Documenti
25-26 APRIL 1997
1) INTRODUCTION
Since April 1996 the European Democrat Union [the Christian Democrats and other center-right parties
in the European Parliament) has sent five
delegations and observer missions to Albania to either assist the Democratic Par
ty or to observe the parliamentary elections (May
and June 1996) or the municipal elections (October 1996). The EDU Steering Commi
ttee received a full report of the Democratic Party on the recent developments i
n Albania. The Steering Committee
adopted a resolution and it was agreed that another EDU
delegation shall visit Albania when the circumstances doe allow.
In April 1997, DPA - Chairman, Tritan Shehu, formally asked the
European Democrat Union to send a delegation to Albania for
collecting authentic information and to advise the Democratic
Party on the further procedure in the preparations for the next
elections. This request by the Democratic Party was also
supported by the Albanian President, Dr. Sali Berisha. Hence,
EDU-Chairman Dr. Alois Mock asked the Foreign Affairs Spokesman
of the Spanish Partido Popular, Jose Maria Robles Fraga, to lead
an EDU delegation to Albania on April 25 and 26 1997.
The EDU delegation was composed as follows:
Jose Maria Robles Fraga, MP (Partido Popular, Spain, leader of
the delegation)
Christos Valtadoros (Nea Demokratia, Greece)
Henrik Toremark (Moderaterna, Sweden, European People's Party
Brussels)
Matthias Peterlik (DEMYC)
Alexis Wintoniak (OVP, Austria; EDU Exclusive Secretary)
The delegation met with the following representatives of the
government and of Albanian parties:
H.E. Dr Sali Berisha, President of the Republic
Bashkim Fino, Prime Minister
Belul aelo, Minister of Interior
Albert Rakipi, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs
Prof.Dr. Tritan Shehu, Chairman of the Democratic Party
Mr Meksi, Former Prime Minister
Genc Pollo, DAP Secretary General
Dr. Leonard Demi, DAP International Secretary
Mr Fatos Nano, Chairman of the Socialist Party
Teodor Laco, Chairman of the Social Democratic Union Party
Vasil Melo, Chairman of the Party "Union for Human Rights"
Zef Bushati, Chairman of the Christian Democratic Party of
Albania
Akil Murat Basha
Prof. Abaz Ermenji
Fatmir Mediu, Vice-Chairman of the Republican Party of Albania
2) MAIN FINDINGS
2.1 Security and state control
According to official sources the state control could be
reestablished in most parts of the country, except where the
"committees" are still operating, i.e the major cities in the
south such as Vlora, Gjirokaster, Tepelena. However, according to the delegation
's observations the degree of state control varies
considerably. According to many international observers and
according to the international troops, which landed during the
last days, the state authority is only exercised on a limited
level. Even where the state and local authorities and police have reassumed thei
r posts, they often are not in control over their
territories. Rebel gangs are also operating even outside the
cities held by the committees. Most courts and schools are
closed. Even in Tirana, which is still under curfew during night
time, it is not recommended to move freely.
The Government recognizes that the full restoration of the
legitimate authorities on the local level and the restructering
of the police is the highest priority now.
Bringing back security to the people certainly is the most urgent prerequisite t
o establish again statehood to the country of
Albania. Therefore, the reinforcement of the Albanian police must be the first t
arget in the restructuring process. In the course
of the riots the police and the military were badly harassed,
whereby many premises of the police and combounds of the
military, their equipment and their documentation, were
destroyed. A vast number of policemen, officers and soldiers
deserted and have not yet reassumed their work. Still, the
government is convinced that if all political parties call for
the dissolution of the committees and the restoring of public
order, this could be done by the police forces. However, given
the dimension of the criminal gangs and the very high number of
weapons around, this is challenged by many international
observers. The whole country is heavily armed, not only with
guns, but even with military combat material, such as missiles,
mines, explosives, etc. Many ordinary Albanians have collected
weapons just for having the potential to protect their
families'lives and property. Nobody believes in the possibility
to disarm the country now, since there is no trusting in the
stability and safety which could be guaranteed by a state.
