ALBANIAN REFORMS IN SEARCH OF DEVELOPMENT AND STABILITY
President Berisha’s speech at Chatam House, 29 March 1994
Ladies and Gentlemen, Today is a historic day for Albania, because for the first time in its history I have had the great privilege of being received by Her Majesty the Queen. God bless the Queen, her people and her country!
It is a special honour for me to speak today at the Royal Institute of International Studies. It is also a particular pleasure to address the problems of my country and to address the problems of my country and to address that part of the world from which I come, at the head of a country with which we are bound by strong, friendly ties and sentiments, which began and took shape several centuries ago. Distinguished English captains such as John of Newport and many others came to Albania centuries ago to support the great resistance of Gjergj Kastriot Skënderbeu, the foremost hero of 15th-century Europe, who through his war and great battles defended his country, Christianity, the West and Western civilisation for 25 years. During the Second World War many Britons fought side by side with the Albanians, and around 200 of them fell for the freedom of my country. I also have the pleasure of informing you that immediately after 22 March 1992, we erected a memorial in Tirana as an expression... But I can declare with profound joy that this period, with all its incidents, tensions, hostilities and absurdities, has now been consigned to the archives—or, better still, to the grave. Albania, now open, is rediscovering its friends and allies. I am proud and happy to confirm to you today that, in its struggle and efforts to overthrow the harshest dictatorship in Europe and establish democracy, the Democratic Party and the Albanian opposition received powerful support from the Conservative Party and other important forces in England, from Prime Minister Major, and from numerous British institutions and organisations. I wish to express the great privilege and pleasure I feel that, with my visit to the United Kingdom—the first by a serving Albanian head of state—I am opening a new page in the history of relations between our two friendly countries. For the British, Albania of the past 50 years, submerged in self-isolation and self-forgetfulness, once moved into an Orwellian silence, was either completely forgotten or symbolised the harshest dictatorship Europe had known after the Second World War. The prisons and concentration camps, hundreds and thousands of bunkers which, like metastases of dictatorship, covered the country’s cities, plains, hills and mountains; the last statues of Stalin in Europe; young people driven to the extremes of ... ...precious support and friendly solidarity that they showed Albania in one of the truly most difficult periods in its history. Ladies and Gentlemen, After the victories of 22 March, the government and administration that emerged from those elections drew up a programme of political, economic, legislative and institutional reforms, among the most far-reaching in Eastern Europe, intended to open up the country, overcome the consequences of 50 years of isolation and integrate Albania into Europe. And today, exactly two years after the elections that marked the end of the communist government, I can say that important steps have been taken in this direction. First, I would point out that, after 70 years, Albania has once again, for the first time, a government legitimised by the free vote of the people; the same is true of local government. State institutions have been transformed and are being transformed, taking their direction from Western models. The new administration was built by adapting the old nomenklatura and apparatus. The former secret police was completely dismantled, the police were transformed in personnel and structure, and the army emerged directly from civilian control and was reformed in accordance with the need to demilitarise ... ...their ethnic identity; they have schools at every level, their own newspapers and means of communication, independent associations and political parties; they have two representatives in Parliament from their own party and dozens of councillors, mayors and district presidents elected by free vote. They freely practise their religion and maintain and develop their links and communication with their motherland. They are also integrated into Albanian society through their broad representation in Parliament—as members of the major parties, around four of them—as ministers in the government, judges on the Constitutional Court, ambassadors and other diplomatic officials, etc. Ladies and Gentlemen, There is no doubt that, on the road to reform, the most difficult choice for the government was applying shock therapy to Albania’s gravely ill body and its economy, which was in a state of collapse. This was truly the most difficult and radical alternative we chose in order to end the agony in which Albania was struggling. In cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, through its short- and medium-term economic stabilisation programme, the Government of Albania decided to liberalise prices and interest rates, adopt a floating exchange rate, and privatise the economy. To liberalise the prices of basic foods and apply world prices when there is a severe shortage of them, and prices double and rise sharply, is to cause great physical and psychological pain. But this was the only way, first, to restore incentives for production and, second, to restore the lost sense of responsibility towards work. In Albania, the effects of these measures were evident: first, shops filled up, the half-century-long queues disappeared, the decline in production stopped, responsibility towards work gradually returned, and the Albanian currency grew stronger month by