ALBANIA: Police tighten loop on cannabis plots in Southern village

Albanian police have slowly begun tightening a loop around the cannabis plots of villagers in the southern Albanian village of Lazarat, the enclave loyal to ruling Democratic Party. Villagers in Lazarat feel the party it backed all the way to return to power in July 2005 after eight years in opposition had "turned the gun" on them and it has been singled out as an example of the fight to eradicate cannabis from Albania's map. Spread up the lower part of a mountain near the Greek border, Lazarat made international headlines two years ago when villagers said they shot back in anger at an Italian helicopter photographing marihuana plots. No one was hurt. They believe they were victimized politically to divert attention from areas loyal to the then ruling Socialist Party which grew the crop undisturbed. Action by police now means no political cover will help those who break the law. The Democratic Party government promised it would wipe out Albania from the cannabis map and have been reporting daily slashing of cannabis crops all over the remote mountain areas throughout the rugged Balkan nation, Europe's poorest. Dashnor Aliko, the Lazarat commune chairman, admitted there might be a few individuals who had grown cannabis but was adamant there was too little there to blame the whole village. "There is so much fuss in the media about Lazarat growing cannabis. This has been a real problem in the past, but this year, due to the good will of the villagers as well as the local government, the village has emerged from the black map of the narcotics cultivators," Aliko said. Both Aliko and his co-villagers said other areas along the Vlore River Valley, as duly shown by television pictures, had planted "whole plantations" compared to what had been slashed and burned in Lazarat. "We have tried to make the villagers aware of the black smudge that weighs on our shoulders and the need to get rid of these plants they continue growing, for familiar financial reasons and to join the rest of their co-villagers. Part of the media and political forces have treated this issue in a dark light for very mean, personal interests," he added. Aliko said only 12 percent of Lazarat's 4,000 people worked in private businesses, 40 were shepherds and the rest gathered sage in the mountains to secure a living, but many would prefer to follow the 300 who had migrated abroad. One stalk of cannabis is worth 150 euros to the villagers. Interior Minister Sokol Olldashi flew to Lazarat in June to warn that no cannabis growing would be tolerated shortly after cars belonging to parliament and the constitutional court were seized with over a hundred kilos of cannabis in the area. Police said that during a recent operation, officers were shot at by Lazarat villagers. They said a group of women and children were sent in front of police forces as gunfire erupted from below the village against the troops. Police took the children away from the range of fire until they had combed the area and cut down crops. "We are investigating for the cultivator and the identification of the person which had shoot with a guns against the police, and putting them before the law. It's dangerous for the police to enter in this village, because there are people harmed," said Police deputy inspector, Klidi Proko. Lazarat had lived as an off-limits enclave during the Socialist rule after a police suffered the worst in a gun-battle in 1998, never efforting to take it under control. Slashed in Lazarat, bushy "female" stalks around three metres high looking like Christmas trees were stacked near tall slender "male" ones of the same height at the police station. However, police said that far less cannabis had been cultivated this year in the south compared to two years ago.

ITN Source | September 5, 2006

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