MR. SHUTTLE CORRUPTION

A week ago the Bosnian authorities arrested a local businessman, Mr. Damir Faslic on charges of financial blackmail. The fact that Faslic had worked on or mediated for the involvement of the American lobbying company BG&R in favour of the Democratic Party of Albania in the 2005 general elections transformed his arrest in Bosnia into a front page story of the written media in Albania. Apart from the press, the discussion of all the links of Faslic with the Albanian Government dominated the debates in Parliament at the beginning of the week. The local press published documents, according to which, with the advent to office of Mr. Berisha in Albania, Faslic set up five companies in this country. Again according to the local media, not one of these companies had conducted any kind of economic activity and moreover, one of them, “Crown Acquisitions,” never operated and never registered possession of any assets. The Albanian Opposition accused Damir Faslic of money laundering and demanded explanations of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister. Basing themselves on three arguments: first that, according to the Opposition, Faslic did the mediation to bring the American lobbying company BG&R to Albania to help bring Mr. Berisha to office. Second, the local written media and the Opposition claim that the Legal Studios that registered the five companies of Mr. Faslic in Albania belonged to the daughter of the Prime Minister. Third, the local press and Opposition again claim that a relative of the Foreign Affairs Minister of Albania, Mr. Lulezim Basha was the administrator of the companies. At the peak of this highly controversial debate in Albania, Faslic declares in an interview broadcast by one of the Albanian television channels that he is proud to be a friend of the PM of Albania; that he was the founder of five companies in Albania and that it is not true that he sold any of these companies. Within seventy-two hours, after having been released from his cell in Bosnia, Faslic flew directly to London. Some hours later a private aircraft touches down on the runway at Rinas International Airport in Albania, and under heavy security measures, Faslic is escorted into Tirana where he records an interview at privately owned Albanian television studios. The Albanian story of Mr. Faslic does not end here. While one day earlier he declared when interviewed in London that he had not sold any of his companies, in Tirana his story changes and he declares that he had sold the company Crown Acquisitions to a Cypriot-based company called Altaria Research Ltd for 1.75 million. The Albanian Justice Authorities who had already initiated criminal processings against Faslic did not get a glimpse of Mr. Faslic, let alone the opportunity to detain him. Within minutes after the interview had been recorded, Faslic had been rushed to the airport and was on his chartered aircraft, destination unknown, before the Prosecution had time to react. We do not know what Mr. Damir Faslic had committed himself to with this shuttle mission. Perhaps this is the entire essence of a shuttle mission: a shuttle mission is the effort of a third party to mediate between two other sides, wanting to create a link between the two but via a third party and not directly. Diplomatic terminology calls this shuttle diplomacy. What is the essence of Faslic’s shuttle diplomacy then? In Albania, the allegations raised in the written media and by the Opposition against Mr. Faslic have gone from shuttle diplomacy to shuttling corruption; an allegation that remains to be proven. However, it is not only from the Albanian authorities of the justice system that things must be expected. An explanation is expected from the government and the Prime Minister in person as well. The credibility of the government and in particular of the Prime Minister in the fight against corruption has been profoundly shaken, for the second time since Gerdec. This Prime Minister who declares that his fight against corruption is his raison d’etre should at least assist in recuperating the badly shaken credibility ratings. We all recall the spectacular gesture of the Prime Minister who made his personal phone number public property when he invited the citizens of the country to phone him to report a acts of corruption by a traffic officers on the street, Court judges who ask for bribes, teachers or university lecturers who bribe students for better marks, medical staff who bribe patients in exchange for services that are free of charge. This is the kind of corruption which the experts in the field call petty corruption. However, one of the brilliant minds of political sciences maintains that this kind of corruption is like the NOKIA Mobile phone company’s campaign-‘Connecting People.’ And this kind of NOKIA mobile campaign is widespread in Albania and not only inside Albania. The issue is ‘shuttle corruption’ (if we can borrow this term from diplomacy). The experts of anti-corruption say that the word ‘shuttle’, in this case, could be replaced by the word, ‘State.’