By ARTUR VREKAJ: “The first Albanian arrived in America in 1886, and, a century later, Albanians found their voice in the U.S. Congress. In November 1984, Joseph J. DioGuardi, the son of an Arberesh father who came to America from Italy in 1929 at the age of 15, speaking only Italian and Albanian, was elected to the U.S. Congress in a congressional district in New York state that was represented by Democrats for more than 50 years, even though he was a member of the Republican Party.”
WORCESTER, MA —The “DioGuardi” name in America stands for patriotic activities in support of the national cause of the Albanian people as a “nation” unfairly divided by others into six different political jurisdictions in the Balkans. We cannot let the 100th Anniversary of the Independence of Albania pass without mentioning his activity over the years for Kosova’s future and for the fate of the Albanian nation in the new century. Joe DioGuardi was born in the Bronx, NY on September 20, 1940 of an Albanian father and Italian mother. His father came to America from Italy, from an historic Arberesh village, Greci, inhabited by Albanians who came from Albania in 1461 when Skanderbeg and his soldiers came in support of the Kingdom of Naples to fight the French. DioGuardi is a true missionary of Albanianism in America. For more than 25 years, he traveled among the ancestral Albanian lands in the Balkans and to Albanian communities in America. And, in defense of the most important aspect of the Albanian national cause, the independence of Kosova, he traveled to Belgrade, Istanbul, Australia, Vancouver (BC), Oslo (Norway), Copenhagen (Denmark), Rome, London, Paris, Luxembourg, Geneva, Prishtina, Prizren, Kacinik, Shkodra, Ulqin, Ana i Malit, Plav-Gusinje, Tuzi, Bajram Curri, Tirana, Tetova, Gostivar, Shkup, Qafa, Toronto (Canada); and he has made many trips in America to Washington DC, and Texas, Florida, Detroit, Chicago, Wisconsin, California, Alaska, and elsewhere. Surprisingly and coincidentally, DioGuardi traveled extensively about 100 years after Abdul Frasheri also travelled extensively in the Summer of 1878, knocking on doors all over Europe to gain political autonomy for the four vilayets of the Ottoman Empire inhabited by Albanians in the Balkan lands.
The first Albanian arrived in America in 1886, and, a century later, Albanians found their voice in the U.S. Congress. In November 1984, Joseph J. DioGuardi, the son of an Arberesh father who came to America from Italy in 1929 at the age of 15, speaking only Italian and Albanian, was elected to the U.S. Congress in a congressional district in New York state that was represented by Democrats for more than 50 years, even though he was a member of the Republican Party. But thanks to the support of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush (then Vice-President), and other important people, DioGuardi made a successful campaign and began a political and civic career in the service of America and the Albanian national question in the Balkans, that has not stopped even today.
Only about 12 congressman out of 435 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives knew something about the situation in Kosova. But, except for Congressman Tom Lantos who was born in Hungary, those 12 congressman did not know that there was an overwhelming Albanian majority in Kosova. This was a disturbing reality about what was then happening in the Balkans, especially in Kosova, DioGuardi says in a 2000 interview with the newspaper “Voice of Kosova.” A second-term as a Member of the U.S. Congress gave DioGuardi and the Kosova issue a great impetus and opportunity to educate the American media for more support in the U.S. House and Senate for what was actually happening to Albanians in the Balkans under Serbian domination of Yugoslavia, particularly with regard to Kosova as a martyr for freedom. As a Member of the U.S. Congress, DioGuardi began a new phase of the history of Albanians in America to lobby the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Congress by introducing congressional resolutions to represent and help solve the Albanian national question in the Balkans.
