Thousands join Albania protests (Albanian on brink of civil war?)

bbc.co.uk ^ | Saturday, 21 February, 2004, 21:58 GMT | BBC

[Destro]

Last Updated: Saturday, 21 February, 2004, 21:58 GMT

Thousands join Albania protests

Up to 20,000 people have taken to the streets of the Albanian capital Tirana to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Fatos Nano.

Protesters tried to storm the government HQ two weeks ago

Opposition leaders accuse Mr Nano of corruption, manipulating election results and failing to tackle the country's acute economic problems.

There was a tense atmosphere, with hundreds of police officers lining the streets outside government buildings.

But the rally - said to be the largest protest for seven years - was peaceful.

A similar march two weeks ago was broken up by police.

A coalition of 10 opposition parties is pressing for Mr Nano to step down and call early elections.

They accuse him of failing to improve living standards in Albania - one of Europe's poorest countries.

'Stifling hope'

A huge crowd gathered in the central square, chanting: "Nano, go!"

There is particular anger at the sharp increases in phone and electricity charges, as well as the high level of unemployment.

"[Fatos Nano] is the enemy of the Albanians, and it is he who is stifling the hope of the Albanians," said Sali Berisha, leader of the opposition Democratic Party and former president.

The prime minister however has refused to step down.

He denies the allegations made against him by the opposition, and he says the aim of the demonstrations is purely to enable Mr Berisha to return to power.

Mr Berisha told the BBC the demonstrations would continue, and become more frequent until they achieve their goal and that he wanted fresh elections before the end of the year.

But he urged those attending the march to demonstrate peacefully, a sentiment underlined by other opposition leaders, who released doves into the air.

[GeraldP]

>>> or even that Albania is the disease Al Gore surely has.. cause hes not "normal" that guy..

That's hilarious.
Albania, however, is not nearly as bad ad Clinton's disease, Babillon.

[GeraldP]

>>>Albanian snack: plain bread with plain yogurt.

Toasted bread is better.

[joan]

http://pages.albaniaonline.net/repoba/zyra_shtypit/prel_eng.htm

While comparing the figures of the last Census with the ones of Aprile 1989, it is noticed that the population has been decreased by about 3% equal to 95258 persons.

1989 = 3,182,400

2001 = 3,087,200

[Jomini]

The smartest thing Mr Nano ever did was to hire Mr Fusion to revamp his personal security operation. They say Mr Fusion spent a good deal of time in Tirana last summer and fall. Mr Nano's building sits a hundred plus meters north of the canal and is ringed with anti-sniper and urban combat specialists.

Unfortunately this year will probably see premature expiration of a leading Albanian politician. Can't be Nano as DC needs him now...

The problem in Albania is a chronic economic squeeze due to unfair European Union trade policies. Greece and Macedonia continue to dump product in Albania driving the Albanian farmer and small shopkeeper out of business. In addition both the UK and US use the country as a pass through for monies and weapons in the fight against international terror.

These funds are converted through the gray economy to keep the government in power. Meanwhile electricity prices have gone through the roof and the DP is suppressing tax collections in much of the country. Dr Berisha seeks a peaceful overthrow a la Georgia.

Meta and Rama continue to dance around a possible alliance. Meanwhile in the Tetovo Republic veteran Islamic fighters continue to make their way north. Bosnia and Kosovo are the weak underbellies of the west...

If Albania goes under then the west will be collapsed in the Balkans. The Brits with probably the best feel for things in Tirana now...

