Berisha tries to calm U.S. concern

TIRANA, Aug 4 – Prime Minister Sali Berisha tried to alleviate concerns expressed by a U.S. diplomat last week. The diplomat has voiced growing questions about government efforts to bring independent judicial institutions under its control and evict the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe from the country just prior to the general elections next year.
A U.S. diplomat said last week that the government was preparing a law on the prosecutor general in an attempt to reduce his enforcement capabilities and was trying to create a separate secret police agency, while hampering the investigation of the Gerdec blast of March 15.
Berisha said that was only a draft which was being discussed with international consultants, as well. He said there should be no fear of interference in the judiciary, adding they would work to assure such laws pass with a consensus with the opposition.
The Albanian premier also said his government had not asked for the removal of the OSCE office from the country. On the contrary, he said, he would ask international institutions to double their monitors at next year’s polls.
The Foreign Ministry also issued a statement, rejecting what it called disinformation from some media outlets of a request by the government to limit the OSCE’s role in Albania.
The ministry said that they were discussing, in the last three years of a re-dimensioning of the OSCE role in the country, a move that had begun with the previous government, adding that the Vienna-based institution specialized in election monitoring, for which Albania needed its assistance.
Reform in justice and other projects were some joint work they were conducting with the OSCE.
Opposition Socialist Party leader Edi Rama said that U.S. worries were a wake up call for Berisha. Rama considered those words by the U.S. Ambassador to be a real barometer of what is happening in Albania.
Rama further said that Berisha and his method of governing are putting Albania’s efforts of integration into NATO and the European Union at risk.
“Albania in NATO cannot be a country where free elections are threatened and where Albanians’ free will is endangered from the same persons who, in 1996, were involved in the state crime of manipulating the people’s vote,” he said.
Ilir Meta of the opposition Socialist Movement for Integration also opposed the government’s draft law on the prosecutor office, saying they were trying to exert pressure due to the investigation of the Gerdec March 15 blast.
Meta also appealed to the Socialist to stop their non-transparent cooperation with Berisha, beginning with the April constitutional amendments on new voting procedures.