It all started at a celebration of DioGuardi’s 45th Birthday when Albanians from New York (mostly from Kosova), who supported his election to Congress, accidentally overheard his father speaking to the family in Albanian. They were so excited to talk to Joe’s father in Albanian, that they immediately started to educate (lobby) DioGuardi about Serbia’s severe maltreatment and suppression of Albanian human rights and identity. DioGuardi learned that day about the true, historic, Albanian roots of his family, and left the celebration feeling even more Albanian than the Albanians he met on that unforgettable evening. Across America, word spread like fire that Albanian-Americans had their own voice in Congress. It was like a second Renaissance for Albanians in America and in Europe, the first being the declaration of independence of Albania in 1912. DioGuardi, with the energy of a great patriot, created a space for Albanian friendship (for all Albanians) with Americans and their government. He contacted American Presidents and their State Department leaders in America and U.S. Congressional leaders, both Republican and Democrat, to promote Albanian leaders of Kosova, Montenegro, Macedonia, and the Presheva Valley, as well as activists for the Cham issue. He introduced dozens of congressional resolutions for the Albanian national issue (in particular for Kosova) in cooperation with Members of the U.S. House and Senate who he lobbied personally, promoted the Kosova Liberation Army as a citizens defense force, had dozens of peaceful protests before the United Nations in New York and Geneva, and completed many other activities in favor of the Albanian people. He closely monitored and documented the human savagery of the Serb military regime in Kosova, making it easier for America to decide to come to the assistance of Kosova Albanians by leading the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia and Milosevic. So, again, let us not let the 100th Anniversary of the independence of Albania pass without bringing to the attention of the Albanian people worldwide, the continuous diplomatic, political, and humanitarian action of the architect of the Albanian national cause in America’s Capital, Joseph DioGuardi—in particular, the independence of Kosova, at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st Century.
Now, we must be more specific about what DioGuardi did as a U.S. Congressman from 1985 to 1989, and then later with his wife Shirley Cloyes—a publisher and a scholar in international affairs. After DioGuardi left the Congress, he formed the Albanian American Civic League in 1989, and found Shirley as a partner in 1994. In June 1986, DioGuardi introduced in the House of Representatives Resolution 358 for the protection of the human rights of the Albanians in Yugoslavia. A few days later, his friend and supporter, Senator Bob Dole, introduced Senate Resolution 150 (with the same content) at DioGuardi’s request. Now the Albanian American clock began ticking with real time towards the national question, but this time with high-level representation in Washington. The Serb reaction, in partnership with the Greeks and Russians, became even more vicious and loud in opposing these resolutions. Nevertheless, DioGuardi was able to find the support of many congressman over the following months, since the Resolution was for the protection of the basic human rights of Albanians in Yugoslavia. The Albanian community in America and, in New York in particular—seeing that they had an inflexible visionary and activist in the U.S. Congress to complete the work of protecting the rights of the Albanians in the Balkans—supported him along with many of DioGuardi’s Italian and Jewish constituents, and he was reelected for the second time in November 1986. In June 1987, along with 57 other Members of the House, he introduced Congressional Resolution 162 (an expanded version of Resolution 358) for the issue of Albanians in Kosova. Senator Dole again introduced the same Resolution in the U.S. Senate.
With Milosevic’s arrival to power in Serbia in 1987, fighting increased more and more with Serb supporters in Washington—mainly in the U.S. State Department with former government officials who spent time in Belgrade and worked against DioGuardi. Some Senators and House Members, supported by Serbian Americans and the Greek Orthodox Lobby, defended Serb interests and worked to prevent the passage of DioGuardi’s Congressional Resolution on the Albanian question in Kosova. Seeing this situation emerging aggressively against the Albanian issue, DioGuardi asked for and testified at a Congressional Hearing in November 1987, held for the first-time on the issue of Kosova. He paved the way for this by talking months before in Washington about the barbarism, aggression, and human rights abuses of the Serbian-Communist Milosevic regime against defenseless Albanians who Milosevic was calling enemies of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. DioGuardi’s activity continued in leading peaceful demonstrations of Albanians in front of the United Nations, the White House, and the U.S. Capitiol, to make the issue of Kosova more public in the media and in America’s Capital. DioGuardi led the diplomatic effort with Congressman Tom Lantos, Chairman of the Human Rights Caucus in the Congress. Lantos became an avid supporter of the rights of Albanians and went so far as to bring together representatives of the State Department with the Yugoslav Ambassador to the U.S. to try everything possible to improve U.S. policy and Serbian behavior in the Balkans, especially for Kosova.
In January 1989, DioGuardi established the Albanian American Civic League to lobby the House and the Senate, in particular for Kosova and the Albanian national cause. In June 1989, he led a peaceful protest in Washington and openly called Serbia to free Kosova and to free longtime political prisoner Adem Demaci. Shortly thereafter, Congress voted on House Resolution 314 and Senate Resolution 124 to make clear that Yugoslavia was violating the rights of the Albanian people in Kosova. In protest, in July 1989, Milosevic removed the Yugoslav Ambassador from the United States.