Westerby

[GeraldP]

You are correct. The numbers I was quoting did include emigration to Greece and Italy. Instat (National Statistics Institute) give the following table

POPULLSIA ME 1 JANAR
POPULATION ON 1 JANUARY
Vitet	Gjithsej	Meshkuj	Femra	Qytet	Fshat	Dendesia
Year	Total	Male	Female	Urban	Rural	Density
1990	3286.5	1686.0	1600.5	1176.0	2079.9	114.3
1991	3259.8	1654.0	1605.8	1173.5	2086.3	113.4
1992	3190.1	1589.3	1600.8	1165.0	2025.1	111.0
1993	3167.5	1566.1	1601.4	1314.3	1853.2	110.2
1994	3202.0	1586.2	1615.8	1345.0	1857.0	111.4
1995	3248.8	1607.8	1641.0	1381.0	1867.8	113.0
1996	3283.0	1624.0	1659.0	1445.0	1838.0	114.2
1997	3324.3	1628.9	1695.4	1526.0	1798.3	115.6
1998	3354.3	1649.6	1704.7	1543.0	1811.3	116.7
1999	3373.4	1662.0	1711.4	1555.2	1818.2	117.3
2000	3401.2	1676.9	1724.3	1598.6	1802.6	118.3
2001	3418.1	1704.4	1713.7	1439.7	1978.4	118.9
2001*	3069.3	1530.5	1538.8	1292.8	1774.9	106.8
- Popullsia e viteve 1990 - 2001 eshte llogaritur nga INSTAT, sipas projeksioneve te popullsise
- The population 1990-2001 is calculated based upon Population projections by INSTAT.
*) Popullsia sipas regjistrimit te popullsise, Prill 2001
Population according to the population census, April 2001

The same page explains that up until the last nmber quoted for 2001, "temporay emigrants" were counted in the census projections. After recommendations by international organizations, Instat decided to exclude them. Thus the 3069.3 (x1000) number excludes some 340 000 "temporary emigrants", this still is a match for emigrants to Greece and Italy.

[DTA]

>>>>>>>I believe in the right of Kosovars to self-determination, and I choose to represent that by calling the place by the name over 90% of its inhabitants call it, Kosova. You want to call it Kosovo, that is your prerogative.<<<<<<

Your insistence on 90% Shqiptar population is interesting.

Since you are well versed in math, add this 2 numbers:

100,000 Serbs and Roma live in Kosovo today
250,000 Serbs, Roma refugees in Serbia and Montenwegro, expelled by KLA goons.

It makes total of 350,000. That was the population before the June 1999.

Kosovo Shqiptars claim that population of Kosovo was 2 million. If true, it was 1650,000 Shqiptars and 350,000 oothers. Shiptar population was MAX. 82% before the war, Not 90% touted by separatist supporters.

Yes, you are right, there are 90% Shqiptars in Kosovo today. This is direct result as a result of ethnic cleansing during WWII Nazi rule, uncontrolled immigration during Communist misrule and as a direct result of ethnic cleansing after June 1999.

Your support to independent Kosovo is based on your support of ethnic cleansing, as figures show. You have the right to support whatever you like, I have the right to call it by it's real name.

[AuntB]

"You have the right to support whatever you like, I have the right to call it by it's real name."

That was worth repeating.

And then there's this:

"Attacks on Serbs in Kosovo, a province of two million people, have risen sharply over the past year. Serbs, who now make up 5% of the population of Kosovo, down from 10% before the NATO campaign, are the main targets of the paramilitary groups. According to statistics collected by the UN criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague, 1,192 Serbs have been killed, 1,303 kidnapped and 1,305 wounded in Kosovo in 2003 alone. In June, 1999, just after the NATO bombing, 547 Serbs were killed and 932 were kidnapped.

The bombing campaign was partly launched by NATO countries to end what was viewed as a systematic ethnic cleansing program of Albanians by Serb security forces in the region. In its immediate aftermath, many Serbs left Kosovo to settle in other parts of Serbia and Montenegro.

While NATO was at war against Milosevic, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an insurgent group that emerged in the late 1980s to fight Serb security forces, were seen as allies. Soon after, they were regarded as guerrillas that were an obstacle to peace. Now they are viewed by many as outright terrorists.

While the KLA was supposed to be officially disbanded, it has carried on as a mafia organisation involved in the smuggling of both drugs and people. Some former members of the KLA joined the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), a civilian defence organization which is supposed to help local residents.

