DioGuardi: The Only Albanian To Have Ever Served in the United States Congress

Joseph J. DioGuardi, one of the most well known politicians of Albanian origin in American comes from the "gjaku i shprishur" of Greci, Italy

DioGuardi: The Only Albanian To Have Ever Served in the United States Congress

By Beqir Sina, New York, USA

In early 1990s, right after the foundation of Vatra, Legaliteti, Balli Kombetar (National Front), Blloku Independent (Independent Block), etc., a person whose name was quite well known in America, Joseph J. DioGuardi, a former US Congressman from upstate New York, provided Albanian-Americans with some very important advice – “you have not been able to do much for either Albania, Kosova, or Chameria, or for the Albanian in Presheva, Macedonia and Montenegro, because you do not have yet the ‘key’ to open the doors of the American government, senate, and congress.”

However, such a statement was not very well accepted by many patriots, democrats, who had been working for their nation and country for decades, even though they knew of little results they could have achieved. Although they were living in America and were aware of the way the diaspora and lobby groups work in the American system, these Albanian immigrants were organized in different groups trying to help the Albanian national cause, but it never occurred to them to seek for a congressman or senator in America who would be of Albanian origin. These groups were labeled as “country’s enemies” by the communist regimes in their homelands.

DioGuardi himself in many occasions said, “I believe that time has come for all Albanians in the Balkans, and especially the 500,000 in the U.S. to ask themselves about what they have done and are doing to save their language, culture, and history of the Albanian nation, and what kind of help have they given towards building an independent Kosova, free, secure, and democratic, as a strong basis for further progress and development of Albanians in the Balkans and across the globe.”
Now, the question that comes up is what this man has done and why has he done it…?

Well, the answer can be fairly simple. Born on September 20, 1940 in the Bronx, mainly populated by Italian-Americans, several blocks away from the well known Arthur Avenue on which a lot of Albanian immigrants live, he was baptized in the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, the same church in which his parents Joseph and Grace were married on January 8, 1939. His father, Joseph Sr., was born in the Albanian speaking town of Greci (Katundi) in Italy, in between Naples and Bari, in the province of Avelino. However, in March of 1929, during the Great Depression, in search for a better life, he moved to America, where he met Joe’s mom, Grace, whose family came to the United States earlier from Bari, Italy.

DioGuardi was raised in a neighborhood with people from many different races and ethnic background, including many Albanians who lived in this part of New York. In the late 1950s, he began to get acquainted with friends of Albanian origin and their families, some of whom came from Katundi to the Bronx in New York, as well. After graduating from the Fordham University in 1974, he confirmed his family’s Albanian roots, by taking a trip with his parents to Greci, which his father had not seen for forty-five years, and moved on to get involved in politics. In 1985 as he was attending a fundraising event for his congressional campaign, he met for the first time a group of Albanian-Americans from Kosova.

This is the work that has started since the spring of 1987….

Beginning in 1986, the Albanian American community, working with Joe as a new Congressman, started to get more organized and, in 1990 the Albanian American Civic League was established after Joe left the Congress. For over 15 years now, the Albanian American Civic League has actively and effectively lobbied the US Congress in an effort to stop the repression on them and to influence the American foreign policy in seeking a lasting peace in the Balkans. As a member of the US Congress, DioGuardi initiated several important congressional resolutions, declarations, and hearings in an enormous effort to bring the Albanians of Kosova voice to the US Congress and the entire world. At the urging of the Albanian American community he founded the Civic League so that Albanians would have an effective way to get their voice heard in Washington, DC and a way, at the same time, to inform the world of what was truly happening in Kosova.

With the situation in Kosova getting worse, at the urging of the Albanian American Civic League, the US House of Representatives and the US Senate in the summer of 1989 approved several resolutions such as H.Con.Res 314 and S.Con.Res. 124, which condemned Serbia for abusing human rights in Kosova. At that time, DioGuardi had decided to take a trip to Prishtina to witness the occupation of Kosova firsthand, so that he could then bring back pictures and documentations of what was truly happening in Kosova to convince the Bush administration of the atrocities happening there, because the US State Department for many reasons had decided to ignore the reality in Kosova under the Miloshevic regime. With support from Congressmen Tom Lantos and Ben Gilman, and Senator Bob Dole and twelve other US Senators, DioGuardi took his first historic trip to Belgrade and Prishtina in November 1989 with a letter signed by them supporting Joe’s trip and the Civic League’s Albanian agenda for Kosova.

