Erik Lloga

Last updated

Erik Lloga

OAM
Born1949
Ohrid, Yugoslavia (present-day North Macedonia)
Alma mater Melbourne University
Occupation(s)sociologist, government advisor and interpreter, community leader and spokesman

Erik Shaip Lloga OAM (born 1949) is an Albanian Australian sociologist from Melbourne and an Albanian community leader. [1] [2] [3] He came to national attention in Australia during the Kosovo crisis (1999) where Lloga served as an interlocutor between temporarily resettled Kosovo Albanian refugees and the Australian Federal Government. [4]

Life

Erik Shaip Lloga was born in 1948 in Ohrid. [1] [5] [3] His father was Lutfi Lloga. [6] In Yugoslavia, Erik Lloga completed high school. [3] During the 1960s, he fled Yugoslavia to avoid military service (later sentenced 10 years in absentia). [1] [5] He went to London and migrated through the UK assisted passage scheme to Sydney and later Melbourne. [1] [5] Lloga found factory employment, attended and graduated from Melbourne University with a sociology degree and was an activist within the Labor Party. [1] [5] [3] He later worked in prominent roles in the public service related to welfare and social policy. [5] For some years he was employed at the Brunswick Council working for the mayor regarding strategy planning in inner Melbourne. [1] At Victoria University of Technology (VUT), Lloga became a Research Assistant in 1993. [5] He became a sociologist after completing his Master's degree and a doctorate in Sociology. [3]

Lloga was in possession of a 300 year old Quran from Ohrid, smuggled out by his father Lutfi to prevent its destruction by Yugoslav communist authorities. [6] In the late 1990s, Lloga donated the Quran to the Shepparton Albanian Mosque to celebrate the establishment of a community centre extension to the mosque, later given to Museums Victoria (late 2000s). [6]

During the Kosovo crisis (1999), Lloga became the spokesman for the Melbourne Albanian community. [1] In Melbourne, Lloga was chairman of the North Carlton based Albania-Australia Community Association who was involved in temporarily resettling Kosovo Albanian refugees. [7] [8] [9] He served as the personal interpreter for Australian prime minister John Howard during Operation Safe Haven and was an advisor to the Federal Government. [7] Lloga became the main interlocutor and go between for Australian authorities and Kosovo refugees. [4] During these events, Lloga was also engaged in countering disinformation from Australian based Slavic and Greek lobbies about Albanians and the conflict. [3]

Following the end of the war, the UNHCR declared Kosovo safe in July and the Australian government decided to return 3,900 refugees. [10] Lloga opposed the government returning them and expressed concerns for their safety, especially those from areas neighbouring Kosovo still under Serb control. [10] [11] The refugees did a hunger strike and Lloga attempted to dissuade them from continuing and was sympathetic to their cause to delaying their return as there were vulnerable people at risk of death if back in their homeland. [12] [9] In early April 2000, the Kosovo refugees were sent back by Australia and Lloga accompanied them without any immigration officials. [13] Lloga described his experience on Melbourne's 744 ABC radio. [14] In Kosovo, Lloga took the refugees to local police stations and through his funds fed some of them, as Australian authorities provided no money to aid their return. [14] Lloga took some refugees to aid agencies who were unprepared for their return. [14] He did many radio interviews in a period of a week from Pristina describing how the Australian government left the refugees without assistance and in conditions of having to fend for themselves and a destitute state. [14] A week later, Rehame media monitoring service reported that Lloga's radio interview's had influenced caller opinion resulting in a "massive swing" against the Australian government's refugee repatriations. [15]

In the 2002 Queen's Birthday Honours, Lloga's contribution toward multicultural affairs and the Albanian community during the Kosovo crisis were recognised in Australia and he was awarded the Order of Australia medal. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kosovo War</span> 1998–1999 armed conflict in Kosovo

The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kosovo</span> Country in Southeast Europe

Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo is a country in Southeast Europe with partial diplomatic recognition. Kosovo lies landlocked in the centre of the Balkans, bordered by Serbia to the north and east, North Macedonia to the southeast, Albania to the southwest, and Montenegro to the west. Most of central Kosovo is dominated by the vast plains and fields of Metohija and the Kosovo field. The Accursed Mountains and Šar Mountains rise in the southwest and southeast, respectively. Its capital and largest city is Pristina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Horseshoe</span>

