ALBANIA on 2009 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR)

2009 INCSR: Country Reports - Afghanistan through Comoros
Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

Albania


I. Summary


Albania is a transit country for narcotics traffickers moving primarily Afghan heroin from Central Asia to destinations around Western Europe. In 2008, seizures of heroin and marijuana declined. Cannabis continues to be produced in Albania for markets in Europe, but cultivation has largely moved into the more remote mountain regions of Albania that the government has difficulty accessing. The Government of Albania (GOA), in response to international pressure and with international assistance, is confronting criminal elements more aggressively but continues to be hampered by a lack of resources and endemic corruption. Albania is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention.


II. Status of Country


Albania’s ports on the Adriatic and porous land borders, together with poorly financed, poorly managed and under-equipped police, border security and customs controls, make it an attractive stop on the smuggling route for traffickers moving shipments into Western Europe. In addition, marijuana is produced domestically for markets in Europe, the largest being Italy and Greece.


III. Country Actions against Drugs in 2008


Policy Initiatives. In 2005, the GOA outlawed the circulation of speedboats and several other varieties of water vessels on all of Albania’s territorial coastal waters for a period of three years, which appears to have slowed the movement of drugs by smaller waterborne vessels, particularly to Italy. Albania works with its neighbors bilaterally and in regional initiatives to combat organized crime and trafficking, and it is a participant in the Stability Pact and the Southeastern Europe Cooperative Initiative (SECI). In May of 2008, Albania enacted a new law to fight against money laundering. Albania signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Commission in June 2006, and it has since been ratified by twelve European Union member countries. The EU noted in its ratification that Albania “...is still facing serious challenges in tackling corruption and organized crime, achieving full implementation of adopted legislation, improving public administration and fighting trafficking in human beings and drugs.”


Law Enforcement Efforts and Accomplishments. Albanian police continued to make progress in their counternarcotics operations through the increased use of technology, improved police techniques, and an increase in overall capacity. Drug seizure numbers from both Italy and Greece show a marked decline in drugs seized coming from Albania to those countries, which demonstrates the success of Albania’s efforts. Albanian authorities organized major police operations and drug seizure operations throughout the country, particularly in Fier, Tirana, and the ports of Vlora and Durres. International cooperation also increased, including joint operations with Italian, Macedonian, Greek and Turkish authorities. Albanian authorities report that from January to September 2008, police arrested 354 persons for drug trafficking, and an additional 32 are being sought. The police seized over 59 kg of heroin, 2092 kg of marijuana, and 1kg of cocaine during this time. The police also destroyed 143,655 cannabis plants and 61 poppy plants. This coincides with a noted decrease in the number of drugs seized by Italian authorities, who for the first nine months of 2008 had seized only 10kg of heroin coming from Albania and 4 kg of marijuana.


The increase in the seizures of cocaine in Albania signals a slight rise in the trafficking of cocaine into Albania both for domestic consumption and for export to Greece and Italy. Prosecutions for organized crime offenses, according to the Prosecutor General’s annual report, increased 30% from 2006 to 2007. During the same time period, the number of cultivating and trafficking in narcotics cases increased 16%.


Corruption. Corruption remains a deeply entrenched problem in Albania. Low salaries, social acceptance of graft and Albania’s tightly knit social networks make it difficult to combat corruption among police, judges, and customs officials, and corruption aids and abets organized crime and drug trafficking. As part of the government’s anticorruption pledge, in May 2006, Albania ratified the UN Convention against Corruption. In 2007 and the first half of 2008, the police and judiciary have been more active in investigating government officials and law enforcement personnel for corruption. In her annual report to Parliament, the Prosecutor General reported that in 2007, the number of public officials charged for corruption-related offenses increased by 27 percent compared to 2006. In 2007, prosecutors registered 663 proceedings for corruption offenses against 385 defendants. As of the end of 2007, cases against 172 defendants were sent to trial, and 62 defendants had been convicted.


The overall increased number of corruption cases shows a commitment by prosecutors and police to crack down on corruption. Although these numbers are a significant improvement over 2005 and 2006, Albania continues to lack the judicial independence for truly unbiased proceedings and many cases are never resolved. The fact that high government officials enjoy immunity from prosecution hinders corruption investigations generally. However, the creation of a Joint Investigative Unit to Fight Economic Crime and Corruption (JIU) has had a significant impact on the fight against corruption in Albania’s capital. (See Section IV for a complete description of this unit and its work.)


Agreements and Treaties. Albania is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, the 1961 UN Single Convention as amended by the 1972 Protocol, and the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances. An extradition treaty is in force between the United States and Albania. Albania is a party to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) and its protocols against migrant smuggling and trafficking in persons, and since February 2008, to the protocol against illicit trafficking in firearms. The TOC Convention enhances the bilateral extradition treaty by expanding the list of offenses for which extradition may be granted. The U.S. has applied the TOC most recently in a few extradition requests to Albania.


Cultivation and Production. With the exception of cannabis, Albania is not a significant producer of illicit drugs. According to authorities of the Ministry of Interior’s Anti-Narcotics Unit, cannabis is currently the only drug grown and produced in Albania and is typically sold regionally. Although eradication programs co-sponsored by the police and local governments have been credited with substantially reducing cultivation of cannabis, cultivation persists despite these efforts. No labs for the production of synthetic drugs were discovered in 2008, and the trade in synthetic drugs remains virtually non-existent. Albania is not a producer of significant quantities of precursor chemicals.


The Law on the Control of Chemicals Used for the Illegal Manufacturing of Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances was passed in 2002 and regulates precursor chemicals. Unfortunately, police and customs officials are not trained to recognize likely diversion of dual-use precursor chemicals.


Drug Flow and Transit. Trafficking in narcotics in Albania continues as one of the most lucrative illicit occupations available. Organized crime groups use Albania as a transit point for drugs and other types of smuggling, due to the country’s strategic location, weak law enforcement and unreformed judicial systems, and porous borders. Albania is a transit point for heroin from Afghanistan, which is smuggled via the “Balkan Route” of Turkey-Bulgaria-Macedonia-Albania to Italy, Montenegro, Greece, and the rest of Western Europe. A limited, but growing, amount of cocaine is smuggled from South America to Albania, both for domestic consumption and external distribution. Additionally, criminal networks are increasingly using ethnic Albanians to smuggle cocaine and heroin from other countries into Albania, Italy and Greece.


Domestic Programs/Demand Reduction. The Ministry of Health believes that drug use is on the rise, but has no reliable data about drug abuse. According to health professionals, the addict population is as large as 30,000 users and current registered drug use could be just the tip of the iceberg for Albania. The GOA has taken steps to address the problem with a National Drug Demand Reduction Strategy but is hampered by the inadequate public health infrastructure that is ill equipped to treat drug abuse, and public awareness of the problems associated with drug abuse remains low. The Toxicology Center of the Military Hospital is the only facility in Albania equipped to handle overdose cases and is staffed by only three clinical toxicologists. This clinic has seen an average of 2000 patients per year over the past five years, and the number of cases has remained constant over this period. The clinic estimates that around 80 percent of the cases result from addiction to opiates, predominately heroin, and most were intravenous drug users. There were only two NGO’s operating in Albania during 2007, which dealt with drug related cases. Albania has few regulations on the sale of benzodiazepines, which are sold over the counter at local pharmacies, and the domestic abuse of these medications is believed to be rising, though no data is available.


IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs


Policy Initiative. The GOA continues to welcome assistance from the United States and Western Europe. The U.S. is intensifying its judicial sector assistance programs in the areas of law enforcement and legal reform through technical assistance, equipment donations, and training. One of the problems seen in training, however, is deep political polarization at all levels of government resulting in the absence of a strong civil service class and thus many trainees are subject to reassignment during times of political transition. This was especially acute in changes in the Albanian State Police following the 2007 municipal elections. Between 2005 and mid-2006, almost 90 percent of all Chief Controllers from Albania’s major border crossing points were transferred or removed from their posts and replaced by new personnel. In many cases, newly-assigned personnel had no apparent background, training or understanding of border functions.


The DEA and the FBI have conducted drug training and investigations training. The State Department-supported U.S. Department of Justice ICITAP and OPDAT programs continued their programs at the Ministry of the Interior, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Serious Crimes Court and Serious Crimes Prosecution Office, all with the goal of professionalizing the administration of justice, combating corruption, and strengthening the GOA’s ability to prosecute cases involving organized crime and illicit trafficking. ICITAP continued to offer the Anti-Narcotics and Special Operations Sectors full-time advisory support, an advanced level of training (in cooperation with the FBI) to assist in combating illicit trafficking in people and drugs. ICITAP and State/INL continued to provide support for the GOA`s anti-narcotic strategy and efforts through its activities within the International Consortium and the Mini-Dublin Group. OPDAT worked closely with representatives from the Ministry of Interior, General Prosecutor’s Office, and Ministry of Finance on a new law on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, enacted in May 2008, which lowered the threshold of financial transaction reporting and imposed new identification procedures for those engaging in financial transactions.


