The US Ambassador: Make It Work

These past few days in the political table tennis played of the parliament, or more accurately between the parliament speaker and the prosecutor general’s office, related to the investigation into the G쳤ec tragedy in which 26 citizens lost their lives and another 300 were injured, a new empire has appeared on the scene – Ambassador of the United States of America to Albania, Dr. John L.Withers.
It is quite on the cards that this absurd political table tennis will now come to an end. Nonetheless, we’ll just have to wait and see. These last three months since the tragic March 15th have been one huge disappointment.
What happened on March 15 and what has been the reaction of the state institutions? The colossal explosion of a military munitions dismantling factory cost 26 citizens their lives, men, women and children and claimed another 300 casualties. The massive eruption obliterated and seriously damaged houses and businesses, and contaminated an entire residential area. At the outset it was thought that this explosion was the result of technological or human error. However, thanks to the media, within a few days it became more than clear that the G쳤ec event was neither technological, nor human error. What was thought to have been a factory for the dismantling of military materials turned out to be nothing other than a very primitive workshop? Permission had been issued for this rudimentary workshop to be constructed right next to the main national motorway linking the capital with the north and south of the country and in close proximity to the country’s only international airport. The pictures of the former “plant” were absolutely shocking; children 10-12 years of age laboured in amongst the shells and other highly dangerous explosive materials. At this death factory where women worked side by side with the children in outrageous conditions, there were not even the most elementary of safety conditions on the job or procedures. Although several hundreds of citizens were employed in this so-called factory, the majority women and children, the company had only registered at the authorities its president. Later on the media informed the public that even though there existed at least two state-owned factories in Albania that fully met all safety standards, with trained and experienced work forces, the government had still gone ahead and rubber stamped the decision to build a new factory, on the very outskirts of the capital and a few hundred yards from the main national motorway and international airport by licensing a private and inexperienced company. And the story continuesŠThe local media claims it was the private company that had decided on the location of the factory and this company had even been issued a license before the government had passed the legislation that allows private businesses to deal in dismantling of military munitions or weapons. The file on the tragic event of the March 15, 2008 eruption contains many other details, but what can be said without any doubt is that this event has all the markings of an outright racket of corruption, and perhaps even a genuine attempt of state capture. This horrific occurrence proved the spectacular failure of several of the state institutions and agencies, which either were not present, or had operated in flagrant violation of the law and legal procedure.
In the wake of such an occurrence, what was expected was a strong reaction or reflection on the part of the institutions of justice; and also to bring the culprits before justice. But did that happen? A few days after the tragedy three officials of the defense ministry were arrested and the defense minister resigned. The request of the prosecutor general’s office to the parliament on lifting the immunity of the former defense minister ended up in the most ridiculous political table tennis match between the Assembly and the prosecution. The latter deposited its request with the parliament for the lifting of Mediu’s immunity as MP, but the respective parliamentary body replied that the request had not been backed by sufficient arguments. The prosecution subsequently sent supplementary materials to the parliamentary council, but this body began to assume the attributes of a court. And as if this dragging out of the procedures was not enough, the parliament speaker, backed by a number of other politicians and political parties, initiated an attack against the prosecutor general accusing her of tendentious intentions regarding former defense minister. The resigned minister, for his part, began accusing the General Staff of the Armed Forces as responsible for the tragedy. And although he was accused of having his part of the responsibility for such a grave incident with 26 dead and 300 injured, this former defense minister began a series of political visits to Kosova and appeared in public in meetings with the president, the prime minister, as well as in public conferences in Tirana at which he reasoned out his own innocence and the contribution towards Albania’s membership to NATO. Not only was the tragedy itself shocking, ludicrous and absurd but also the institutional reaction to it.
Finally, it appears that the US ambassador in Tirana decided to intervene to put an end to this grotesque and absurd comedy. His Excellency stated that the government of the United States of America appealed to every political party and leader to refrain from exerting any influence at all on the investigations of the prosecutor general into the March 15 tragedy of Gerdec. It appears that the US ambassador’s intervention was at a very opportune moment. It remains to be seen if this intervention will yield the desired effects. But if we were to look back in time a little, we would encounter quite a few occasions when the US ambassadors have diverted negative developments for politics and democracy in Albania. One such case was the intervention by US Ambassador Joseph Limprecht in 2001. While then-opposition leader Sali Berisha announced he would visit Vlora, the parliament speaker at that time and the interior minister declared that everything was in the hands of the people of Vlora if they were going to allow Dr. Berisha to visit or not. According to these officials, the institutions could not guarantee a normal visit for the opposition leader. The parliament speaker’s and the interior minister’s declarations back then were not only unacceptable for a democratic country, but they were also very dangerous, because, at least, they fanned the flames of violence, something which could have led to very dangerous consequences. The US ambassador at the time had a meeting with the interior minister and other leading officials, while he publicly declared that no opposition leader could be stopped from paying visits in his country and meeting his supporters. That was enough for the Albanian politicians to stop fanning these flames of violence and confrontation, and for the state agencies to adopt all the measures required to guarantee the safety of the journey and the life of the opposition leader.