2011 Albanian opposition demonstrations
Encyclopedia
The 2011 Albanian opposition demonstrations are a series of anti-government protests in cities around Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

. Following 18 months of political conflict over alleged electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...

 by the opposition
Opposition
Opposition may mean or refer to:* Opposition , a term describing the position of a celestial body* Opposition , a term describing the position of the kings relative to each other...

. A video surfaced which portrayed the vice-Prime Minister corruption deal with the Minister of Economy. The public outcry to the video made the Deputy Prime Minister resign. A demonstration was called by parliamentary opposition parties, which consists of the Socialist Party
Socialist Party of Albania
The Socialist Party of Albania , is a centre-left, social democraticand socially liberal political party in Albania, it is currently the leading opposition party in Albania. It seats 66 MPs in the 2009 Albanian parliament . It achieved power in 1997 after a political crisis and governmental...

 and the Unity for Human Rights Party
Unity for Human Rights Party
The Unity for Human Rights Party is a centrist, liberal-inclined party in Albania. Founded in 1992, it represents Albania's minorities and is mainly related to the Greek minority as it is the political continuation of the Democratic Union of the Greek Minority .-Election results:The party usually...

. These were called on 21 January in order to protest the alleged corruption of the Albanian government as well as widespread unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

 and poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

 in the country. The governing party
Democratic Party of Albania
The Democratic Party of Albania is a center-right, Conservative, political party in Albania and the leading party in the governing coalition since the 2005 parliamentary elections...

 denounced the action citing Albania's status as the fastest growing economy in Europe.

On January 21, a protest in Tirana
Tirana
Tirana is the capital and the largest city of Albania. Modern Tirana was founded as an Ottoman town in 1614 by Sulejman Bargjini, a local ruler from Mullet, although the area has been continuously inhabited since antiquity. Tirana became Albania's capital city in 1920 and has a population of over...

 led to the deaths of three demonstrators who were by the Republican Guard during a rally in front of Prime Minister Sali Berisha's
Sali Berisha
Sali Ram Berisha is an Albanian politician and cardiologist, currently the Prime Minister of Albania and the leader of Democratic Party of Albania ....

 office and a fourth person lost his life battle several days after, in a hospital in Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....

, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

.

Background

Edi Rama
Edi Rama
Edi Rama is an Albanian politician, painter, publicist, professor, and former athlete. Currently he is the leader of the Socialist Party of Albania, the biggest party in Albania , by wining the most of votes as a party in the last eight election.He has served as board member at the local Soros...

 has been a part of Albanian politics for 13 years and
Paskal Milo
Paskal Milo
Paskal Milo is an Albanian historian, politician, and leader of the Social Democracy Party of Albania. He is also been a member of the Albanian Parliament since 1992, and a professor of Albanian and Foreign literature...

 has been in Albanian politics for 21 years.
Sali Berisha
Sali Berisha
Sali Ram Berisha is an Albanian politician and cardiologist, currently the Prime Minister of Albania and the leader of Democratic Party of Albania ....

 has been in Albanian politics for 21 years.
Skënder Gjinushi
Skënder Gjinushi
Skënder Gjinushi is an Albanian politician. He graduated from the University of Tirana with a degree in Mathematics. He is the current leader of the Social Democratic Party of Albania...

 has been in Albanian politics for 24 years.

Allegations of electoral fraud

The largest opposition party; which is the Socialist Party
Socialist Party of Albania
The Socialist Party of Albania , is a centre-left, social democraticand socially liberal political party in Albania, it is currently the leading opposition party in Albania. It seats 66 MPs in the 2009 Albanian parliament . It achieved power in 1997 after a political crisis and governmental...

; alleged that the June 2009 election
Albanian parliamentary election, 2009
A parliamentary election was held in Albania on 28 June 2009. Prior to the election, the electoral law was changed to a regional and proportional system...

 were neither free nor fair. When the leader of the Democratic Party Sali Berisha
Sali Berisha
Sali Ram Berisha is an Albanian politician and cardiologist, currently the Prime Minister of Albania and the leader of Democratic Party of Albania ....

 could not form a government with his own coalition partners, he established another coalition with the Socialist Movement for Integration
LSI
LSI may mean* Lord Steel Industry, a manufacturer of stainless steel tubing and piping* Labour and Socialist International, a former socialist international* Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad, a railroad service in Michigan, U.S....