In 2007, OPDAT and ICITAP worked with the Albanian Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Finance, General Prosecutor’s Office, and State Intelligence Service to form an Economic Crime and Corruption Joint Investigative Unit (JIU) to improve the investigation and prosecution of financial crimes, especially money laundering and corruption. The JIU formally began operations in September of 2007 and has shown very promising initial success, opening 222 cases in the first year of operation and successfully convicting the Deputy Minister of Transportation and the General Secretary of the Ministry of Labor on corruption charges. Other high-profile cases include the arrest of a prominent surgeon for accepting bribes to perform surgeries, the arrest of a prosecutor for agreeing to bribe a judge for the reduction of a defendant’s sentence, and the extensive investigation and arrest of 17 defendants in a wide-ranging ATM fraud scheme. OPDAT has supported the JIU throughout 2008 with an imbedded OPDAT anti-corruption legal advisor and an intensive program of training, along with equipment donation.


The Witness Protection (WP) Directorate in the Ministry of Interior continues to work with the U.S. and other members of the international community to strengthen the existing witness protection legislation. The WP Directorate has helped to protect a number of witnesses, and witness families, in trafficking and drug related homicide cases. During 2008, OPDAT and ICITAP provided extensive training support to the WP Directorate by sponsoring an in-country assessment and two week-long trainings on administrative procedures and physical protection techniques conducted by the Witness Security Division of the United States Marshals Service. In addition, OPDAT sponsored three high-ranking members of the Albanian Witness Protection Directorate and a Serious Crimes prosecutor to attend the third International Symposium on Witness Protection in October, 2008, in Lyon, France, where they had the opportunity to learn and interact with WP officials from over 30 countries.


The United States, through State/INL, continues to provide assistance for integrated border management, a key part of improving the security of Albania’s borders, providing specialized equipment, and the installation of the Total Information Management System (TIMS) at border crossing points. Part of the integrated border management initiative, formally approved by the Albanian Council of Ministers on 29 September 2007, included the establishment of an autonomous Border and Migration Department with direct command and control of all border policing resources answerable to one central authority. Other U.S., EU, and international assistance programs include support for customs reform, judicial training and reform, improving cooperation between police and prosecutors, and anticorruption programs. The USCG provided maritime law enforcement training to Albanian officers through two visits of a mobile training team. Albanian law enforcement authorities have provided the Italian police with intelligence that has led to the arrest of drug dealers and organized crime members, as well as the confiscation of heroin in Italy. Cooperation also continues with Italian law enforcement officials to carry out narcotics raids inside Albania.


The Road Ahead. The Albanian government has made the fight against organized crime and trafficking one of its highest priorities. Additionally, the police are taking an increasingly active role in counter narcotics operations. Albania’s desire to enter into the European Union and its entry in 2008 into NATO continues to push the GOA to implement and enforce reforms, but the fractional nature of Albanian politics and the slow development of Albanian civil society have hampered progress. The U.S., together with the EU and other international partners, will continue to work with the GOA to make progress on fighting illegal drug trafficking, to use law enforcement assistance effectively, and to support legal reform.

MONEY LAUNDERING:
Country Jurisdictions of Concern
ALBANIA

Albania

Albania is not considered an important regional financial or offshore center. As a transit country for trafficking in narcotics, arms, contraband, and humans, Albania remains at significant risk for money laundering. The major sources of criminal proceeds in the country are trafficking offenses, official corruption, and fraud. Albania continues to be a source country for human trafficking. Corruption and organized crime are likely the most significant sources of money laundering, but the exact extent to which these various illegal activities contribute to overall crime proceeds and money laundering is unknown. The European Commission’s (EC) November 2008 progress report on Albania identifies corruption, judicial deficiencies, politicization of the civil service, and organized crime as the biggest problems in Albania. The report also says money laundering, organized crime, and drug-trafficking are “serious concerns,” stating that Albania has made “limited progress” in its fight against organized crime and money laundering.

Criminals frequently invest tainted money in real estate and business development projects. Because of its high level of consumer imports and weak customs controls, Albania has a significant black market for certain smuggled goods such as tobacco, jewelry, and mobile phones. Organized crime groups use Albania as a base of operations for conducting criminal activities in other countries and often return their illicit gains to Albania.

Because Albania’s economy, particularly the private sector, remains largely cash-based, the proceeds from illicit activities are easily laundered in Albania. Albanian customs authorities report that organized criminal elements launder their illegal proceeds by smuggling bulk cash into and out of Albania by using international trade and fraudulent practices through import/export businesses. According to the Bank of Albania (the Central Bank), 23 percent of the money in circulation is outside of the banking system, compared to an average of ten percent in other Central and Eastern European transitioning economies. A significant portion of remittances enters the country through unofficial channels. It is estimated only half of total remittances enter Albania through banks or money transfer companies. The Central Bank estimates that in 2007, remittances comprised nearly 14 percent of Albania’s annual gross domestic product (GDP). Black market exchange is still present in the country. However, it is declining steadily as a result of concerted efforts by the Government of Albania (GOA) to impede such exchanges. The Bankers Association estimates about half of all financial transactions take place through formal banking channels. Similarly, the GOA estimates proceeds from the informal sector account for approximately 30-60 percent of Albania’s GDP. Although current law permits free trade zones, none are currently in operation.

The GOA is committed to fighting informality in the financial sector. There are 17 banks in Albania, and most of them have expanded both their national presence and the variety of services they offer. Electronic and automated teller machine (ATM) transactions are growing, especially in the urban areas, as more banks introduce this technology. ATM and debit and credit card usage expanded after the GOA decided to deliver public administration salaries through electronic transfers in 2005, and then compelled the private sector to follow suit in 2007. A May 2007 ruling also requires the private sector to channel at least 90 percent of its transactions through the banking sector. As of August 2008, 710,000 cards have been issued, almost entirely debit cards, but only a small number of people possess them and usage is primarily limited to a few large vendors.

Albania criminalizes money laundering through Article 287 of the Albanian Criminal Code of 1995, as amended. Albania’s original money laundering law is “On the Prevention of Money Laundering,” Law No. 8610 of May 17, 2000. In June 2003, Parliament approved Law No. 9084, which strengthens Law No. 8610 and improves the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code. Law No. 9084 redefines the legal concept of money laundering, revises its definition to harmonize it with international standards, outlaws the establishment of anonymous accounts, and permits the confiscation of accounts. The law also mandates the identification of beneficial owners and places reporting requirements on both financial institutions and individuals. According to the law, obliged institutions are required to report to Albania’s financial intelligence unit (FIU) all transactions exceeding $20,000 as well as those transactions that involve suspicious activity, regardless of amount. Currently, no law criminalizes negligence by financial institutions in money laundering cases.

In 2006, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL), a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-style regional body, conducted a mutual evaluation of Albania’s anti-money laundering/counterterrorist financing (AML/CTF) regime. In an attempt to address the many deficiencies identified by MONEYVAL, in May 2008, the Albanian Parliament passed Law No. 9917, “On Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.” The law entered into force in September 2008. The new anti-money laundering (AML) law lowers the reporting threshold for cash transactions from $20,000 to $15,000. Law No. 9917 strengthens customer due diligence (CDD) requirements by requiring the identification of all customers regardless of the size of their transactions, mandating that reporting subjects maintain on-going due diligence of clients according to the know-your-customer (KYC) concept, and establishing the requirement to perform enhanced due diligence on a risk sensitive basis. The law also includes a better definition of “client” to include any natural or legal person that is party to a business relationship, and mandates that CDD measures apply in transactions where terrorist financing is suspected. The law also increases the number of reporting entities, clarifies record keeping requirements, and better defines the responsibilities of the FIU.

Covered transactions must be reported within 72 hours of their occurrence. Individuals and entities reporting transactions are protected by law if they cooperate with and provide financial information to the FIU and law enforcement agencies. Reportedly, however, leaks of financial disclosure information from other agencies have compromised client confidentiality.

The Central Bank has established a task force to confirm banks’ compliance with customer verification rules. It is the responsibility of the licensing authority to supervise intermediaries for compliance with AML regulations. For example, the Ministry of Justice is responsible for oversight of attorneys and notaries, and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) for accountants. Although regulations also cover nonbank financial institutions, enforcement remains poor in practice. There is an increasing number of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) coming from banks as that sector matures. A large number of STRs continue to come from tax and customs authorities and foreign counterparts.

