“Prime Minister Sali Berisha has refused to cooperate with an investigation by the prosecutor-general into the deaths of four anti-government protesters in January. Instead, he has established a parliamentary commission, made up exclusively of members of the ruling coalition, to investigate what he says was an attempt by demonstrators to overthrow the government. This is indecent and grotesque. Surely, it calls for unequivocal condemnation from Brussels?”

Could you pls explain how did the Albanian PM fail to cooperate with justice ???? If you’re substantiating such claims simply and only, from the establishment of a parliamentary commission made up only by members of ruling coalition (opposition members choose not to participate) I think you’re falling short of arguments because the exertion of a fundamental constitutional right of every parliament of the free world to investigate, cannot and does not tantamount in failure to cooperate with justice or attempts to substitute its constitutional rights ! At the contrary the constitution allows both investigations with the difference that only the one performed by the prosecutor office can produce legal actions !

In a free country everyone (PM included) is free to speak its own mind about events and institutions as long he acts in accordance with the rule of law ! So far none of your arguments has shown he didn’t !

Berisha’s move is puzzling, but there are faults on both sides. You don’t have to be in Tirana for long to see evidence that Mayor Edi Rama has allowed a village of protestors to grow up and is simply ignoring Berisha’s remit as if the 2009 elections hadn’t happened.

I have no idea whether those elections were fair or not, but if you look at the electoral map you see a real risk for Albania. Everywhere north of Tirana Berisha had a majority, everywhere south the socialists did, and Tirana was about evenly split.

I didn’t feel threatened when I last went, but there are a lot of private security guards wandering around, many of them armed. There are those in the north who feel Berisha is being insulted and may well take matters into their own hands. In their eyes, their man won the election and the language Berisha is using is probably a little milder than they would use.

Berisha would probably argue that the EU can’t mediate between a sovereign government and a group representing the losing side, but the EU could try to calm matters down. Establishing a timeline for EU consideration would help with some clear targets – for example, that automatic weapons will only be carried by the police (because neighbouring EU states don’t want Albanians crossing minimally policed borders with guns, so a failure to tackle this would prevent Albanian accession).

What the opposition did in January 21 is an appalling attempt to take down through violence a legitimate government that came in power in 2009 through “the best elections Albania has ever made and where there was no evidence of manipulation” (quotation from OSCE report) !

Many foreigners fail to understand that if the Government’s building would have fallen that day in the hands of protestors not only most of Albania would have gone to anarchy the day after, but the spiral of violence would have gotten worst, since the message for the people would have been that not the legitimacy, but the violence pays off !

Before blaming Berisha for protecting the institutions, EU and all those who are for the rule of law should call for those responsible for orchestrating such violence to face legal consequences ! So far none of the organizers of the violent protest is officially under investigation !

While welcoming any form of compromise as a civilized way of solving problems, as Albanian citizen I think no one should use the lack of it, as a justification to overcome the law and constitution ! 20 years of democracy should be enough, even for the biological and ideological successors of former communists, to learn that power is accessed through vote and not by violence !

To Martin- Berisha refused to cooperate by not executing the arrests of the guardsmen being investigated for the murders of 4 protesters.

The guardsmen were kept hidden for more than 2 weeks inside the prime ministers compound. Just the act of the denial to execute the arrest warrants was and is a major breach of constitutional order. Instead Berisha attacked the prosecutor general with everything he got.

He declared and is still declaring that everything was a coup d’etat and the prosecutor general (Ina Rama) as well as the President (Bamir Topi) was the head of the coup. He gave this as the reason not to arrest the guardsmen. Finally some low level members of the guard were given to the prosecution after huge pressure from the US.

At this moment some of the weapons used by the guard are not yet submitted for examination (guess which ones) under different pretexts and the op-room servers with the recordings of the guard communications have disappeared.

Berisha and his ministers go on air regularly to accuse the prosecutor general that is following the investigation for being the head of a coup. Names used by Berisha in TV for her range from ‘street prostitute’ to ‘communist tool’. All this pressure while there is an ongoing investigation.

And to mr Brack – I read you writing about ‘milder language’ by Berisha. You must have a very bad translator sir. Since before and after January 21, Berisha language has been more than inflammatory. The speech he gave the evening of the 21′st is almost identical to Ghedaffi’s (there is a sentence by sentence comparison even in some newspapers and in some televisions).

He called the protesters drugged bandits, he said they were paid by terrorists, that no matter how many protested, he was never going to leave, he called for a mass gathering of his own supporters immediately after the opposition, he said that the protesters had shot each other, that the opposition leader should be arrested, that everybody touching the walls of state institutions was going to get shot and also that even 300 hundred could have died and that the protesters were frightened rats. Listen to Ghedaffi and you’ll hear the same sentences and concepts.

As for the division of the electoral results, it is not that clear cut geographically as to warrant some ‘risk’ of internal conflict, even if that is what Berisha tries to stress as to frighten foreign observers into supporting him, or risking some potential ‘civil war’ – which by the way mr. Sali Berisha risked in 1997 (also after he spectacularly manipulated the 1996 elections), and tried to foment again in 1998 and 2000.

