception, Tirana, 28 November 1999.
  41. Shekulli, 22 December 1999.
  42. Shekulli, 22 December 1999.
  43. Remzi Lani, Albania: Nine Years After, Albania Media Centre, Tirana, December 1999.
  44. UPI, 18 December 1999.
  45. KLAN Independent Television Network, Tirana, 18 December 1999.
  46. Albania, 10 September 1999.
  47. Albania Daily News, 14 September 1999.
  48. ICG interview with various law enforcement personnel, who wish to remain anonymous. Tirana, December 1999.
  49. Zeri-iPopullit, 3 November 1999.
  50. Koha Jone, 5 December 1999.
  51. Albania Daily News, 18 January 1999.
  52. Albania Daily News, 3 December 1999.
  53. ICG interview with Albanian officials who wished to remain anonymous. Tirana, November 1999.
  54. Albania Daily News, 12 January 1999.
  55. Zeri-I Popullit, 12 November 1999.
  56. Statistics published by the Ministry of Public Order. Tirana, September 1999.
  57. Koha Jone, 12 September 1999.
  58. ICG interview with Leo Dobbs. Peshkopi, September 1999.
  59. Reuters, 15 November 1999.
  60. Reuters, 15 November 1999.
  61. Report by the Independent Social Centre Eureka. Tirana, November 1999.
  62. Reuters, 17 December 1999.
  63. ICG interviews with Albanians in various northern and southern towns. November and December 1999.
  64. On 30 January 2000 the Serbian Renewal Movement warned against the threat of a 'Greater Albania', claiming that the recent visit to Sofia by Kosovo Albanian Leader, Hashim Thaci and Macedonian Albanian leader, Arben Xaferi - who reiterated demands for Kosovo's independence, "clearly indicated that the monstrous idea of creating a Greater Albania was a major threat to the region." Agence France Press, 30 January 2000.
  65. The road known as corridor 8 is foreseen as a land link from the Adriatic to the Black Sea via the main Albanian port of Durres, to Varna in Bulgaria via the Macedonian capital of Skopje.
  66. Witness the recent sacking of the Privatisation Minister Zef Preci.
Document compiled by Dr S D Stein
Last update 07/06/2000
Stuart.Stein@uwe.ac.uk
©S D Stein

ESS Home Page
Kosovo Index Page
Holocaust Index Page
Genocide Index Page