�Civil Action� Protests in Defense of Democracy

MJAFT

03 October 2006

Last Friday, September 29, Albanian Government faced the first civil protests in Tirana since the eruption of the �Albatros� Scandal. �Civil Action� � a new movement on the civil scene � protested in front of the Ministry of the Public Affairs � demanding immediate dismissal of the Director of Civil Aviation, Gazment Dibra.

Over 2000 protesters, citizens from Tirana, activists of MJAFT Movement, intellectuals, analysts and media representatives took part in the protests and demanded from Minister Basha to immediately fire Dibra for his role in the so-called Albatros-gate. Also, the Minister should publicly distance himself from blackmails of the President of Republic or Civil Action will demand his own resignation from office.

�The fact that we are here today mean that we are not indifferent. We are all hold a share of the institutions in Albania and Tirana is not some sort of Sali-grad. The institutions are not property of the political parties, on the contrary, they are public common properties�, said Erion Veliaj, the leader of MJAFT Movement.

�We are here today to denounce an arrogant government that exercises violence upon the Constitution and the President of the Republic�, said Mustafa Nano, one of the founders of the movement. In his view, �...if the President could be blackmailed, none of us is free. This is our cause; we are here today to protect the rule of law and democracy�.

According to Andrea Stefani, political analyst, the government has threatened and scared all the people that do not follow them. The Albanians did not bring down the communist dictatorship to replace it with the �democracy of fear�. The blackmails and the arrogance of the government were seen by Stefani as the �the early stages of a state terrorism�.

The protesters were holding banners on which slogans in which sayings like �It is not a montage but blackmail� were written. They were publicly referring to the protagonist of the blackmail scandal, the director of the Civil Aviation, Dibra.

During the protests the protesters articulated in different ways the request for the dismissal of Dibra by considering insufficient what they call �the pathetic resignation of a vulgar official�.
The civil action was formed a few days ago in Tirana with the initiative of some intellectuals, common people, analysts of MJAFT Movement etc, as a civil reaction against the arrogance which according to the participants in this activity �has put the democracy at risk.