Monthly Reports

PRESENT SITUATION

In August, the Albanian press reported on numerous conflicts, unfortunately including some homicides. On the 10th of August, a man was killed in Shkoder for reasons that are still unclear but that, according to the police, could be connected to a blood feud that has already caused the death of four other people. Few days later, on the 14th of August, the police arrested a 39 years old fugitive who had killed two people in 1999 in a blood feud.

SHARING WITH OTHERS, ACTIVITIES AND NEWS ABOUT THE PEACEWORKERS

We spent the first week of August in the Tropoja region, where we ran our annual Summer camp for children, girls, and women. Each group has engaged in different ways the theme of heroism: the kids through games and activities, while young girls and women through group discussions and personal reflections.

PRESENT SITUATION

At the end of the month, an explosion has damaged a man’s house, fortunately leaving no one wounded. According to the victim, the bombing was a form of retaliation for a homicide committed by his son in 2015. Ever since, this family has

sustained four attacks with explosive and a further assassination attempt directed to their son in jail. The family has stated that they will take justice into their own hands if there will not be any intervention from State justice.

Also, in the same days, someone has fired some gunshots at a man’s house in Fierza, a village in the Tropoja mountains. In the press the episode is thought to be linked to an escalation of violence between the alleged aggressors and a local minivan driver. Allegedly, the spiral of violence had begun when some gunshots were fired against the minivan, followed by armed threats by the driver’s son. Situations like this one can often degenerate into cases of blood feud.

PRESENT SITUATION

In June there have been at least two episodes related to blood feuds.
At the beginning of the month, the police arrested a man who is charged with attempted murder for an attack with explosives that took place in July 2017. Investigations uncovered that the attack was carried out in the attempt to avenge another violent episode that dates back to 1997, when the man was injured and two others were killed.
Near the middle of the month, a man was killed in Shkodër, near his garage. The murder was probably executed on commission and it is likely to be rooted in a previous conflict that involved the victim’s family.

PRESENT SITUATION

Unfortunately, the month of April opens with a homicide committed in the suburbs of Tirana. The crime is the result of a bar fight sparked by trivial reasons between two friends.

Halfway through the month, a 28-year-old man has been killed in downtown Tirana in the middle of the day as a revenge for the murder committed by his father in 2000. The case has particularly shaken the Albanian public opinion. Operazione Colomba believes that this case is of particular gravity because the victim was denied the right to asylum by Sweden in 2014 due to Albania numerous statements about its own efforts to safeguard and protect people who risk their lives because of blood feuds. Consequently, the peaceworkers have issued a press release to urge the institutions to effectively protect the victims of this phenomenon.