Albania, 1999

Let me begin,

Sir, by congratulating you on your election to the

presidency of the General Assembly, and to voice my full

confidence that the work of this session, under your

leadership, will be crowned with success. I wish also to

express my great appreciation of the way in which your

predecessor, Mr. Didier Opertti, guided the work of the

fifty-third session.

I take this opportunity also to welcome the Republic

of Kiribati, the Republic of Nauru and the Kingdom of

Tonga to the great United Nations family, and to convey to

them our best wishes for the future.

I am pleased to say that this year has been marked

by genuinely positive developments for Albania in the

political, social and economic spheres. Albania has made

progress in strengthening its democratic institutions and

its civil society, in achieving respect for human rights and

freedoms, and in enhancing public order and the rule of

law.

As a new democracy, Albania is tireless in its efforts

to strengthen and consolidate its institutional structures.

There has been tangible progress in bringing about the

independence of the legislative, executive and judicial

branches. At the same time, efforts to coordinate them are

moving forward without in any way affecting their

separate identities.

The Albanian State and Government have given

priority to economic development by promoting free

initiative in the privatization process, principally in

strategically important sectors. We have also made a

continuous effort to formulate and implement modern

legislation that can encourage and support domestic

investment and can channel foreign investment into

especially profitable vital sectors of our economy.

We have every reason to appreciate the beneficial

cooperation between Albania and the World Bank, which

has resulted in the implementation of projects of great

importance to the Albanian economy, and also in their

effective management. We are grateful too for the support

of the International Monetary Fund, whose activities have

made a great contribution to revitalizing my country's finances.

We are well aware that no State can have a healthy

economy or a solid democracy without secure public order,

the rule of law and a strong civil society. Among the

thorniest problems now facing Albanian society and

especially the Albanian State are neutralizing both common

and organized crime and putting an end to corruption in

certain sectors. Great efforts and substantial resources have

been deployed in this area to increase the effectiveness of

the police and other administrative structures engaged in

crime-fighting. I take this opportunity to express my great

appreciation for the assistance provided by the

Multinational Advisory Police Element of the Western

European Union and by a number of individual States, in

particular for the restructuring and training of the Albanian

police and for the provision of logistical equipment.

At the same time, I would like to say that the

Government of Albania, and I myself, attach great

importance to the direct commitment of the United Nations

to the process of disarming the civilian population. I would

like to take this occasion to congratulate Mr. Dhanapala on

his last visit to Albania.

Considering corruption to be an extreme evil and a

serious obstacle to the development of a healthy democracy,

the Albanian Parliament and Government have adopted

tough legislative and administrative measures to deal with

it, establishing specific structures to better uncover and

punish abuse of power in certain corrupt sectors of the

administration and the judiciary.

During previous sessions, Albania has stated — and

we still hold — that the main objective of our strategy is

integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures and into other

global and regional organizations. Our clear objective is to

join the European Union, which we do not doubt for a

moment can be achieved, so the Albanian Government

considers as a fundamental priority raising the level of its

relations with the European Union. I am glad to say that

there has been a qualitative improvement in those relations.

Cooperation has been intensified in various fields, which

bodes well for the signing of an association agreement

fairly soon.

There have also been positive developments in our

rapprochement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO), following the modernization of the Albanian

army, and above all thanks to the unreserved help provided

to the NATO forces during the Kosovo conflict.

I am also happy to note that my country's efforts over

many years to become a member of the World Trade

Organization seem to be about to be crowned with

success.

The work of the current session is taking place while

Kosovo and the entire region are making efforts to heal

the wounds inflicted by the Milosevic regime. The

concerns expressed by the Albanian delegation at the

fifty-third session with regard to the policy of “ethnic

cleansing”, which went as far as genocide, perpetrated by

the Belgrade regime against the Albanian population of

Kosovo, proved well-founded. In the framework of this

chauvinistic policy, the most barbarous crimes were

committed: tens of thousands of Albanians were

massacred, thousands of houses were destroyed or set on

fire, and more than half the population were expelled

from their land and had to go to neighbouring countries,

particularly Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro.