Operation Horseshoe was a 1999 alleged plan to ethnically cleanse Albanians in Kosovo. The plan was to be carried out by Serbian police and the Yugoslav army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adem Jashari</span> Commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (1955–1998)

Adem Jashari was one of the founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a Kosovo Albanian separatist militia which fought for the secession of Kosovo from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244</span> 1999 resolution establishing Kosovos UNMIK

United Nations Security Council resolution 1244, adopted on 10 June 1999, after recalling resolutions 1160 (1998), 1199 (1998), 1203 (1998) and 1239 (1999), authorised an international civil and military presence in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and established the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). It followed an agreement by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević to terms proposed by President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari and former Prime Minister of Russia Viktor Chernomyrdin on 8 June, involving withdrawal of all Yugoslav state forces from Kosovo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kosovo Albanians</span> Ethnic group in the Balkans

The Albanians of Kosovo, also commonly called Kosovo Albanians, Kosovan Albanians or Kosovars, constitute the largest ethnic group in Kosovo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mazhar Krasniqi</span> New Zealand community leader (1931–2019)

Mazhar Shukri Krasniqi (1931–2019) was a New Zealand Muslim and Albanian community leader of Kosovar Albanian descent, businessman and human rights activist. He was both the first president of the New Zealand Albanian Civic League and Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (FIANZ).

Albanian Australians are residents of Australia who have Albanian heritage or descent; many are from Albania and North Macedonia but some are from Kosovo, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, Bosnia and Italy. Albanian Australians are a geographically dispersed community; the largest concentrations are in the Melbourne suburb Dandenong and in the regional city Shepparton, both of which are in Victoria. The Albanian community has been present in Australia for a long period, and its presence in the country is unproblematic and peaceful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kosovo–Turkey relations</span> Bilateral relations

Kosovo–Turkey relations are the historic and current relations between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Turkey. Kosovo has an embassy in Ankara and Turkey has an embassy in Prishtina. Both nations are predominantly Muslim and have sought to join the EU.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australia–Kosovo relations</span> Bilateral relations

Australia–Kosovo relations refer to the bilateral relations of Australia and Kosovo. Kosovo and Australia officially established diplomatic relations on 21 May 2008. Kosovo has an embassy in Canberra, which was opened in February 2013. The Ambassador of Australia to Kosovo is subordinate to the embassy in Vienna.

The Albanian diaspora are the ethnic Albanians and their descendants living outside of Albania, Kosovo, southeastern Montenegro, western North Macedonia, southeastern Serbia, northwestern Greece and Southern Italy.

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Christianity in Kosovo has a long-standing tradition dating to the Roman Empire. The entire Balkan region had been Christianized by the Roman, Byzantine, First Bulgarian Empire, Serbian Kingdom, Second Bulgarian Empire, and Serbian Empire till 13th century. After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 until 1912, Kosovo was part of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, and a high level of Islamization occurred. During the time period after World War II, Kosovo was ruled by secular socialist authorities in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). During that period, Kosovars became increasingly secularized. Today, 90% of Kosovo's population are from Muslim family backgrounds, most of whom are ethnic Albanians, but also including Slavic speakers and Turks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Security Council Resolution 1160</span> United Nations Security Council resolution

United Nations Security Council resolution 1160, adopted on 31 March 1998, after noting the situation in Kosovo, the council, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, imposed an arms embargo and economic sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, hoping to end the use of excessive force by the government.

United Nations Security Council resolution 1199, adopted on 23 September 1998, after recalling Resolution 1160 (1998), the Council demanded that the Albanian and Yugoslav parties in Kosovo end hostilities and observe a ceasefire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albania–Yugoslav border incident (April 1999)</span> Border incident between Albania and Yugoslavia

An incident took place on the Albania–Yugoslav border in April 1999 when the Yugoslav Army shelled several Albanian border towns around Krumë, Tropojë. In these villages, refugees were being housed after fleeing the ongoing war in Kosovo by crossing into Albania. On 13 April 1999, Yugoslav infantry entered Albanian territory to close off an area that was used by the KLA to stage attacks against Yugoslav targets.

