“Gerdeci, government concealed truth”

In an interview for JAVA Magazine, Withers considered the Gerdeci tragedy a criminal act about which the Albanian government has concealed the truth.

“The government’s reaction about the Gerdeci strategy remains one of its biggest failures. We must not forget that Gerdec was a human tragedy, and people lost their children and relatives in an event that can be described only as a criminal act. It is a basic responsibility of this government to guarantee justice, so that the victims of this terrible deed can see the people who bear legal and moral responsibility to answer for their actions. But the Albanian government not only has neglected finding the truth about Gerdec, but it has also used its maximum power for not allowing the truth to come to light”, Withers declared.

The former US diplomat to Tirana analyzed the verdict that doesn’t mention the word “death”, although 26 people were killed.

“After the Tirana Court verdict, other questions have surfaced. No one has defended more than me the independence of the Albanian judicial system. But even those who strongly believe in the autonomy of courts, these verdicts are strange and disappointing. The court verdict was about the violation of the security regulation at work, and property destruction due to negligence. But how is it possible that they avoided the key element, the central fact of the Gerdeci tragedy: that 26 innocent people were killed by those explosions, and that someone is responsible for those lives?”, Withers underlined.

“Albania needs new leaders”

What should change in the behavior of the Albanian politicians? This is the answer given by John Withers:

“What should change most than everything in the Albanian political elite, is the mentality. The Albanian ruling class is based on an old and regressive concept, thinking that they enjoy more privileges compared to the common people, that they are immune to the rule of law, that they do not have to submit to the people’s will. Nothing has influenced more than these archaic behaviors of the ruling people for undermining the democratic progress that the country needs. Albania is a young democracy. In the last 20 years, after the fall of communism, their biggest need was the construction of the basic democratic institutions: an independent and reliable judicial system, a free media, a honest and free electoral system, a rule of law that really fights corruption. Nothing of these has been achieved”, Withers emphasized.

“Look at the current government. The work that they have left behind is completely against the concept of democracy construction. They have consistently threatened courts, even under the facade of an anti-constitutional lustration law. They have attacked the Prosecution with the most humiliating way, while they tried to find an answer for the tragedies of Gerdec and for the January 21st events. They have tried to limit the media freedoms through non-democratic laws and through pressures in the media premises. They have manipulated the most basic and democratic right, the electoral process”, he underlined.

For this situation to change on behalf of the Albanian citizens, the former Ambassador Withers gives some suggestions.

“What Albania needs are not politicians who are younger in their age, but a new mentality. The real men of states, such as Nelson Mandela in South Africa, or the late Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, were very old aged men, but their trust on democratic principles was the essence of their character and their being. Unfortunately, the Albanian leaders, even when they are at the age of Prime Minister Berisha or Lulzim Basha, they lack of this trust. It has a vital importance for Albania to find other leaders, men or women, young or old, from whatever religion or ethnicity, but that have democracy fire is still shining”, Withers added.

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