In the third day of the protests against the killing of the 25-year-old Klodian Rasha, the protesters continued to clash with the police, although not on the same scale as yesterday. The police started earlier to throw tear gas and water to the protesters, to avoid the formation of large groups and the repetition of last night scenes, where dozens of protesters and police officers clashed violently. Nevertheless, the protesters continued to throw stones and other objects against the police, in different segments around the city center. Media reported that the quantity of the tear gas affected also other citizens, who weren’t part of the protests. Meanwhile, protests were organized also in different cities across Albania.
While last night saw the resignation of the Minister of Interior Sandër Lleshaj, the protesters are demanding also the resignation of the General Directior of the Police Ardi Veliu, and full transparency regarding the killing of Rasha. The on-going protests saw another political clash between the socialist majority and the opposition. One day after Prime Minister Rama apologized for what he described as an “inexplicable and completely unreasonable” killing, he accused the President Ilir Meta and the leader of the opposition Lulzim Basha for igniting the violent protests for political gains. “The opposition and the president are not only the inciters but also the orchestrators of the violence which is demeaning Klodian’s memory, allegedly in the name of justice but in fact for their political purposes,” wrote Rama on twitter. Basha at the other hand accused the government of trying to manipulate the killing of Klodian Rasha, and again accused the police for using violence against minor protesters.
The U.S Ambassador, the EU Ambassador, the German Ambassador, and the OSCE, all have asked for peaceful protests, urging all the sides to not escalate the violence. The U.S Embassy through an official statement declared that “those seeking to be in power should demonstrate their ability to lead in a responsible manner, including by rejecting violence. Those who have been in power in the past should not compound past mistakes suggesting that violence is acceptable. The U.S Embassy calls on all sides to exercise restraint.”
In the same line was also the EU Ambassador Luigi Soreca, who stated through twitter that “the violence should be avoided with all the costs, by all the sides.” OSCE joined also the other institutions, declaring that the killing needs to be investigated properly while asking for the avoidance of the violence. The German Ambassador, Peter Zingraf, was even more direct when asserting that “only the peaceful protests can be legitimized as democratic.”
