Address by Prime Minister Edi Rama at the takeover ceremony of the incoming Minister of Interior, Bledi Çuçi:
We are through very specific circumstances and that’s why the number of attendees has been reduced to the minimum. Despite the reduced physical presence, this relay baton passing ceremony and the respective messages will be widely broadcasted also thanks to the media interest.
A few days ago, the government of Sweden released the findings of an annual survey on the community policing and I’d very much like the findings of this survey be the first step in the new Interior Minister’s communication with the entire State Police organization, as well as the public, as it is about a totally independent, fully credible and very significant survey to create an objective picture of the State Police performance, especially at this moment, a faithful picture of the relations between the State Police and the citizens. The citizens have been surveyed in this process and their opinion has been gathered through scientific methods of measuring the public opinion and the citizens’ perception about the State Police, various aspects of the State Police performance and activity,
I am very pleased to underline that this is an impressive and very significant overview, both in terms of the State Police performance and accomplishments, as well as in terms of the potential for improvement of their performance.
This moment and the today’s meeting actually take place as a result of an event. I want to start with the end, not the beginning, so that to go to the beginning as well. When I say the end I mean the outbreak of a pretty special protest of its kind, which should make us all reflect beyond the unfortunate fact of the involvement of minors and kids for the first time in our history – and by using the word history I don’t mean the history of the democratic events, I don’t mean neither our recent history beyond these developments, nor our history as a nation. To fight your inner self for certain purposes, a extremely unfortunate fact, yet meaningful one not only to figure out the nature of the aggression against the State Police, an aggression that was fuelled, instigated, and targeted at the State Police, a systemic aggression committed over the years, but to understand even beyond that. In order for us to realize and by us I don’t merely imply the Ministry of Interior and the State Police, but I mean that the government, and whole society should work that no such an extreme show ever repeat again, as they are typical for countries where kids are transformed into cannon fodder for the extremist organizations, terrorist organizations and organizations that are guided by extreme goals and do not refrain from using extreme means.
I would like that today, together with you and by saying together with you, not only with the State Police officials present here, but with all State Police officers and of course, with all the others who are kind enough as to watch us now, to raise the question of why people protest in a democracy.
Democracy, as Winston Churchill has best described it, is not democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms of social and state organization that have been tried from time to time. Therefore, protests are as inevitable as injustices. But unlike injustices, protests are also beneficial.
Even the best of governments, if one has ever existed or exists in the world, is not infallible. Not it can tackle all the woes and the problems of a country of a society. We too, our government are definitely far from being infallible, but I can open state we have never erred in failing to respect civic protest. On the contrary, I am proud of the fact that in these 7 years or so, the government has not only always heard the voice of the protesters, but in many cases it has reflected and changed its approach or attitude, regarding certain issues in the face of the reason of the protesters. This may not be much, but it is not a little too.
If we’re to consider the tradition we inherited upon taking office years ago, if we’re to take notice of the previous experiences; namely the protest against the chemical weapons, the student protests, the Nations’ Road toll for the Kukes residents or more recently, the request of the Ballsh oil workers for financial support from the government. These are not all, yet they are some of the examples everyone can remember. They are concrete and significant example of the degree of our obedience and our readiness to positive respond to the reasons of the protesters.
Some claimed that the government retreated in the face of Kukes residents because it feared violence exercised by a politically-driven phalanx. In fact we didn’t. The government reflected on the just cause concerning a whole community, as we clearly figured out it was us to make wrong calculations and not the Kukes community. What matters most is to me is the government always does possibly the right thing and the government is not always right. Everyone has the right to protest, but not everyone who protests is right.
The right to protest is undisputable; it is undisputable and we have never question the right to protest. The protesters’ rightness is always questionable. It could be subject to a discussion and governments differ on this point, with certain administrations pretending to discuss the issues of protests or they even fail to take the trouble and pretend as if they are doing so, and other administrations that seriously consider them and reflect when finding reasons to reflect.
This government has never questioned the right to protest and every protester has always been granted respect in exercising this right. Not only that, but in certain cases, to put it mildly, respecting the right to protest has often led to the violation of the rights of other citizens. The government has respect the right to protest of a certain interest group that protested for months against the New Ring Road Project, but the right of a large mass of people to move freely has been violated for many hours, every day. Along with the right of this large group of people, the right to develop a strategic project for the future of the capital city and all Tirana citizens has been also violated. The same goes for the protest against the new National Theatre project, with a minority of artists with political links took advantage of the right to protest to forcibly impose their will, not only on the majority of the theatre community, but also the government and the municipality itself by taking a common property, the Theatre building, the public property hostage for two years, forcibly delaying development of the new National Theatre project.