Individuals must report to customs authorities all cross-border transactions that exceed approximately $10,000. Reportedly, Albania provides declaration forms at border crossing points but apparently only to those individuals who voluntarily make a declaration that would require completing the form. The law does not distinguish between an Albanian and a foreign visitor. However, customs controls on cross-border transactions lack effectiveness due to a lack of resources, poor training and, reportedly, corruption of customs officials.

Law No. 8610 establishes an administrative FIU, the General Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering (DPPPP), to coordinate the GOA’s efforts to detect and prevent money laundering. Under Law No. 9084, the FIU became a quasi-independent agency within the Ministry of Finance. Albania is in the process of preparing a new administrative law on FIU operations. Referred to as the “draft law,” it will clarify certain AML measures and elaborate on reporting requirements for obliged entities. As an administrative-type FIU, the DPPPP does not have law enforcement capabilities. The FIU receives reports from obligated entities, analyzes them, and then disseminates the results of its analysis to the Prosecutor’s Office. Despite improvements of facilities and equipment, the Albanian FIU continues to face many operational obstacles. The FIU’s capacity remains limited as staff turnover is a persistent problem, and coordination and cooperation with the Prosecutor’s Office remains problematic.

Since 2005, the FIU has referred to the Prosecutors Office 24 cases of both money laundering and terrorist financing, eight of which were reported during the first nine months of 2008. One case of money laundering has been prosecuted and currently there are two cases ready to be sent to the court. However, prosecution was declined for the rest. In January 2008, the first terrorist financing criminal case began in the First Instance Court for Serious Crimes. The case is against a Jordanian citizen accused of concealing funds allegedly intended to finance terrorism.

Albania’s law sets forth an “all crimes” definition for the offense of money laundering, however, the Albanian court system applies a difficult burden of proof. Albanian courts require a conviction for the predicate offense before issuing an indictment for money laundering. In an effort to increase money laundering prosecutions, in May 2007, Albania established the Economic Crimes and Corruption Joint Investigative Unit (ECCJIU) within the Tirana District Prosecutors Office. This unit focuses efforts and builds expertise in the investigation and prosecution of financial crimes and corruption cases by bringing together members of the General Prosecutors Office, the Albanian State Police’s Financial Crimes Sector, the MOF’s Customs Service and Tax Police, and Albanian intelligence services. The ECCJIU also cooperates with the FIU and the National Intelligence Service. The ECCJIU has responsibility for the prosecution of money laundering cases within the District of Tirana.

Albania passed comprehensive legislation against organized crime in 2004. Law No. 9284, the “anti-mafia law,” enables civil asset sequestration and confiscation provisions in cases involving organized crime and trafficking. The law applies to the assets of suspected persons, their families, and close associates. In cases where the value of the defendant’s assets exceeds the income generated by known legal activity, the law places the burden on the defendant to prove a legitimate source of income to support the volume of assets. During the first half of 2008, the Serious Crimes Prosecution Office rendered eight sequestration and confiscation decisions pursuant to the anti-mafia law. The properties sequestered include one hotel and $7,000 in cash. The properties confiscated include $13,000 in cash and bank accounts, seven vehicles, and a coffee bar. The Agency for the Administration of the Sequestration and Confiscation of Assets (AASCA) was created in 2004, and is charged with the responsibility of administering confiscated assets. So far the agency has failed to function in a meaningful fashion. However, in response to pressure from U.S. government officials, the agency has started to perform better and has effectively taken control over several properties.

Article 230/a of the Penal Code criminalizes terrorist financing. The financing of terrorism, or its support of any kind, is punishable by a term of imprisonment of at least 15 years, and carries a fine of $50,000 to $100,000. The Penal Code also contains additional provisions dealing with terrorist financing, including sections dealing with disclosing information regarding an investigation or identification to identified persons and conducting financial transactions with identified persons. In an effort to make Albania’s terrorist financing legislation comply more fully with international standards, the GOA, in 2007, amended its penal code to include a more specific definition for terrorist organizations. In addition, actions for terrorist purposes were identified and Albania’s jurisdiction in terrorist financing cases was extended to include both resident and nonresident foreign citizens.

In 2004, Albania enacted Law No. 9258, “On Measures against Terrorist Financing.” This law provides a mechanism for the sequestration and confiscation of assets belonging to terrorist financiers, particularly with regard to the United Nations (UN) updated lists of designees. While comprehensive, it lacks implementing regulations and thus is not fully in force. As of June 2008, the MOF claimed to maintain asset freezes against six individuals and 14 foundations and companies on the UN Security Council’s 1267 Committee’s consolidated lists of identified terrorist entities. In total, assets worth more than $10,000,000, belonging to six persons, five foundations and nine companies, remain sequestered, including 83 bank accounts containing more than $3,950,000; 18 apartments in an expensive high rise apartment building in the center of Tirana; and several other properties throughout Albania. The full extent of sequestered assets is unknown.

The MOF is the main entity responsible for issuing freeze orders. After the MOF executes an order, the FIU circulates it to other government agencies, which then sequester any discovered assets belonging to the UNSCR 1267 named individual or entity. The sequestration orders remain in force as long as the subject’s name remains on the list.

Albania is a party to the UN Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the UN Convention against Corruption, and the 1988 UN Drug Convention. Albania is a member of MONEYVAL, and the FIU is a member of the Egmont Group. The FIU has signed memoranda of understanding with 31 countries, Turkey being the most recent.

Although there are continuing initiatives to improve Albania’s capacity to deal with financial crimes and money laundering, the lack of positive results and apparent inability to adequately address program deficiencies continue to hamper progress. In addition, although the new AML law was adopted in May 2008, it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the new measures as implementing regulations have not yet been passed. The Government of Albania must provide the competent authorities adequate resources to administer and enforce the AML/CTF measures included in the May 2008 law. Albania also should incorporate into AML legislation specific provisions regarding negligent money laundering, corporate criminal liability, comprehensive customer identification procedures, and the adequate oversight of money remitters and charities. Albania should remove the requirement of a conviction for the predicate offense before a conviction for money laundering can be obtained. The FIU, prosecutors and the ECCJIU should enhance their effectiveness through improved cooperation with one another and outreach to other entities. The FIU should take steps to achieve effective analysis of the large volume of currency transaction reports and STRs received. The GOA should enact its draft law on FIU operations and promulgate implementing regulations for all applicable laws as soon as possible. The GOS should ensure that those charged with pursuing financial crime increase their technical knowledge to include modern financial investigation techniques. The GOA should provide its police force with the means to adequately maintain and retrieve its case files and records. The link between criminal intelligence and investigations remains weak as there is a lack of coordination between the prosecutors and the police. Investigators and prosecutors should implement case management techniques, and prosecutors and judges need to become more conversant with the nuances of money laundering. The GOA should devise implementing regulations for Law 9258 regarding sequestration and confiscation of assets linked to terrorist financing so that it can be fully effective. The GOA also should improve the enforcement and enlarge the scope of its asset seizure and forfeiture regime, including fully funding and supporting the AASCA.

Source: U.S Department of States

2008 Human Rights Report: Albania

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

February 25, 2009

The Republic of Albania is a parliamentary democracy with a population of approximately 3.6 million. Legislative authority is vested in the unicameral People's Assembly (parliament), which elects both the prime minister and the president. The prime minister heads the government, while the presidency is a largely ceremonial position with limited executive power. On April 24, the parliament amended the constitutional provision that defines the Albanian electoral system, changing it from a mixed majoritarian-proportional system to a regional-proportional system. On December 29, the parliament passed reforms to the electoral code. The reforms establish the legal framework for the June 2009 general elections. Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the country's security forces.


While the government generally respected the human rights of its citizens, there were problems in some areas. During the year the government attempted to assert greater control over independent institutions such as the judiciary, the Office of the Prosecutor General, and the media. The government interfered in the ongoing investigation into the March 15 Gerdec arms depot explosion. Security forces abused prisoners and detainees and prison and pretrial detention conditions remained poor. Police corruption and impunity continued, as did discrimination against women, children, and minorities. While some progress was made toward combating human trafficking, it remained a problem.


RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS


Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:


a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life


There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.


On April 4, Human Rights Watch wrote to the governments of Kosovo and Albania requesting that the governments investigate alleged organ trafficking of civilians from Kosovo to Albania during the 1999 Kosovo conflict. Both governments rejected the allegations. In 2004 allegations first arose that in 1999 traffickers kidnapped civilians from Kosovo and brought them to Albania, where some were killed and their organs sold. At that time, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia conducted preliminary investigations into the matter, which resulted in no further action. Albanian authorities stated that they cooperated in that investigation. In July the Council of Europe (COE) appointed a special investigator to report on the allegations. In October Albanian prosecutors met with their Serbian counterparts in Tirana to discuss the issue. They were unable to agree on joint next steps.