In this environment, the international troops are all the more
welcome. They are expected not only to bring relief in the
humanitarian field, they are also urgently asked to help to
restore law and order.
2.2 The economic conditions
The economic progress made in the past years has been destroyed
by the riots within only a couple of weeks. The Albanian people
is confronted with even more poverty. Many production sites -
only recently setup with much effort - are destroyed. Not much
is
left from the economic growth of the past years.
There are not data available on the current economic production or on unemploy
ment. Still, Albania produces enough food to feed
its people find it difficult to afford them, but there is no
visible supply shortage. This has to be taken into consideration
when humanitarian aid is brought to Albania , since the local and all other equi
pment for the health sector are strongly needed,
since many hospitals were plundered and ruined.
In a short term attempt to overcome the economic crisis , the
government is printing money. This certainly is the major
macro-economic threat to the re-launch of the Albanian economy.
On the other hand many banks in the South were robbed by the
committees. It is estimated that roughly USD 9 million were
stolen by the gangs, thus fueling the illegal activities in
Albania.
2.3 The "Committees"
It is obvious that the riots earlier this year had one
spontaneous element and one organised element. The spontaneous
unrest of bitterness caused by the collapse of the pyramid
schemes was easily hijacked by an alliance of the old communist
structures (composed of former military, police and secret
service officials) and of new criminal structures active in
organised crime. Strong ties between the key players of the old
system and the new Albanian Mafia are obvious and together they
used the people in fury for an attempted coup d'etat.
Whereas the Democratic Party considers all committees as pure
rebels, the Socialist Party and the other opposition forces draw a distinction
line between criminal gangs and civil committees.
They are for the prosecution of the criminal elements but they
want to somehow integrate the "civil" committees into the
political process by providing them with a platform to express
their positions. On the other hand, the International Community , the President
and the Democratic Party insist that the committees are not regarded as e partne
r in politics.This is in line with
the Ten Party Agreement reached on March 9th, where it was
decided that all parties shall engage in the dissolution of the
committees.
However , the relationship between the Socialist party and the
committees is unclear. In a meeting on 27 March in Vlora ,
representatives of the Socialist party made an agreement with a
number of committees that called for the resignation of all state authorities ,
i.e. The President , the national parliament and
the local authorities and it was demanded to integrate the
committees into the political negotiations. In the opinion of the socialist lead
er Fatos Nano these committees are a product of
the crises, which was provoked by the police and the army. These
committees were setup to restore order and to take-up the
responsibilities which were abandoned by the civil structures.
Whereas Fatos Nano makes a difference between the criminal gangs
and civil committees the leader of the Democratic Alliance ,
Ceka, draws no division line but the regards all the committees
as
political forces. Fatos Nano acknowledges that the committees
cannot be considered as legal or official, but since it were not
possible to just dissolve them he is for integrating
them so that they are brought to an understanding that their
actions are illegal. Both the Democratic Alliance and the
Socialist Party are said to having had close contacts with the
committees from the very beginning of the riots. This leads to
the assumption , that these parties are following a classical
double strategy: On the one hand they play an important role in
the national reconciliation government ( the Prime Minister is a
socialist and half of the members of government are from the
opposition parties) and on the other hand they are tolerating (if not supporting
) the unrest in the South of the Country.
It has to be stressed that the committees in the South do not
only counteract the national authorities , but above all they
destroyed the authority of legitimate local governments elected
in ab undisputed election, on 20 October 1996. Therefore , also
those committees called "civil" can only be regarded as
anti-democratic and illegal and the Socialist Party and their
allies must be pressed to cease their support, to dissociate
themselves from the committees and to take take firm position
against them and thereby to contribute to the dissolution of the
committees. This dissolution of the committees is all the more
urgent, since the restoration of state order is a precondition
for the elections and the criminal bastions established in the
committee run areas( most of the prisoners who escaped during
the riots went to these lawless cities) need to be cleared.
2.4 Elections
As long as the state authority is not reestablished in all over
the country, no free and fair elections can be held. There is no
freedom of movement, no freedom of assembly, no freedom of
expression in the region where the committees are in control. All parties share
the opinion that security and order has to be
reestablished all over the country before the elections are held.