It has not been a sign of weakness on our part, since it is never a weakness to give yourself time, not only to fully understand the reasons of those who in the name of the right to protest oppose you when you are in office, but also to seek a reasonable solution even with them. Protests can be a right exercised by the majority, it can be a right exercised by the minority. It is not the numbers that determine the degree of the right to protest. Even a single individual has an equal right with an entire nation to protest and has the right to be heard.
In both cases I just referred to, not to mention many others, due to the final execution of the relevant decisions that the government has the right to execute by law, the government was accused of violence, authoritarianism, fascism and everything else, while in no democratic country does it happen otherwise. There is always a time when you have to listen, a time when you have to discuss, and a time when you have to decide the end of the discussion; sometimes in favour of the protesters, in others in favour of the government. And by “in favour of the government,” I mean the right of the government to decide based on the mandate it has been granted by the majority.
However, the very essence of all this is that nothing different has happened from the most democratic countries regarding the conduct of the state and the State Police towards the protesters in the past seven years. But, yes, it has been a different case in the democratic countries in the sense that how political parties in another democratic country have used violence, not once, but for months on, in a cycle of violence that has become somehow a legitimate right to raise a hand against police, that the police uniform can be treated like a piece of cloth that one can grab, can pull and push, let alone the abusive language, humiliating remarks, which are not actually considered in democratic countries when it comes to mass protests, but in no case a citizen can use abusive language against a police officer in a democratic country without facing consequences.
Everyone has witnessed that even in the case of the violent opposition protests in the past 7 years the State Police have never exceeded the right to use force. This is probably the only democratic country where the number of injured police officers is higher than the number of injured protesters.
Why the government and the State Police are then constantly accused of violence they have never committed, nor have they showed signs of wanting to commit violence? Why some abuse by making use of sporadic episodes to make montage videos that are then disseminated through the most tremendous propaganda machinery mankind has ever invented, the social networks?
I repeat, nobody wants, the State Police don’t want, not a single police wishes to raise hand against any citizen to redirect or relocate anyone from a place to another and this process can’t be like when two people hold each other’s arms while entering a cafe. So, when it is necessary, it can’t be otherwise.
Resistance against the law or decisions and orders deriving from the law cannot be justified by the right to protest and the right to protest ends precisely where the rights of other citizens and the state itself begin. And the rights of the state itself are embodied in the uniform of the State Police, in that line of police officers who are not lined up there because it is a group of individuals who have decided to confront, or that another individual has confronted them. They line up there because this is what the law stipulates. The police officers are the state itself, and they are not individuals on whom one can demonstrate force, on whom one can exert pressure and blackmail and who can easily touched by hand. For example, referring to the images that support the absurd accusations over alleged police terror in Albania, the images showing those who refuse to leave a building that has to be demolished, because a public work should be built, or a building that should be freed because there is a project about it, these images actually are made up and designed to incite violence against the state and the State Police officer with “the absurd goal to topple the regime.” What regime?
At this point, I would like to raise a concern that while, unquestionably, the State Police, despite all accomplishments, a lot remains to be done in terms of extending its professional and civic conduct to every police unit and make professional and civic conduct a constant behaviour 24/7. But consolidation of the idea that one can do and behave as he or she wishes towards policemen the latter are on duty, has created the misconception among certain individuals that they can do whatever they want to the police and the police should not react.
I am not going to illustrate it through the example of the United States, where, according to the standardized and well-known protocol of the State Police, when a police officer stops a car, you have to put your hands on the steering wheel and you shouldn’t move a finger, or when he orders you to get off the car, you should put your hands on the car and you should not move a single inch. I am not referring to the example of the US police, but I am referring to the police force and their protocols in the EU member states, where, because of this situation I have read and I have found out that in no case one is supposed to put a hand on the State Police workers.
This idea should be undone. Of course, such an idea should be undone through professionalism, citizenship and the power of law.
Police orders, subpoenas and requests cannot be questioned; they just have to be enforced.
Of course I do not want to explain here, why today, if we are going to take a look at who is attacking the State Police, who is advocates violence, who is seeking to downplay it by resorting to attractive words about the peoples’ frustration what is intolerable, the practice of violence, is either part of the pardoners of the January 21 massacre unconditionally, or part of a political agenda, due to which, the State Police have suffered for so many years.
The State Police have been under attack since the State Police are the most significant embodiment of the change and transformation that have taken place over the past seven years. The State Police have been attacked because the State Police have been increasingly serving the state and not certain individuals.
