Seventh day of violent clashes between Albanian protesters and police
Almost 300 people have been injured, more than half of them police, as violent anti-government demonstrations show no sign of easing.
Seventh day of violent clashes between Albanian protesters and police
Protesters in Albania have been battling riot police for a seventh straight day of violent confrontations.
Many of the demonstrators are high school and university students seeking to force out embattled Prime Minister Edi Rama. Before Monday’s unrest, official figures said 295 people had been injured, including 186 police officers.
“The moment the state negotiates with this,” Rama told stern-faced police chiefs, holding up a rock thrown at police on Sunday, “the state has fallen”.
During the protests, which are fueled by demands for better university conditions, anger over corruption and calls for Rama’s resignation, a police station and government buildings in Tirana have come under attack.
Rama said the protesters included “young men and women who have been radicalised by dark forces in Europe and the US”. “Albania has become one of the targets of a well co-ordinated attack.”
In bright October sunshine in Rinia Park, also called Youth Park, I watched people prying up cobblestones — like the one brandished by the prime minister — to use as ammunition for later clashes with police. They did not have long to wait.
A line of police vehicles rolled down a wide boulevard, led by an armoured truck that fired water cannon and tear gas canisters into the fleeing protesters.
Riot police units pursued the mainly student crowd through the park. Protesters sought shelter in a cafe, where even the waiters’ eyes were streaming from the teargas.
Under the trees, volunteers in yellow reflector jackets held their ground, helping those overcome by the fumes. I saw a young man arguing with a policeman, who then sprayed pepper spray directly into his face at point-blank range.
“The police actions are often chaotic and stupid,” human rights lawyer Gentian Sejrani told the BBC. He offers legal support to more than 100 people who have been arrested.
“In court, the police rarely present evidence,” he said. Among his clients is a man arrested while heading to a bus stop — completely unrelated to the protests, he said.
“Those who are actually throwing stuff at the police rarely get caught, because they run the fastest,” Serjani said.
Police seem as enraged by the violence against their colleagues as the protesters are by the police’s heavy-handed tactics. The outcome is chaos.
Outside the park cafe, once the gas had dispersed, 27-year-old activist Sidorela Vatnikaj, a masters student, described her usual day. In a leaderless movement, she is among the more experienced participants, with eight years at the front of anti-government protests behind her.
“In the morning, you try to co-ordinate with all the groups - where they are, and where the protest is taking place. If any lawyers are needed, if any first aid kit or any kind of equipment is needed. And you also have to make sure all your friends, your family members in the protest are OK.”
She said the day is spent moving from protest to protest, much of it spent running from police.
She is uneasy about the violence against the authorities from fellow protesters, but says the police are to blame for initiating and intensifying it.
“When I see people throwing stones at the police, I understand their anger. I don't judge them. I'm not happy, but they have no other way to be listened to,” Vatnikaj said.
“They come from families whose family members had no other choice than to leave the country - a million in the past decade. They have not only been robbed, they have been bullied, ignored and now they they have also been beaten up.”
At the weekend, the prime minister asked rhetorically what would happen if he stepped down.
“We need a technocratic government for one year, to prepare the country for real, democratic elections,” Vatnikaj replies. She has accused Rama of rigging previous elections, and of being hand in glove with rich foreign investors and organised crime groups.
Vatnikaj said young people in Albania are inspired by fellow Gen Z protesters around the world.
“I have seen my mother and father's generation, working all their lives and dreaming of having a democratic society where they could live with dignity. That never happened,” she said.
Rama has ruled for 13 years, and has been a dominant force in Albanian politics since the turn of the century. He has promised EU membership by 2030, and said he is the only one who can deliver it.