When in Belgrade, DioGuardi phoned journalists from the national and local press as well as those of international media stationed in Belgrade for a press briefing in the International Press Center. At the briefing, he handed out over twenty articles including those published in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal on the extreme human rights abuses and crimes that the Millosheviq regime was committing in Kosova. The journalists attending the briefing were shocked by the articles they had never seen before. He also handed out to the journalists the letter that Dole and the others had signed which was addressed to Millosheviq urging him to withdraw from Kosova and notifying him that the US Congress was closely watching his actions against Albanians in Kosova.

When back in Washington, DioGuardi gave a testimony before the US Congress on his experience in Kosova

After holding the press briefing in Belgrade, DioGuardi was immediately put under surveillance by the Yugoslav Secret Service and when he arrived in Prishtina, he was met by tanks and heavily armored vehicles in every street of the city. He attempted to hold a press conference in the Grand Hotel in Prishtina but was not allowed to. Dedicated to his mission, he still held his press conference right outside of the Grand Hotel, in front of the tanks. As he was speaking, crowds of people started gathering around which caused the Serb police to take action. This was the start of the public confrontation between the civil Kosovar Albanians and the Serb security forces which lasted for years. When DioGuardi returned to Washington, he testified before the US Congress on his experiences in Kosova and showed pictures of the brutality that Albanians were enduring under the Serbian occupation.

Lantos had stated at this hearing that the occupation of Kosova reminded him of the Nazi occupation of Europe, which he and his family (Jews living in Hungary) were lucky enough to have escaped from.

In February 1990, DioGuardi traveled to Geneva to deliver to the UN Commission for Human Righst the list containing thrity names of Albanian peaceful protesters who were killed by Serb authorities. This list was found with the body of Hadri at the time that he was killed. A year later, the Serbian Secret Police Service (UDBA), which was completely under the direct control of Millosheviq, was identified as the killer.

The Serbian Embassy had tried its best to prevent this hearing, and yet failed to do so…

On April 24, 1990, the Albanian American Civic League brought ten Kosovar political and civic leaders including Dr. Rugova to Washington to testify against the Serbian occupation of Kosova in a Congressional Hearing chaired by Tom Lantos and John Porter, then co-chair of the Congressional Committee on Human Rights. The Serbian Embassy had tried its best to prevent this hearing, but yet failed to do so. Moreover, this hearing was so impressive such that is convinced Lantos to accompany DioGuardi on another trip to Kosova.

In late May, they arrived in Prishtina where they were met by tens of thousands of Albanians in front of the Grand Hotel with flowers and calls “USA – Long Live Democracy.” In response, the Serb military used teargas to disperse the crowds, beat many , wounded hundreds, and killed one. Shocked by what he had witnessed, Lantos had told DioGuardi that he would was dedicated to work to bring down Millosheviq as soon as returned to Washington. In July 1990, because of the public effect that this event had, the Serbian parliament banned DioGuardi from entering Yugoslavia for five years at the request of Millosheviq.

Three months later in August 1990 Senator Bob Dole along with six of his colleagues went to Kosova at the request of the Albanian American Civic League to challenge the Serb occupation of Kosova. When they arrived in Prishtina, they sadly witnessed how the crowds that had gathered to greet them were being dispersed by use teargas, while the Serb police would not allow Dole and his colleagues to get out the bus. Members of Dole’s staff managed to tape part of this event and this tape then was sent to the International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia (ICTY).

In January 1991, DioGuardi brought the chairman of the Parliament of Kosova in exile to Luxembourg to meet with Congressman Tom Lantos and Lord Nicholas Bethel of the British and European Parliaments to sign the common declaration on the creation of the Interparliamentary Group for the Protection of Kosova, which served as a strategy to further expose the brutal occupation of Kosova by Millosheviq.

