Operation Pelican

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The operation Pelikan ( Italian Operazione Pellicano ) was a humanitarian operation of the Italian forces in Albania in 1991 to 1993rd

prehistory

In the winter of 1990/91 there was also a political turning point in Albania. The people rebelled against the oppression of the Labor Party , had enough of want and poverty. In the final years in particular, there were major supply bottlenecks in the People's Socialist Republic . For example, Albania received food aid from Turkey in the late 1980s . The country's infrastructure was outdated and ailing.

After thousands of people sought refuge in foreign embassies in the summer of 1990 and were thus able to leave the country, student protests broke out in Tirana in December, heralding the overthrow of the one-party regime. Despite the first multi-party elections in March 1991 , in which the communists won their last victory, the crisis in the country worsened. So in 1991 there was a collapse in supply and trade. The newly elected government of Fatos Nano had to resign on June 4th after a nationwide general strike. A government of national unity was formed for the next nine months . But their room for maneuver was limited: public order and the economy had practically collapsed completely. The state could no longer provide for its citizens; At the end of 1991 Albania should be 90% dependent on foreign food aid.

More and more Albanians fled their homeland in several waves during this time. Besides Greece , many across the Adriatic saw a better future in Italy . In March 1991 alone, over 20,000 Albanians reached southern Italian Adriatic ports such as Brindisi and Otranto . A second wave brought more refugees to Italy in June. At the beginning of August, the freighter Vlora entered the port of Bari with 10,000 to 20,000 people on board. The passengers of the Vlora and other migrants were brought back to Albania in military aircraft and confiscated ferries , because the Albanians were no longer institutionally welcomed as refugees from a communist country, as they were in 1990, but - supported by the media - perceived as economic refugees who are no longer seen wanted to record. The Italian parliament decided to collectively reject the migrants without an individual hearing ( respingimento ).

There were already around 30,000 Albanian refugees in Italy - and many tens of thousands were waiting in their homeland for an opportunity to leave the country. The Albanians' willingness to emigrate was to be weakened with humanitarian aid. The military should intensify the reconstruction and emergency aid in Albania.

“The Italians were hit by the pictures. When Albania's economy collapsed in 1991, hunger riots and general lawlessness broke out, they launched 'Operation Pelican'. For two years they sent food to the most remote corners. Humanitarian motives may have played a role. Above all, Italy wanted to keep the refugees at bay. "

- Thomas Schmid : The daily newspaper

Albanian and Italian foreign policy

Impressed by the waves of refugees from Albania, Italy, the Federal Republic of Germany , the European Community , the International Monetary Fund and other countries gave considerable emergency aid worth several hundred million DM in August 1991 and the following months . The Italian Foreign Minister Gianni De Michelis made repeated trips to Tirana in 1991 to persuade the Albanian government of Ylli Bufi to stop the exodus. On August 12, the Italian President Francesco Cossiga also arrived in the Albanian capital for two days, and a “security agreement ” ( Tomas Kacza : Between Feudalism and Stalinism) and an aid agreement with Albania were quickly negotiated.

The agreed letter of intent stipulated that Italy would send 800 soldiers to Albania to distribute international aid in the country. However, Albania stipulated that the Italian soldiers - 50 years earlier Italians were still occupying Albania and until recently Italians were an enemy of state propaganda - are not armed.

Course of the operation

Operation Pelikan officially began at the beginning of September 1991. The deployment of the Army ( Esercito Italiano ) as the main unit began in mid-September 1991.

A bridge across the Adriatic was operated like an airlift . In the ports of Durres and Vlora were logistics centers set up. From there, food and relief supplies were distributed throughout the country in a first phase until March 1992. In total, over 90,000 tons of goods that had been delivered from Italy were distributed across the country. Medical aid and supplying the population of the two port cities with medicines was also a goal. 200,000 medical examinations and operations were carried out. In January 1992, Die Zeit reported that 900 Italian soldiers were stationed in Albania. 320 trucks were available to them for the transport of goods. They were stationed in Durrës on the site of the former pioneer camp in Durrës Plazh .

In addition to the transport soldiers , four helicopters , patrol boats and units of the Carabinieri were deployed as military police and protection troops. The Italian Navy supported the transport with several frigates . The Italian Coast Guard (its deployment lasted from the end of September to December 31, 1993) had boats stationed in the port of Durrës and in the port of Vlora. She tried to prevent Albanian boats with refugees from leaving the port, already checked passengers in the Albanian ports when they were embarking, took on tasks of coastal protection on the eastern Adriatic and supported the army troops involved in Operation Pelican.