Societal killings continued during the year, resulting from vigilante action (including both generational "blood feud" killings and revenge killings), criminal gangs, and organized crime.


Statistics varied on blood feud activity. According to the Interior Ministry, there were four blood feud related killings, out of a total of 85 murders during the year, a decrease from previous years. According to the Ministry of the Interior, this is the lowest number in 18 years. Police restarted investigations in some older cases, and uncovered the perpetrators of 81 murder cases from previous years. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) cited higher levels of blood feud activity and numbers of families effectively imprisoned in their homes out of fear of blood feud reprisals. The tradition of blood feuds stems from a traditional code of honor that is followed in only a few isolated communities. In 2007 the parliament amended the criminal code to criminalize blood feuds and make them punishable by a three-year sentence. The Court of Serious Crimes tried blood feud cases. The law punishes premeditated murder, when committed for revenge or a blood feud, with 20 years' or life imprisonment.


b. Disappearance


There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.


On May 16, the Tirana Serious Crimes Court resumed the trial of four men accused in the 1995 disappearance of Remzi Hoxha, an ethnic-Albanian Macedonian businessman. Authorities accused the head of the country's General Directorate of Taxes, Arben Sefgjini, who previously served as the head of the National Intelligence Service (SHISH), and three of his former SHISH colleagues, Budion Mece, Avni Kolladashi, and Ilir Kumbaro, of kidnapping and torturing Hoxha and two other Albanian citizens. The trial was ongoing at year's end.


c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment


The constitution and law prohibit such actions;however, the police and prison guards sometimes beat and abused suspects and detainees. The Albanian Helsinki Committee (AHC) and the Albanian Human Rights Group (AHRG) reported that police sometimes used excessive force or inhuman treatment. According to the AHRG, police more often mistreated suspects at the time of arrest or initial detention. Roma, Balkan Egyptians, and homosexuals were particularly vulnerable to police abuse.


During the year three new penitentiary centers became fully functional. The General Directorate of Prisons began implementing procedures to move elderly and ailing inmates to a special prison in Kruje, with a capacity of an estimated 196 persons. The directorate opened special section for minors in Kavaje with an initial capacity of 80 inmates. These measures followed a March 2007 report by the COE's Committee for the Prevention of Torture that detailed widespread inhuman treatment and physical abuse of prisoners and detainees.


As in past years, the police sometimes used threats, violence, and torture to extract confessions.


Prison and Detention Center Conditions


Prison conditions did not meet international standards. The government allowed local and international human rights groups, the media, and others to conduct independent monitoring of prison conditions. In March the parliament amended existing legislation to appoint an ombudsman responsible for implementing the National Mechanism for Torture Prevention.


Following a surprise inspection of a police pretrial detention facility in Vlore on March 3, the AHC harshly criticized the facility for poor conditions. The AHC further found that seven detainees had been in detention for 15 days, well beyond the 48-hour limit for pretrial detention.


In April the ombudsman inspected the Tirana Commissariat 3 detention facilities and found that they were holding a minor together with adult detainees. Further examination concluded that authorities stopped, questioned, and detained the minor without the presence of a lawyer, a social worker, or his parents in clear violation of the provision of the penal procedure code. The ombudsman found similar problems during several inspections within the year in most pretrial detention centers in Tirana and in others across the country.


In June the ombudsman found that the inmates at the prison of Burrel suffered substantial psychological and physical abuse. Following the escape of two inmates, Burrel prison guards began performing regular night-time inspections. The inspections oftentimes involved acts of violence, intimidation, and psychological abuse. Authorities also denied inmates the right to place free telephone calls to the Office of the Ombudsman. In two cases at the Burrel prison, the ombudsman concluded that prison guards used violence and other inhumane measures to degrade and abuse prisoners.


The Ministry of Justice operated all prisons and pretrial detention facilities. During the year the AHC observed a slight improvement in conditions and treatment of prisoners, while problems of overcrowding, bad infrastructure, and unsanitary conditions persisted. In the Vichar prison, north of Tirana, there were reports that minors were housed together with adults.

The government permitted international human rights observers and domestic human rights monitors to visit both pretrial detention centers and prisons.

d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention


The constitution and law prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention; however, there were some reports that police occasionally arbitrarily arrested and detained persons.


Role of the Police and Security Apparatus


Local police units reported to the Interior Ministry and were the main force responsible for internal security. The military has a special 90-person commando unit that operates in an antiterrorist role under the defense minister. The law allows the interior minister to request authority over this unit during a domestic crisis. The State Intelligence Service is responsible for both internal and external intelligence gathering and counterintelligence.


The overall performance of law enforcement remained weak. Unprofessional behavior and corruption remained major impediments to the development of an effective civilian police force. The Ministry of Interior started a new recruiting system with standardized procedures. In combination with the new system of police ranks, authorities expect this to improve the overall performance of the police.


However, low salaries and widespread corruption throughout society made police corruption difficult to combat. The government prosecuted corrupt officials and managed complaints regarding corrupt police through the ombudsman.


During the year the Ministry of Interior reported that it dealt with 68 corruption cases and 276 cases of general misdemeanors and abuses by public administration employees. A total of 153 government officials were investigated (including police officers), and 72 were arrested.


During the year the ombudsman received 154 general complaints from citizens against the police mainly on arrest and detention. At year's end 118 complaints had been processed and the ombudsman concluded 26 in favor of the complaining citizen. These included 17 complaints of physical mistreatment. Only one complaint was found valid, and recommendations were issued for disciplinary measure for three police officers of Commissariat 1 in Tirana.


Arrest and Detention


By law a police officer or prosecutor may order a suspect into custody. The constitution requires that authorities inform detained persons immediately of the charges against them and of their rights, and that police notify the prosecutor immediately after they detain a suspect. Police generally followed these requirements. Within 48 hours of the arrest or detention, a suspect must appear before a judge; however, authorities often did not respect this right. The judge has an additional 48 hours to determine whether the suspect should remain in detention.


A court may order detention in particularly serious cases that could pose a danger to society. Alternatively, authorities may place a suspect under house arrest. A judge may require bail if he believes that the accused may not appear for trial.


Courts must provide legal counsel free of charge for indigent defendants; however, defendants generally did not know of this right, and police often failed to inform suspects of it. Access to legal information remained difficult for citizens; however, for the minority with Internet access, individuals could access virtually all laws online free of charge, and several NGOs provided free legal advice for those in need. During the year the AHC established a clinic to provide free legal advice and advocacy services for the indigent; however NGOs described these free legal services as inadequate, corrupt, and at times lacking in professionalism.


The law requires completion of pretrial investigations within three months for lesser crimes and within 12 months for more serious cases; however, a prosecutor may extend this period by three-month increments in difficult cases. While the law provides that the maximum length of pretrial detention should not exceed two years, lengthy pretrial detention often occurred as a result of delayed investigations, defense mistakes, or the failure of defense counsel to appear.


e. Denial of Fair Public Trial


The constitution provides for an independent judiciary; however, political pressure, intimidation, widespread corruption, and limited resources sometimes prevented the judiciary from functioning independently and efficiently.


On December 22, the parliament passed a controversial "lustration" law, which is expected to allow for the dismissal from public office of a wide range of officials who participated in "political processes" while serving in higher-level government positions under the communist regime, including judges, and prosecutors, and law enforcement officers. The vague wording of the law gives the government wide discretion in determining what "political processes" means, thereby allowing it considerable latitude in determining if an official should be dismissed from duty. International observers, including the OSCE and COE, sharply criticized the law and expressed concern that the law would allow the government to assert undue political control over the judiciary, undermine due process, and circumvent constitutional protections provided to judges, members of parliament, and prosecutors. Furthermore, the law states that persons subject to the law cannot participate in its judicial examination. This places the court in direct conflict with the executive, as several members of the court were reported to fall within the scope of the law.


The judicial system is composed of district courts, the serious crimes court, military courts, and appellate courts. There are both a High Court and Constitutional Court. The High Court hears appeals from the appellate courts which hear cases on appeal from the district courts. The Constitutional Court primarily reviews those cases involving constitutional interpretation and conflicts between branches of government and cases of individuals alleging denial of due process.


The president heads the High Council of Justice, which has authority to appoint, discipline, and dismiss district and appeals court judges. Judges dismissed by the High Council have the right to appeal to the High Court. The High Council includes the justice minister, the head of the High Court, nine judges selected by the National Judicial Conference, and three members selected by the parliament.


