Albania’s bunkers moved to help tourism

SEMAN, Aug 3 – Local authorities in the Seman commune, Fieri district, were assisted by the Defense Ministry to remove dozens of bunkers built during the rule of communist dictator Enver Hoxha.
Hoxha’s regime built hundreds of thousands of bunkers — one of the most notorious symbols of the Stalinist leader’s regime – to defend itself from an imaginary attack from NATO and the former Warsaw Pact.
Many of them are still in place because their removal is too costly.
Former communist authorities made many tests before deciding to build the whole defensive network around the country.
The first thick-walled, domed structures made of concrete and iron popped up in 1968. In the following eight years, a network of an estimated 700,000 bunkers mushroomed along Albania’s sea and land borders and in its interior.
Albania never needed to use them, as Hoxha’s paranoid fears never materialized. Communism in Albania ended about five years after the dictator’s death, but the hundreds of thousands of ugly, and now mostly abandoned and rundown, bunkers still scar the country’s landscape, including its beaches.
In early July, authorities at the popular Adriatic Sea resort of Seman, about 120km south of Tirana, began clearing the area of dozens of Cold War-era fortifications because they are unattractive, but more importantly, pose a threat to tourists’ safety.
The commune had asked the Fieri prefecture which agreed and is supposed to make the payment for the work. The ministry offered the tank.
“People had drowned, were injured, or suffered due to their presence,” Seman Mayor Sotir Zarka told an international news agency.
Covered by moss, the derelict bunkers are blamed for the deaths of at least five holiday-makers, including two children and a 25-year-old woman, who drowned last year in pools around the “concrete mushrooms”.
“In this condition, they represent a big threat to tourists, and injuries are quite frequent,” said Zarka.
Workers pull the bunkers out of the water with the help of an old T-59 Chinese-built tank, provided by the army. Then, they smash them into pieces, so they are easier to transport.
The dismantling has proved both time-consuming and expensive, as it reportedly costs around 800 Euros to get rid of just one.
The mayor, however, was unhappy with the slow pace. He hoped that the lengthy work would end later this month after more than 45 days of hard and dangerous labor. That means that the Seman beach will be practically ready and clean for tourists next year.