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USIA - Albright Remarks to State Department's Albania Task Force, 97-03-14United States Information Agency: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United States Information Agency (USIA) Gopher at <gopher://gopher.usia.gov>ALBRIGHT REMARKS TO STATE DEPARTMENT'S ALBANIA TASK FORCE(Praises its role in rescue of U.S. citizens) (580)Washington -- Secretary of State Albright calls "just remarkable" the work of the department's special Task Force on Albania in coordinating efforts to evacuate stranded U.S. nationals from that strife-torn country."We are very grateful in Washington; I know that they're even more grateful in Tirana," Albright said during a March 14 visit with the Task Force in the State Department's Operations Center. "You are doing 'real people work, ' which is what foreign policy is actually all about," she told them. Following is the State Department transcript of her remarks: (begin transcript)DEPARTMENT OF STATEREMARKS BY SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT VISITING ALBANIA TASK FORCE, STATE DEPARTMENT OPERATIONS CENTERWashington, D.C. March 14, 1997ALBRIGHT: I am very grateful to all of you for what you're doing. I know how hard this is, and there are not huge numbers of you; but I think that this is the key to the operation, and the coordination among the various parts of this Task Force is just remarkable. We are very grateful in Washington; I know that they're even more grateful in Tirana. It's key to what we are doing. I think that American families here want to have a feeling that their loved ones that are coming out of Albania are safe. You are doing "real people work," which is what foreign policy is actually all about. So I'm very grateful to all of you.This morning I had an opportunity to talk to former Chancellor Vranitzky, who was telling me about what was happening in the Adriatic as he was meeting with some of the leaders from the government, or various parts of it. His mission is basically to get them to cooperate with each other, to reestablish some sense of control and security. He's terrific. I don't know how many of you have had contact with him, but I think he's very much on top of it in terms of looking at how the Europeans can coordinate with us through the OSCE mechanism. So we're staying in very close touch with him. Under Secretary Tarnoff has spoken with him a number of times, as have I. (Inaudible). Q: Madame Secretary, can you tell us the last briefing you've had, what the situation is, and what the danger to Americans still there is? ALBRIGHT: I'm looking forward to talking to Ambassador Lino, but the last briefing that I have had is that we now have almost 500 Americans out -- that is nonessential personnel, dependents and American citizens that have been in the country. The evacuation has been suspended temporarily for security reasons but will proceed. The situation in Tirana itself is somewhat chaotic, in terms of not having a government that is totally in control. I think that is the subject that former Chancellor Vranitzky was talking to me about. We are monitoring the whole situation, obviously, very carefully, not only through this task force, but in other parts of the government, and we will continue to do so. Q: Madam Secretary, some of our NBC people on the ground are hearing reports that President Berisha is on the verge of fleeing the country. Do you have any reports about that? ALBRIGHT: No, we don't specifically. Our information is that we believe that he is in Tirana, and again, we are -- Ambassador Lino is watching that very closely. (end transcript)From the United States Information Agency (USIA) Gopher at gopher://gopher.usia.govUnited States Information Agency: Selected Articles Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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