. This deal further galvanized the opposition and the Socialist Party led 18 months of continuous protests against the government. Berisha also continuously postponed the opening of the ballot boxes for a recount. Ultimately the ballots were burned by the Albanian electoral commission.

The governing coalition wanted a Parliamentary Investigative Committee to examine the election but the Socialist Party objected to the move. They then organised a 21-day hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...

 in the main boulevard in Tirana. However the hunger strike was struck with controversy as images emerged of the strikers eating. At the beginning of January, the ballots boxes from the June 2009 election were burned, while other electoral materials were sealed for 25 years making an investigation legally impossible.

Opposition claims

On January 11 Ilir Meta
Ilir Meta
Ilir Rexhep Meta is an Albanian politician. He is the current Deputy Prime Minister. He was Prime Minister of Albania from 1999 to 2002 and has been Foreign minister twice since then.- Studies :...

 the chairman of LSI
Socialist Movement for Integration
The Socialist Movement for Integration is a social democratic Albanian political party. It was formed in 2004 after Ilir Meta quit the Socialist Party of Albania.At the elections in July 2005 the party won five seats in the Parliament...

 was shown putting pressure on one of the Government Ministers and finalizing a number of economic deals informally. Meta made the Minister cancel the deal between a contractor and the Ministry and make a new deal with new terms with another individual connected with Meta's economic interests. Furthermore, he made the Minister hire two individuals into mid-level government jobs and finally asked for another favor in a deal involving a hydro-electrical power plant. Meta mentioned that the profit for the Minister of the Economy would be around 700,000 euros in one of the deals and 7% of the value of the investment in the other - his personal profit was not mentioned. The FBI searched and checked Dritan Priftis laptop and found that he was the person that took the bribes.

The alleged corruption of Meta has never been broadcast at such high levels of government in Albania. LSI and Meta initially refuted the video claiming it was false and unclear. Meta, however, resigned from parliament three days later thus removing his parliamentary immunity
Parliamentary immunity
Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which members of the parliament or legislature are granted partial immunity from prosecution. Before prosecuting, it is necessary that the immunity be removed, usually by a superior court of justice or by the parliament itself...

. He said he was willing to collaborate with the Attorney General’s Office in its investigation. On 12 February, his immunity was removed.

The perception of corruption within the country is as high as similar to African countries.

January 21

According to police and the international media, an estimated 20.000 people attended an anti-government demonstration in Tirana, but the opposition claimed there were about 200,000 demonstrators. The large number of police coupled with continuous provocations and rising political tensions during the week preceding the demonstration, were major factors in the development of the protest. Anti-government chants were followed by clashes with a group of around 600 protesters who threw umbrellas at the riot police
Albanian Police
The Albanian State Police is the national police and law enforcement agency which operates throughout the Republic of Albania. The falling down of the Communist system and the setting up of the political pluralism after the year 1991 brought important changes in the structure of the Albanian Police...

. When a group of 600 protesters started throwing stones and molotovs the police reacted using tear gas and batons.

Clashes continued for two hours until police forces and the republican guard started shooting bullets in the air in an attempt to stave off and scare away the demonstrators. Live fire was at some point used against the demonstrators which were part of the crowd killing three demonstrators on the spot and injured another who died after a week long coma. After the demonstrators started running away from the main square hundreds were rounded up by plainclothes police as well as riot police. The opposition parties considered the firing "extreme and unjustified."

Berisha denied that there was a specific order to shoot the protesters, but he confirmed that it was the Republican Guard that perpetrated the shooting. Although according to the Albanian Constitution and its Penal Code the Republican Guard can non-fatally injure individuals who try to enter any governmental institution.