In November 1989, DioGuardi had the courage to travel to Belgrade to confront Milosevic directly and to meet the Serbian media at the international press center there. He then travelled to Prishtina to get much evidence about the Serb military occupation of Kosova. This allowed DioGuardi to bring back to Washington firsthand facts and photos on the brutal experience of the Albanians in Kosova under the Serbian “boot.” This action, and continuous visits to the Balkans (in particular Slovenia, Prishtina, and Macedonia), gave more publicity to the Albanian national issue in America and Europe. This also helped to leverage Albanian leadership in Kosova in a great hour of need for Kosova and to protect the rights of Albanians throughout the Balkans.
In that historic trip in November 1989, DioGuardi confronted Milosevic at the government’s Tanjug Agency international press center in the heart of Belgrade, urging freedom for Kosova through a letter signed by 13 U.S. Senators. In travelling to Prishtina, he saw for the first-time the really aggressive face of the brutal, dictatorial regime of Milosevic. At risk of physical harm to himself, DioGuardi exposed the Milosevic regime to the American media and broke the barrier blocking Western news in Belgrade which Milosevic had implemented as one of his “rules of war” against the Albanian people of Kosova. Thus, giving an interview, on the street, in front of the Grand Hotel in the center of Prishtina, DioGuardi caused a confrontation with Serb photojournalists and with the Serbian army; and, with his photos and audiotapes, he showed that a brutal Serb military regime occupying Kosova was a living, indisputable fact. When DioGuardi returned to the U.S., he brought photos to the office of Congressman Lantos showing what was happening on the ground in Kosova. Lantos—a Jewish survivor of the Nazis in Hungary—who had personally witnessed the horrors of the concentration camps on the Jewish people, was persuaded to go in May with DioGuardi to meet Albanian leaders in Kosova and confront the Milosevic regime. Two months later, in January 1990, DioGuardi went with Dr. Ibrahim Rugova to Slovenia to talk about the Kosova issue and to help publicize the first democratic elections there.
In February 1990, DioGuardi brought David Phillips, the executive director of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, to Belgrade to speak against the Serbian oppression of Albanians in Kosova. They also visited Prishtina to meet secretly with Albanian activists Zakariah Cana, Zenun Celaj, Dr. Rugova, Rexhep Qosja, Bajram Kelmendi, and Veton Surroi. In April 1990, Lantos (at DioGuardi’s urging) invited the first delegation from Kosova to come to America to speak at an historic hearing of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in the Senate Hart Building to expose the Serbian invasion and occupation of Kosova. Shortly after bringing Congressman Lantos to Kosova in May 1990 (to see firsthand the Serbian occupation), DioGuardi was prohibited from entering Yugoslavia for five years by the Yugoslav Parliament. A month later, DioGuardi went to visit the Albanians in Australia, addressing the large Albanian community in Melbourne on the Kosova issue. Then, in January 1991, he travelled with Congressman Lantos to Luxembourg and founded the inter-Parliamentary group for Kosova with Lord Bethel of Great Britain and Iljaz Ramali, Chairman of the Assembly of Kosova in Exile. Lantos, Bethel, and Ramali signed a Declaration of Parliamentary Solidarity with Kosova, and DioGuardi signed it as a witness as President of the Albanian American Civic League.
In February 1991, DioGuardi for the first time in America, made a public demand for the independence of Kosova in a U.S. Senate hearing, chaired by Senator Joe Biden, calling Milosevic “a new-age Hitler” and “Saddam of Serbia.” In October 1991, after marathon lobbying activity by the Civic League, DioGuardi managed to convince the U.S. government to stop aid to Serbia and to implement economic sanctions as punishment for the invasion of Kosova. In January 1992, the Civic League convinced Congressman Lantos to introduce House Resolution 264 to make the case—for the first time officially—for Kosova’s independence. DioGuardi worked, step-by-step, persistently and consistently to open a democratic era for Albanians in Albania and Macedonia, encouraging nonviolent democratic action. In September 1993, as the head of a delegation of the U.S. House of Representatives, DioGuardi went to Albania and Macedonia to show U.S. support for membership in NATO for both countries; and in Macedonia, to push for security and support for the rights of the large Albanian population there.
In November 1993, DioGuardi went to Tirana at the invitation of Prime Minister Berisha, to speak at the first international conference for investment in Albania. He concluded his address to a large audience by saying that the greatest potential for Albania is not only its vast supply of natural resources, but the millions of Albanian people in the diaspora worldwide. In February 1994, DioGuardi brought then President Dr. Ibrahim Rugova and Prime Minister Bujar Bukoshi of the Provisional Government of Kosova to Washington, DC where Dr. Rugova, through DioGuardi’s clever positioning, took a photo with President Bill Clinton at a private breakfast and was able to speak with then Secretary of State Warren Christopher. In April 1994, DioGuardi led a peaceful protest in front of the United Nations, and called for U.S. troops in Kosova. A month later, in May 1994, Congressman Ben Gilman introduced House Resolution 254—urging President Clinton to protect the rights of Albanians in Kosova by creating an international protectorate there, in cooperation with the United Nations Security Council and the European Union.