But far from helping local residents, the KPC has continued to do the work of the KLA -- to clear the province of all non-Albanian ethnic groups, with the ultimate goal of a union with Albania and the establishment of a Greater Albania, which also includes parts of Macedonia, Montenegro, and even Greece.

The situation with the KPC has become so bad that even the UN has had to step in. Harri Holkeri, the province's UN leader, suspended two generals and 10 other officers in late 2003, all members of an ethnic Albanian offshoot of the KLA. A UN inquiry into the KPC found that its mostly ethnic Albanian military officials have been involved in violent confrontations with Serbs, including a bomb attack last April on a Kosovo railway.

Much of the ethnic cleansing presently underway in Kosovo is the work of Muslim ethnic Albanian paramilitary groups who have come to be known as the "Balkan Taliban". In addition to murder and kidnapping, they have vandalized Serb cemeteries and destroyed many of the region's Orthodox Christian monasteries and churches. Serbs complain that it's a strategy of cutting Kosovo Serbs off from their historical and religious traditions.

In addition to the their ethnic cleansing activities, these groups have turned Kosovo into one of Europe's biggest hubs for drug trafficking and terrorism. The province has become an important center for heroin, cigarette, gasoline and people smuggling. More than 80% of Western Europe's heroin comes through Kosovo, where several leading drug laboratories have also been set up.

From The Forgotten War: Remember Kosovo? byJohn Horvath 17.02.2004

By the way, has anyone heard what sort of shape Montenegro will be in now that the president has died?

[Deb]

Didn't the last Albanian uprising start because the entire country got suckered by a pyramid scheme? On the up side, Jim Belushi was Albanian.

[GeraldP]

>>>By the way, has anyone heard what sort of shape Montenegro will be in now that the president has died?

It's Macedonia, for heaven's sake!

[vooch]

It is pretty clear that Albania proper and Montenegro suffer from similar baggage which constrains their economic development. It really isn't worthwile to go into why these two places have pitiful living standards, but they do.

However, what is certain that both Albanians and Montenegrians when placed in a climate which rewards hard work and steady investment they do well.

The number of prosperous merchantile Albanians and Montenegrians in the US is remarkable, given the utter failure of their homelands to exhibit any economic progress for the last few generations.

food for thought.............

[GeraldP]

Call me naive, but I believe Albania's problem is merely that it is still struggling for an identity. And what I mean by that, is that Albania still hasn't found a way to be "democratic Albania" rather than "no-longer-comumnist Albania".
Albanian people's psyche was profoundly affected by the relentless dictatorship they endured for 45 years. True, it is taking more time than some other ex-Communist countries, but once Albania finally settles into a democratic nation, economic development will steadily improve and I would not be surprised to see it in the EU in about 15 years. I see this happenning already, even though political stability remains slippery as long as we allow autocrats like Berisha and Nano to be in charge.

[DTA]

Can you imagine how Balkans would be looking today if in 1997 EU stepped in and promissed to gradually repay all initial investment to Albanian investors on condition democratic reforms are implemented and maintained. It would be less than $1000 per capita investment.

Can you imagine what would happen if NATO offered Albania to destroy stockpiled Xohxa weapons in return for access to European market?

Can you imagine what would happen if instead of spending $6B to bomb Serbia money was spent to build Albanian seaside riviera and highways to Greece and Europe?

It would be rational, but it is not the way it was meant to be.

Pyramid scheme was the trigger, looted weapons were the gunpowder, Kosovo war was the planned solution and the misery is the outcome.

Albania, Serbia are the garbage dump of Europe.

The 45 years under Hoxha are traumatic, but are not the sole ailment to be remedied. Nazi past is also problem, as well as experience of zulum (evil doing) under the Otomans.

These historical circumstances showed to Shqiptars that crime does pay and decent, honest people drown in turmoil.

Shqiptars, Serbs and Montenegrins are very much mentally alike. No wonder having in mind interethnic mixes. Once they escape devil's cauldron of the Balkans, they can prove what they are worth.Perhaps that is the clue for the way out.

