Homage for Lirak Bejko

After giving their condolences to the relatives, they accused the government of ignorning their protest and threatened to undertake severe acts in sign of protest if their requests will not be fulfilled.

“We were extremely shocked by this event and this government. This is an irresponsible politics that is showing its indeference”, one of the former political prisoners declared.

“The strike has just begun! We will get sacrificed for our rights”, another one declared.

“This is a great loss for all Albanians, because Lirak Bejko was a responsible man who protested for his rights. We want to say to The Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, that he is the main responsible for Bejko’s death”, declared the Head of the Persecuted People’s Association, Skender Tufa.

The friends of Bejko, after expressing their regret for his loss, remind the inhuman tortures in the communist era. They compare the inhuman tortures of communism similar to the government’s failure to give the compensation or to offer a better life, for which Bejko gave his life.

“They have pulled our teeth. To him they pulled all of the teeth. We have suffered the most inhuman tortures.  Lirak has suffered a lot and he asked for his rights. We want a real democracy, not this democracy of enverists (referring to Enver Hoxha)”, one of the friends declared.

While the lifeless body is expected to arrive on Tuesday, the political prisoners are facing another resistance from the Integration Committee.

They want homage for Bejko to be held in this institution. This morning they protested in front of their door.

“The doors should be open for human reasons. People from all over Albania and the Diaspora will come to pay homage to this hero”, the former political prisoners decalred.

Bejko dies this Friday at a hospital in Bari, Italy, after receiving burns in 50% of the body.

BBC covers Bejko’s death on the news
 
BBC writes that Bejko was one of the 20 former dissidents who started a hunger strike for their compensations.

After quoting the law for the compensation, BBC writes that the Albanian government failed to sit and talk with the protesters, saying that their action was politically motivated.

BBC says that from hospital, Bejko appealed his friends to continue the strike but not follow his example.

BBC quotes Skender Tufa, the Head of the Former Political Prisoners saying that the self immolation act of Bejko and Ndreca were based on the desperation of people that he considers “cadavers that still walk on the earth, deprived of every piece of dignity”.

BBC writes that the hunger strike closed after the health situation of some of the participants deteriorated.

DP: Bejko died for Rama’s votes

24 hours after the death of the former political prisoner, Lirak Bejko, the Democratic Party reiterated the posture they kept during the hunger strike by accusing the Socialists of exploiting the former political prisoners for electoral purposes.

The press release published this Saturday afternoon started with condolences for the family and underlined that the personal interest of Mr. Berisha was to return the body as soon as possible in Albania.

The declaration then condemned “the organisation of the protest and the political exploitation of the former political prisoners.” DP in this letter says that the life of Lirak Bejko was “a drama with many acts, and the final one was organized by Rama with the strike paid by them”. The DP accuses that the SP exploited the psychological situation of Bejko for political goals.

According to the majority, the Socialists believed that the flames that burned Bejko’s body would turn into votes.

The Socialist Party reacted back by considering Bejko as the 31st victim of this government, after the 26 people that died in Gerdec and four others on the January 21st opposition protests.

Bazhdari quoted the mother of the late, who said that if only this Government and this Prime Minister would have sat and dialogue, even if they would have lied, Lirak Bejko now would have been alive.

The former Albanian President, Bamir Topi, accused the two bigger parties as responsible for what happened in the hunger strike of the former political prisoners.

The New Democratic Spirit session started with one minute of silence, in honour of Lirak Bejko, who died this Friday after being cured for three weeks against the severe burns that he received in his body after a self immolation act.

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