Ακίνδυνα Οστά

QUESTION: ... Congressman Donald Payne ... criticized the Albanian Government and the Department of State ... to facilitate the retrieval of the remains of Gregory Stavrou, who was executed by the Hoxha regime in 1953. He was an intelligent operative for Greece who's (inaudible) were shared with the U.S. Government too. According to the same statement, Mr. Casey, his brother, a prominent professor here in the town, has by his own means located the place of his execution and the burial, but the American Embassy in Tirana takes the word of the Albanian Minister of the Interior which claims ignorance in his burial place. Yet, the Embassy refuses to tell the professor why Albania pleads such a type of ignorance.

Question: What problem does the American Embassy in Tirana sees thus far declines to formally request from the Foreign Ministry permission for an American citizen to retrieve the remains of his brother? He knows where they are. Is the Department of State still honoring Enver Hoxha's secrecy laws mainly still on the Albanian books?

MR. CASEY: Well, Mr. Lambros --

Daily Press Briefing
Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
October 19, 2006