I saying these for all police officers who are of course also parents, family members, they also have their free time and at that time they consume news, public and political debate, so that they are very clear about this fact. Their hard work and sacrifice have not been wasted, but quite the opposite, their hard work and sacrifices have yielded results and it is these results the reason why the State Police are being attacked.
They attack the government as if the State Police is a misused police force of any Latin American regime. While the simple truth is – and it was not without purpose that I cited the Swedish government survey a the very beginning of this meeting – that throughout this period, not according to my or our statements, because we are neither police officers, nor politically independent authorities, but based on all international references over the years, including this survey, the police have become increasingly trustworthy and they increasingly enjoy stronger public support. It is not the public opinion of a minority that succeeds in making uproar and reaping the people’s guts out by making use of the spoons, forks, knives it has, plates, pans, trash bins it has. But fortunately enough, we are part of a wise people who cannot be fooled.
I won’t forget – and that’s why I would start with the end in order to go then to the beginning – why the protest started and I want to clearly distinguish between the part that has to do with the protests day after day and the part having to do with the protest itself. I would like to clearly highlight what ensued as a result of an extremely strong reason to protest; an extremely human and incredibly natural reason, the murder of a young man at the dead of the night, in a situation absolutely uncharged with any objective psychological element or circumstance of any operation by a police officer.
It is extremely shocking to everyone!
I myself – if I were not to serve in this position – would have definitely joined the protest. I would have gone out to protest, but not to hurl stones at the police, not to break the windows of the National Museum or the National Library, not to destroy the shutters of the Ministry of Interior, but to seek justice for Klodian.
In that first moment, when society reacts like a single family, because a member of the large family of a large community has lost his life, not accidentally, but because of those whom the family has trusted to protect, the most natural thing to happen in democratic countries in the case of such incidents – because such incidents have taken place in every democratic country – is that society gathers and reacts to say: “Our community is here, our community is watching you, the prosecutors, judges, and authorities, therefore look with our own eyes and do not elude the truth.
But it has become a routine that one can listen and read on the TV channels and news websites the justified reasons over the violence and vandalism as a tool to overthrow the system – and they use this word “the system” although it is unclear which system they are seeking to topple and which one to build, just like the mind plotting such predictions – rather than listening to the reason and about how to reason in this case. And in these cases one should reason by resorting to the facts and without mixing the emotions of such a tragic event with political agendas, or with personal emotions of any nature.
That boy was killed in circumstances that have already been established and not a month, a year, or 7 years have passed. Few days only have passed since the incident and the reaction to this event, primarily by the State Police, and the Ministry of Interior immediately after the police – I mean the order of receiving the notification – and other structures afterwards, there is no comparison for good with similar reactions to certain murders.
Today, there are still people killed in Albania and justice has yet to be made. There are even people who have been killed and movies have been based on their murder and the evidence has been manipulated.
It is important to recall all these facts.
These are not event that have taken place 100 years ago, but during our lifetime.
On the other hand, a member of the police patrol kills a man. The first thing the State Police does is that it immediately gives up investigation because of the conflict of interest and it is the Internal Control and Anti-Corruption Unit to take over the investigation, just like it is immediately part of the logic and the tasks of this structure and the legal and moral standard of this Ministry of Interior. It is the Internal Control and Anti-Corruption Unit the one to launch actions and start cooperation with the Prosecutor’s office.
And while real-time announcements are released, the disquieting beat of spoons, forks, knives, pans, cauldrons comes into play to infinitely deform the progress of such a delicate, so sensitive process, along with this heavy psychological burden on the shoulders of all those who have been dealing with this work as part of the police force or as part of this structure, going too far by manipulating everything because of their ignorance, but ignorance is addressed in two ways; when you have a good intention, ignorance is tackled by asking, inquiring and getting the opinion of the one you start abusing or it is addressed based on the bad intention, as if the government, through its decision to grant a special pension, which is an act of assuming full responsibility and sharing the pain of the family, has killed the victim again by calling it accidental murder. While legally the language is clear; accidentally by police actions. If he had been killed accidentally in an accident, he would not have been eligible for a special pension. Unfortunately, there are many people killed in accidents, but their families do not receive a special pension from the government.
Let alone the resignation of the Minister of Interior, to whom I have expressed and will express before you the respect and gratitude for this civic lecture in performing the duty in the deepest sense of this duty.
No comparison can be drawn with the past, but we should all be clear and aware that our challenge is with the future and a lot remains to be done when it comes to the future. What happened was certainly a lightning striking out of the blue due to the extreme and brutal use of force, which has never happened before, but should not be left without a reflection on the whole system of organization, say, of the “Eagles” unit. What does this mean?
