Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama in the Assembly:
I asked for the floor to make an intervention regarding the fact that we are not discussing here an agreement like many others, but we are discussing an important agreement for Albania with our most important partner, the United States.
I believe that this Assembly does not honor this partnership with this type of discussion, and neither shows the due respect to the partner with whom we are entering this agreement.
On the other hand I believe that when it comes to crime, we can certainly share different opinions, as we may also share different opinions when it comes to the work of the State Police. Obviously, we cannot but share different opinions when it comes to the work of the Minister of Interior, but in the end there are some reference points that are stationary, because they are figures and facts.
I am very proud to remind you that since January of this year to date, murders in Albania have been reduced by less than 50% compared to previous years. So, since when the statistical record was created 1992, they have been less than 50%. This is a meaningful expression of a process in which we put our State Police and the fight against crime. And the process is far from being completed; it is far from being perfect, but it is definitely a process with undeniable results. It is these results that have brought an increased support also of the US to the entire sector and to the Ministry of Interior and the State Police, taken together, in addition to the support from the European Union and the European Commission.
There is no doubt that today, not only we are in the right direction in this fight, but we have achieved in a relatively short time results that were unimaginable only a year ago. It is also a fact that we inherited the most poorly paid police forces, the most poorly educated, to say it all, the less educated in the region, not to mention in Europe, the oldest in the region and in Europe, and arguably the most corrupt.
The cleansing process within the State Police has started since the first day, and it goes on every day. Enough to remind you that by the end of last year, 11% of the State Police forces have been under criminal proceeding or have been suspended for serious administrative violations with ascertained consequences. 11%! On the other hand, this is a process that continues. 36 are the police officers arrested this year only. They have been arrested for various offenses.
You left behind a Police that was not only subject of anecdotes, but it was at the same time a source of great disappointment to the public in relation to the crime, in relation to theft, in relation to security problems that had become the leitmotiv of concern for every Albanian family. You are not obliged to remember, but we remember very well, that throughout the period prior to the 2013 campaign, the main concern of every single citizen was crime and insecurity. This is fact!
Today, of course, we are still far from the target that we have set, away from the ambition that we want the State Police to have, because we are committed and you must be assured that we will keep this promise, that we will make the State Police a role model for the region, and without the slightest doubt it will grow in terms of indicators that measure the State Police in the European Union average. This is our ambition and we will accomplish this with you or without you.
However I believe that there is always a limit that should not be crossed. Because, when we hear some say that the martyr of the RENEA forces was killed by the Interior Minister with his friends, this is no longer a political issue, it’s a mental issue. This is no longer a potential subject of a political debate, this is definitely a case for the psychiatric hospital. When we are said to have supported the State Police whenever it was necessary, I cannot but remind you that the family of the Interior Minister underwent a terrorist attack with bombs and back then, not only there was no expression of solidarity, but on the contrary the reaction was beyond politics and the way it was dealt with went beyond the political debate, in addition to exceeding the threshold of the psychiatric hospital. Reactions that without even the slightest doubt would be a case of study in the field of psychiatry.
In addition, there is a big difference between us and you even in this regard. Nobody among us did stand up and say that a structured criminal group who put bombs to harm physically the family of the interior minister was ordered by you, because they were your friends. This is out of our imagination. This is off the limits even for the fieriest politics in terms of conflict in the debate. It is impossible. Meanwhile, all of a sudden the murders of the martyr of the RENEA forces in Lazarat are reported to be friends of the Interior Minister who has allegedly ordered the murder. What is this?
Of course, we won’t get into a debate of whose friends they are. Neither they, nor the others. We are very determined to not divide people in this battle into ours and yours. Even if they were ours, even if they were our friends, even if they were members of our families and they decide to infringe the law, and even worse, commit criminal acts with their full responsibility, we are determined to deal with them through the force of law and the force of the state. This is a very big difference. Not only we cannot be accused of this, but on the contrary, we require that this is recognized as a new standard in the work of the government and in the conduct of the State Police, because such it is. Everyone has individual responsibility and everyone has the freedom to choose to be with the law or against the law. Who chooses to be against the law will bear consequences as provided for by law.