As in past years, police, prosecutors, and the judiciary continued to blame each other for failures that allowed criminals to avoid imprisonment. In May 2007 the prosecutor general, minister of interior, minister of finance, and the director of SHISH signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to form the Joint Investigative Unit to Fight Economic Crime and Corruption (JIU) to improve investigation and prosecution of public corruption and other financial crimes. The JIU uses a team structure to concentrate capacity and foster communication necessary for effective investigations and prosecutions. Since its inception in 2007, the JIU opened 224 cases and has successfully convicted the deputy minister of transportation and the general secretary of the Ministry of Labor on corruption charges. Other high-profile cases include the arrest of several prominent physicians for accepting bribes to provide medical services, the arrest of a prosecutor for agreeing to bribe a judge for the reduction of a defendant's sentence, and the extensive investigation and arrest of 17 defendants in a wide-ranging ATM fraud scheme.


Due to its success, the JIU now receives direct referrals from citizens. Furthermore, the JIU was recognized on September 23 by Transparency International (TI) in its 2008 Corruption Perception Index where its rank jumped 20 places to 105. The TI report specifically singled out the JIU stating that an official task force created to fight corruption and economic crime has increased the number of officials prosecuted and sentenced for corruption, also building confidence among the public that corruption can be punished in Albania. Due to the success of the JIU, the government, with funding from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, is expected to create six regional JIUs.


Trial Procedures


The constitution and law provide for the right to a speedy trial; however, limited material resources, lack of space, and insufficient and overworked staff prevented the court system from adjudicating cases in a timely fashion. Long case backlogs sometimes resulted in suspects being detained for longer than legal limits. The trial system does not provide for jury trials. Prosecutors and defense lawyers present cases to a judge or panel of judges, depending on the severity of the charges, and defendants have the right to all evidence that prosecutors present to the judges. Defendants, witnesses, and others who do not speak Albanian have a right to interpretation services. Defendants have the right to appeal decisions within 10 days. The law presumes defendants innocent until convicted.


On February 28, the ombudsman recommended that the Ministry of Justice create a reeducation institution for minors under the age of 14. The law mandates an alternative sentence system for juveniles.


During the year the Ministry of Justice continued setting up special court divisions for minors, establishing them at the courts in the main cities of Tirana, Durres, Shkoder, Vlore, Korce, and Gjirokaster.

Political Prisoners and Detainees


There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees.


Civil Judicial Procedure and Remedies


The bailiff's office, which is part of the Justice Ministry, ensures that authorities enforce civil judgments. Authorities did not enforce many civil judgments, particularly property settlement cases, because of strong social or political ramifications.


Property Restitution


The restitution of property confiscated during the communist regime remained a significant problem. The annual ombudsman's report noted that during the year, it examined a total of 223 complaints related to decisions of the courts, many related to property issues. However, the ombudsman determined these requests as beyond its legal jurisdiction. This gap still exists in spite of the ombudsman's repeated requests to the parliament suggesting amendments to the existing Criminal Procedure Code and the Civil Procedure Code to give it the authority to process these cases.


Authorities did not enforce many property settlement cases because of strong social or political ramifications.


According to the director of the Agency for the Return and Compensation of Property, the country budgeted approximately one billion lek in 2007-08 (approximately $10.3 million) for property compensation. Associations of former landowners estimate that the total cost to compensate owners across the country to be 342 billion lek (approximately $3.5 billion). Until the end of the year, no funds were disbursed for this purpose.


f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence


The constitution and law prohibit such actions. Unlike in previous years, the government respected these prohibitions in practice.


Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:


a. Freedom of Speech and Press


The constitution and law provide for freedom of speech and of the press, and while the government generally respected these rights, there were reports that the government and businesses exerted indirect pressure on the media. While the media were active and largely unrestrained, there were serious problems with the use of the media for political purposes. On several occasions during the year, senior officials launched serious verbal attacks against media outlets, accusing them of ties to the mafia and criminal networks. Senior officials accused other journalists who exposed alleged wrongdoing by public officials of having personal financial interests. In spite of questionable political purposes, the investigative role of the media increased. Journalists regularly practiced self-censorship.


In general individuals could criticize the government publicly or privately without reprisal; while there were no publicized attempts by the government to stifle criticism by individuals, there were cases of indirect pressure on the media.


Politicization of the media remained a concern. Outlets were divided along political lines and, toward the end of the year, politicization increased with the approaching 2009 parliamentary elections. Publishers and newspaper owners continued to dictate news stories to serve their political and economic interests and sometimes blocked stories that ran counter to those interests. There was little transparency in the financing of the media.


At times political pressure, limited professionalism, and lack of finances constrained the independent print media. Political parties, trade unions, and various groups published their own newspapers or magazines independent of government influence. An estimated 200 publications were available, including daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and pamphlets.


According to official data, the country had 64 private television stations and 44 private radio stations, but the actual number was reportedly larger. While stations generally operated free of direct government influence, most owners believed that the content of their broadcasts could influence government action toward their other businesses.


The public Albanian Radio and Television (RTSH) operated a national television channel and a national radio station. In spite of a slight improvement in the station's performance during the year, RTSH's professionalism was put into question by its biased pro-government coverage and its lack of any form of investigative journalism. The station's performance was also hindered by the lack of modern technology. By law the government provides 50 percent of the station's budget via a citizens' tax; however, even with this resource, the national broadcaster had limited ability to compete with private stations.


On September 2, the National Council on Radio and Television (NCRT) fined television station News 24 800,000 lek (approximately $9,300) and twice gave a warning of intent to fine television station Vizion plus for broadcasting an advertisement that violated the legal prohibition on advertising by political groups outside of legally defined campaign periods. The NCRT claimed that a politically oriented NGO, G-99, paid for the advertisement that the government criticized. The television stations and G-99 asserted that G-99's status as an NGO meant that the election laws did not apply to the advertisement and criticized the NCRT fines as an attempt to stifle criticism of the government. The AHC advised the NCRT to annul the fine as unfounded based on the law. News 24 took the case to court and it was ongoing at year's end. The NCRT is also accused of strict control over broadcast licensing, issuing only to those entities that favor the government.


Various forms of media intimidation continued. Journalists continued to complain that publishers and editors censored their work either directly or indirectly in response to political and commercial pressures. Many journalists complained that their lack of employment contracts frequently hindered their ability to report objectively.


On March 10, Tom Doshi, a member of parliament, physically assaulted investigative journalist Besar Likmeta during a prearranged meeting. Doshi verbally warned Likmeta, the Albania editor for the online publication Balkan Insight, about investigating Doshi's alleged corruption, then struck the journalist. Likmeta had written a series of articles concerning forged diplomas in the country and subsequently informed the Ministry of Education that Doshi had not earned the university degree listed on the official parliamentary Web site. A witness and fellow member of parliament denied the event occurred and later the journalist dropped the charges. Likmeta claimed he dropped the charges due to fear of harm to family members.


On September 3, the government renewed its demand that Top Channel Television be evicted from a state-owned office building. The station has a 20-year lease contract with the government for the premises. Top Channel, a leading television station that had been critical of the government, had appealed a 2006 Council of Ministers resolution to evict it from the office building located in central Tirana; that case was pending at year's end.


On December 11, the Ministry of the Interior issued an order to the Ministry of Economy to break a 20-year lease with the newspaper Tema, a paper that had been critical of the ruling party, on "national security" grounds. The Ministry of Interior claimed that Tema's offices were too close to the building that is expected to produce ID cards for the 2009 election.

The law punishes libel with a prison sentence of up to two years and a fine. During the year there were no libel suits against reporters. Members of the media claimed when the prime minster took office in 2005, he made a verbal order that there will be no libel suits by government officials against reporters that was, in fact, exploited to ignore charges of wrongdoing and corruption by media outlets against the government and its senior officials. A legal amendment to make libel a civil offense, submitted to the parliament in 2006, had not been addressed by year's end.
On November 7, authorities summoned journalist Lorenc Vangjeli of weekly MAPO for questioning regarding published details of ongoing investigations into the March 15 incident at Gerdec. Authorities accused Vangjeli of releasing information in an ongoing investigation.

Internet Freedom

There were no government restrictions on access to the Internet or reports that the government monitored e-mail or Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by electronic mail. Access to the Internet increased during the year, but remained limited, particularly outside major urban areas. An estimated less than 1 percent of the population had regular access to the Internet.

Academic Freedom and Cultural Events

There were no government restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events; however, government control over academic appointments and a culture of corruption in the education system undermined academic freedom. Officials sometimes required bribes from students in order for them to matriculate or to pass examinations.

