Police force without Haki Çako

Nga Erdi Ibro Publikuar më: 16-01-2018, 11:47
Police force without Haki Çako
This article has been written for Albanian Free Press newspaper and www.afp.al

Without a Police Commissioner, disoriented and finding itself in the middle of a clash between the minister of Interior and Prime Minister, something which was noticed during the speeches delivered by them on the occasion of the 105th anniversary, Albanian police is in a crossroad. How will it restore trust after Tahiri’s scandal and the spreading of cannabis in the country? Four figures which show this and the five ways how this could become a European police force away from political slogans such as “the police that we want”.

By Roland Qafoku

Neither Albert Camus, nor Milan Kundera could not help Edi Rama on Saturday to boost the morale on the 105th anniversary of police, while quoting their novels and repeating that “it’s not me who says this, but them”. Edi Rama could not even be assisted by the 40 million euro figure, which, according to him, represented the amount seized to people who have ties with crime. Edi Rama could not even be assisted by the 900 tons of cannabis which, according to him, were smuggled by the autonomous drug trafficking region of Lazarat until 2013. Awaiting the appointment of the 16th police Commissioner since the overthrow of the communist regime and the third one since his arrival in power, State Police is not the one that Rama declared on this 105th anniversary. This police force holds on its shoulders one of the biggest scandals over the years, where it was discovered that a structured criminal group had ties with police and although the head of the government attempted to conceal it, the fact that he didn’t mention it, aggravated the situation even more. There are four figures which cannot help Edi Rama or the way police force is lead. And these figures were not provided by Rama, but national and international security agencies:

  1. There are 2 thousand plantations cultivated with cannabis during 2016.

  2. There are 8 million cannabis roots cultivated during 2016.

  3. There are 21 tons of cannabis seeds entering Albania during 2016.

  4. There are 650 million euros generated from the traffic of drugs in 2016.

We are not sure what Rama thinks of these figures, nonetheless, during his speech, he repeated that the criticism that was addressed was groundless. Not wanting to betendentious, but accurate and above all, to support police forces, the Prime Minister was right in only one thing. With 50 murders taken place in Albania during 2017, the country marks a record in the past 27 years, with the lowest number of murders in a year. And without any doubt, police needs to be congratulated on this.

But, the Prime Minister was wrong once again. He did this comparison with the years of the Democratic Party in power, as if there were two Albanias, an Albania of the Socialist Party led by Edi Rama and an Albania of the Democratic Party led by Sali Berisha. It’s been five years he’s been in office and he continues to compare his figures with 2013, similar to the comparisons that Enver Hoxha’s communism did with king Ahmet Zogu’s figures in 1938.

To better understand Saturday’s pirouette, below we will be able to read what Rama declared about the situation within police force, in his own way:

“In 2017, the country healed one of the biggest wounds that it had ever known. Today, in 2018, we no longer have Lazarats. Last year, police seized over 40 million euros from criminal organizations, while 4 years ago, this figure was less than 1 million euros”.

“In 2017, police made sure that the country had the lowest number of murders in the past 27 years with only 50 murders. This is not a small number, but it is much lower than the 107 murders that took place in 2013 and 126 taking place in 2012. It’s a much lower figure than the figure of an EU member country, where a lot is said about Albanian crime”.

Meanwhile, the minister of Interior, Fatmir Xhafa was much more realistic than Rama was. In his speech, he publicly condemned the way police has been used politically in the past 27 years, making no exemptions whatsoever, not even the Socialist Party:

“The history of these 27 years has clearly shown that the influence and the political use of police has been the biggest political failure of those who have attempted this undertaking. We are well aware of this historical lesson”.

“State Police belongs to the State and not to the next minister in office. Therefore, I would like to invite citizens to offer their unconditional support for State Police, because it belongs to the citizens and it’s there to serve them”.

“The vetting process will attempt to promote the most honest people within police force”.

Based not only in the “clash” between the Prime Minister and the Interior minister, but also on the situation within police force since the scandal with minister Saimir Tahiri broke out, police is disoriented. He had a Police Commissioner who had 9 police chiefs discharged for being incriminated in groups accused of drug traffic and this is the biggest scandal ever taken place within police in the past 27 years. Meanwhile, the fact that three other police chiefs are still at is an unprecedented case. Now, the Police Commissioner has been discharged and the highest ranking police officials are scared that they might have made a mistake. Finding itself in this situation, police only has only one way to distant itself from political influences.

  1. The urgent appointment of a Police Commissioner must be based on the law. Minister Xhafa must show that he is not a minister who wants his own Police Commissioner, like all of his predecessors have done. He must choose a Police Commissioner who meets the all legal requirements. Apart from this, there must be no allegations about his involvement in corruption and crime. His name should not be related to police, but with the functioning of the structures and the application of the law in order for politicians not to label police like Çako’s police, Didi’s police or the police of the next commissioner in office. This is the only way not only to restore trust in the process of screening within police, but also on the platform of an honest European police which upholds the law.

  2. Fight against cannabis does not mean that given that there’s no more cultivated cannabis, the phenomenon has completely disappeared. In 2015 and 2016, Albania was poisoned in such a way that years and decades are needed to uproot this phenomenon. In these 27 years, there are two key moments which need to be pointed out: the March 1997 turmoil and the spreading of cannabis all over the country in the period 2015-2016. The first one is hard to be forgotten. Meanwhile, the second one needs many years to be uprooted. Therefore, it’s up to police to lead a frontal war against this phenomenon to improve the negative image that exists about the country.

  3. Police must be reorganized based on police structures. In 2014, we had a total restructuring of police. A new structure was set up and based on this new structure, police was one. The appointment of zonal inspectors was the biggest failure. Reformation and restructuring must be a new task for police in order for it to be more efficient and effective.

  4. Police must reinstate every honest police officer who was removed in the blink of an eye. It has never happened for 1200 police officers to be discharged in a matter of months. Someone may say that parliament has adopted a law preventing their reinstatement. But we must say that in this country, Constitution has been amended overnight and it’s not hard to amend such law. It would be in the honor of this police force and parliamentary majority to amend this law and reinstate those police officers who were discharged.

  5. The vetting process must be an honest process without any political influences. It is a process with many expectations. It can even be said that it will be the key of the future of police. If vetting within police will be successful, then this will mark a new era for police. Above all, it will restore trust and the rule of law will prevail.

Only by delivering these five tasks within police force, trust will be restored and the rule of law will prevail.

POLICE COMMISSIONERS FROM 1990 UNTIL TODAY

  1. Fadil Canaj, 17 July 1990-1 May 1992

  2. Astrit Mehaj, 1 May 1992-22 June 1993

  3. Sabri Jacaj, 22 June 1993-15 June 1995

  4. Agim Shehu, 15 June 1995-30 June 1997

  5. Sokol Bare, 3 July 1997-16 May 1998

  6. Besnik Bregu, 16 May 1998-4 September 1998

  7. Hasan Ahmetaj, 4 September 1998-9 November 1998

  8. Veton Gjoliku, 9 November 1998-20 January 1999

  9. Veli Myftari, 20 January 1999-22 November 2000.

  10. Bilbil Mema, 23 November 2000-19 August 2002

  11. Bajram Ibraj, 12 September 2002-30 March 2007

  12. Ahmet Prençi, 30 March 2007-28 October 2009

  13. Hysni Burgaj, 28 October 2009-9 October 2013

  14. Artan Didi, 9 October 2013-15 April 2015

  15. Haki Çako, 15 April 2015-8 January 2018

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