Although only the constituencies of 14 seats in parliament are
currently held under the control of committees, the government
and the President refuse to hold elections in the rest of the
country, and this would endanger the unitary character of the
country. Above all, it is expected that in many districts of
Albania, socialist candidates would face the same difficulties of free movement
and free election campaign as would the Democratic
Party candidates in these districts of the South.
The President of the Republic will setup an independent
commission composed of international advisors and representatives of all parties
to take a final decision on whether or not the
conditions for general elections are met. However, the President, the leaders of
the Democratic Party, the Socialist Party and most smaller parties are strongly
in favour of holding the elections
by the end of June. Especially the President repeatedly
reiterated this commitment to fulfill the March 9 Agreement of
the Ten Parties and the President. However, holding the elections in a free and
fair manner is regarded as even more important than the date. Two smaller partie
s (the National Front and the
Monarchists) favoured to postpone the elections to September
1997, when the situation in the country is more calm and quiet.
Given that the previous election campaigns were already rather
tough, this is plausible argument, especially when taking into
consideration that today Albania is heavily armed. This fact is
also a major concern of the government, as it is feared that a
hot election campaign with weapons in the hands of many party
fanatics might cause another bloodshed.
There is a major disagreement among the parties on the election
system. Whereas the President of the Republic and the Democratic
Party strongly favour to maintain the current majority system,
most of the opposition parties and the socialists are for
introducing a new proportional system, based on the 1992 election law. The Presi
dent and the DP argue that the country now needs a
stable majority parliament to back up a strong government for
restructuring the country. The socialists and many opposition
parties are for the proportional rule, in order to have a more
balanced parliament and thereby bringing back the political
confrontation from the street to assembly. For the smaller
parties this change of election law is vital and also the
socialists do obviously not believe to obtain more votes than the Democratic Par
ty in the forthcoming elections.
The President announced that there shall be further improvements
in the election law, providing for a double check of the entire
election procedure by the co-chairmen of the electoral committees on all levels.
Furthermore, the time on television shall be
equally allocated to the parties and supervised by a commission
as in the course of the election campaign in the 1996 municipal
elections.
The President, the government and all parties stress the
importance of international observers from the beginning of the
election campaign until the end of the election procedure. The
President, the Democratic Party are strongly favouring the
Council of Europe to exercise the political control of the entire international
election observation. They are strictly against
ODHIR assuming the ultimate responsibility for the international
observer mission, as they are recalling the fundamental
differences they had with ODHIR in the 1996 general elections.
The President and the Democratic Party Chairman explicitly
stressed that they are for ODHIR's participation in the election
monitoring, but that they insist that the ultimate political
responsibility for the election observation must be assumed by
another international institution.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- The reestablishment of security shall be the prime target of
the international troops in Albania. The support to reorganise ,
train and newly equip the police forces in essential not only for the country of
Albania but also to prevent the establishment of a European crime platform in t
he lawless areas in the South of
Albania.
- Humanitarian aid shall primarily focus on medicine and health
care equipment. Food aid must be carefully assessed, in order
not to destroy the still existing national food production.
- International support is especially needed to reestablish
order in those areas which are still under the control of
"Committees". First of, all, both the international community as
well as all
Albanian parties must in no way deal with the Committees as
potential political partners. This requires from the Socialist
Party and its allies to clearly disassociate themselves from
these Committees.
* Elections are to be held as early as possible, ideally by the
end of June 1997. However, the conditions for fee and fair
elections must be met, i.e.order has to be restored in all parts
of the country. Therefore, the dissolution of the Committees and
the reestablishment of the legitimate state and local authorities is also essent
ial for holding elections.
* The experts of Council of Europe and the OSCE shall contribute
to define a suitable election law, which combines the majority
system needed to allow for a stable majority in parliament, and
the proportional system providing a balanced representation of
the parties in parliament.
* International monitoring of the elections will be essential.
Given the major differences between the government and ODIHR in
the 1996 general elections, the overall political responsibility
for the international monitoring shall be carried by the Council
of Europe.
* The EDU shall continue its clear support for the Democratic
Party both on the political and practical levels.