In February 1995, for the first time in the U.S. Congress, the Civic League arranged for a hearing for Albanians in the Balkan conflict with representation of Albanians from Kosova, Macedonia, Montenegro, and the Presheva Valley. DioGuardi then travelled to Macedonia to help Albanian activists open the University of Tetova that had previously been burnt down by the Macedonian government (an action causing Albanians in Macedonia to protest the government’s action in closing the Albanian University). During this trip to Macedonia, DioGuardi was accompanied by Shirley Cloyes—a book publisher and an expert on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy—who he had met only months earlier and who would later become the Executive Director and Balkan Affairs Adviser of the Albanian American Civic League. In August 1995, DioGuardi and Cloyes joined Congressman Gilman on an official visit to Albania to discuss (with Prime Minister Berisha and his cabinet) security issues important to the United States. In January 1996, Congressman Gilman introduced House Resolution 103 to guarantee the rights of Albanians in Macedonia and to officially recognize the University of Tetova. The Albanian American Civic League followed this with a press release publicly condemning military violence against Albanians in Tetova and Gostivar.
In October 1997, the Civic League began the distribution of 10,000 copies of the book Rescue in Albania to publicize the unique heroism of the Albanian people in rescuing thousands of Jews from the Nazi Holocaust during World War II. This action enabled Jewish Members of Congress to see Albanians as a tolerant people who risked their lives for others in extreme danger. With more than 30 Members of Congress of Jewish origin, this had a significant effect in that it gained more respect for the Albanian people and gained the support of the Jewish Lobby for the issue of Kosova and the efforts of DioGuardi and the Civic League on the Albanian national cause.
In February 1998, the Civic League issued a statement in defense of the Kosova Liberation Army (KLA), and in March 1998, the Civic League declared that the KLA was not a terrorist organization. In order to stop media antagonism against the KLA in the U.S. and the Balkans, Shirley Cloyes confronted Ambassador Gelbard (who had erroneously testified that the KLA had been put on a list of terrorist groups by the U.S. State Department) in an historic showdown during a congressional hearing in Washington, stating that 500,000 Albanians in America supported the KLA as a civilian defense force. In June 1998, by declaring that Milosevic was a war criminal at a Helsinki Commission congressional hearing in Washington, DioGuardi and Cloyes urged American military intervention in Kosova to reinforce the May 1998 request of the U.S. Senate. Civic League resolutions in the Senate and the House urged President Clinton to recognize the legal rights of Kosovar Albanians to self-determination and independence from Serbia. In August 1998, DioGuardi and Cloyes met Pope John Paul II in Rome to get support for the Kosova issue; they then travelled to Bajram Curri, Albania to meet with refugees displaced during the Kosova conflict.
In January 1999, while the war continued in Kosova, DioGuardi and Cloyes went to visit the Albanian communities in London and Paris to increase support for the KLA and the independence of Kosova. In February 1999, DioGuardi spoke to thousands in Rambouillet, France at a peaceful protest in front of the castle where the historic Rambouillet Conference on Kosova—which failed to find a just solution between the representatives from Kosova and the Milosevic Regime—was held. In March 1999, Shirley Cloyes testified before Congress in support of the use of U.S. troops in Kosova. Following peaceful protests at the United Nations in New York with thousands of Albanians, The DioGuardis were at the forefront of the mission for freedom and independence for Kosova. In August, September and November 1999, DioGuardi and Cloyes visited Kosova to report to the U.S. Congress about the post-conflict situation there. In February 2000, along with Senator John McCain, the Albanian American Civic League peacefully protested in New York City to demand the release of Albanian prisoners held as prisoners of war in Serbian jails; DioGuardi also wrote to Presidents Clinton and Bush on this issue.
In April 2000, with representatives from the Kosovar leadership, DioGuardi testified at a hearing of the International Relations Committee of the U.S. House to promote peace and reconstruction in war-torn Kosova. Later in 2000, DioGuardi and Cloyes travelled to Kosova to monitor the first democratic elections there. They returned to the U.S. and reported to the U.S. Congress that voting was conducted at the highest standards expected of elections in the Western democratic world.