month, becoming stable and practically convertible. We began the first year with inflation at 400 per cent and ended it with inflation at only 40 per cent. As monetary stabilisation strengthened, the stability of the government and the country also increased. Alongside these measures, however, the government embarked on an ambitious project to privatise the entire economy. So far, land, housing, transport, services and trade have been privatised. In the last seven months alone, around 1,000 enterprises have been privatised; preparations are under way to privatise medium-sized and large enterprises through securities and the creation of a market for them. All these measures made it possible to achieve GDP growth of 10 per cent in 1993. Initially, the lack of a legal framework and of a tradition, as a result of profound isolation, and especially the shadow of war in the region were factors that discouraged foreign investment. But now I can assure you that our legislation has been introduced to investors. Albania now has a comprehensive and liberal legal framework aimed at attracting foreign investment and securing private property; it permits the transfer of capital and profits, as well as obtaining a 99-year lease or even purchasing property. But beyond the legislation, the great mineral and energy resources, tourism potential, and inexpensive and relatively well-educated workforce are attrac… Shkodër. In the elections, did we lose? The answer was one: no, we have not lost; the entire ... won in the elections. Shkodër had one: no, we have not lost; the Democrats in Shkodër, who sent a quarter of all the deputies to Tirana, to Parliament; likewise the cities of Tirana, Kavajë, Durrës, Elbasan, Vlorë, Korçë, etc., had sent many Democratic deputies to begin a new and even greater struggle for a free, democratic Albania. The students of the “Jordan Misja” and “28 Nentori” secondary schools, impatient, with fiery and pure hearts, went to a peaceful rally in front of the PPSH Committee to protest against communist violence and fraud. Hundreds of young men and women from Shkodër joined them, tied a scarf around their foreheads and declared a sit-in strike in front of the committee. Not a single window was broken on 1 April. But at the same time in Tirana, in the den of bloodshed, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the PPSH convened to draw up a strategy for crushing democracy. The Communist Party and Government of Fatos Nano made ominous decisions to prolong the life of communism by curtailing the rights of young people. That very night Criminali Capajet Taqi issued the directive: We will trample the Democrats of Shkodër underfoot! And why should I tell you what happened, when you know it just as well as I do? All of you, all the people of Shkodër, took an active part in the peaceful demonstration, and after they killed Arben Broci, Nazmi Kryeziu, Bujar Bishanaku and Besnik Çeke, after they wounded 80 people, after they sent the sambists, snipers and tanks against us, all of you took part in the great assault on the infamous Committee, making its black foundations rise up to the sky. The four martyrs of democracy left that square stained with their blood, to show communism that its days were numbered. But to show that Shkodër has always been the first and last barrier ... ...Here are the kinds of events they have demanded … We will win without their votes. We will build Albania without them and against them, whoever they may be. These words must be repeated today as well. The people are for freedom, against oppression, for the market economy, against deceivers, rusfextinjve, hatelleqve. We must continue the struggle against tarallafe and other shortcomings, because democracy is not built in a month or a year, and not everyone who shouts has a pure heart. Communism did not break Shkodër in half a century, however much it bloodied it. Now it thinks of taking Rozafa Castle by other means. It has mobilised all the dregs, criminals, thieves, deceivers and corrupt people to sicken the people, wear them down and take away their faith in the future. We, the representatives of local government and the PD, the trade unions, and we, the deputies from Shkodër, have asked the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Order to take strong and decisive measures against crime by sending a special team with full authority to put the situation right. And the Government has decided to do so. All together, we must strive to fight so that we do not fall back into the past, so that things improve day by day, and so that the blood of Arben Broci and the other martyrs is not shed in vain, but becomes a light of democracy for Shkodër and Albania. I am certain of one thing: Shkodër, which was first to stand up to communism in 1945 and 1946, first to demonstrate in Albania on 14 January 1990, and first to topple the statue of the dictator Enver Hoxha on 13 December, will, as it was on 2 April 1991, also be at the forefront of Albania and democracy in the future. May the memory of the martyrs of democracy be glorified. Long live the people of Shkodër, who have always stood at the forefront of the struggle for progress.
PJETER ARBNORI
Christianity in the West and Western civilisation. we erected a memorial in Tirana as a modest expression of our deep gratitude for the contribution your nation and those of the Commonwealth made to our national liberation, and to show your sons that they are alive and immortal in the memory and gratitude of the Albanian nation. Thus, the ties between the British, this nation of freedom, and the Albanians, whose long history may be summed up as a history of struggles, wars, sacrifices and superhuman resistance for freedom, are of a special quality because they are ties of freedom and, as such, deserve always to be respected.