Operation Pelikan, which was originally limited to a few months a year, had to be continued in order to avoid hunger in the country. It was later reported that there was no legal basis for the extension. In 1992, 2000 to 2500 tons of food were unloaded daily in Durrës. The cost was given as 20 billion lire a month. Distribution turned out to be difficult: the security situation in the country was poor and many places could hardly be reached by road. Transport and security made the relief supplies several times more expensive.

From March to September 1993, relief supplies from the European Economic Community were distributed in Albania.

Under the title Pellicano 3 , Italian aid supplies were once again distributed in Albania from September to early December 1993. In the end, the volume of goods distributed amounted to 664,000 tons.

The Carabinieri also provided technical training for Albanian colleagues.

Units and leadership

The "Carso" and "Acqui" battalions were deployed during the operation, which was carried out by logistics troops.

The operation was led by:

  • September 16, 1991 - April 7, 1992: Brigadier General Antonio Quintana (he received the Army Cross of Merit (Croce d'argento al merito dell'Esercito) )
  • April 8, 1992 - March 5, 1993: Brigadier General Carlo Ciacci (for his service he received the Army Cross of Merit (Croce d'argento al merito dell'Esercito) )
  • March 6, 1991 - September 30, 1993: Brigadier General Antonio Tobaldo (he received the Army Cross of Merit (Croce d'argento al merito dell'Esercito) )
  • October 1, 1993 - December 3, 1993: Brigadier General Vito Carrlucci

Conclusion

“From 1991 to 1993 the people of Albania suffered from hunger. Operation Pelican by the Italians prevented worse. "

- Hans Peter Jost

The ambitious goal of the Albanian-Italian agreement of working together to avoid a political, economic and social crisis in Albania could not be achieved. However, food aid from Italy and the European Community was essential for the survival of the Balkan state, in which the infrastructure no longer worked, domestic trade and transport had collapsed and prices were constantly rising. Operation Pelican prevented a widespread famine in the country, even if the months of late 1991 and early 1992 were the "worst winter" ( Thomas Kacza : Between Feudalism and Stalinism) in Albania's recent history. Despite foreign aid, the situation in Albania initially worsened.

When Operation Pelican was ended in December 1993, the situation in Albania had stabilized and the supply situation improved to such an extent that foreign aid was no longer necessary and Albania was able to provide for its population itself.

The cost of distribution, which mostly flowed back to Italy in some form, was repeatedly criticized. Critics complain that it would have been cheaper to equip the Albanians for the transport tasks than to send Italian soldiers.

In addition, the food was not distributed to the population by the Italians, but only transported to the regional warehouses. Distribution was carried out by the Albanian state or - until 1991 - private dealers did not exist. Many aid supplies never reached the needy beneficiaries, who often had to pay for foreign aid. It was criticized that hardly the desired market economy structures were built up through the distribution system, but that corruption (in Albania as well as in Italy), the black market, usurers and foreign middlemen benefited. Some of the goods are said to have been sold in neighboring countries. In the 1993 trial, for example, the Albanian public prosecutor's office accused former Prime Minister Fatos Nano of misusing funds for food.

The presence of the foreign soldiers also meant that prostitution began to flourish in Durrës . Trafficking in women and its abuse were to be a major problem in Albania for a long time to come.