Kosovo is the birthplace of the Albanian nationalist movement which emerged as a response to the Eastern Crisis of 1878. In the immediate aftermath of the Russo-Ottoman war, the Congress of Berlin proposed partitioning Ottoman Albanian inhabited lands in the Balkans among neighbouring countries. The League of Prizren was formed by Albanians to resist those impositions. For Albanians those events have made Kosovo an important place regarding the emergence of Albanian nationalism. During the remainder of the late Ottoman period various disagreements between Albanian nationalists and the Ottoman Empire over socio-cultural rights culminated in two revolts within Kosovo and adjacent areas. The Balkan Wars (1912–13) ending with Ottoman defeat, Serbian and later Yugoslav sovereignty over the area generated an Albanian nationalism that has become distinct to Kosovo stressing Albanian language, culture, and identity within the context of secession from Serbia. Pan-Albanian sentiments are also present and historically have been achieved only once when part of Kosovo was united by Italian Axis forces to their protectorate of Albania during the Second World War.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Destruction of Albanian heritage in Kosovo</span>

The architectural heritage of the Kosovo Albanians during Yugoslav rule was shown institutionalised disregard for decades prior to outright conflict at the end of the 20th century. Numerous Albanian cultural sites in Kosovo were destroyed during the period of Yugoslav rule and especially the Kosovo conflict (1998-1999) which constituted a war crime violating the Hague and Geneva Conventions. In all, 225 out of 600 mosques in Kosovo were damaged, vandalised, or destroyed alongside other Islamic architecture during the conflict. Additionally 500 Albanian owned kulla dwellings and three out of four well-preserved Ottoman period urban centres located in Kosovo cities were badly damaged resulting in great loss of traditional architecture. Kosovo's public libraries, of which 65 out of 183 were completely destroyed, amounted to a loss of 900,588 volumes, while Islamic libraries sustained damage or destruction resulting in the loss of rare books, manuscripts and other collections of literature. Archives belonging to the Islamic Community of Kosovo, records spanning 500 years, were also destroyed. During the war, Islamic architectural heritage posed for Yugoslav Serb paramilitary and military forces as Albanian patrimony with destruction of non-Serbian architectural heritage being a methodical and planned component of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Jakubowicz, Andrew; Moustafine, Mara (2010). "Living on the Outside: cultural diversity and the transformation of public space in Melbourne". Cosmopolitan Civil Societies. 2 (3): 57. doi: 10.5130/CCS.V2I3.1603 . S2CID   145245876.
  2. ↑ Carr 2011 , pp. 175, 185.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Aliu, Ali (2004). Prespa në Australi [Prespa in Australia] (in Albanian). Interlingua. p. 76. ISBN   9789989229336.
  4. 1 2 Carr 2011 , pp. 161, 172–173, 175, 185, 192, 199, 200–201, 212, 219, 237.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 York, Barry (1999). "Erik Lloga interviewed by Barry York". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 "Qur'an - Silvi Xhami, Albanian, circa 1700-1750". Museums Victoria Collections. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  7. 1 2 Jupp, James (2001). The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 167. ISBN   9780521807890.
  8. ↑ Carr 2011 , p. 161.
  9. 1 2 Taylor, Savitri (2000). "Protection or Prevention - A Close Look at the Temporary Safe Haven Visa Class" (PDF). UNSW Law Journal. 23: 80.
  10. 1 2 Carr 2011 , pp. 218–219.
  11. ↑ Carr, Robert (2018). Generosity and Refugees: The Kosovars in Exile. Brill. p. 225. ISBN   9789004344129.
  12. ↑ Carr 2011 , pp. 237, 243.
  13. ↑ Carr 2011 , p. 267.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Carr 2011 , p. 268.
  15. ↑ Carr, Robert A. (2011). The Kosovar refugees: The experience of providing temporary safe haven in Australia (Ph.D.). University of Wollongong. p. 269. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  16. ↑ "Erik Shaip Lloga (Award ID 1040789)". Australian Honours Search Facility. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
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