It does not need to happen again and may it never happen again in 1000 years and it is not necessary for the event to be so extreme, but it should be worth analyzing at all technical-professional levels and in terms of psychological motivation, the degree of readiness of the officers serving in that chain, the level of their training, the quality of their trainers, and the training process itself. Aside the extremes, we have done extremely much together and this is the merit of the State Police, it is not my merit, nor the merit of the Ministry of Interior officials to keep police officers patrolling on the streets away from corruption practices.
But no one should be deceived into thinking this battle has been won. It is a battle that must go on. It is no longer an exception when it does not happen, it is an exception when it happens, but it is an exception that is not insensitive to the citizens, so it is not about a case or two. There are more than one or two cases, just like there are cases of concern for high-levels officials in the territory.
All this must be considered carefully, because what happened does not bring Klodian back to life, even if we are all ready to give our lives, literally, but what happened should serve not only such tragedies should never happen again, but much less should happen what are not tragedies, but are citizens’ dramas. I mean avoidable dramas in terms of the State Police service at any level. Extraordinary work has been done to avoid all those stresses, troubles, noise and dirt in the services of the State Police, but there is still to be cleaned. I believe we all agree on this and I want to express special thanks and gratitude to the Internal Control and Anti-Corruption Unit on this concrete case.
There is no need to tell his story. His story is well-known; a veteran police who in many cases has shown he always serves the state and the law, but in this case, not easy at all in terms of the indispensability to shed light as soon as possible, and as accurately as possible and the fact that it happened in the dead of the night in a suburb, this unit has led the process through fantastic professionalism. The unit has helped the State Police a lot, has relieved the state from the burden of suspicions and the accusations of not properly shedding light on the event.
The event today is no longer a matter of who tells his own version better, the affected party or the affecting one. The event is quite clear. And if this event is quite clear, this is all a merit of Met Rrumbullaku as head of the Internal Control and Anti-Corruption Unit and everyone else in his team and the Prosecutor’s office. Without striping anyone of any value or merit, I want to emphasize the merit of General Director of Police and the Minister of Interior for the integrity and respect for procedures, all going in the same direction, to clarify the truth as soon as possible.
We will have the opportunity to talk again in the coming days. I am here to witness the passing of the baton from the Minister of Interior Sander Lleshaj, with whom I was lucky and had the pleasure to work for a relatively long time, because time serving in this position is longer than the time when you are jobless. I have enjoyed working with Sander when serving in both positions, either as an advisor or as Minister of Interior. It has been primarily an intellectual challenge, in confronting opinions, and in the sincerity of expressing opinions. We have always agreed, not to always agree always in order for our relationship to be perfect, on the contrary, our relationship has been and is perfect because even when we did not agree, we continued to interact, communicate and we create agreement, enriching each other.
I am confident, Sander will one day prove that he has personally experienced that, contrary to my appearance, I am one of those who retreat more often than others withdraw before me, when it comes to arguments to the contrary.
On the other hand, I am very happy that taking the relay baton here is another former collaborator, Bledi Ҫuçi, who knows this building, – it was not so beautiful back then – because he has been working with the local government for a long time, has been part of the structure of the Ministry of Local Government which was so to speak the twin ministry of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But beyond the fact of an extensive experience with the local government and with all aspects of internal affairs that have to do not directly with the State Police, but with the Ministry of Interior as such, the new minister has today, even more experience in a governing position. He has been serving as Minister of State for Anti-Corruption, he headed for a period of time the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, so it is very clear that the internal affairs are not only order in terms of calm and the fight against crime, but are much more than that. The wonderful work commenced by Sander, but which is still in its early stages to guarantee order in the territory, not only in the sense of fighting criminal elements, who threaten the physical integrity of other people, but also confronting those who commit the crime on property, the environment, agricultural land, crimes all of which have long been included in the objectives of the State Police, but which have not yet been integrated as equivalent objectives for those structures that have to deal with them. On the other hand, also for the aspect of advancing and finalizing the long-time process of finally setting of addresses in this state and many other aspects, including the reorganization of the prefectures.
I am confident that with the new minister in office, the grounds are laid for the work to go on, the speed to increase, that the division of affairs between the State police and the Ministry of Affairs keep consolidating and becoming clear, so that the Minister of Interior consolidates the profile that Sander started creating for a minister of Interior who rules on the interior affairs, but not as a number one policeman in Albania.
I am confident that you who are present here will give him the opportunity to start working without wasting time, given that those heading the State Police or the Ministry of Interior have amassed an extraordinary experience. The whole team is a very experienced one, from the team of deputy ministers, who are now not as young as they were when they took office.
