By David Binder
Memorie.al / The Secretary General of the United Nations, Javier Perez de Cuellar, traveled to Albania, where today he started talks with the Albanian communist leaders. Albanians see the visit as an opportunity to move forward in the opening of their country from isolation. This is the first official visit of the Secretary General, which takes place at the invitation of President Ramiz Alia. Thousands of Albanians lined the narrow streets from the airport and thousands more lined the streets of the capital with 300,000 inhabitants, staring at the 8-car convoy that brought guests and friends.
Crowds of people stood still, and cars moved normally along streets filled with pedestrians, carriages, old trucks and buses. But they had fixed their gazes on the “parade” that was passing by.
Tour in Eastern Europe
The extensive publicity of the visit of Mr. Perez de Cuellar, who is touring the countries of Eastern Europe, in the framework of the United Nations, was greatly appreciated both by the Albanian press and by the presence of dozens of media representatives from the United States. of America, Spain, Brazil, France, Portugal, China, Japan, West Germany and Italy.
Apparently, Mr. Alia used the presence of the head of the United Nations and foreign journalists, for his purposes, to remove the elements who were against his democratizing policies, loyal to Stalinism, remaining in the political organization of Labor Party, called here as the Communist Party.
Mr. Alia has been in power since his predecessor, Enver Hoxha, died in 1985, but only recently has he moved to change the authoritarian policies of the man who ruled Albania for four decades.
Albanian government officials and journalists, but also Ismail Kadareja, the most read writer in the country, in a short interview given today, underlined that “the visit of Mr. Perez de Cuellar will be considered as part of the democratization process in Albania”. “People are happy about the developments these days”, he said.
The sense of radical change
There is a feeling here, that for the first time since World War II, Albania is heading for radical change; from the strict control of the communist state, to an increasingly inclusive society and the introduction of elements of democracy.
The visit started with the traditional protocol at the airport. The Secretary General shook hands with the ambassadors of the countries of the East and the West, who were here. In the welcome speech, Foreign Minister Reis Malile emphasized the reflection of Albania’s new position.
Petraq Pojani, the representative of the Foreign Ministry, said that Mr. Malile expressed his wish that; “Albania should strengthen cooperation with the United Nations and make every effort to contribute to the UN structures, where Albania has been an inactive member for a relatively long time.”Mr. Malile emphasized that; Albania is “a small country”. Its population is 3.3 million.
But he said that; “from now on, Albania has thought of actively participating, not only in the United Nations, but also in the talks on the cooperation of the 6 Balkan states, started two years ago in Belgrade and in the Security and Cooperation Conference in Europe with 35 members”.
The matter of the 6th in the Italian Embassy
In his speech, Mr. Perez de Cuellar praised “the strong position for the independence of Albania”. Although his talks focused on general international issues, it is possible that the Secretary General may have clashed over a particular issue.
Six Albanians have sought political asylum at the Italian Embassy since December 1985 and have refused to leave, although they have been given a hope of exit visas.
This has not changed, although Parliament this week passed a law allowing all Albanians to travel anywhere, abroad.
According to an Albanian official, Mr. Perez de Cuellar, may have requested that the 6 Albanians be provided with a diplomatic permit and leave under the auspices of the United Nations. Memorie.al
The article was published on May 12, 1990
The title is editorial
Prepared by Albert Gjoka