Thanks for the comments. Graham, yours sound like the beginning of a good story for us. Martin, of course parliament has a right to investigate, but as I understand it, they are investigating slightly different things. Surely the most pressing is the one into the death of protesters? And the one that can lead to appropriate legal action? By the way, in any country, not just Albania, a parliamentary investigation is as likely to murk things up as clarify them. Lawmakers are not trained investigators and their inquiries tend to be, by their nature, political. Still, I’m not against parliamentary investigations, but they are no substitute for a probe by an independent law enforcement body. That idea really needs to be embraced in a healthy democracy.

To Alten – I will split your replica to my comment in two parts:

Your comment that Berisha did not execute the arrest of the guardsmen and that they were hiding inside the governments building is bias and not verifiable. In no country an arrest warrant can always be enforced immediately.

Truth is that within a reasonable time, all the people (commanders of Republican Guard included) for which the warrants were issued did show up in front of the prosecutors and it was up to them to decide who to charge, who to release and who to keep in jail ! This is the truth !

Truth is that they went in a court of justice and one was kept in jail and the others released for lack of evidence ! This is the truth !

Truth is that until this day, prosecutor office never accused publicly or started an investigation for the police not enforcing the warrants issued by them or for hiding evidence ! This makes your claims for the guard not cooperating and servers disappearing groundless and more of a newspapers gossip than factual truth !

Second Part

Berisha, just like his opponents (you included) is a free man, in a free country and can freely speak his own mind for the prosecutor, for the president, for the birds, for the moon and for the flowers if you like …… as long as he acts in accordance with the rule of law ! If he speaks the truth or not and if he’s right or wrong its for people to judge through VOTE

Martin, I will not go to the lengths of finding and posting articles with the exact dates to show that what I am writing is exact. The main reason for this is that I see from the second comment you are not just a common reader but most probably some government troll.

Just one example – orders for the arrest were issued in January 22. Agim Llupo, the guard head of staff until now 100% proven to be the killer of one the protesters and still jailed (the bullet matches his weapon, and he is filmed firing on the killed protester) was arrested only on february 8. That is 3 weeks later. He and the others were not hidden somewhere, but appeared on TV with Berisha and other guard members in the previous days while being praised as heroes and given 3 months extra pay as a bonus along with others of their unit. Llupo was not arrested and was protected by Berisha in the prime minister compound in a show of military force akin to a banana republic, not a European country.

The other issues like the incomplete weapons being not submitted for analysis and the fight over the servers are well documented in the media, both government sponsored and from the opposition.

As for the Prime Minister being a free person and saying and doing whatever he wants about everybody, including lying about the protesters being shot by their own people, and being armed and drugged and threatening the general prosecutor, the president and the judiciary council in the middle of an investigation, and you and Ana seeing nothing wrong with killing 4 citizens in cold blood – I have no comment. It just shows what is wrong with Albania, if you have a government with supporters like you and your view of what democracy should be like.

Alten I am sorry to read names, instead of comments and that only goes to show your debate culture, toward someone that has a different opinion from yours !
I never seen mr Llupo in any news edition with the prime minister but after what happened he ended up in jail ! That shows that he got no special protection from anyone but you need to know that justice cannot always be done overnight and it takes time ! You cannot say one is obstructing justice because an arrest warrant was not executed immediately, but one week or ten days latter,especially under the circumstances of a violent attack on state institutions ! In the case of Mr Llupo you should also know that the examination of the bullet showed clearly that it was a ricoschet and not a direct shot on a protestor !

As for arms missing again you cite newspapers ! Am sorry but so far I haven’t read or heard any public statement from prosecutor’s office supporting, implying, hinting or complaining for smith like that ! Therefore I’d rather stick with facts than with gossip !

As we speak there’s no evidence found yet that the other three victims were shot by republican guard ! Nevertheless I think we should wait and be patient for the end of this investigation. As Ana rightfully mentioned none of the organizers of this protest has been charged yet even though the protest was considered violent from all observers, but am not here saying that the prosecutor is bias ! I am waiting for her to finish her job without jumping in conclusions

Like many Albanians I’ve seen live what happened in 21st of January and I don’t think people were shot in cold blood. There were attempts even to push cars within the government building. Some people constantly tried to get inside throuing Molotov cocktails and stones to police and guardsmen. It was a shameful situation that made me feel insecure in my own home. Cars were in fire and people who didn’t agreed with the mob were beaten !

I feel bad for the loss of lifes and we all need to know how these people died and if their death could have been avoided, but I also think that no one should dare to overcome the law and try to take institutions by force, because citizens like me have chosen to solve our problems by vote and not by violence and I don’t really see myself after Twenty years of democracy going back to stones, sticks or Molotov cocktails whenever I disagree with the government. I want my kids to live in a country where government is changed through citizens vote and not by thugish actions !