Rights Group Seeks Impeachment for Albania Ethnic Greek Mayor
Top News Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Tirana -The Albanian Human Rights Group, AHRG, asked on Sunday the government and parliament to impeach the ethnic Greek mayor of the town of Himara in Southern Albania, who asked Greece not to back a key deal seen as a vital step in Albania’s EU bid.
“The request by Bollano for Greece no to ratify Albania’s Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, is in breach is breach of Albania’s constitutional order in which are sanctioned the notions of indivisibility, unity and sovereignty of the country,” reads the statement from the Tirana based NGO.
According to a memo leaked to the local media, the mayor, Vasil Bollano, who is also the head of the Greek minority organisation Omonia, asks the Greek parliament not to ratify Albania’s Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union.
Bollano who confirmed the authenticity of the memo, also asks for a series of other requests, among them the recognition of all of southern Albania as Greek minority land.
Bollano also asks that the Albanian constitution should be changed to recognise this as a minority region.
Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha has condemned Bollano as a radical.
“The Greek government will not by swayed by extremist yawns, wherever they come from, because it’s a democratic government that has proved to work for good relations with Albania and the rest of the region,” said the Albanian premier during a press conference.
“The rights of the Greek minority in Albanian are ample and we have taken many decisions that have not been ratified by other countries in the region,” Berisha added.
Vangjel Dule, the head of the Greek minority party, Union for Human Rights, defended Bollano in a press conference last week calling the accusation against him as misunderstood and nothing more than a media smear campaign.
At the end of 2007, Bollano added fuel to the fire by ordering the destruction of Albanian-language signs on the highway linking the port of Vlora with the southern town of Saranda because they were also not written in Greek.
This has prompted prosecutors to open a case against the mayor for abuse of power and destruction of public property.
Tirana has also turned down his demands for special status, arguing that the size of the local Greek community is too small for the area to warrant it. At the same time, Tirana treads carefully with the mayor on account of its powerful neighbour to the south, who is an EU member.
However, the government’s softly-softly approach has angered some Albanians who feel Tirana has been too soft on Bollano. They have been infuriated by his warnings that if the authorities make any moves against him, Albania’s EU aspirations will be compromised.
That Greece is host to Albania’s largest emigrant community in Europe, and that their remittances are a lifeline for its weak economy, especially in the south, is another factor in the equation. Although Athens broadly supports Albania’s goal of eventual EU and NATO membership, it has shown it is ready to use the fate of the almost countless Albanian immigrants in Greece as a pawn when the going gets tough.
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