WASHINGTON, May 27 – Albanian President Bujar Nishani has awarded former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole with Albania’s highest civilian honor, the Flag Medal, in a ceremony in the U.S. capital.
Dole played a special role in mobilizing the U.S. Congress and Administration in protecting ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo War.
The former senator said he was thrilled with the honor he was given and that he always felt a special conection with Albanians.
Dole, 94, is a former U.S. Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1996 elections.
Senator Bob Dole is 94 years old and has been using a wheelchair for years. But he has a strong memory, his mind is sharp and has not given up on jokes, the Voice of America’s Albanian Service reported.
President Nishani, along with the ambassadors of Albania and Kosovo in Washington, and a group of Albanian-Americans came together to honor the senator with a special ceremony.
When the hymns of the two countries are played in the hall, the senator stood up in honor.
“You, Senator Dole, were among the first to try, resolutely lining up in the first line to stop genocide against the innocent people of Kosovo. You made a strong lobbying in the U.S. Senate for the freedom that Kosovo deserved and then for its independence,” President Nishani said at the ceremony.
Nishani said that Mr. Dole was in agreement with the highest and most sacred medal that Albania has given – the National flag decorations.
Bob Dole has repeatedly shown a special interest in Kosovo. He visited him in 1990 and was among the first and among the few voices that warned that the war was approaching in Kosovo.
In 1998, Bob Dole visited Kosovo again and warned that the massacre was now close. The senator called on Clinton’s administration for energetic action. He sensitized other lawmakers to demand that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic be sent a clear message to Kosovo, just as he had previously done in Bosnia.
“There are those who say the situation in Kosovo is complicated,” Senator Dole wrote at the time. “In fact, the situation is clearer than ever. This is a war against civilians, we know who is responsible: Slobodan Milosevic. “
