Doc. 8900
1 December 2000

Local elections in Himarra, Albania

Motion for an order

presented by Mr Kotsonis and others

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it

The Assembly,

      Noting that, according to the OSCE/ODIHR and Council of Europe election report, on the local elections in Albania (16 October 2000), serious irregularities were observed and fraud was verified in at least three polling stations out of thirteen in the region of Himarra;

      Condemning the holding of firing exercises by the Albanian Navy, on the days of the elections (13 - 15 October 2000) in the sea off Himarra and Saranda, without previous notice to the Greek Authorities, which aimed at disrupting sea transport between Corfu and Himarra and resulted in terrifying the local population;

      Alarmed by the nationalistic rhetoric, reported at length in the press even on election day, against the members of the Union of Human Rights Party in Himarra, the intimidation of commission members and the arrests carried out by the Albanian police, aiming at gerrymandering the election process in Himarra;

      Bearing in mind that there is a Greek minority in Himarra, whose existence is not recognized by the Albanian Government, and thus, its members are denied their fundamental human and minority rights, such as minority education, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of free expression in their mother tongue;

      Taking into account that the OSCE/ODIHR and Council of Europe report on the elections, mentioned above, describes the existence of “a Greek-speaking minority” and a “Greek community” in Himarra;

      Noting that article 20 of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania stipulates that:

“1. Persons who belong to national minorities exercise in full equality before the law the human rights and freedoms.

2. They have the right to freely express, without prohibition or compulsion, their ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic belonging. They have the right to preserve and develop it, to study and to be taught in their mother tongue, as well as unite in organizations and societies for the protection of their interests and identity.”;

      Noting also that Albania is a member state of the OSCE, bound by the commitments of the Copenhagen Document (1990), and a signatory party of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe;

      Instructs its Political Affairs Committee to examine urgently the conditions under which the electoral process took place in the region of Himarra (Dhermi, Kudesi, Keparo, Himarra, Liates, Vuno, Palasa, Pilouri), to investigate the situation of the ethnic Greek minority there and to report back to the Assembly on its findings, making also suggestions for further action.

Signed : ¹

Kotsonis, Greece, SOC

Bakoyianni, Greece, EPP/CD

Cilevics, Latvia, SOC

Fernández Aguilar, Spain, EPP/CD

Iwinski, Poland, SOC

Katseli, Greece, SOC

Liapis, Greece, EPP/CD

López González, Spain, SOC

Luís, Portugal, SOC

Vermot-Mangold, Switzerland, SOC

Wilkinson, United Kingdom, EDG

Zissi, Greece, SOC

Zwerver, Netherlands, SOC

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group