Albania ashamed only of taking Sali Berisha seriously

The only value that has the provocation of Sali Berisha, with the so-called <x0-resolution” for the Srebrenica massacre, is the seriousness with which many journalists have taken it, but also majority leaders in the country themselves.

It is not true that Albania “is embarrassing” why it has not approved a Sali Berisha proposal for “resolution for the Srebrenica massacre”. Albania would be ashamed if it had not supported any international initiative strengthening its memory. Fortunately, Albania has never been ashamed in this regard. Its only stain is that in the period of the massacre, Sali Berisha supplied oil to the Bosnian Serb army.

Albania would be ashamed if it was dragged by someone who is on a list of international sanctions, where the president of Bosnian Serbs, the perpetrators of the Srebenica massacre, Dodik.

Sali Berisha and Dodik are on the same list, and their files include staying with the Srebrenica massacre. One as a supporter of the massacre and the other as an oil supplier of the massacre.

Albania would be ashamed if Bosnia asked Albania for a resolution on Srebrenica and it refused. But Albania has never rejected any diplomatic assistance for Bosnia in this direction.

On the other hand, Albania's Assembly cannot return to the psychiatric clinic to heal a lonely man who cannot even speak to his political children.

At this pace of Sali Berisha's psychic stream, tomorrow it may require resolution to recognise Albania's declaration of independence by Ismail Kemal, and if we refuse to tell us that you denied Albania's independence.

It may require a resolution on recognition of the Lucnja Congress and if we refuse, to tell us that we have denied the establishment of the Albanian state.

It may also require a resolution on recognition of the December 11th Convention as Albania's second liberation and if we don't vote on it, to accuse us of denying pluralism in Albania.

Sali Berisha is simply a lonely, depressed, and more intense mental slides. You're not ashamed to refuse a fool. You're afraid to go after him. As an Albanian, I may feel ashamed only that I am co-state with Sali Berisha, but not that I do not go after Sali Berisha's nonsense.

Sali Berisha does not have any compassion for Srebrenica. He didn't mention it when it happened, that he was busy with the oil money accounts that Tritan Shehu managed with the company “Eagle and eventually ja “contabilized” Genc Pollo buying Taiwan and several bingo across Tirana, along with the one with the concession for oil dyeing, with Sali Berisha's son.

Even though there is a Bosniak groom at home, we cannot say that he feels Bosnian, as children are with Serbian grandmothers, including those Serbs taking blood in the eyebrow against Bosniaks.

His family is a Bosnian-Montenegrin-Albanian conglomerate, where Albanian origin is in minority. This <x0patrid complex”, of course, makes it a little more diligent to look like a patriot, but the origin is not changed.

His nieces are Bosnian Serb and I am afraid that perhaps even they could not be persuaded as Serbia's nieces, to condemn the mask in Srebrenica.

But our parliament is Albania's parliament. He will become completely unrealistic and funny, even dangerous, if he meets whims with Dodik's friend, the Bosnian Serb leader who sleeps on Srebrenica victims.

Sali Berisha's serious concern is a crime against Srebrenica as well. His nightmare is that he no longer takes anyone seriously.

Srebrenica was never his nightmare. It was his business.

And to refresh their memory, I'm bringing the whole New York Times writing of April 2, 1995, about how Sali Berisha helped three months before the Serb oil massacre.

Serbia fuel smuggling from Albania despite embargo 

New York Times. April 2, 1995

By Raymond Bonner

As the parties involved in the Bosnian war prepare for spring offensive, large amounts of first-quality fuel used for tanks and fighter aircraft have been smuggled into Yugoslavia in open violation of the UN embargo.

The first-quality fuel smuggling from this small country to Yugoslavia starts nearly two months ago and is thought to be Serbia's “Majerary fighter”, as one Western diplomat put it. In addition, millions of gallons of normal gasoline and oil have been smuggled into the neighboring north over the past few months.

The US has repeatedly expressed its concern to the Albanian government about trade, which according to sanctions monitors in Europe sometimes amounts to up to 3.7 million litres a day.

During a stretch of well - known roads some 30 miles [30 km] across the lake line, there are about 20 gas stations, the underground tanks that can hold up to two million gallons [2 million L] of fuel while other such stations are being constructed.

This is a very poor area of Albania where there are only sheep and villagers, and where chariots and bicycles are the most struggling means of transportation.

As fuel enters Serbia along other routes along the Danube, the amount Albania supplies it is much larger than the total amount of fuel coming from other countries, says Antonio Naples, co-ordinator for European Union and O Union sanctions The SEU's office in Brussels. Mr. Naples, who is an Italian diplomat, has conveyed this concern to the Albanian government and foreign diplomats during the visit he paid here in February.