The minister of education appoints university officials. University rectors claimed that the change from the previous system, where the faculty and student body had elected these officials, permitted government control over the university's management, including interfering with academic appointments.

b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Freedom of Assembly


The constitution and law provide for freedom of assembly, and the government generally respected this right in practice. The law requires organizers of gatherings in public places to notify police three days in advance; there were no reports that police denied such gatherings arbitrarily.


Unlike in previous years, there were no reports that police mistreated protesters.


Freedom of Association


The constitution and law provide for the right of association, and the government generally respected this right; however, the law prohibits the formation of any political party or organization that is nontransparent or secretive. There were no reports that the government used this provision against any group during the year.


c. Freedom of Religion


The constitution and law provide for freedom of religion and the government generally respected this right.


The predominant religious communities, Sunni Muslim, Bektashi Muslim, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic, enjoyed a greater degree of official recognition (for example, national holidays) and social status than some other religious groups. The government does not require registration or licensing of religious groups.

As in previous years, the government continued to consider requests from all religious organizations to make restitution for religious properties and objects that the former communist government confiscated or damaged. The government signed an agreement with several religious communities to facilitate property restitution and was considering these cases at year's end.

Societal Abuses and Discrimination

There were reportedly fewer than 100 Jews living in the country; there were no known synagogues or community centers functioning in the country, and no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

For a more detailed discussion, see the 2008 International Religious Freedom Report at www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.


d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of Refugees, and Stateless Persons


The constitution and law provide for freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation, and the government generally respected these rights in practice. The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of concern.


Internal migrants must transfer their civil registration to their new community in order to receive government services, and must prove they are legally domiciled either through property ownership, a property rental agreement, or utility bills. Many persons cannot provide this proof and thus lack access to essential services. Other citizens lacked formal registration in the communities in which they resided, particularly Roma and Balkan Egyptians.


During the year work continued on a civil registry, to be followed by issuance of national ID cards and biometric passports.


The law prohibits forced exile, and the government did not employ it.


Protection of Refugees


The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status in accordance with the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol, and the government established a system for providing protection to refugees. In practice the government provided protection against the expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened. Under the law, requests for asylum must be made within 10 days of arrival on the country's soil, and the government must make the decision about granting asylum within 51 days of the initial request. The government actively cooperates with the UNHCR and the Refugee and Migrants Services Albania (RMSA), which provide assistance to refugees.


The government provided temporary protection to individuals as refugees under the 1951 convention or the 1967 protocol and provided it to 63 persons during the year.


Together with international organizations, the government, through the European Union's Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development, and Stabilization program, prescreened undocumented migrants at all border crossing points. Under the program, an NGO and government team assisted border police in identifying undocumented migrants who were potential victims of trafficking, asylum seekers, or economic migrants.


Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government


The constitution and law provide citizens the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through periodic elections held on the basis of universal suffrage.


Elections and Political Participation


The most recent parliamentary elections were held in 2005. Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) declared that the elections only partly met international standards. Family and proxy voting continued to be problems. In July 2007 the parliament elected Bamir Topi president in accordance with constitutional guidelines.


Political parties operated without restriction or outside interference.


Overall, women were poorly represented at the national and local levels of government, despite commitments by the major political parties to increase female representation. There were nine women in the 140-seat People's Assembly, including the speaker, and two women on the Council of Ministers. Many parties introduced internal party quotas for women; however, post-election re-rankings diminished the effect of these rules.


Several members of the Greek minority served in both the People's Assembly and in the executive branch in ministerial and subministerial positions, including as the minister of labor. No other ethnic minorities were represented in the parliament or on the Council of Ministers.


Government Corruption and Transparency


The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption. Despite several arrests of high-level local and central government officials, corruption remained a major obstacle to meaningful reform and a serious problem.


On December 13, the Supreme Court appointed a five judge panel to review the prosecution's November 27 indictment of Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha for irregularities in the country's largest public works project, the Durres-Kukes Highway. The parliament lifted Basha's immunity in December 2007. The case was pending at year's end.


On June 16, the parliament lifted the immunity of former minister of defense Fatmir Mediu, who resigned his office on March 17 in connection with the investigation into an explosion at a demilitarization warehouse in Gerdec that resulted in the deaths of 26 persons. The Office of Prosecutor General was investigating the responsibility for the explosion at year's end; some international and Albanian media groups alleged the prime minister's office had tried to hinder that and other investigations.


On October 10, investigators from the Ministry of Justice attempted to seize the case files of suspected money launderer Damir Fazlic, a Bosnian-Serb businessman. On October 11, the Ministry of the Interior stated it would sue two of the prosecutors involved in trying to summon Fazlic for questioning, claiming that the summons was illegal. Fazlic, accused of money laundering in Albania, was summoned by the Prosecutor General's office on October 8 for questioning while on a visit to Albania; however, he managed to leave the country before he could be questioned. Legal experts characterized the Ministry of the Interior's threat to sue prosecutors as blatant attempts to intimidate the Office of the Prosecutor General into dropping the case against Fazlic, who was alleged to have links to high-ranking government officials.


In May after a request for expedited adjudication, a Tirana court concluded the case of six high-level government employees, including the deputy minister of public works, general director of roads, and director of procurement who were arrested in September 2007 for corruption relating to their involvement in a bribery scheme for construction tenders. The court sentenced the men to prison and fined five officials and two businessmen. Almost all were freed within the year as the prison sentences were already exhausted during detention while the trial was ongoing.


Also in May the Tirana court sentenced two senior government officials of the Ministry of Labor, Spartak Gjini and Llambi Tarka, to two and a half years in prison and in addition the owner of the Siret Construction Company, Fiqiri Pali, to one year in prison for an illegal construction tender, and for forcing other companies to withdraw from the competition for reconstruction of the ministry's building. The court also fined the individuals.


During the year the government's anticorruption task force against organized crime continued to coordinate anticorruption activities. The task force is a coordinating body, headed by the prime minister, which includes several ministers and heads of independent state-owned agencies, such as the public electricity company, and representatives of the police and intelligence organizations.


The law prohibits government ministers and their close family members from owning a company that is directly tied to their official responsibilities. Since its conception in 2003, the High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Audit of Assets (HIDAA) received assets declarations from 8,816 officials. Until November there were 363 new officials that declared their assets for the first time. HIDAA administers the conflict of interest regulations and reported inspection of 3,894 asset declarations for the previous year.


Citizens and noncitizens, including foreign media, have the right to obtain information about the activities of government bodies and persons who exercise official state functions; however, citizens often faced serious problems in obtaining information from public and government institutions.


The law requires public officials to release all information and official documents with the exception of classified documents and state secrets. Most government ministries and agencies posted public information directly on their Web sites. However, businesses and citizens complained of a lack of transparency and the failure to publish regulations or legislation that should be basic public information.


Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights


A number of domestic and international human rights groups generally operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials generally cooperated and responded to their views.


The government cooperated with international organizations, such as the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration, and did not restrict their access.


The human rights ombudsman has the authority to monitor judicial proceedings and inspect detention and prison facilities, and to initiate cases where a victim is unwilling or unable to come forward. Although the ombudsman lacked the power to enforce decisions, he acted as a watchdog for human rights violations. The most common cases included citizen complaints of police and military abuse of power, lack of enforcement of court judgments in civil cases, wrongful dismissal, and land disputes.


In many cases the government took concrete steps to correct problems in response to the findings of the ombudsman. Cooperation has improved between the Ministry of Interior and the ombudsman including an October conference between both sides, which focused on creating more synergies between the two.


Section 5 Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons


The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, disability, language, or social status; however, discrimination against women, Balkan Egyptians, Roma, and homosexuals persisted.

Women


The criminal code penalizes rape, including spousal rape; however, victims rarely reported spousal abuse nor did officials prosecute spousal rape in practice. The concept of spousal rape was not well established, and often neither authorities nor the public considered it a crime. The law imposes penalties for rape and assault depending on the age of the victim. For rape of an adult, the prison term is three to 10 years; for rape of an adolescent aged 14-18, the term is five to 15 years and, for rape of a child under 14, seven to 15 years.


Domestic violence against women, including spousal abuse, remained a serious problem. In November 2007 the OSCE noted that "domestic violence was under-reported, under-investigated, under-prosecuted, and under-sentenced" and that officials granted immunity to the overwhelming majority of perpetrators. The government has a department of equal opportunities at the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunity that covers women's issues, including domestic violence.


The government did not fund specific programs to combat domestic violence or assist victims, although non-profit organizations did. Women to Women, a Swedish NGO, reported that there were approximately six domestic violence hot lines that operated throughout the country. The hot lines, serving mainly the northern part of the country received approximately 24 calls per month from women reporting some form of violence. Shtreheza, an NGO that operated two shelters for battered women in Tirana, reported an increase in cases of domestic violence, primarily due to increased awareness of services.