Thousands of other people went into the mountains and

lived in unimaginable conditions in order to escape

certain death. The massacres at Raçak, Peja, Rahovec and

Malishevo, the daily discovery of mass graves containing

children, women, young people and old men and women,

killed by the Serb army, militias and policemen, will

continue to testify to a genocide without precedent on the

threshold of the new millennium.

It is with horror that I condemn the execution of

dozens of eminent Kosovar intellectuals and the

imprisonment of hundreds of others.

The Milosevic regime ignored the warnings of the

international community and its call for an acceptable

resolution of the Kosovo crisis. It arrogantly rejected the

proposals formulated in the Rambouillet agreement by the

Contact Group and increased the repression of the

Albanians in Kosovo, thus endangering peace and security

in the Balkans. In these circumstances, the NATO

countries, legitimately defending the sacred principles of

the United Nations Charter, had to intervene militarily in

order to force Belgrade to withdraw its armed forces from

Kosovo.

We congratulate the international community on

having shown on this occasion unlike the similar situation

in Bosnia, a firm will to condemn the crimes perpetuated

against a defenceless population, take effective measures

to put an end to those crimes and establish peace in the

troubled region of the Balkans.

The whole Albanian nation has expressed its

profound gratitude to NATO, the United States of

America, the United Nations, the Organization for

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Security and Cooperation in Europe, and all the

international forces which contributed to ending the

humanitarian disaster in Kosovo and re-establishing peace

there. In particular, I pay tribute to the action and the

personal commitment of Mr. Kofi Annan, the Secretary-

General of the United Nations, in the settlement of this

conflict and the ending of the humanitarian crisis.

I also pay special tribute to the International Criminal

Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for its commitment to

public exposure of the crimes against the Albanian people

of Kosovo and for becoming an interpreter for the whole

Albanian nation in their just request that all those

responsible for crimes against the innocent population be

put in the dock. I call on all countries, especially those in

our region, to cooperate with the Tribunal, as recommended

in Security Council resolutions.

The Albanian State has done everything to ensure that

the conflict in Kosovo is resolved as soon as possible and

peace is re-established in the Balkans. Engaging in intense

political activity, we have striven to ensure that the political

forces in Kosovo adopt a common attitude and accept the

Rambouillet peace plan. The Albanian State, while

committing itself firmly to defending its territorial integrity

and sovereignty, has refused to respond to provocations by

Serb forces at the border. Albania has not fallen for

Milosevic's manoeuvres designed to extend the conflict in

the region.

Despite our great economic and financial difficulties,

Albania has borne the burden of the humanitarian crisis of

the refugees from Kosovo. Half a million Kosovars

deported from their homes have found shelter among their

brothers in Albania. Albanian families opened their doors

to their blood brothers, thereby earning widespread respect

for their generosity. As I recall this period, I would like to

express our deep gratitude for he invaluable assistance

given us by States and international organizations, both

governmental and non-governmental, especially those

working within the United Nations framework. The United

Nations, implementing Security Council resolution 1244

(1999), is today, in the aftermath of the Kosovo crisis,

playing a decisive role. The new civil administration,

composed of representatives of the entire population of

Kosovo, is almost in place, with the help in particular of

the United Nations, the European Union and the OSCE; it

is working feverishly in the edification, democratization and

strengthening of a multi-ethnic civil society, with respect

for human rights and a framework of institutions imbued by

that respect.

KFOR is carrying out the difficult task of preserving

stability and the fragile peace in the Kosovo region. I take

this opportunity to thank the Special Representative of the

Secretary-General, Mr. Bernard Kouchner, for his efforts

to attain the established objectives. I am confident that the

United Nations and the organizations supporting it will

continue their action so as to eliminate all negative factors

that might compromise a secure and complete peace and

the future of the Kosovo region. We support the efforts of

all the international and Kosovar political forces to ensure

peaceful coexistence between Albanians and the ethnic

minorities in Kosovo. We express our wish and

conviction that these efforts, based on Security Council

resolution 1244 (1999), will be crowned with success.

The end of the conflict in the Kosovo region and the

concern of the international community to transform the

Balkans from the powder keg it has been into a region of

peace and stability have given the countries in our region

a historic opportunity to achieve development, prosperity

and democratization. We have resolved not to miss that

opportunity. First and foremost, our societies must

abandon their archaic chauvinistic mindset, which has

been the sources of division and hatred and which should

no longer outweigh the desire for unity, friendship and

cooperation among peoples.

