Prosecutor asks imprisonment of Himara mayor

TIRANA, March 10 – A prosecutor in southwestern port city of Vlora asked for the one year imprisonment and a 5 million leke (some 40,000 Euros) fine for Vasil Bollano, Himara mayor, accused of abuse of post, dismantling road signs that were not bilingual.
In Dec. 2007 Bollano ordered the removal of the road signs arguing they should also be in Greek.
Bollano considers the area, a section of Albania’s coast which is very popular with tourists, as part of the Greek minority zone, claiming autonomy for the area.
Prosecutors said the consequent traffic chaos cost Albanian taxpayers about 170,000 Euros.
Tirana has been very careful in not filing any criticism against the mayor, leaving it to the judiciary to decide, apparently reluctant to behave harshly and spark a negative reaction from the southern neighbor, Greece.
The move has sparked anti-Bollano words from many Albanians saying the government should not be afraid of damaging the country’s EU aspirations and not protect its homeland.
Though close neighbors and with about one million Albanians living in Greece as immigrants, ties between the two neighbors have often been rough with Athens, member of the EU and NATO, reacting nervously against Albania.
A good sign of that delicate relationship was the fact that Greece was the last to ratify Albania’s membership and integration steps toward EU and NATO.