7 minutes agoWho's William Walker? Honorary citizen in Albania “persona not grata” in Serbia
Periskopi(6 years ago)
(6 years ago)It became known last night that incumbent President Vjosa Osmani did not intend to continue co-operation contracting the William Walker Foundation, a co-operation that had started in August of this year and which expired on December 31st with the possibility of continuing for six months. The incumbent, Vjosa Osmani, was reasoned [...]
The incumbent President Vjosa Osmani was argued that Ambassador Walker did not receive any money and that the foundation was guided by an Albanian.
However, what's wrong is that the foundation is guided by an Albanian, it's hard to understand. Ambassador Walker's proximity to Albanians has been a long known thing, with the Serbian lobby targeting various political attacks, such as even by Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq himself.
The Albanian himself who heads the foundation, Hasan Salihu, in a proposal for BalkanInsight had declared that “Zaconally all reports, advice and other professional activities are prepared by Ambassador William Walker” himself, Periscope follows.
But who's William Walker?
For Albanians, Walker is known as the local event participant in the January 15th 1999 Recak massacre, a terrible event, the publicity for which he diplomaticly helped Kosovo on the international level.
In that period, Serbia flatly denied that it was committing crimes in Kosovo, while the international media reported that the number of war victims was balanced. However, the OSCE chief ambassador publicly denounced what he saw in Recak, and the news made great media and political headlines.
The 85-year-old is the veteran diplomat of the United States Foreign Service who served as the US ambassador to Salvador and as head of the Kosovo Verification Mission.
He has served mainly in Latin America, in countries such as Bolivia, Brazil, Salvador, Honduras, Peru, and Argentina.
Role in Yugoslavia Wars
In August 1997, Walker was appointed as Secretary General's Special Representative and was appointed as chief of the UN Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmerum.
He led a mission of 800 OKV civilians and an army of 2,500 peacekeepers and administrators. The mission had the responsibility to oversee the peaceful reintegration of the region controlled by Serbs in Croatia after the war ended in Croatia.
Later, Walker was appointed as head of the Verifiency Mission in Kosovo, and led an international and local staff of 1500 people from October 1998 to June 1999. British General John Drewenkiewicz had been his military adviser.
The goal of the peacekeeping mission leading Walker had been the content of the violence that had erupted in Kosovo.
In 1999, in addition to the mediaisation of Recak's massacre, Walker had pressured forensic experts led by Finnish pathologist Helena Ranta, who told the aggressors of that massacre (which was, of course, Serbian security forces), which added arguments about Yugoslavia's bombing later by NATO forces.
On January 18th, the regime of Yugoslavia declared Walker “persona non grata”, a decision that was subsequently revoted following international pressure from Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic.
On November 24, 2008, he became an honorary citizen in the Republic of Albania. /Periscope