In March 2001, in Macedonia, DioGuardi and Cloyes held official meetings with President Trajkovski and Prime Minister Georgjevski in support of more rights for Albanians in the wake of the Macedonian-Albanian conflict in Tanusha. The DioGuardis became the voice of Albanians in Macedonia to resolve the conflict between Albanians and Macedonians. They brought political leader Arben Xhaferi to Washington to take part in a hearing of the Senate International Relations Committee for peace in Macedonia and to meet with the U.S. State Department—so as to convince American foreign policymakers that supporting the human and political rights of the Albanian people of Macedonia was the right thing to do for peace and stability in the Balkans.
In the International Criminal Court in the Hague, in February 2002, Slobodan Milosevic (by then an indicted war criminal on trial) gave testimony blaming Joe DioGuardi and the Albanian American Civic League for “demonizing” him and the Serbian people, and for supporting “Albanian terrorism and separatism” in Kosova. Milosevic claimed that DioGuardi’s work contributed to the anti-Serb sentiment in Washington and the “satanization” of Serbs in American public opinion, leading to his indictment and trial in The Hague. This gave DioGuardi and Cloyes the legal basis to give concrete testimony at the International Tribunal and, in April 2002, they travelled to The Hague in the Netherlands to attest to the war crimes of Milosevic and the Serbian army.
In June 2003, Congressmen Gilman and Lantos introduced House Resolution 467 in support of the independence of Kosova; it was the undisputed influence of the Albanian American Civic League, led by DioGuardi and Cloyes, that convinced Lantos and Gilman to again introduce the hard-hitting House Resolution 28 in support of the independence of Kosova in the opening session of the 109th Congress in January 2005, and again in February 2007 at the opening session of the110th Congress. In May 2005, Cloyes testified before the House International Relations Committee, along with Kosova’s Roman Catholic Bishop Mark Sopi and Dom Lush Gjergji, in support of Kosova’s independence and in opposition to Serbian propaganda misrepresenting Albanians as a Muslim, fundamentalist force in the heart of Europe.
In July 2008, at a conference in Washington sponsored by the CIA and intelligence officials of the U.S. State Department and the White House, DioGuardi declared that the “Albanian question” was still unresolved (even after the independence of Kosova was recognized by the United States on February 17, 2008) and that the United States must provide full security for Kosova to prevent the partition of northern Kosova by the Serbs. Appreciating the contribution of America in Kosova, DioGuardi testified “it would be stupid for the United States to jeopardize its great investment in Kosova by leaving the future of Kosova and the fate of all Albanians in the Balkans to the European Union, which has always been divided on the ‘Albanian question’.” “Only an independent Kosova would bring peace and stability to the Balkans” was a theme of DioGuardi’s speech at the conference and his work for more than 20 years. This Albanian American patriot of the late-twentieth and early twenty-first century was the first messenger of freedom and independence for Kosova. He understood that the agreement with Milosevic in October 1998 was a bad agreement—since Milosevic wanted to create Greater Serbia, even though he blamed Albanians for seeking “Greater Albania.” History and time has shown the truth of DioGuardi’s mission for Kosova and all Albanians.
As a result of DioGuardi and Cloyes’ courage and determination to do everything for the Albanian national question, and thanks to the United States Congress, Kosova was recognized as an independent State by George W. Bush on February 17, 2008. Hopefully, the patriotic action of the DioGuardis and the Albanian American Civic League will continue its success by leading to the European Union accession of Albania and Kosova, Kosova’s membership in NATO, the resolution of the Cham issue, and the guarantee of the human, civil, and political rights of Albanians in Macedonia, Montenegro, and in the Presheva Valley. Albanian Americans have the great fortune to have had among them Joseph DioGuardi who came to them providentially, at the right place (Washington, DC), and at the right time (1985 to the present); and, Albanian Americans experienced this great fortune once again in 1994 with the arrival of Shirley Cloyes. Together, they have succeeded in promoting the Albanian national issue in America and in the world—beginning with Joe DioGuardi’s founding of the Albanian American Civic League as an independent, registered volunteer-lobby to promote the national values and human rights of all Albanians. Albanians all over the world should be proud of the historic work of Joe and Shirley DioGuardi and the Board of Directors and supporters of the Albanian American Civic League—especially on the 100th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of Albania (from the Ottoman-Turkish Empire) on November 28, 2012.