In February 1991, DioGuardi testified before the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate co-chaired by Senators Joe Biden and Claiborne Pell. At this hearing, he publicly spoke in favor of the independence for Kosova according to the international law. DioGuardi during his testimony also presented written documentation provided by the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms in Prishtina on the crimes committed against Albanians by the Serb forces and a report by the Independent Unions Federation of Kosova on the destruction of Kosova’s industry and economy.


In June 1991 DioGuardi traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark to meet with the Albanian community there and to attend a Helsinki Commission Conference

Later on, in October 1991, a bill for which the Civic League had lobbied in favor, was approved. The bill banned US aid for Serbia under the Nickles-D’Amato amendment of the Foreign Financial Aid Law.

In January 1992, the Serb state-sponsored violence against Kosovar Albanian drastically increased causing more than 400,000 Albanians to leave Kosova and head for Western Europe and America till 1995. Seeing this tragedy unfold, the Civic League played the key role in introducing a well documented congressional resolution H.Con.Res. 264, co-sponsored by Tom Lantos and Ben Gilman, which called for the recognition of the independence of Kosova from Serbia in January 1992.

In 1994, Shirley Cloyes (who later became DioGuardi’s wife) came along and worked hard to convince the US Congress and its administration to end the occupation of Kosova and to grant Kosova independence based on the same constitutional principles that the four other constituent parts of former Yugoslavia enjoyed: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Macedonia.

In May 1994, congressman Gilman introduced another resolution H.Con.Res.251 which called upon president Bill Clinton to report before the Congress within a period of sixty days on the situation in Kosova and to make recommendations as to how the rights of Kosovars should be protected, not excluding the possibility of creating an international protectorate along with other members of the UN Security Council and European Union.


In 1995, DioGuardi and Cloyes were responsible for the congressional hearing on the Albanian dimension of the Balkans crisis. Many resolution and hearings followed…


In 1998 and until the end of the NATO war, DioGuardi and Cloyes remained in regular contact with the leaders of the UCK. Cloyes, a former publisher, with many important media connections, helped the UCK personnel in Switzerland and Kosova connect with CNN. At the end of August in 1998, DioGuardi and Cloyes flew to Albania to meet with the Kosovar Albanian refugees, most of whom were women and children. They also met with the UNHCR director in Tropoja.

It is noteworthy to mention that since the beginning of the Serb offensive in summer of 1998 till the beginning of the NATO’s air strikes campaign on March 24, the Albanian American Civic League received hundreds of calls day and night from Civic League members and others requesting the League’s help is finding out information about their families in Kosova.

In early 1999, Cloyes testified before the Committee on International Relations of the US House of Representatives after Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick and Henry Kissinger, in favor of deploying US troops to Kosova. In April, at the urging of the Albanian American Civic League, bills were introduced in the House and Senate calling for the armament of the UCK, indictment of Millosheviq as a war criminal, and recognition of the independence for Kosova.

On October 7, 2004, after two congressional hearings (one that lasted for fours hours on April 21, 2003 in the House International Relations Committee), for the first time congressional resolution H.Res 28 was brought up for the mark-up in the full International Relations Committee of the US House of Representatives, which calls upon the United States to declare its support for the independence of Kosova now. This happened as a result of the hard work and personal connections of DioGuardi and Cloyes on Capitol Hill.

In 2005, DioGuardi continues his work for all Albanians in the Balkans, especially for the independence of Kosova.

On the first day of the 109th Congress, January 4, 2005, the Civic League again with the hard work and strategic planning of DioGuardi and Cloyes had Chairman Henry Hyde and Ranking Member Tom Lantos introduce a new and tougher resolution for the independence of Kosova now as H.Res. 24. Knowing that the Serbs have in mind a partition for Kosova beginning at the north of Mitrovica, they have specifically covered the issue of the de facto illegal partition of Mitrovica which is against UN resolution 1244, and have asked the Congress to condemn this action. Judging from their past activities, it is easy to see that DioGuardi and Cloyes will remain actively engaged in Washington, in the Balkans, and around the world, as a strong voice for the long suffering Albanian people in the Balkans, especially in Kosova.