Minority leaders meet with Greek officials

TIRANA, Sep. 15 – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou met on Tuesday with the mayor of the Albanian coastal town of Himare, Vasil Bollano, as well as the head of the country’s Unity for Human Rights Party, Vangjel Dule, who is also a lawmaker in the Albanian parliament.
Dule said the talks focused on all issues affecting the ethnic Greek minority in Albania, including a fatal hit-and-run incident involving an ethnic Greek shop owner in Himare last month, which Dule described as “motivated by ethnic hatred”.
Dule told reporters that the delegation was concluding a round of meetings in Athens in the hope that there will continue to be cooperation for the benefit of the members of the ethnic Greek minority, both those living in Greece and those remaining in their ancestral homes in southern Albania.
The delegation also met Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas at the foreign ministry for further talks. Droutsas stressed that the Greek government has categorically condemned the murder of Aristotel Guma in Himare, and that “it is the obligation of the Greek government to stand at the side of the Greek minority, it is doing this and will continue to do this.”
Earlier Bollano — who also serves as president of the Omonia organization — and Dule met with Parliament President Filippos Petsalnikos and New Democracy vice-president Dimitris Avramopoulos.