The Albanian government has denied any violation of sanctions. During an interview, Albanian President Sali Berisha said statements made by Ambassador Naples and the US Embassy on the large quantity of fuel passing through Albania to Yugoslavia “are absolutely false”.

According to him, the amount of smuggling done is not large and that his government is doing its best to prevent it, despite lack of untrained resources and police forces.

UN-set sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro -- the states that currently make up Yugoslavia -- allow only a few categories of goods, such as medicine and food. According to Mr. Naples, the ban on import of fuel, is a major concern because of its use for military purposes.

The aim of sanctions was to punish Serbs for “ethnic cleansing” and for Yugoslavia's refusal to recognise Croatia and Bosnia. The fuel entering Albania comes from Italian and Greek companies and enters the Yugoslav through Montenegro. The border between Albania and Montenegro lies along the lake.

It is not known exactly what happens to the fuel after that, but local diplomats say most of it does not remain in Montenegro, which is located on the border with areas controlled by Serbia and Serbia as well.

The international team monitoring sanctions in Albania and including Americans, Italians, Belgians and Swiss people has been praised by American and European diplomats for their work done, but this team does not have a mandate to stop trade. His mandate is just monitoring and reporting.

But even this mission faces numerous obstacles due to the lack of co-operation on the part of Albanian authorities, a report by Mr. Naples.

President Berisha has cited several steps taken by his government to reduce the fuel amounts they spend in Yugoslavia. These steps include licensing gas stations and preventing the trade of oil products within a five-mile radius of the lake.

On the basis of another new law, Albanian authorities must verify whether a shipment is aimed at its legitimate use and then to notify officials at the site from where the charge starts that it meets the necessary criteria to be launched by the port.

For a time, these measures were able to lower the commercial volume, but it has been anew to observers and diplomats. A visit to this city is sufficient to see that the measures are not being implemented. At least nine gas stations, which should have been closed because they have not respected the five - mile radius criteria, continue to trade fuel. Most of them stay no more than a few hundred meters outside the permitted border.

According to data from the Albanian Customs Directorate, during the first two weeks of February, nearly 16 million liters of fuel have been imported to Albania, including 6 million liters of gasoline.

According to estimates made by Albanian police, during the last ten days of February, 450 thousand liters of fuel per day were transported to northern Albania by trucks, but Western diplomats say this figure is much higher.

According to Statistics Institute data, Albania has only 1.583 registered vehicles.

This country, which is the size of Maryland, has remained undeveloped because of four decades of Enver Hoxha's communist regime and is the oldest in Europe, with two thirds of the population living and feeding on the produce the earth gives them. According to the same office, the country has only 140 thousand motorized vehicles, including tractors, motorcycles, cars and trucks. The country has no four - lane highway, and the only route leading to the international airport by just one track goes through a bridge that has only one lane.

Oil trade is the only legitimate source of income in this country that is facing many difficulties in its modernisation process. The tariff that authorities collect in the form of excise on fuels ranges from 70 to 100% of their declared value.

Here, in this poor region, in 1994 the government managed to collect only $22m in tax revenues, and almost all thanks to the fuel trade, the newspaper Voice of People reported in February. Meanwhile, in 1993 the figure was only eight million dollars.

At first, this was an activity of small size, but according to foreign diplomats, now
he was taken over by organised crime. Oil companies carry the oil towards Albanian ports of Durres and Vlora, where it is taken from Albanian companies. Oil Autobots then make the long and tiring journey north of the country, whose roads do not allow you to walk more than 30 miles [30 km] an hour. Upon arriving at Shkodra, fuel is pumped into gas stations, most of which may have only two pumps and a small cabin with a person.

Next, oil is pumped into other Autobots. Fuel stations remain open 24 hours a day, but according to residents, they have more work at night. Autobots then travel a short distance on the shores of Lake Shkodra.
The smugglers are so sure they won't bother anyone that in many cases they operate even during the day.

Today, around noon, a truck passed the border post that was guarded by Albanian soldiers with their automatic rifles and heavy and outdated uniforms. Behind the truck was a Ford and a Mercedes, and in each vehicle there were four people - an unusual sight in this barren landscape.

In the lake, less than a mile [1 km] from the border post, fuel was transferred to barrels with a capacity of 230 liters, which would then be transported in two metal and long vessels.

But about two miles [2 km] away, the system that is followed is more efficient. By means of a long and black plastic tube, fuel is transferred directly from Autobots into small vessels.

Today, after the cargo of an Autobot was emptied into a sailing vehicle for which the person in charge said that he had a capacity of 30,000 gallons [30,000 L], another Autobot came and the process continued. Then, a 25-steamed motor vehicle set sail to Yugoslavia.