By Thomas Countryman
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As friends of Albania we need to say that we are saddened by the deaths of four Albanian citizens in recent events. This is not a political statement, this is not a legal statement, it’s a human statement and it reflects the affection that Americans and Albanians have for each other. Let me also begin by saying that it is not our purpose in our public statements or our private meetings to endorse or oppose the position of one party or another party. Our concern is for the people of Albania and for the Constitution of Albania. And I hope that the Albanian people will listen directly to what their good friends have to say and not only through the prism of the statements by the parties.
Albania is a unique country but the recent events are not as unique as you might think. Albania is not the only Western democracy and the only NATO member that has a problem with corruption. Albania is not the only European democracy that has had experience with imperfect and controversial elections. And Albania is not the only European democracy that employs protests as a means of political expression and sadly is not the only European democracy that has seen protests end in violence. All of these events, in a Constitutional democracy, must be addressed by constitutional means. And let me give a little more detail of what I mean in each of three areas of corruption, elections, and protests.
As Ambassador Arvizu and I have both said before, corruption is a problem on many levels in Albania. This is not news to any of you. It is a problem in the national government, in municipal governments, in parties, and in business and in every such case it amounts to theft from Albanian citizens. And it prevents Albania from achieving its European future and its economic potential. The constitutional means for combating corruption is something that the United States, through our investment in assistance, have tried hard to build within Albania. It requires an independent prosecutor and independent judiciary that can do their job without fear of political consequences. And it requires the cooperation of government officials, whether at the national government or in municipal governments, even when it is politically painful. And of course it requires the free media to be vigilant and responsible in reporting on these issues.
On elections, our own country has recent experience with disputed and controversial elections and we address those questions through the constitutional means. In the case of Albania it is important that disputes about past elections be addressed through the constitutional means that have been established here. It is even more important for parties and citizens to learn from each experience of imperfect elections. And Albania does not stand alone in that learning process. The OSCE and the ODIHR office has helped by creating a comprehensive list of what needs to be fixed in Albania’s electoral system. And I repeat, as we’ve said before, our disappointment is that the government and the opposition have not found a way of working together and compromising and adopting exactly those recommendations.
When there is a deficit of democracy the obvious answer is more democracy. And that is why it is our firm belief that the local elections scheduled for this year must go forward. The President of Albania has utilized his constitutional authority to establish the dates for those elections and we of course respect his constitutional authority. The people of Albania deserve the right to choose between parties which means parties should participate in such elections. Blocking such elections is an example of a non-constitutional and anti-constitutional action that is not deserving of a European democracy.
On protests and violence, as I said, in every Western democracy, peaceful protesting is a right of the people and the government in every such country has the obligation not to prevent and not to use violence against peaceful protesters. The protesters also have a responsibility to adhere not just to the words but the practice of non-violence in protests. This right has been exercised and has been protected in Albania hundreds of times over the last several years. The question we have, and I think everyone in Albania ought to have, is why after hundreds of peaceful protest the January 21 protest ended in violence. I do not have an answer to that question and I think it is irresponsible to speculate on the answer to that question. Rather we have a constitutional means to address that question and that is the effort of the Prosecutor General to investigate the events of January 21st. We support the independence of the Prosecutor General who must be able to do her job without political pressure. And we are proud to provide technical assistance to add to the credibility of the investigation.
In addition to our support, the prosecutor also has serious responsibilities. And in our view there are two important responsibilities that must be respected. The first is a thorough and balanced investigation to investigate the actions of all the actors on January 21st and that includes the actions of the police and security force, the actions of demonstrators, and the actions of the organizers of the demonstration. And of course she must have the capability to question people in all those categories in order to get to the answer to that question. Second, the prosecutor general has an obligation, in our view, to protect the security of information. I understand that you, as journalists, are intensely interested in the work of the Prosecutor General but daily releases on information to the press, information that ought to be kept confidential, does not help the Prosecutor General in her effort to have an investigation free of political pressure. Now, I apologize for giving you a university lecture, or maybe it’s only a high school lecture, on how to do good government, but I went on at length because we really need the people of Albania to insist on the Constitution as the means of protecting their democracy.
Politics might seem like everything, but there is a higher value when you commit to being a member of NATO and when you aspire to be a member of the European Union. Both NATO and the European Union are values based organizations, and those values are greater than the political interests of one party or another.
Ambassador Arvizu has done an excellent job here in conveying the concerns that we have about the situation. And also an excellent job last week in Washington, in describing the situation to our leadership and getting reaffirmation of our approach. And I am also pleased that the communication among the European Union, and European Union Member States and the OSCE and the United States has been exemplary. And we stand united, with those, our allies in Europe, in wanting to see the Albanian people enjoy the constitutional democracy that they have worked so hard to establish.
