Twenty members of the Albanian parliamentary opposition have submitted a bill to the Assembly that would exclude 23 former public and political officials of the communist dictatorship, from their current positions.
The draft law requires that any individual who exercised a managerial role during communism, to be excluded from appointment or election to governing bodies, state and political, or public functions.
For 30 years, people who were persecuted under the communist regime have demanded that today’s democratic system be separated in full, from its totalitarian past. They have said that former dictatorship officials have no place in the state structures of today.
In January, the Anti-Communist Politically Persecuted Association expressed their concerns that a number of powerful and high ranking members of the judiciary, held judicial roles during communism. They sent a letter to Genoveva Ruiz-Calavera, the Director for Western Balkans at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for enlargement and the Chief of the International Monitoring Operation, set up to see Albania’s justice reform and vetting process.
In an open letter, they gave examples of “perpetrators of communist crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide”. They named a number of judicial figures including Arben Kraja, Thoma Jano, Ardian Dvorani, Fatmira Luli, Bujar Sheshi and Nurihan Seiti, all of which held positions during communism and were responsible for, at the very least, issuing severe political sentences.
The ONM then told Exit that the law meant to prevent those who worked in the communist regime from becoming members of vetting institutions has been implemented. They did not answer any questions regarding the clear presence of the ex-communist judicial members named in the letter.
There are a number of high ranking ex-communists in prominent positions in Albanian political society. It is also worth noting that the Albanian communist party did not disband after communism fell, rather it was renamed and continues today as the governing Socialist Party.
But this is not the first time an attempt has been made to exclude ex-communists from holding positions of power.
In 1995, the law “On the control of the image of officials and other persons related to the protection of the democratic state” was adopted in parliament. This prohibited the election and exercise of state functions by former members of the Communist Politburo, the Central Committee, the Presidium, the judicial system, police, army, and security and intelligence services.
Unfortunately, the implementation of the law was hampered by several decisions of the courts and was later amended to be limited to former members of the Bureau, former security officers, and people convicted of crimes against humanity.
