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In his two years as Albania's president, Rexhep Meidani has had to cope with problems of staggering proportions. A physicist by profession, he took office in 1997 in the wake of anarchy, brought on by the collapse of huge pyramid schemes that left much of the population bankrupt. Now the war in neighboring Kosovo has plunged Albania into fresh turmoil. Since the NATO bombing campaign began in March, nearly half a million ethnic-Albanian Kosovar refugees have flooded into Albania--a number representing one out of seven Albanian citizens. Yet only 10 percent of the refugees live in camps; the bulk of them have been housed with host families--a remarkable achievement on the part of a small and impoverished nation that ranks as the poorest in Europe. Meidani, 54, talked in his office in Tirana with NEWSWEEK's Rod Nordland and Genc Caushi. Excerpts:
MEIDANI: Yes, imagine if China had a problem of the same dimension: in three or four weeks it would take in 130 million refugees. Albania is a poor country with limited means, but we have decided to always keep our doors open for our brothers, and to cooperate with other countries and international organizations. This is not an Albanian problem; it is an international problem. We can't permit the crisis to destabilize the region and allow this machine of genocide and ethnic cleansing to win.
We have done this using a minimum level of what we need to spend, let's say $3 per day per person only for food and some medical assistance. And if they stay here until the end of December, that is $600 million. And to cover our economic losses we'll need another $255 million. That's a minimal calculation. We don't want to profit from this crisis, but only to cover our expenses. I have heard that the Macedonian government has asked for $2 [billion] to $3 billion, and they have maybe half this number of refugees, or less.
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I am quite sure that if an international peacekeeping force led by NATO were implemented in Kosovo, most of the deported Albanians would return, though perhaps not many of those now living abroad. That's why we have proposed that the best thing is to keep them in our region so we can make possible their return. On the other hand, we have to start thinking of winter.
That depends on the military operation over there. But the implementation of an international peacekeeping force led by NATO will also require a civil presence, humanitarian organizations, rebuilding, and all this will take time. So we have to start to think about winter, and in winter, people in the northern part of Albania, in the mountains, can't live in camps or tents.
Without the presence of a NATO implementation force, these people can't go back. The problem is whether that implementation would be in a permissive or a non-permissive environment. That's why we see both military operations and diplomatic activity.
There are young people coming from abroad, and they are not armed. The KLA is not fighting in Albania, this army is fighting inside Kosovo, and defending a great number of displaced people living in the mountains. They are answering the call for the simple reason they lost their families, they have lost everything during the campaign of ethnic cleansing and deportation. All of them would be back inside Kosovo except that the border is well protected by Serbs and heavily mined.
The Serbs are shelling Albania, in the Tropoje region. We could react strongly if we wanted, but we don't want to be accused of playing Belgrade's game. We don't want to change the nature of the conflict, so we have not responded. We could--we have more than 100 tanks up there, heavy weapons.
Perhaps it is difficult to do this because of the resolution of the Security Council embargoing arms to Yugoslavia. But I think they need at least moral support, and NATO should use them to gather information and cooperate with their units. Because, in fact, they are allies of NATO.
First they need an intermediate solution, an international authority or protectorate. Then elections. If they decide to have an independent state I don't see any danger for our region. On the contrary, maybe it would be the best solution for the stability and democratization of our region.
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