Prisoners in their own homes for years, 12 blood feud children brought to temporary freedom in Tirana for Human Rights Day
TIRANA, Dec. 10 – The People’s Advocate, Albania’s ombudsman, recently brought a dozen children from families involved in blood feuds to his headquarters in Tirana to celebrate the Human Rights Day.
For most of the twelve children, this was their first trip to Tirana and a ticket to temporary freedom from isolation at home in the northwestern district of Shkodra. The six boys and six girls seemed baffled in front of the crowd of officials and reporters eager to speak to them. They usually never leave their homes, sometimes for more than a decade, fearing revenge.
The People’s Advocate brought them to Tirana under tight police security escort. Reporters and cameramen were asked not to mention their names and not show their faces in broadcasts.
The initiative was supported by local non-governmental organizations and the French embassy in Tirana.
Over the past two decades, hundreds of Albanians have been prisoners in their own homes, mostly in the north, because they are involved in blood feud cases following deaths of their family members in conflicts. The Interior Ministry reports of 67 families or 155 persons isolated at their homes. But civic organizations speak of larger numbers.
While there have been efforts from the NGOs to resolve such an issue, very little has been done or even mentioned on the fate of the hundreds of children staying there isolated.
Liljana Luani a teacher at a school in Shkoder travels and gives lessons to more than 30 isolated children in the city and remote villages.
She speaks of “unimaginable circumstances” these children live, often in need of a loaf of bread or a blanket to cover at night, in “extreme poverty.” “But they always love the moment I enter their houses, dilapidated rooms to get some lessons.”
Based on a code of revenge, known as Kanun, laid down hundreds of years ago when a man kills another, a male member of the victim’s family must respond in kind. That means the opposite family members get isolated afraid to venture from their homes for fear of being killed.
Although illegal, blood feud cases resumed with the fall of communism in 1990 and in the last 14 years there have been 225 murders, according to police figures.
“And see how talented they are,” Luani says, showing drawings from the children.
The kids also recited poems, filling the eyes of many of those present with tears. They told stories of how frightened they are, listening to voices or noises at night from around their house.
Moreover no one is taking care of the children, who have suffered a death and now they are “obliged” by the Kanun to take revenge, as the only goal in their life.
Last month a 16-year old boy killed a man and injured two others to take revenge for the death of his brother.
Technology aims to telp
Igli Totozani, the People’s Advocate, and Deputy Education Minister Nora Malaj used the event to launch a new project to use Skype to teach the isolated kids.
A previous project that had collected some from these kids at a center in central Albania was cancelled due to lack of funding, or “closed due to corruption,” Luani said.
“It’s better to open the doors of schools than those of prisons,” she said.
