US: General Commander, corrupted

The cable reveals that Colonel Gjunkshi, then Commander of the Commando Regiment, has been accused by a group of Albanian officers of taking bribes for choosing Albanian soldiers that would be assigned in foreign peacekeeping missions, mainly in Iraq.

The US Embassy cable says that the bribe that a military officer had to pay for going to Iraq was 7000 USD, almost half of his total payment for the six months service.

The group of officers that accused Colonel Gjunkshi has notified the Albanian government through a confidential letter.

In this letter, the current General Commander is not only accused of taking bribes for assigning the commando troops in foreign missions, but also of being involved in other corruptive schemes.

As the cable reveals, the officers have even threatened of sending the letter to the prestigious newspaper New York Times, which was very popular during that time in Albania, due to some investigations made on the Gerdeci case.

The US Embassy writes that the practice of taking bribes is not something new for the Albanian Army, and its consequences are that in the foreign missions are also participating untrained people.

The US Embassy has been very concerned by this wide bribe scheme in the army, and the ambassador Withers writes in this document sent to Washington that he would raise this concern to high rank government officials.

The former commander of the Commando Regiment, Colonel Xhemal Gjunkshi was promoted as the General Commander of the Albanian Army only a few weeks ago.

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