Diplomats Doubt Albania's Claims About Curbing Crime

Albania's Interior Ministry on Thursday presented the results of its flagship law-enforcement operation, "Force of the Law", claiming major successes in fighting organized crime and money-laundering.

At a conference in Tirana, the minister Farmir Xhafaj said eight months of work had brought big successes and consumed many hours of activity.

However, while acknowledging some successes, the US ambassador in Tirana, Donald Lu, said the links between crime and politics were still strong.

"I did want to highlight one failure of the government, the prosecutors and the police - it is the failure to arrest Klement Balili," Lu said.

"Balili is a powerful organized crime leader with political connections. For two years, the government, the police and the prosecutors have been unable or unwilling to arrest him," he added, referring to a convicted drug trafficker who was director of transport services in Saranda in southern Albania up to the day when Greek authorities charged him with leading an international drugs ring.

British ambassador Duncan Norman, while praising some successes, said "big fish are still in the ocean and high-level criminals have still immunity".

Meanwhile German ambassador Susanne Schutz said Albanian thieves had become such a problem for her country that Germany was now collaborating in an "anti-falcons" initiative - "falcons" being the nickname for young Albanian gang members who go mostly in Italy to raid holiday homes.

Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama, present at the conference, claimed his government had ended the old culture of impunity - but lamented that the courts still set free criminals arrested by the police.

"Impunity doesn't exist anymore, despite what some Albanians or foreigners think," Rama...