We must struggle towards and succeed in

quarantining all policies that encourage hatred and ethnic

divisions, because such anachronistic policies have been

the source of human catastrophes and remain one of the

main causes of the destabilization of our region and the

delay in our economic development.

Our countries share common interests in the

strategic, economic and security spheres. In this regard,

we want to become integrated into powerful structures

such as the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO). But it would not be realistic to

think we will easily attain this objective. We fully realize

that we are at the initial stage of this process. Thus we

believe that all the countries of the region should

coordinate their efforts in order to become — all together,

not separately — integrated into those structures.

The Stability Pact on South-Eastern Europe is the

fundamental document for the consolidation of democratic

values, for economic growth and for the strengthening of

security in our region. I take this opportunity to salute the

full support provided to this initiative by the countries of

our region at the Cologne and Sarajevo meetings. The

State and the Government of Albania support all efforts

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that have been undertaken within the political boundaries of

the former Yugoslavia to promote democracy and the

process of integration in the region. We welcome all

democratic developments in Serbia, the consequence of

which should be to remove from power the political group

responsible for the crimes committed in the former

Yugoslavia and to eliminate the chauvinistic mindset that

encourages war. Such a mindset is no longer acceptable in

civilized Europe.

The Albanian Government is adopting measures with

a view to attaining the objectives of the Stability Pact. The

immediate objectives include various ideas and concrete

proposals aimed at the development of economic relations

with the countries in the region, the creation of inter-Balkan

institutions to monitor respect for human rights and the

strengthening of security measures. The Albanian State

expects that in the near future the Balkans will become a

democratic region with an economy intended to reach the

level of those of the developed countries, a region that

respects human rights, in accordance with advanced

European and global standards. We believe that because of

the damage suffered during the conflicts in the former

Yugoslavia, and particularly in Kosovo, Albania deserves

preferential treatment within the framework of the Stability

Pact.

As far as we are concerned, the free circulation of

people, ideas, capital and goods — a Balkan mini-

Schengen — is the precondition for a rapid development of

the economy, social life and democracy of our region. A

democratic Balkans is unimaginable if our countries build

walls in order to prevent the free circulation of people.

Reciprocal free movement would contribute greatly to

bringing people together and to cultural exchanges and,

thereby, to the elimination of the hatred and inter-ethnic

conflicts that up till now have so cruelly shaken this part of

Europe.

Albania appreciates the role currently being played by

the European Union, the United States of America and

other countries in the framework of these positive

developments. It hopes that this interest in the development

and democratization of the region will persist with the same

level of commitment and the same intensity.

While attaching priority to the problems of our region,

the State and the Government of Albania have been

and continue to remain attentive to developments in other

parts of the world. We welcome the progress in the peace

process in the Middle East and Northern Ireland. For my

part, I would like to express the fervent hope that these

processes prove irreversible.

We appreciate the role played by the United Nations

in organizing the referendum on the future of East Timor.

We hope the most recent agreements and resolutions, with

the international presence, in particular that of the United

Nations, will lead to the stabilization of the situation in

that country as soon as possible.

Given the ever-growing importance of multilateral

international cooperation, Albania intends to become an

ever more active Member of the United Nations and of

other international organizations, in order to be able to

better contribute to safeguarding peace throughout the

world. Albania salutes the efforts of the United Nations

to continue to strengthen its role in resolving the acute

problems facing humanity today in the political, economic

and humanitarian spheres. I take this opportunity to

express my great appreciation for the action of the

Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, aimed at reforming

and reviving the Organization.

In connection with this reform, Albania is in favour

of the democratization and strengthening of the Security

Council so that it better reflects new international realities

and has more transparent procedures and working

methods and a simplified decision-making process. We

support the financial and budgetary reform of the United

Nations, the objective of which is better management of

financial resources and, thus, the increased effectiveness

of United Nations programmes and projects.

Allow me to express once again to you,

Mr. President, and to all the delegations present here my

fervent wish that this session of the Assembly will meet

with success in advancing global peace, stability and

prosperity.