YOur comment about Albania searching for an identity is worth note taking.

Albanian inventors, scientists, artists, composers, painters, novelists, performers were asleep. In the meantime, Albanian criminals have built reputation throughout Europe as the source of drugs, weapons, underage sex and violence. Pure heroin is called Albanca. That is the legacy, blame it on Hoxha, Berisha or whomever, it will not wash away.

If you ask me, national identity has to be ORIGINAL, built from the ground up. Identity can not be acquired by inventing history(Ilyrian origin), falsifying historical facts and robbing others of their heriage, cultural artifacts and identity.

[vooch]

Economic lack of development goes back before 1945.......since 1912 both Montenegro & Albania have been economic basket cases effectively falling further and further behind.

They are not as bad as, say Hati, but pretty close.

I don't know what it is, but it certainly isn't the 'people' because the very same people in different places are decently productive.

[GeraldP]

>>>If you ask me, national identity has to be ORIGINAL, built from the ground up. Identity can not be acquired by inventing history(Ilyrian origin), falsifying historical facts and robbing others of their heriage, cultural artifacts and identity.

I don't know why you keep on insisting on this. At first I was going to applaud you for what at first glance seems like a semi-conciliatory tone, but why oh why do I have the odd feeling you went through all that just to get to this paragraph. While Serb historians might indeed be right about Albanians not being descendants of the Illyrians/Thracians, the fact that practically all other historians consider this to be the case, puts you in the dissident camp (check out any encyclopedia or history book).

>>>Can you imagine how Balkans would be looking today if in 1997 EU stepped in and promissed to gradually repay all initial investment to Albanian investors on condition democratic reforms are implemented and maintained. It would be less than $1000 per capita investment.

I'm afraid the problems were deeper than that, the collapse of the pyramid schemes was merely what brought them to such a disastrous climax.

>>>Can you imagine what would happen if NATO offered Albania to destroy stockpiled Xohxa weapons in return for access to European market?

I don't see why this could or should have been a consideration. The weapons were there, there was no reason to believe they would have been of any consequence.

>>>Can you imagine what would happen if instead of spending $6B to bomb Serbia money was spent to build Albanian seaside riviera and highways to Greece and Europe?

Albania had nothing to do with the first two conflicts Serbia was involved in, and building the beautiful Albanian riviera, would have done nothing to pacify the increasingly restless and frustrated Kosovars.

>>>Pyramid scheme was the trigger, looted weapons were the gunpowder, Kosovo war was the planned solution and the misery is the outcome.

Kosovo was planned by noone, it precipitated as a result of several factors the main being Kosovars hating Serbs and Serbs hating Kosovars, throw in a dash of Milosevic and you have Kosovo War. Misery is the outcome as well as the cause.

>>>The 45 years under Hoxha are traumatic, but are not the sole ailment to be remedied. Nazi past is also problem, as well as experience of zulum (evil doing) under the Otomans.

Agree.

>>> These historical circumstances showed to Shqiptars that crime does pay and decent, honest people drown in turmoil.

We'll se in the next couple of decades, my belief is that Albanian organized crime is temporary and contingent on Balkan instability.

>>>Shqiptars, Serbs and Montenegrins are very much mentally alike. No wonder having in mind interethnic mixes. Once they escape devil's cauldron of the Balkans, they can prove what they are worth.Perhaps that is the clue for the way out.

Ummm... sure.

[GeraldP]

>>>I don't know what it is, but it certainly isn't the 'people' because the very same people in different places are decently productive.

It isn't the people, at least not to a genetic level. It is the people as in collective psyche, and it is the people as in the culture of socialism. Socialism has a natural tendency to make a people stagnant. To a degree I think socialism is not yet completely uningrained from people's minds.

As far as pre-WW2 era, I'm thinking Ottoman->Balkan War->WW1. I think what DTA said about this being the Garbage Dump of Europe is true for this particular era.