In many communities, particularly those in the northeast, women were subject to societal discrimination as a result of traditional social norms that considered women to be subordinate to men. Reporting on the participation of women in the February 2007 local elections, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights election observation mission noted that family voting was a problem in 30 percent of the voting centers visited on election day and that the practice raised "serious concern of the disenfranchisement of some women and other family members affected by it."


In 2006 the parliament, with the assistance of the Women's Legal Rights Project, enacted an expansion of the law against domestic violence, adding administrative penalties such as protection orders. This law helped raise awareness of the issue and assistance available for victims through the legal system and nonprofit organizations. Implementation of the law is still in the nascent stages, and has been sporadically enforced. The government reported greater awareness of this issue by the population, and 466 complaints were made by citizens regarding domestic violence. Implementation of the restriction orders started during the year with 340 requests for restrictions and 740 citizens placed under police protection. The Ministry of Interior reported 17 murder cases in families occurred during the year.


The law prohibits prostitution; however, it remained a problem.


The law prohibits sexual harassment; however, officials rarely enforced the law.


The law provides equal rights for men and women under family law, property law, and in the judicial system. In practice cultural traditions often favored men over women.


Neither the law nor practice excluded women from any occupation; however, they were not well represented at the highest levels of their fields. The law mandates equal pay for equal work; however, the government and employers did not fully implement this provision.


Children


Domestic law codifies the government's commitment to children's rights and welfare; however, in practice the government showed a limited commitment.


In general, parents must register their children in the same community where they registered. However, according to the CHRCA, children born to internal migrants frequently had no birth certificates or other legal documentation and, as a result, were unable to attend school.


The law provides for nine years of free education and authorizes private schools. School attendance is mandatory through the ninth grade or until age 16, whichever comes first; however, in practice many children left school earlier than the law allowed to work with their families, particularly in rural areas. Parents had to purchase supplies, books, school materials, and space heaters for some classrooms, which was prohibitively expensive for many families. In 2007 World Vision Albania, which worked primarily in rural areas, reported that rural girls faced additional pressure to leave school because families did not see a value in high school education for girls, and due to security concerns of girls commuting to high school in a larger town. Many families also cited the high cost of school books and uniforms as a reason for not sending girls to school.


According to 2007-08 Ministry of Education figures, secondary school enrollment (ages 15–18) for both boys and girls was 96.7 percent for public schools, while primary school attendance (ages 6-14) was 99.1 percent.


As in previous years, child abuse, including sexual abuse, occasionally occurred, but victims rarely reported it. Trafficking of girls for commercial sexual exploitation was a problem. Children were also trafficked to Greece and Kosovo for begging and other forms of child labor.


As in previous years, some children were unable to leave their homes, including for school, due to fear of reprisal from blood feuds. Figures on the numbers of affected children varied; the latest figures of the Ministry of Interior indicate an estimated 20 children permanently sequestered, while NGOs cite a figure as high as a few hundred. According to the National Reconciliation Committee, nearly 1,000 children were deprived of schooling due to self-imprisonment. As many as 182 children remained endangered by blood feuds involving their families; 86 of these were in particularly dangerous circumstances. Parents generally homeschooled these children. In September the government began offering home-based schooling to 52 children of the self-imprisoned families in the district of Shkoder.


Child marriage remained a problem in many families in the Romani community and typically occurred when children were 13-14.


Displaced and street children remained a problem, particularly Roma children. Street children begged or did petty work; many migrated to neighboring countries, particularly during the summer. These children were at highest risk of internal trafficking and some became victims.


Trafficking in Persons


The law prohibits all forms of trafficking in persons and provides penalties for traffickers; however, individuals and organized crime syndicates trafficked persons, particularly women and children, from and within the country.


The country was a source country for trafficking of women and children for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor, although there has been a slow but steady decline in the number of persons trafficked each year. Greece is the main country of destination for trafficked women. Italy, Macedonia, and Kosovo were also destinations, with many victims trafficked onward to Western Europe. Traffickers largely used overland routes or falsified documents to transport their victims by airplane or ferry. Police and shelter representatives continued to report a trend of traffickers moving females from villages and smaller towns to larger cities for forced prostitution in hotels and private homes. During the year NGOs Terre des Hommes (TdH) and Arsis provided assistance to Albanian children who are suspected to be victims of trafficking – 486 Albanian children were assisted in Greece and 327 in Albania.


During the year the government increased its investigations and prosecutions for human trafficking offenses. By year's end police referred 51 new trafficking cases to the General Prosecutor's Office, which investigated 65 persons on trafficking charges. Authorities referred 43 cases to the Serious Crimes Court; the court prosecuted 62, of whom the court convicted 57 of trafficking. The court sentenced four offenders to up to two years' imprisonment; 10 to between two and five years' imprisonment; 26 to between five and 10 years' imprisonment; and 25 to over 10 years' imprisonment.


The government provided limited services to trafficking victims, operating a shelter near Tirana; however, it has not provided any assistance to the four non-government shelters. On July 23, the government approved a new National Action Plan through 2008-10 to specify government actions to provide services to victims of trafficking; however, implementation was slow.


The government made improvements to encourage implementation of its National Referral Mechanism, which partnered the government with local civil society and international intergovernmental organizations to provide a holistic approach to combating trafficking in persons, although there continued to be problems. Due to increased police training and a proactive approach towards identification, the number of victims of trafficking that the government officially identified was slightly higher than the number of victims identified by NGO sources. Although some discrepancies still existed, official identification and referral improved markedly throughout the year. The establishment of a database to manage and track cases contributed to this increase in identification.


The State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report can be found at www.state.gov/g/tip.


Persons with Disabilities


The constitution and law prohibit discrimination against persons with disabilities; however, employers, schools, health care providers, and other state services sometimes discriminated against persons with disabilities. The law mandates that builders of new public buildings make them accessible for persons with disabilities, but the government only sporadically enforced the law. Widespread poverty, unregulated working conditions, and poor medical care posed significant problems for many persons with disabilities.


The ombudsman's inspection of mental health institutions showed that the hospitals were understaffed and poorly supplied, with unacceptable hygienic and sanitary conditions and a lack of medical supplies. The ombudsman, who conducted inspections in Elbasan, Shkoder, and Vlore, recommended a major legal, organizational, and budgetary review of the country's mental health care system.


The government acknowledged that the admission and release of patients from mental health institutions was a problem due to the lack of sufficient financial resources to provide adequate psychiatric evaluations.


The electoral code provides for wheelchair-accessible voting booths and special accommodations for the blind that authorities made available to citizens during the February 2007 elections.


National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities


There were no reports of police violence against members of minority groups, but there were reports of societal discrimination. As visible minorities, members of the Romani and Balkan Egyptian communities suffered significant societal abuse and discrimination.


The law permits official minority status for national groups and separately for ethnolinguistic groups. The government defined Greeks, Macedonians, and Montenegrins as national groups; Greeks constituted the largest of these. The law defined Aromanians (Vlachs) and Roma as ethnolinguistic minority groups.


Unlike in previous years, there were no reports of cases of central government displacement of Roma.


The government did not fund its National Roma Strategy, which sought to improve the livelihood of the community. It did not have a defined strategy for other minority or ethnolinguistic groups.


The ethnic Greek minority pursued grievances with the government regarding electoral zones, Greek-language education, property rights, and government documents. Minority leaders cited the government's unwillingness to recognize ethnic Greek towns outside communist-era "minority zones"; to utilize Greek on official documents and on public signs in ethnic Greek areas; to ascertain the size of the ethnic Greek population; or to include a higher number of ethnic Greeks in public administration.


In September the government charged Vasil Bollano, the ethnic Greek mayor of Himara, with destruction of government property after he ordered the removal of two million lek (approximately $23,000) worth of new road signs in the Himara district. Bollano objected to the signs because authorities posted them in Albanian and English but not Greek. The law requires that road signs be posted in Albanian and English only. Bollano was awaiting trial at year's end.


Other Societal Abuses and Discrimination


The government has not taken any actions to protect the rights of homosexuals. As in previous years, NGOs claimed that police targeted the homosexual community for abuse.


The Albanian Human Rights Group reported that during the year, police harassed members of the Albanian Gay and Lesbian Association and other known homosexuals.


Section 6 Worker Rights


a. The Right of Association


Workers had the right to form independent unions and exercised this right in practice; however, the law prohibits members of the military from joining unions. Approximately 20 percent of the workforce belonged to unions.


