Although the surprise discoveries close to the Venetian Tower in Durrës on the square before the port entrance brought the construction work to a halt, the the government has still not addressed its citizens’ concerns.
The authorities have not given any explanation about the functions or dates of the discoveries. And from the looks of it, they have no intention of doing so in the near future.
Two weeks have passed since the discovery of the ruins, and some very important questions have remained without an answer: What are these ruins? How will they be protected during the construction of Veliera project? Will the project change and what does the municipality of Durrës, the main investor, propose, so that the ruins could be visited and the final solution accepted from the public?
Based on the Law for Protection of Cultural Heritage, the responsible authorities, the Archeological Salvation Agency, a specialized unit for emergency intervention of the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with DRKK in Durrës, must have made a decision within ten days since the suspension of the construction work. There is no news coming from the Ministry of Culture and its website makes no declaration regarding the case. Naturally, only pictures of Mirela Kumbaro and her activities are there!
Other facts are generating new doubts!
The Administrative Court of Durrës issued a stop of the construction work “in the upper part of the street in the square before the port entrance…” The company working in site, however, continues its work, adding more concrete pillars. The company’s administrators pretend that construction work is supervised by the archeologists and the new concrete pillars are laid outside the archeological area. They do not know how to explain why some of these concrete pillars were found one morning inside Zone A, damaging parts of ruins’ structure.
Visual proofs were published from activists in the social media Facebook.
“It is a desperate and hopeless situation”, says Mirela Jorgo, an attorney. “The mayor of Durrës is violating the decision of the court of law. They are killing history.”
Looking at the pictures one could see heavy machinery and workers of private companies near the Tower.
“There is no construction work going on in the area designated by the court,” said the mayor of Durrës, Vangjush Dako. “The work in this area has been discontinued since February 4, a few days before the court issued the order to prevent the work. Archeologists are present in the area as well.”
“No digging is done by the Venetian Tower,” says Edi Shehu, the archeologist in charge on site. In the circumference surrounding it, in the track where the byzantine wall is thought to pass, we have not allowed the pouring of concrete. Everything is under surveillance.”
The conflict is deteriorating, according to the activists, and the court has rephrased the order that prevents the construction work. They purport that declaration made after the order is different from what was said in court on February 16. If these claims are true, everything is done in vain, because legally, the construction work in the area has really been prevented since the time when the ruins came to the surface.
This confusion and stupor that permeates have increased also because of the public clash between the activists and the mayor of Durrës. It doesn’t seem to be a mere disagreement between the two sides.
The defiance demonstrated by the construction company to continue its work is unjustified since the next decision coming from the National Council of Archeology can undo everything.
The digging results will be evaluated from the Scientific Council in the Ministry of Culture and then the final decision, that includes possible changes, belongs to the National Council of Archeology.
Why, then, doesn’t the company discontinue its work, even for a few days, when the project is expected to end in 2019? Why should the archeologists work under pressure? Why is the Minister of Culture Mirela Kumbaro Furxhi silent?
Will there be changes to the project? Will the ruins be uncovered? Will they uncover the Byzantine wall from the 6th century? Will the citizens of Durrës participate in the decision making process?
Can it be that the authorities are intentionally using the conflict with the citizens, and that their legislative decisions have no real value but to hide the real purpose behind the scenes? Can it be that they are creating an illusion of an open process to cover their calculated contempt?
And, to conclude, maybe they don’t intend to make any changes?