Through Operation Pelikan and the Italian army, Albania had contact with NATO for the first time , which was soon intensified. Albania itself has been a member of the Defense Alliance since 2009.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Albania - "Pellicano". In: Esercito Italiano. Retrieved May 24, 2020 (Italian).
  2. ↑ James Pettifer, Miranda Vickers: Albania: from anarchy to a Balkan identity . New York University Press, New York 1997, ISBN 0-8147-8795-9 , pp. 221 .
  3. ^ Raymond Hutchings: International Trade, Transportation, Supply and Communications . In: Klaus-Detlev Grothusen (Hrsg.): Albanien (=  Südosteuropa-Handbuch . Volume VII ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993, ISBN 3-525-36207-2 , pp. 398 .
  4. ^ Adalgisa Marrocco: Cosa fu l'Operazione Pellicano: quando l'Italia tese la mano all'Albania (che ora ricambia). In: L'HuffPost - huffingtonpost.it. March 31, 2020, accessed May 24, 2020 (Italian).
  5. ↑ a b Klaus-Detlev Grothusen : foreign policy . In: Klaus-Detlev Grothusen (Hrsg.): Albanien (=  Südosteuropa-Handbuch . Volume VII ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993, ISBN 3-525-36207-2 , pp. 153 .
  6. ↑ a b c Tomas Kacza: Between Feudalism and Stalinism. Albania's history in the 19th and 20th centuries . Trafo, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89626-611-8 , p. 304 f .
  7. ↑ Peter Bartl : Albania: from the Middle Ages to the present . Ed .: Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft (=  East and Southeast Europe - History of Countries and Peoples ). Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1995, ISBN 3-7917-1451-1 , p. 273 .
  8. ^ Maurizio Albahari: Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World's Deadliest Border . P. 41 f.
  9. ↑ Andreas Reich: The rusty boat of hope . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . August 8, 2016 ( nzz.ch [accessed May 25, 2020]).
  10. ↑ August 8, 1991 - Albanian refugee ship "Vlora" reaches Bari. In: WDR. August 8, 2011, accessed May 25, 2020 .
  11. ↑ a b c Thomas Schmid: European Champion Albania. In: The daily newspaper. May 7, 1994, accessed May 24, 2020 .
  12. ↑ a b c d L'operazione Pellicano. In: carabinieri.it. Retrieved May 24, 2020 (Italian).
  13. ↑ a b c Nicolò Zuliani: Oggi ci stupiamo degli albanesi, ieri loro si stupirono di noi. In: Termometro Politico. March 30, 2020, accessed May 24, 2020 (Italian).
  14. ↑ a b c Dirk Kurbjuweit: Clinically dead. Albania - the poorest country in Europe is at an end. In: time online. January 31, 1992, accessed May 24, 2020 .
  15. ↑ a b c d e f g Alberto Spagnoli: Pellicano: un precedente da ricordare . In: Guerre & Pace . Speciale Albania, No. 39-40 , May 1997 ( ecn.org [accessed May 25, 2020]).
  16. ↑ a b Vladimiro Odinzov: Il pellicano lascia l'Albania e 'finita l'operazione italiana la Repubblica.it. In: La Repubblica. December 4, 1993, accessed May 25, 2020 (Italian).
  17. ^ 24 September 1991. In: Guardia Costiera - La storia in un minuto. Retrieved May 25, 2020 (Italian).
  18. ↑ a b James Pettifer, Miranda Vickers: Albania: from anarchy to a Balkan identity . New York University Press, New York 1997, ISBN 0-8147-8795-9 , pp. 137 .
  19. ↑ Scheda - Dalla missione Pellicano alla missione Italfor Albania, cronaca dell'impegno militare italiano nella Terra delle Aquile. In: La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. December 16, 2005, accessed May 25, 2020 (Italian).
  20. ↑ Quintana Gen. CA Antonio - dettaglio decorato. In: Presidenza della Repubblica - Onorificenze. Retrieved May 25, 2020 (Italian).
  21. ^ Ciacci Ten. Gene. Carlo - dettaglio decorato. In: Presidenza della Repubblica - Onorificenze. Retrieved May 25, 2020 (Italian).
  22. ↑ Quintana Gen. CA Antonio - dettaglio decorato. In: Presidenza della Repubblica - Onorificenze. Retrieved May 25, 2020 (Italian).
  23. ↑ Hans Peter Jost: Albania. In: hanspeterjost.com. Retrieved May 25, 2020 .
  24. ^ Raymond Hutchings: International Trade, Transportation, Supply and Communications . In: Klaus-Detlev Grothusen (Hrsg.): Albanien (=  Südosteuropa-Handbuch . Volume VII ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993, ISBN 3-525-36207-2 , pp. 402 .
  25. ↑ James Pettifer, Miranda Vickers: Albania: from anarchy to a Balkan identity . New York University Press, New York 1997, ISBN 0-8147-8795-9 , pp. 85, 88 .
  26. ↑ Tomas Kacza: Between Feudalism and Stalinism. Albania's history in the 19th and 20th centuries . Trafo, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89626-611-8 , p. 310 .
  27. ↑ James Pettifer, Miranda Vickers: Albania: from anarchy to a Balkan identity . New York University Press, New York 1997, ISBN 0-8147-8795-9 , pp. 240 .
  28. ↑ James Pettifer, Miranda Vickers: Albania: from anarchy to a Balkan identity . New York University Press, New York 1997, ISBN 0-8147-8795-9 , pp. 217 .