But I wish to recall here that the history and truest character of the Albanians attracted the attention of the great Britons, among whom I would mention Shakespeare, Liri and especially Lord Byron, whose verses and songs celebrated the precious virtues of the Albanians and, above all, their love of freedom with unparalleled passion and grandeur. I also cannot fail to mention Miss Durham, whose books on the Balkans and the Albanians, through their truthfulness and the sentiments and reality they express, are in their own way the spirit of a symbolic treaty of friendship between our two countries and peoples. The British also, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, actively helped build the Albanian state and its institutions.
These and other things are ties that would form the foundation for lasting and growing relations between our friendly nations. Unfortunately, however, cooperation between the two countries was interrupted by the imposition of the Iron Curtain and the half-century-long information blockade established in Albania by the communist dictatorship, shortly after the end of the Second World War. Here I wish to apologise, on behalf of the Albanian people, to the Government of Great Britain and to the families of the soldiers killed in the Corfu Channel, in a criminal trap for which Josip Broz Tito, Aleksander Rankoviç and Enver Hoxha are directly responsible.
… during the beginning of this period …
… democratically forgotten, though it in Europe; young people at the extremes of despair, crowded onto ships, turned into people of the graves in their attempts, through exoduses of almost biblical proportions, to reach the shore of hope; villages and cities set on fire and warehouses looted by the predatory secret police; hungry children. This was the exceedingly bleak and painful picture of Albania before 22 March 1992—that is, in the final years of the communist regime’s agony. This great tragedy caused many people to lose hope and even to think that this country was ending up in the abyss of history. But old nations never die, and this is true of my old nation too. God and freedom saved Albania. Three factors have been decisive in the Albanians’ turning point towards the year 2000.
1. The elections of 22 March. On 22 March, the Albanians, with their free vote, brought the democratic opposition to power and voted by an astonishing majority for a political force that had declared its support for the rule of law, the market economy and a society of free enterprise, as well as Albania’s integration into Europe.
2. Shock therapy. After 22 March, in order to revive their comatose economy, make up for lost time and build an Albanian society based on free enterprise, the Government of Albania chose the strictest, most painful and most difficult course: shock therapy and profound institutional, legislative and political reforms.
3. The great assistance and solidarity of the European Union and its member countries, the USA, and other friendly European and non-European countries have been and remain of primary importance to the success of reforms in Albania. On this occasion I wish to warmly thank all the governments, institutions and taxpayers of friendly countries that helped Albania. My profound gratitude goes to Her Majesty’s Government, the royal family, British taxpayers, and the many humanitarian organisations such as Feed the Children, Albania Task Force, Adler and many others for their assistance…
… the transformation of personnel and structure; today the army is led by civilians and has been reformed in accordance with the need to demilitarise post-dictatorial society. It is being restructured on the model of NATO countries and in cooperation with them.
Likewise, diplomacy, institutions and other branches of the civil service began to be built from the ground up. Albania now has an independent judicial system. A great achievement is the establishment of the Constitutional Court, a forum that to date has monitored and reviewed the constitutionality of laws passed by Parliament. The Albanian Parliament has passed hundreds of laws, among the most important of which are the Charter of Human Rights and other constitutional laws, among the first in the region to be fully in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights and the Helsinki Final Act, and which guarantee the functioning of the rule of law, individual freedoms and rights, and the development of a market economy. In this regard, I have the pleasure and honour of informing you that Albania’s deepest and most spectacular change in its transition from an example of dictatorship to one of freedom has taken place precisely in the field of freedoms and human rights.
And indeed, today Albania has more than 30 registered political parties, which freely pursue their activities, hundreds of non-governmental associations and organisations, and over 320 magazines and newspapers, 95 per cent of which are privately owned. Just a few years ago, because of complete censorship and self-censorship, people were afraid to speak even to themselves; today, Albania has the highest per-capita number of private magazines and newspapers in Europe. Freedom of belief has been fully restored, thereby removing from the country the sad distinction of being the world’s only atheist state. In this context, I affirm that Albania, with its religious communities, is a country of religious tolerance par excellence. I can also say that Albania is a model for the treatment of minorities in the region: the Greek minority living in the south of the country, which according to the latest election data makes up around 2–3 per cent of the population. They have all the rights and freedoms necessary to develop and strengthen their identity…
… the economy and relatively well-educated workforce are attrac…
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