The US Ambassador to Tirana, Alexander Arvizu, declared for Top Channel,
on behalf of the US government, that they value the police operation in
Lazarat.
“Lazarat has been a complicated problem for many years, for which many people in the international community are aware.
We support the operation of the law enforcers this week. I and other members of the embassy have communicated constantly with Minister Tahiri, the General Chief of Police, Didi, and others in the State Police.
This was an entirely Albanian operation, but they have kept close contacts with us. We value the fact that the Police has been careful to avoid victims and to stay within standards. I spoke with Minister Tahiri last night, and he told me that the operation is concluding. It is clear that they are working to keep a police presence there, so that people will not turn back to what they were doing”, Arvizu declared.
The Ambassador emphasized what should be good to happen in the days to come.
“For the US it will be key keeping Lazarat free from this criminal activity. It will be important having those responsible arrested, prosecuted and hopefully convicted, certainly based on strong evidence.
However, only when those responsible will be held accountant for their actions, only then we could say that the operation was successful. By what we saw, many of the Lazarat residents are not guilty for crimes, they simply happened to live there.
With the progress of the investigations, those who are involved in crimes should be divided from normal people who just happened to be Lazarat residents”, he declared.
Arvizu: Meta did the right thing
“Plenary session was regretful. The Albanian people deserves more”
When asked about the level of discussions in Parliament, the US Ambassador noted that it should be improved, and that the Albanian people deserves a sincere discussion regarding their concerns.
“I hope that Thursdays will turn into something more constructive. As regards what happened yesterday, it was very regretful. It was unnecessary and unjustifiable, not decent. The actions of Parliament Speaker Meta were absolutely correct”, Arvizu declared.
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