TIRANA, Oct 16 — Albanian police have been accused of beating and detaining young people indiscriminately in central Tirana as student-led anti-government protests entered a fourth day, with witnesses describing squads of masked, plain-clothed officers armed with batons sweeping through the city's main square.
The protests began on Tuesday outside the Education Ministry over conditions in universities and have since merged with a broader movement demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Footage published by Osman Stafa, a journalist with News24, shows a group of seven police officers beating a young man near the Pyramid, a landmark in the city centre. Footage of the same incident was separately broadcast by Top Channel showing officers chasing a young man who slips and falls, then striking at him with batons as a group. He is later seen lying motionless on the ground.
Stafa has documented police conduct throughout the protests, and his Facebook page carries further footage of officers using force against young people.
On Friday, the State Police suspended two officers from Tirana's Police Commissariat No. 3 after videos circulated showing them using violence against young people, and ordered a disciplinary investigation.
'Taking any youth they could find'
Philip Gilpin Jr., a U.S. citizen from Boston, said in a Facebook post addressed to the U.S. Embassy that he was detained in Skanderbeg Square after stopping to chat with a group of teenagers. About 10 men dressed in black and carrying batons, with no visible insignia, ran at the group and seized them, he wrote.
The teenagers were led away. Gilpin said two men searched his phone and photographed him and his driver's licence before releasing him about 10 minutes later.
He said he witnessed three similar incidents within a 15-minute walk, describing small groups "roaming around the square, taking any youth they could find." Gilpin said he had since spoken to the embassy and contacted members of Congress.
Gilpin confirmed his account in an interview with Exit and showed the text of the email sent to the US Embassy in Tirana. Police did not comment on it.
Footage published by the news site Ditar.al shows masked officers striking and detaining a 17-year-old in the square as he insists he was only walking past. "I'm 17. I didn't do anything," he says as he is led away.
The news site Lapsi.al reported that masked men in civilian clothes, carrying batons and wearing no identification, have been operating alongside uniformed officers.
Dorian Matlija, a human rights lawyer and activist, published footage of two further incidents and said criminal complaints had been filed over both. A third complaint, concerning a protester who was slammed to the ground outside the Education Ministry, is being prepared, he stated in a Facebook post.
Police response
Tirana police did not deny that plain-clothed officers were making arrests. Responding to one video, they said only that the person being detained was a man, not a woman as had been claimed online. They rejected reports that officers had used metal cables as weapons, saying the cables had been seized from four masked young men who were on their way to attack protesters. They did not say who the men were.
The State Police have also said that a significant number of minors are taking part in the protests and that some are being placed on the front line.
Interior Minister Ervin Demo said 156 people had been injured over four days, including 97 police officers, 45 protesters and 12 bystanders. Four of the injured are minors. Police reported 55 arrests after Wednesday's protest alone, including two minors aged 15 and 17.
Protesters have also used violence, throwing stones and petrol bombs at police, breaking into the Education Ministry, setting fire to part of the Pyramid and damaging government buildings and shops.
Journalists targeted
The Association of Albanian Journalists condemned police violence against reporters, including an assault on Izmir Akulli, editor-in-chief of Dosja.al, who was attacked by several officers while filming them beating a student. Three media workers needed hospital treatment after Tuesday's protest.
Stafa himself received a death threat in September after filming plain-clothed men detaining a protester outside parliament.
Calls for restraint
Albania's Ombudsman is investigating into whether police use of force complied with the European Convention on Human Rights and has sent monitors to police stations and hospitals.
The European Union delegation in Tirana called for a proportionate police response and for priority investigation of allegations of excessive force against protesters and journalists.
Britain's embassy said the right to protest did not justify violence, but that it should not be met with disproportionate police action.
President Bajram Begaj said neither violence by protesters nor unlawful force by police could be justified.
Andri Nurellari, a political analyst, told BIRN that treating the protests solely as a public-order problem and relying on excessive force risked radicalising young people.
Police have not said which unit the masked men in civilian clothes belong to, who commands them, or why they wear no identification.
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