Strikers’ situation deteriorates

Striker Vllasi koci who was sent to hospital due to the health conditions has returned to strike after saying that the ER doctors neglected him.

“The striker had no careful service from the ER. He was obliged to return to the strike”, one colleague declared.

“The strikers say that they will not stop the strike until their requests will be met, despite the Prime Minister’s harsh position.

“Mr.Berisha is becoming more aggressive each day. The origin of his aggression is at the hate against the political prisoners”, the strikers declared.

Berisha: Hunger strike led by a criminal

The Albanian Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, still considers the hunger strike of the political prisoners as politically motivated.

The head of the government underlined that the compensation of this category was made in full accordance with the law and that they have been compensated even with apartments.

“Who manages their strike? An ordinary criminal, determined to defame the sufferings of the Albanian political prisoners. He had been building brothels for years in Tirana. Skender Tufa, a trafficker who is trying to discredit this category of people who have suffered more than anyone. Unfortunately, this group represents only Skender Tufa, Edi Rama, Gramoz Ruci and their benefactors (former President Bamir Topi)”, Berisha declared.

The Prime Minister declared that his government will continue fulfilling the law for the compensation, saying that he had learned from the past mistakes, referring to a similar strike held in 1994.

“I guarantee you that no one will remove them from the tent. They shouldn’t listen to the SP lies. I made a mistake 17 years ago, when I was a doctor and I feared for their life. But I will not repeat it”, Berisha declared.

Strikers: Berisha not to invent enemies

The hunger strikers answered to Prime Minister Berisha through a declaration, telling him to not invent enemies but to meet the former political prisoners and fulfil their requests.

“When he doesn’t want to resolve the issues, he invents enemies. I appeal the Prime Minister to stop this and accept an urgent meeting”, one of the strikers declared.

The health of one of the strikers deteriorated this afternoon, and he refused to go to hospital, despite the doctors’ persistence.

“He’s not well. He has refused to go to the hospital. We will see if his situation will be improved or not”, one of the strikers declared.

For the first time, dozens of former political prisoners who had arrived from Shkoder gathered near the premises where the strike is being held to express their support to the strikers.

“We respect you and will offer our support until your sublime sacrifice will be resolved. On behalf of the fathers of the former political prisoners, I appeal the government to implement the law”, the daughter of one political prisoner declared.

The situation of the hunger strikers has deteriorated even due to the heavy rains during the night in the improvised tent.  

Tension rose today when the police refused to allow a former striker who left the tent to se his daughter in hospital.

The organizers warned for another strike, in another premise, with other strikers.

Halimi: Everyone received first instalment

The Ministry of Justice has received 17.518 requests for the compensation of former political prisoners, since 2007. 2000 others have applied after the deadlines, but the government proposed the Parliament to postpone the deadline for including them too.

These are the data that the Minister of Justice presented in Parliament after the Socialist party requested to inspect how the law was implemented for the political prisoners. According to Minister Halimi, 11.759 files have been approved so far, mainly of them who were imprisoned or who had their relatives executed.

“According to the information coming from the Ministry of Finances, everyone has received the first instalment. We have also completed the second phase for those who are over 65 years old and now we are distributing the second instalment for those who are under 65, according to the chronological order of the requests”, Halimi declared.

The Minister of Justice declared that more than 65 million USD were given for the political prisoners.

The Ministry is starting the approving of the law amend for 3300 other requests of people who have underwent forced labour and for those who had their relatives executed. The Ministry will treat with a special pension scheme around 4000 requests for those who have suffered persecution and evictions. According to the Minister of Justice, only 1600 out of 20.589 requests have been rejected for lack of documentation.

After hearing the data, the opposition made no questions and MP Pandeli Majko explained: “Today we will make no questions, because we are not the representatives of the hunger strike and we cannot speak on their behalf. We tried to encourage the representatives of the government institutions to talk. It is up to the political prisoners to comment this issue”, Majko declared.

When asked if the SP feels responsible for not giving any kind of compensation to the political prisoners, Majko declared: “We are all responsible. We didn’t want to make a political debate about it for this reason. Yesterday was the birthday of the current Prime Minister, today is that of Enver Hoxha. I don’t think that we can honour these two days by discussing this issue. I think that it would be an exaggerated irony to discuss this matter further”.

PS: The hunger strike and the luxury dinners

The Socialist Party reported what they consider a scandal with the pictures organized by the Foundation of the Albanian Children, which, according to them, gathered 544.300 EUR.

Keti Bazhdari declared that the luxury dinner was organized while the political prisoners were on their 23rd day of the hunger strike, and the government has given no answer for them.

“The Foundation of the Family published a press release today, claiming that they are giving explanations for the Socialist Party report about the luxury dinner and the painting auction, which, according Foundation of the Family, was able to collect 544.300 EUR. This declaration of the Foundation of the Family not only gives no answer to the concerns raised by the Socialist Party, but it rasies more questions about the real purposes of this auction. We have a personal question for the Foundation of the Family: do you feel any kind of remorse that when you were organizing a luxury dinner, with a lot of money gathered in the auction, and only a few meters from you there was a group of people on their 23rd day of a desperate hunger strike. Did you feel any kind of compassion that today, when you were counting your money, the political prisoners are still on a strike, in difficult health conditions and to the point of having their life in danger”, Bazhdari declared.

Rama: Berisha, vulgar about the former political prisoners

The SP leader, Edi Rama, condemned the language used by the Prime Minister against the political prisoners.

Rama declared that Berisha considered this category in 1990 as “the scum of the society”, and today he calls them “drug traffickers and criminals”.

For Rama, Berisha’s recent declarations talking about a dialogue with God are only an indicator of his instability, which are only increasing while the elections approach.

For the opposition, 2013 will be the start of a great change where the former political prisoners, who have supported for 22 years a regime that only despises them. 

AI: Government to start diaglogue

“Amnesty International” appeals the government to start a dialogue with the associations of the political prisoners and resolve their requests.

The reaction of the organization that defends the human rights and freedoms says that the government must respect the rights of the former political prisoners, and most of this category lives in extreme poverty.

AI criticized Berisha of calling the hunger strike a political protest, although their requests are purely economic.
 

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