Driza belongs to the mother, Xhaferri to the stepmother

Unfortunately for us, the image of Albanian democracy has been exploited. So many sensational stories about the primitive orgies of Albanian criminals have been broadcast that no comparable examples can be found. So many gruesome images of crime have been shown on screens that nothing like them can be found anywhere in the world. Even in the Albanian Parliament, [text continues beyond the edge of the image] The break seems to conceal a trick. An ambush here, a guilty party who accuses and provokes on TV there, a gang operation at the Shkodra police station after the dismissal of the former commissioner somewhere else. We had accepted that there were gangs only in the South. Will there ever be a genuine reconciliation among Albanians? It is hard to believe that political resentment among Albanians can find respite under the barrels of guns. Someone threatens, we must ask plainly and without deceit or evasions, among ourselves as Albanians: will we leave Democracy hostage to crime? The answer must be unequivocal and sincere. If someone needs stability in order to say, “You see—we know how to govern,” someone else needs destabilization, with the logic: “We told you, you don’t know how to govern!” In fact, crime should have been fought when it was still a minority, [text continues beyond the edge of the image] comparable examples for comparison. the world. Foreign magazines have also circulated in the Albanian Parliament, showing the ugly face of crime: an axe in the hands of a criminal-executioner raised over a human head; the Albanian carries out the trial in modern times. Poor Albanians, always ready to fall victim to the interpretations of foreign journalists, sensationalist photojournalists, and cameras hunting for an Albanian precedent! But how long will we allow crime, with its filthy, blood-dripping claws, to threaten the innocent infant, Democracy? After two months of bloody fighting among ourselves, unfortunately, we are still not respecting peace. There were armed the political resentment of threatens, someone provokes; those who have lost their seats threaten those who have taken them. And we all cry: Peace, peace! In the squares and on the platforms we hold flowers; in the dark, bullets. The crime chronicle continues its ritual, showing little concern for the law-enforcement agencies. The geography of crime spares no part of Albania: yesterday in Shkodra, today... And tomorrow? No, tomorrow we must hear no more black chronicles; the grim announcement of armed crime—whose weapons we either found or were given ourselves, no one knows why—must no longer knock at any Albanian home. The most sincere question we must ask one another is: fought when it was still a minority, but then someone called it in to make it an ally. This is the most fatal mistake of Albanian democracy; it could not become an accomplice of crime, otherwise the danger would be deadly. Perhaps even now it is not too late to divorce ourselves from crime and criminals. Not all of Albania is criminalized, and not all Albanians are criminals. With the state’s help, let us declare war on crime, and criminals will find no ground on which to sow death. How many gangs could there be operating in Albania? □

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