The law provides that all workers, except civil servants, uniformed military, police, and some court officials, have the right to strike, and workers exercised this right in practice. The law prohibits strikes that courts judge to be political. During the year, the ombudsman received numerous complaints of unlawful dismissals of police officers across the country.


b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively


Citizens in all fields of civil employment have the constitutional right to organize and bargain collectively, and the law establishes procedures for the protection of workers' rights through collective bargaining agreements. However, labor unions operated from a weak position. In practice unions representing public sector employees negotiated directly with the government. Effective collective bargaining remained difficult, and agreements were hard to enforce.


The law does not prohibit antiunion discrimination; however, there were no reports of such discrimination.


There are no export processing zones.


c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor


The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children; however, individuals and organized crime syndicates trafficked women and children for sexual exploitation and labor.


d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment


The law sets the minimum age of employment at 14 and regulates the amount and type of labor that children under the age of 18 may perform. Children between the ages of 14 and 16 may work legally in part-time jobs during summer vacation; children between the ages of 16 and 18 can work throughout the year in certain specified jobs. The law provides for the Ministries of Labor, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunity to enforce minimum age requirements through the courts; however, there were no reports that enforcement took place. Labor inspectors generally only investigate the formal labor sector, whereas most child labor occurs in the informal sector. The majority of factories inspected were shoe and textile companies. More than 70 percent of the underage workers were girls.


In January a new legal provision of the Penal Code was approved, which categorizes "exploitation of children for labor or forced services" as a penal crime.


In October the government and the International Labor Organization, represented by the International Labor Office on the Elimination of Child Labor signed a memorandum of understanding stipulating their cooperation for the upcoming five years.


In December the second phase of the Project "Child Labor Monitoring System in Albania" was launched covering two more regions of the country, Elbasan and Shkoder. The first phase covered the three regions of Tirana, Berat, and Korce and resulted in 315 children that were mainstream back into the educational services and pulled away from the street, agriculture and factory work, or trafficking and illicit activities. The Child Labor Unit at the Ministry of Labor is expected to continue to manage this project and its approved Action Plan.

According to a 2007 CHRCA estimate, 50,000 children under the age of 18 worked either full or part time. The CHRCA reported that the majority of child laborers worked as street or shop vendors, beggars, farmers or shepherds, drug runners, vehicle washers, textile factory workers, or shoeshine boys. Some children worked as many as 16 hours a day. In Tirana and other cities, children, mostly Roma, worked as beggars or sold cigarettes and other items on the street; the police generally ignored this practice. Children were trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation.


On March 15, a massive explosion killed several illegally employed children at a munitions dump in the town of Gerdec. The explosion killed a total of 26 persons.


Child labor is prohibited, and the government together with several NGOs and international donors had some specific programs aimed at preventing child labor.


e. Acceptable Conditions of Work


The government raised the national minimum wage in July to 17,000 lek (approximately $186) per month.However, it was not sufficient to provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. According to INSTAT, the average wage for government workers was 31,850 lek ($370) per month. The Albanian Institute of Statistics also reported that average monthly wages in the public sector increased 9.1 percent from 2006-07.


The law establishes a 40-hour workweek; however, individual or collective agreements typically set the actual workweek. Many persons worked six days a week. The law requires payment of overtime and rest periods; however, employers did not always observe these provisions in practice. The government had no standards for a minimum number of rest periods per week, limits on the maximum number of hours worked per week, or the amount of premium pay for overtime and did not prohibit excessive compulsory overtime.


The Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunity is responsible for enforcing government occupational health and safety standards and regulations; however, the Ministry generally did not enforce regulations in practice. Workplace conditions were frequently very poor and in some cases dangerous. During the year the media reported a number of job-related deaths, particularly in the construction and mining industries. The chromium mines of Bulqiza continued to be among the most dangerous workplaces in Albania, with at least 16 deaths reported to have happened from April 2007 to the end of the year. During the year, miners at Bulqiza launched a hunger strike in protest of the poor working conditions; the miners suspended the strike to give the government time to come up with proposals on how to improve work conditions and to pass a special Miners' Status. The government had not made a proposal by year's end.


The law does not provide workers the right to remove themselves from hazardous situations without jeopardy to their employment.


U.S STATE DEPARTMENT Press release

Emërohet kreu i shërbimeve sekrete te Kosoves

Violeta Hyseni
BBC, Prishtinë

Tani Kosova ka dhe Shërbimin e vet Sekret

Pas disa muaj negociatash, presidenti dhe kryeministri i Kosovës kanë emëruar kreun e shërbimeve sekrete të Kosovës.
Bashkim Smakaj, ish-zyrtar i policisë kosovare, është zgjedhur drejtor i Agjensisë Kosovare të Inteligjencës.

Zoti Smakaj, 32 vjeçar, i diplomuar në Biologji dhe Shkencat Politike, shihet si një kandidat që është zgjedhur me konsensusin e koalicionit qeveritar.

Presidenti Fatmir Sejdiu njoftoi se drejtori i Agjencisë Kosovare të Intelegjencës zgjidhej për mandat 5 vjeçar dhe me mundësi të rizgjedhje.

Kryeministri Hashim Thaçi tha se ndihej krenar që në këtë post të rëndësishëm shtetëror është zgjedhur siç ka thënë ai "një njeri i përgatitur mire" dhe ka shfaqur bindjen në suksesin e këtij agjencioni.

"Agjensia Kosovare e Intelegjencës do të jetë një agjensi profesionale dhe shumëetnike. Suksesi i saj do të jetë i garantuar sepse të gjitha institicionet dhe qytetarët do të bashkëpunojnë ngushtë me te", tha kryeministri Thaçi.

Bashkim Smakaj, i cili vendoset në krye në Agjensisë Kosovare të Intelegjencës pas një pune disavjecare në policinë e Kosovës, është zotuar se në punën e tij do të udhëhiqet nga parimet më të larta kushtetuese, ligjore dhe etike.

"Në përputhje me ligjin, Agjencia Kosovare e Intelegjencës do të sigurojë informacion me kohë dhe të saktë për intelegjencën, për kërcënimet nga brenda dhe jashtë, terrorizmin ndërkombëtar dhe atë vendor, prodhimin dhe trafikimin e narkotikëve, krimin e organizuar, krimin ekopnomik, sabotimin dhe të gjitha çështjet tjera të intelegjencës", deklaroi z.Smakaj.

Kritika nga opozita

Opozita ka mirëpritur emërimin e drejtorit të Agjensisë Kosovare të Intelegjencës, por ka kritikuar vonesat në procesin e formimit të shërbimit sekret.

"Unë edhe pse nuk e njoh drejtorin e agjensisë, e përshëndes emërimin e tij. Kryetari dhe kryeministri i Kosovës, pas një vonesë më shumë se shtatë muaj e kanë kryer një obligim kushtetues", tha Naim Maloku nga Aleanca për Ardhmërinë e Kosovës.

Agjencia Kosovare e Intelegjencës është një nga institucionet kryesore të sigurisë që formohet në Kosovë në prag të njëvjetorit të pavarësisë.

Themelimi i kësaj agjencie ishte paraparë të bëhej verën e shkuar, por procesi është vonuar për shkak të mosarritjes së një konsensusi për emërimin e drejtorit të saj.

Formimi i Agjencisë Kosovare të Inteligjencës e bën zyrtarisht Kosovën për herë të parë me shërbim sekret, ndërsa deri tani, jozyrtarisht kanë ushtruar veprimtarinë e tyre disa shërbime sekrete partiake.

New Electronic Registration Requirement for all Visa Waiver Program Nationals Travelling to the United States

Beginning January 12, 2009, all nationals and citizens of Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries will be required by law to obtain a travel authorization prior to initiating travel to the United States. This authorization may be obtained online through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA™), a free Internet application administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through a U.S. government Web site at https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov

DHS does not charge VWP travelers a fee for completion of an ESTA™ application.

Please note that unauthorized third-parties have established Web sites, which charge visitors seeking to travel to the United States under the VWP. These businesses and Web sites are not endorsed by, associated with, or affiliated in any way with DHS or the United States Government. Again, the United States Government does not charge a fee to obtain information about, apply for, or obtain a travel authorization through the ESTA™ Web site. Use of a private service to apply for travel authorization via ESTA™ will not expedite the granting of approval.

The ESTA™ application Web site is available in 16 languages and includes a help section that provides additional information for VWP travelers to guide them through the application process. Additional information about ESTA™ may be found at http://www.cbp.gov/esta.

ESTA™ application data will remain active for the period of time that the approved ESTA™ is valid, which is generally two years, or until the traveler’s passport expires, whichever comes first. DHS will then maintain this information for an additional year after which it will be archived for twelve years to allow retrieval of the information for law enforcement, national security, or investigatory purposes.



Courtesy of Berd & Klauss Law Office.