Former political prisoners end hunger strike

TIRANA, Oct. 22 – One month after the start of their protest, former political prisoners ended their hunger strike asking for faster compensation for the suffering under the former communist regime.
They were former Albanian political prisoners or persecuted who complain that the government has given to them only one out of eight financial installments they deserve.
The group of six former Albanian political prisoners said Monday they were ending their month-long hunger strike because of exhaustion and political pressure.
The activists have been protesting delays in government compensation for time they spent in jail under the country’s communist government.
The protest hit the headlines in Albania when two of an original group of 20 set themselves on fire to draw attention to their plight. They both survived.
More than 20 people began the strike last month, but only six strikers were left on Monday. The rest became sick or injured, with two protestors setting themselves on fire to draw attention to their cause.
The group says they will resume their protest, which included camping in the downtown area of the capital, Tirana, in the future. A court ruled last week that the protest was illegal.
The protestors want the government to compensate all the victims of the harsh rule of communist dictator Enver Hoxha, demanding that it honor its pledge to pay each victim 2,000 leks ($18.50) for each day spent in prison or in internment camps.
Officials say the government has already begun making the payments.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha said that some $100 million in cash or privatization vouchers, more than 2,000 apartments and pensions were given to thousands of former political persecuted. Albania’s justice ministry has received more than 20,000 requests for compensation under the law. His government has branded the protesters puppets of the political opposition, refused dialogue, and rejected accusations of callousness.
The hunger strike proved to be a tool of showing the power. On one side, the formerpolitical persecuted stood fast in their request despite listening to many bad words called on them from the government. They also said they suffered pressure from civilian police and lack of attention from the health authorities. Two of them were also arrested, one for allegedly setting his partner on fire, and the other for allegedly trying to deceive an Italian and earn money. Both were considered as arrested for political reasons.
The government, on its side, insisted that the strike was a political one and directly blamed the opposition Socialist Party leader Edi Rama for inciting that. Berisha called names on many participants in the strike and declined to even talk (not himself but even any other government official) with the strikers.
The opposition Socialists on their side tried to remain impartial and only time and again they made any ‘casual’ statement.
While some other smaller political parties, like the New Democratic Spirit of former president Bamir Topi or the Red and Black Alliance of Kreshnik Spahiu came to full and open support to them.
For the moment it seems that the government won. They ended the strike, somewhat to everybody’s surprise, and earned nothing on what they had claimed for. The government continues to call them political tools of the opposition, which both the opposition and the former political persecuted themselves have strongly turned down.
It was not a good development for Albania’s image in the world and also for the premier’s one. That also comes only months ahead of the parliamentary elections next year. Some of the hunger strikers explicitly said they will no more cast their ballots for the governing Democratic Party, as they have done in the last two post-communist decades.
It should also be noted they were not fully supported by all their former political persecuted in the country. They are divided in many groupings. The population also did not show any great public support to the hunger strike.
But they may claim success at least for the awareness they raised among the international community. Starting with the U.S. Ambassador Alexander Arvizu to continue with the EU one Ettore Sequi, the OSCE’s Eugen Wollfarth and other western ones, all showed their support to their cause and insisted that the government should sit down and talk with them.
That did not happen, despite the fact that such a call also came directly from the U.S. Department of State and that may be considered as a big minus to the government.
Tens of thousands of Albanians were killed, executed or imprisoned between 1944, when the Nazis were driven out of Albania, and 1990, when communist rule collapsed.