21.05.2021 – 14:08
Former Secretary of State Pascal Milo says the US State Department has ample material for many Albanian politicians who have run the country.
In an interview with the newspaper “Panorama”, Mr. Milo is of the opinion that the decision to declare former Prime Minister Berisha persona non grata in the US is not the product of a single man, be it the Secretary of State, but an institutional decision.
Mr. Milo, how do you assess the decision of the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, to declare former President and former Prime Minister Sali Berisha persons “non grata” for corruption issues?
The decision of the US Secretary of State to declare Mr. Sali Berisha a “non grata” person is in the tradition of foreign policy of recent years and has been implemented for many other people in the world, but also in Albania. What is special is that it is about the former President and former Prime Minister of Albania, one of the “top” list of Albanian politicians of 30 years of Albanian transition, the first chairman and founder of the Democratic Party. I can not judge the essence of the decision, because I do not even know what are the arguments, facts and motives that have determined its adoption, except as given in the notification of the Secretary of State. And as far as I know, the State Department does not make them known to the public. It is a decision that because of the person being addressed has not been easy to make. But I am convinced that this decision must have been handled with the great commitment and responsibility that such cases require. I think it is not the product of a single person, be it the Secretary of State, but an institutional decision.
How do you see the position of Mr. Berisha after the decision of DASH and the filing of a lawsuit against the US Secretary of State?
Mr. Berisha is in his right to defend himself against such a decision, because he is serious for a former President and former Prime Minister not only in legal, political, but also moral terms. He knows better than anyone else what he did and how he did it to put himself in front of such a decision. I think the path he chose to challenge this decision is legal and civic. It is the court, if it has the power to adjudicate such cases, that will decide on the lawsuit filed by Mr. Berisha against the US Secretary of State.
As a former Secretary of State, do you know if the US State Department has files on other Albanian politicians?
There should be no misunderstanding with the existence or not of the files for other Albanian politicians. I am speaking at the beginning as a long-term researcher of the diplomatic history of Albania that I have seen and collected many documents about many Albanian leaders of the past in foreign archives and especially in the American National Archive in Maryland. It is in the normal practice of all diplomatic missions to collect data on the leaders of the countries to which they are accredited, to process them, to make reports and to make recommendations.
This has been done by all American diplomatic missions in these nearly 100 years of US diplomatic relations with Albania. In addition to information, analysis and recommendations of diplomatic missions in Albania, as in any other country, there are also intelligence services, including the CIA, which also deal with the collection of facts and opinions that are secret and, among other things, the state and political leaders of the country where they serve also have an object. In the American National Archive there are numerous files about Ahmet Zogu and a number of political activists of his time and of the Second World War. Some of these files are still partially classified and some of them are never opened.
There are files that my fellow historians have seen about Enver Hoxha, the leaders of the National Front, the representatives of the Albanian political emigration during the communist era, etc. So it is in the normal tradition of diplomacy not only American to create files, open by law, but also closed, used when necessary for special reasons and state interests. Therefore, at the end of your question based on the experience as a researcher and in the logic and tradition of diplomacy, I can say without hesitation that in the archive of the State Department and not only there are files for Albanian politicians in terms of information from meetings that are done with them in Tirana and in Washington or New York, there is information from third sources, there are analyzes and recommendations made regularly by the US Embassy in Tirana or the relevant directorate that covers Albania in the State Department.
There are also many documents related to the thoughts and instructions of the Department’s leadership or even information and recommendations coming from the White House. Therefore, one should not be surprised that in the State Department there are many cases for anyone who has been in charge of affairs in Albania, which can be used for the operational purposes of American policy, but can also “sleep” for a long time or forever.
Think that the moment when the US Secretary of State made public the decision for former Prime Minister Berisha has a political background or is related to domestic politics in Albania, if we start from the statements of Prime Minister Rama two years ago, who said that Sali Berisha’s stopped traveling to the United States?
The decision of the Secretary of State is definitely made in a political context. I may be wrong, but even for the State Department it has not been easy to target Mr. Berisha not only for what he has represented and still represents in Albanian politics, but also for Albania, which is one of the friendliest countries in the United States.
But apparently, the reserves that have been accumulated over the years and that have been partially made public by the State Department at certain points on various issues, have exceeded the critical target and have been judged to be made public in a synthesized way. There may be many speculations to find reasons for the content of the decision or the time chosen to make it known. Without speculation, I think that efforts are being made to help Albania close the long stage of an exhausting transition for it and society, because the Albanian political class has spectacularly failed to build a legal and functional state.
It is time to start the much-discussed phase of full implementation of the law for all and to show that the Justice Reform has had and has a goal to bring tangible results. I think it is the beginning of a “catharsis” in politics that aims not only at the concrete fight against corruption and organized crime, but also much more: the strategic security of Albania as a pro-American country in a region that is beginning to be troubled. again from the rivalries of major international and regional actors. Stability in Albania has unfortunately prevailed at the expense of democracy in these 30 years. Now is the time for them to walk with a rhythm and for a purpose. But it would be wrong to think that this could be done by a group of people of any color. It takes a “revolution” in the minds of Albanians to raise awareness and understand that they are the ones who must take their fate into their own hands. It is time for them to bury the great deficits of history in the formation of national consciousness in a democratic culture./Panorama