Meanwhile, although it is part of the debate, it is impossible for us to accept as a normal argument the debate when you try to demonstrate that Lazart was created, the cannabis was planted and drugs were everywhere after the elections of 2013. We all know very well when Lazart was created, how a republic of shame was maintained and pointed at for many years, in addition to being at the international media’s attention more than the country itself, and to being object of media reports and comments more than Albania itself.
As we all know very well who has been welcomed and who has been not in the territory of that republic for decades. Meanwhile, not only you did not congratulate the State Police, the minister of Interior, the government on the successful operation that sealed the status of candidate country for Albania – just don’t forget this, although you keep saying that the status was prepared by you; had it been true, you would’ve taken it – but on the contrary you came out and hit the state police right when the state police was in an operation. This means that you encouraged the criminal group to act within the village and turn the guns on the state and on the police. This is the truth. As you have done from time to time, directly or indirectly, to discourage the State Police. This also is a fact.
Meanwhile, I can say out loud, without being afraid of being wrong or of disclosing a secret, that I am very proud anytime I have in front of me international partners in a round table, and hear what they have to say about the Ministry of Interior, the Albanian State Police and the minister of Interior of the Republic of Albania. You hear them as well, for they tell you as well, but you’re not obliged to remember.
This is a fact, as it is a fact that the direct commitment of the FBI to work on the ground here in Albania, in cooperation with the State Police, is part of the trust that finally the government, the minister of Interior and the State Police in Albania are against crime and against the infringement of law.
These are not my words. I have been told these words directly, and you can verify them easily because you have been told them by the higher delegation of the FBI who came in Albania to open a new chapter of cooperation, but you are not obliged to remember.
You hindered the National Bureau of Investigation. No problem. We will modify the legislative framework on which the Bureau has been launched, and we will create the National Bureau of Investigation with or without you. One thing is for sure, with or without the National Bureau of Investigation, our cooperation with the FBI to fight crime and corruption in Albania has already started, and there is no dividing line, there cannot be, between who are ours and who are yours.
On the contrary, I believe that a government and a majority that has the morality and the determination to move away from those who were caught red-handed violating the law, does not deserve to be attacked, but it only deserves to be respected.
It has been proved and considered a foundation stone of the new trust created between Albania and its partners in the fight against crime, the fact that this is the first government fighting seriously against a phenomenon which used to dominate across the territory of the Republic of Albania. Until yesterday, there was no news on the operation of the State Police against this phenomenon, because there was no such operation of the State Police. Instead, there was cooperation, a symbiosis of politics, of the police and of the criminal organizations to transform Albania into a territory undermined by this illegal activity. This is the fact!
I won’t give out numbers, for the difference is really big and you might think that we’re not comparing 2014 and 2015 with 2013, but rather the 21st century with the 19th century. That’s how big the distances are in the tons of any kind of drugs sized and destroyed.
I heard here being retold the story of a renown criminal who was reportedly very close to the interior minister and to my person, and this fact had determined everything concerning the behavior of the government, of the state and of the State Police towards crime. Do not forget that this one lost the trial and was declared a slanderer by the Supreme Court, and soon he will have to face the punishment provided for by law for compensation related to slander.
I haven’t decided yet how this money will be used, but I am still inclined to believe that the best way to use it is launching a therapy session to soothe the psyche of slanderers.
There are therapies for those who are addicted to various vices, and I believe that such a therapy session would be supported also by SHQUP because it would significantly ease the burden of this tremendous mental deformation that has transformed the big party of hopes and dreams of the Albanians, in a 1989 basic organization, which is not an organized one, but it’s like those loose bands that together with the regime had come to an end.
That’s what you have become, but this is your business.
On more thing. Anyone to whom you refer became famous at the time of your government. You did nothing in this direction when you were in power. Anytime you talk about crime, the number of bands and bosses that you claim to have caught becomes bigger. Today’s claim was over the top: 238 bands with a thousand bosses. Three bosses per band. But we know that it doesn’t work this way.
To conclude, a reminder by Socrates.
Socrates, who was very often object of defamation, when asked “What about you, why don’t you answer?”, said: “The slanderer is like a bastard dog who bites you when you’re not paying attention”. My problem is that it bites the foot. First, because I cannot bite his foot, and second I cannot think about the dog. “So, your choice. Either you’re with Socrates or with the dog.
