Tirana, 30 Nov. 2006 (AlbanianTimes) – Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha accepted today Albania’s violation of the UN sanctions against former Yugoslavia during 1993 and 1995 years of war in Bosnia and Croatia.
"I have denounced the time when Montenegro and Kosova were suffering very much from the UN sanctions, that is why I permitted these countries to use the Albanian territory to import goods prohibited by UN sanctions," Berisha said today in a press conference.
According to Berisha, it was unjust for Serbia to be able to receive large quantities of goods through the Danube River, while for Montenegro and Kosova to be the only regions to suffer these sanctions.
During the war, large amounts of goods, primarily petroleum, were exported via Albania to Montenegro. Last week, the Montenegrin politician, Momir Bulatovich, was reported to have confessed that they had signed an agreement with Berisha that was in violation of the UN sanctions. Berisha had previously denied the existence of such an agreement.
The political opposition had accused Berisha about helping former Serbian president Sllobodan Milloshevich, who was later charged for genocide and war crimes and then died before being sentenced.
Petroleum smuggled through Albania to the former Yugoslavia has been suggested as a possible cause for the Albanian civil disorder of 1997 during which more than 2000 Albanians died. Mr. Berisha was at that time president of Albania. His government was overthrown in March '97, but then he offered his resignation in June 1997.
Mr. Berisha has survived as the opposition leader till July 2005 when his party won the elections and turned him into power as the Prime Minister.
According to an IMF paper it is possible that the end of the UN sanctions after the Dayton accord in August 1995 was the reason that affected the collapse of the many Ponzy schemes in Albania, which then resulted to the civil disorder of 1997.
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