Albanians have been troubled this week by a series of attacks and attempted attacks using small amounts of explosives to target public places as well as the home of a police official and a pharmacy owned by the family of the interior minister.
No one was hurt in the attacks, but they clearly aimed to intimate law enforcement officials and cause fear in the community. It is no wonder then that they have have been labeled “terrorist acts” by authorities.
While the use of small explosive devices in acts of targeted violence is not new in Albania, what happened this week is troubling because of it shows an escalation of the trend. It is the first time the family of a cabinet minister has been targeted and the first time such explosive devices have been left in a public place like a bus shelter or a street near a high school.
This escalation makes it even more urgent to find those responsible as soon as possible and bring them to justice.
We don’t know yet their motives but it is safe to assume criminal groups are unhappy to see attempts to make rule of law stronger and believe that through the use of such tactics they can make authorities back off. The opposite will likely be true as law enforcement authorities appear to be more determined than ever to carry on their work.
Everyone in the country must offer full support to law enforcement authorities in the fight against crime, but we have seen this week attempts by both sides of the political spectrum to inject politics in this fight. The response to the attacks took a political dimension as part of the ongoing debate over crime rates and the ability of police to fight crime.
The opposition Democratic Party said the increase in the number of crimes comes as the result of poor work by police and authorities under the Socialist government. They added many police officials hired by the Socialist-led government are linked to crime.
It is a charge the ruling Socialist Party vehemently denies, and its leaders have said they will sue the opposition for slander. They say they are actually fixing the mess in law and order left over from the eight-year rule of the Democratic Party.
It is not a healthy debate at this time. Albania is a highly politicized society, but certain sectors of a modern society need politics to stay out of them in day-to-day operations. Politicians need to be in charge of managing overall strategies and leave the ground work to the professionals — in this case investigators and police.
But that hasn’t been the case. For example, the government and the opposition have exchanged accusations on this topic in the parliamentary discussion Thursday in a language that is unbecoming for members of parliament and government. People elected to public office are supposed to represent the best a country has to offer in terms of ethical and moral language. Insults and smears have become the norm in the Albanian parliament for many years, and unfortunately this legislature appears to be no different than previous ones.
At the end of the day, this new trend of using violence as a means of intimidation and coercion is troubling for Albanian society. It is best for all political parties not to politicize of the attacks. They should instead allow law enforcement authorities to do their job, thoroughly investigate these acts and to identify and prosecute those responsible.
