As the student-led protests enter their third day, the only response the government of Edi Rama has been able to formulate has been in the language of unfettered state violence. Not only is this language utterly self-defeating, it also raises important questions about the capability of this government to actually implement what now appears to be its sole remaining self-justification: “entering the EU.”
Protestors, journalists, and civil rights activists have documented over the last few days countless cases of wanton, extreme violence initiated by the Albanian state forces, against unarmed and often underage protestors. In doing so, they perpetrate violations of the Albanian and international law on a massive and unprecedented scale.
According to art. 3(11) of the Law on the State Police:
The “usage of force” is the direct action through physical force and types of weapons, neuroparalytic substances, and other means of the use of force by the State Police, in a proportional manner and in concordance with the applicable legislation against torture and inhumane treatment, and the limits established in art. 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
For completeness, art. 3 of the ECHR is: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
For the sake of documenting these cases, many if not all of which are in direct violation of both Albanian and international, even if not yet confirmed, investigated, or adjudicated, I am giving an overview below, also out of fear that the documentation on social media will prove too fleeting and fragile.
At the risk of repeating some incorrect information, I am also naming as much as possible the police officers that have been identified through crowdsourcing as agents of state terror. At this point, the entire police is fully complicit in these human rights violations, so I honestly no longer care if a wrong identification slips through. All of them should be held to account with the full force of the law.
Disproportional Violence
Art. 32 of the Law on the State Police states:
Force may be used only when necessary, and only if all other measures have failed or are impossible.
It must be proportionate and graduated, using the level of force that is needed.
The officer must warn before using force and before escalating it. The only exception is when immediate force is needed to prevent a real and imminent danger.
It must always comply with the law against torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and with the rules in the State Police Regulation.
In violation of all these legal precepts, the usage of violence by the police forces these days has been disproportionate and unrestrained. Extensive video footage exists of police officers randomly beating into fleeing, unarmed, crowds (here: police officer Darjo Dangaj), ganging up and beating unarmed youths, dragging them across the ground.
There is video evidence of police officers beating protestors even after they have been apprehended (see also this case by police officer Mario Muça), and punitive beatings for simply running through a police cordon. There is also evidence that the police has covered security cameras in the areas where they bring arrestees.
There is footage of random arrests without proper protocol, even of minors, in further violation of the Albanian law. Art. 10(3) of the Law on the State Police states:
When the threat to the public order has come as the result of the actions of a minor, the police officer takes measures to interrupt the illegal actions and notifies his parent or caretaker. Further handling of the minor is done by a police officer trained for this purpose.
There have been also multiple reports of police forces using stones and pieces of pavement to throw at the protestors, leading to multiple injuries. One of the masked perpetrators of this illegal violence has been identified as police officer Rigers Islamaj under the orders of local police chief Besmir Qibini.
There are also increasing reports of the use of high-tension electricity cables instead of official gummy batons on the protestors, leading to much more severe injuries.
Unmarked Chemicals
The response of the police forces has also included the a massive and indiscriminate use of chemical weapons against the protestors, in the form of teargas and pepperspray. In these matters, the Albanian law is vague, and I have not been able to find any Decision of the Council of Ministers prescribing their usage.
Journalist Osman Stafa has documented these often come from unmarked canisters, without information on chemical contents, expiration date, or serial number, making it impossible to ascertain the legality and origin of these weapons.
Failure to Identify
Art. 10(2) of the Law on the State Police states:
A police officer, before executing a measure to secure public order and security toward a citizen is obliged to identify himself.
In violation of this law, citizens and press have documented extensive use of unidentified or undercover officers who fail to identify themselves before intimidating, bullying, or violently apprehending protestors and ushering them away in unmarked white or black vans driving to police stations.
Police forces are often documented in the society of unidentified masked persons who try to blend into the crowd of protestors, often being the instigators of violence. Frequently, police chiefs mingle in the crowd without identifying uniform, giving orders while dressed as civilians, such as Ermir Shehu and Ornela Buraku from Durrës.
There is video footage shows to unidentified persons in Elbasan intimidating a (likely underage) protestor, forcing him to remove his face mask and sunglasses and demanding his name. Such unidentified police officers also appear to sometimes carry firearms in ways that are inappropriate (i.e. stuck under their belt)
False Flag Operations
There is also increasing concern that the government itself is staging false-flag operations to discredit the protests. For example, it has been doubted that the protestors actually burned down the kiosk of the College of Europe from which Prime Minister Edi Rama gave his statement yesterday, and private business owners report that their shops were ransacked by police in civilian clothes rather than students.
Video documentation also exists of unidentified and masked persons attacking the female university dorms, shattering glass and using pepperspray (to which only the state has access) to intimidate the students.
Use of Criminals
There is increasing evidence that persons with criminal affiliations are being incorporated into the state police forces to do the “dirty” work. This is of course nothing new. The usage of criminal networks during the elections has been amply documented, and it is well known that both the indicted Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku and the recently arrested Ergys Agasi have extensive relations with local and international criminal networks. Dozens of other Socialist Party officials are convicted criminals.
In their response to the student protests the goals of the government and criminal organizations are also aligned, in the sense that one supports the other: the entire structure of the Albanian narcostate is at stake. This also repeats a historical pattern, as Neritan Sejamini recently argued.
Withholding Medical Care
Art. 91(h) of the Law on the State Police states that while exercising his official duty, a police officer must
seek medical assistance and take realistic measures to protect the life and health of the person he has in custody or that he has wounded during in action while he was on duty.
Instead, the State Police has actively withheld medical care from nearly everyone they have abused. Widely circulated video footage from the first day showing a young men being grabbed from the sidewalk by the police, having his leg broken, and being carried off unconscious without receiving any form of medical care has been perhaps the most visible violation of basic human rights documented. It has been reported from a family members that he may lose his leg as a result of the police violence.
Another widely circulated video shows a group of about six officers attacking a single student, and then tying him to the gate of the Ministry of Education while he is bleeding from a head wound.
Reports are coming in of orders given to the state hospitals not to treat protestors or only treat them minimally. Access of family members to wounded protestors has been limited.
Improper Detention ConditionsI
It is unclear how many protestors are currently being held by the police forces, but the there are multiple reports on the withholding of medical care, food, and water, and sporadic footage has appeared of improper detention conditions showing dozens of students held lying down on the floor. This amounts simply to state-sanctioned torture.
But the protests will continue. And Rama will have no other option but to escalate police violence, expand the involvement of criminals, and the ramping up of false-flag operations to somehow change the narrative from student protest to opposition-led gangsters who hate the EU.
He must fail.
Shpërndaje te miqtë