[DTA]

>>>>Kosovo was planned by noone, it precipitated as a result of several factors the main being Kosovars hating Serbs and Serbs hating Kosovars, throw in a dash of Milosevic and you have Kosovo War. Misery is the outcome as well as the cause. <<<<<

Not that simple. If the issue was hatred among Serbs and Kosovo Shqiptars, very likely there would be no war.

These are the facts:

1. In 1989 IMF requested from Banker Miloseviq to take full control of Serbia's fiscal spending and put in force fiscal discipline requested by IMF. As a result, Kosovo authonomy was abolished. It was a quite a blow for Kosovo Albanian Communist nomenklatura who for years received funds from Federal government and Serbia, took loans whose guarantor was Serbia and reported to no one how they spent it. Money was spent on public projects as if Kosovo was oil rich sheikhdom.

It did not take rocket scientist to figure out what the reaction of Kosovo Shqiptar majority will be once Communist white elephants and getting pink slip.

IMF request has pushed Kosovo into the tailspin. IAs Carvile said, "It's economy,stupid"

Miloseviq misrule was brutal, but not only against Shqiptars, it was brutal against Serbs as well.

In 1990, Kosovo Shqiptars boycotted elections, although they controlled total of 20% of electoral votes. Miloseviq won with 39% of remaining 80% of votes. If Shquiptars chose to vote and voted in block for Rugova, Miloseviq would not won the 1990 elections.

In 1997 Pyramid scheme collapsed in Albania and during the lawless period over half a million of small and long arms were looted, majority ended in Kosovo.

In 1997 representatives of Anti-Miloseviq Serbian oposition met with Richard Holbrooke. He told them bluntly "We will take Kosovo from you". All of them were stunned, except Vesna Peshiq who asked Holbrooke : Will you take Belgrade from us as well?" "We will take Belgrade also if we decide so".

During the same year, during 100 days of protest, Student delegation went to visit Madcow Albright and asked for support against Miloseviq. "U.S. do not interfere in the affairs of the foreign nations" was the reply. Hovewer, it did not Clinton Administration to train KLA terrorists in Northern Albania and Turkey.

If you belive that Kosovo came by itself, you are doing unjustice to fine men and women of Clinton administration and their mercenary teams who made it possible.

[vooch]

Socialism has a natural tendency to make a people stagnant

agreed

but, I think the issue goes deeper than just socialism, for in both Montenegro and Albania (or for that matter parts of West Virgina, which has a similar clan culture though not as deeply rooted as Montenegro & Albania)

Perhaps it is the clan culture which hinders economic POV for long term..........I simply don't know.

But I do know that both these places have something deeply ingrained in them which prevents economic development.

Think of Greece, Spain, and Ireland.......all 3 of these places were economic backwaters only 20 years ago. Their hide bound bureaucratic, corrupt, and unstable systems are pretty similar to what Albania & Montenegro had at the same time. Somehow, all 3 places are vibrant prosperous economic places. It wasn't joining the EU which did it. It was something else..............

[GeraldP]

Your argument sounds a lot like what some of my more pessimistic Albanian friends keep saying. Maybe being in the US for so long has turned me into too much of an optimist.

While I have spent some time in Montenegro, I cannot speak for that county in any knowledgeable manner. As far as Albania goes, however I think one must look at 1997 as the year when the starting gun was discharged. Yes Greece has done a wonderful job of picking itself up by its bootstraps, but has, in my opinion, had at least 2 decades more than Albania to do so.

I guess only time will tell. The one thing I do know, is that we cannot afford any more conflicts, within or across national boundaries. I hope our leaders will be able to see that and be able to make the hard decisions that will bring about stability. My personal opinion is that independence for Kosova is part of the necessary process to make this happen, and I am trying to say that from a nonpartisan perspective, impossible as that may seem.

[vooch]

I believe the key to preventing conflicts in the area is for the locals not to believe ideas/promises given by outsiders.

[GeraldP]

... or politicians, charismatic as they may seem.