The Albanian Socialist Party stated that the background and the reasons that caused the escalation of this peaceful protest in Tirana, although similar with Tunisian problem, were far more different. The leader of the opposition Edi Rama said: “People protested for a better Albania and lost their lives for an Albania we are forced to live with but that we shall definitely change."

January 28

A non-violent demonstration in the form of a homage to the three victims of January 21 was held on January 28 in the same boulevard. The demonstration consisted in putting flowers where the 3 individuals were killed and lighting candles in their memory. Despite continuous calls by the ruling party and various international institutions and representatives to call-off the demonstration because of the danger of repeated violence, the protest happened with no signs of violence. The estimates of attendance for the second demonstration were even higher than these of January the 21.

February 4

The opposition organized simultaneous demonstrations in four cities: Tirana, Vlora, Korça
Korča
Korča is a village in the municipality of Hadžići, Bosnia and Herzegovina.-References:...

 and Lezha, though no provocations or signs of violence were reported. The protesters avoided marching in front of the Prime Minister's Office where the killings occurred on 21 January to avoid the possibility of repeated violence. The police claimed that 3,000 people marched in Tirana, 3,500 in Vlora, 2,000 in Korça and 600 in Lezha. However, the SP claimed that 40,000 people marched in Tirana, 30,000 in Vlora, 20,000 in Korça and 10,000 in Lezha. The opposition vowed to continue the weekly demonstrations across Albania.

Coup d’etat allegations

Sali Berisha stated on 21 January that the three protesters who died during the opposition rally were killed by other demonstrators in an attempt to create victims and ultimately start a coup d'état against his government. On 22 January - only 24 hours after his first statement, he affirmed that they were shot but by the Republican Guard. However, his allegations of a coup d'état did not change. Berisha continued to claim that several independent institutions including most of the judiciary, the intelligence services and the President were part of the coup.

Albanian prosecutors immediately issued arrest warrants for six members of the Republican Guard over the three deaths. Berisha stated that warrants were illegal and ordered the state police not to carry them out. Despite this the six were arrested, however, three of the accused Guards were released by the prosecutor. Former president Alfred Moisiu and other politicians urged Berisha to stop violating the independence of the constitutional institutions such as the General Prosecutor's Office, the National Intelligence Services and the President of Albania.

Berisha ultimately stated that he is going to counter the effects of the purported coup d'état by hiring Lady Gaga to perform in Albania during the summer.

Domestic

The Democratic Party claimed that many demonstrators were paid by the opposition to protest.

International

The major embassies in Tirana called for peace and calm - failing to mention the over-reaction and government warranted killing during the 21 January protests. Furthermore there was only marginal reaction to the continuous attack on independent institutions by the executive represented by Berisha in Albania. The Diplomatic community even called for the opposition to cancel their peaceful protest in order to preserve the status quo and avoid any possibility of violent clashes.

Non-governmental organisations

  • Human Rights Watch
    Human Rights Watch
    Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

     said that Berisha should not interfere with the criminal investigation into the fatal shooting of the three anti-government protesters.
  • Transparency International
    Transparency International
    Transparency International is a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development. It publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, a comparative listing of corruption worldwide...

    's Albania office urged local institutions on January 19 to initiate changes to the constitution regarding the immunity of state officials. A special parliamentary session needs to address the issue of stripping lawmakers, ministers, judges and every leader of an institution of their immunity, according to the organisation. “Statements and rhetorical support on immunity are not sufficient to break the barriers held by immunity and open the way for investigating officials,” it added.
  • Lëvizja Zgjohu
    Lëvizja Zgjohu
    Lëvizja Zgjohu is an Albanian NGO denouncing political points in mainly Albania. The got under great media attention with the 2011 Albanian opposition demonstrations when the published a video on the Albanian TV where Edi Rama one day before the demonstrations denounced that there will be dead...

     got under great media attention with the demonstrations when the publicated a video on the Albanian television when Edi Rama warned that there will be dead people.

See also

  • 2010 student protest in London
  • 2010 French pension reform strikes
    2010 French pension reform strikes
    The 2010 pension reform strikes in France were a series of ongoing general strikes and demonstrations in France which occurred during September and October 2010....

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