I knew Congressman Lantos since 1987, when as a human rights activist, I pleaded with him to defend the Albanian Kosovar victims from the Serbian persecution organized by the butcher of the Balkans, Slobodan Milosevic. His personal experience under Nazi oppression had made him very receptive to people's suffering, and attentive to my factual presentations. He accepted the role of the defender of Kosovo both reflectively and emotionally.
He was moved and promised to help. And help he did. Tall, with a patriarchal look, but soft spoken, he forcefully denounced Milosevic's criminal regime in successive Hearings at the US House of Representatives, as well as in the many symposia we organized for that purpose. As a Holocaust survivor, Congressman Lantos knew well the burden of discrimination, the pain of suffering, and the destructive effects of torture and jailing. A former political prisoner in communist Albania and ex-Yugoslavia, I found in him a good ear, a noble heart, and a keen intelligence in grasping the magnitude of the Kosovo problem of human rights violations, and the deleterious effects on the victims.
In the summer of 1990, he was the first U.S. official to visit Communist Albania in 45 years, in an attempt to convince the leadership of the communist closed society on the benefits of democracy. I applauded him, but he returned very disappointed.
Congressman Lantos' statement:" I will never be able to express fully my profound gratitude to this great country..." fully resonates in me, and in millions of immigrants who succeeded here. I was able to complete my interrupted studies for the higher education thanks to a tuition-free City University of New York system and to the New York Public Library. As a penniless immigrant from Communist Albania I could study and do research work in these two world-class institutions. Congressman Lantos was appreciative of my experience, here and in my native country of Albania
I will always remember him and his extraordinary services to the public interest. And, Albanians all over the world will never forget this great friend of freedom and justice for all, including the long oppressed Kosovars. May he rest in peace!
Sami Repishti, Ph.D.
City University of New York
US Congressman Tom Lantos passed away on Monday at the age of 80 after announcing he was sick with cancer. Mr. Repishti is an author and veteran organizer in the Albanian-American community.
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