President promises better care for those politically persecuted under communism

TIRANA, Feb. 5 – President Bujar Nishani on Tuesday met a group of representatives of the community of the politically persecuted during the communist regime, pledging to keep a close eye on their financial compensation and other topics of concern. The representatives asked President Nishani to immediately ask parliament to pass the lustration law, to lift the honored awards for ex-communist officials, speed up the compensation process, return their confiscated property faster and help the community with employment opportunities.
The president also said that he will ask the authorities to build a museum in honor of the community and turn former political prisons into museums. Nishani said that he would be very open and ready to listen to their concerns any. Only a few months ago, a meeting between the president with a small group of former political dissidents on hunger strike gave no results at all. Two of them put set themselves on fire and one passed away. Later another one died probably due to a sickness accelerated by the hunger strike, family members said.
The month-long hunger strike in Tirana from a group of some 20 protesters calling for the speedy disbursement of compensation for political prisoners of the former communist regime captured national and international attention. The strike ended because of the participants’ weakened condition. The communist regime ruled Albania with an iron fist from 1944-1990. About 100,000 Albanians were executed, imprisoned or sent to labor camps.