Berisha must battle to conquer corruption

Date: 22/09/05

It may not have been exactly smooth, but for the first time since the fall of communism, power in Albania has changed hands peacefully. This is great news - Western representatives have been right to shower the new Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, with praise and promises of support since his Democratic Party (PD) and its right-wing allies were sworn into government on 11 September.

But, even though it was largely violence-free, the election that returned this former president to power complied only partially with international standards, according to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a reminder of the deficiencies of Albanian democracy. Even though calm and relatively uneventful, the legal wrangling that followed the July poll - as well as the refusal of Berisha's arch-rival Fatos Nano to concede defeat gracefully - serve as reminders of the country's turbulent election past. Indeed, when former prime minister Nano declares that "the elections are politically unacceptable and the legitimacy of the winners is limited", he has a point.

Still, Nano is hardly the person to preach about electoral legitimacy, for whatever dirty election tricks and downright illegal means Berisha has resorted to during his long journey through the country's troubled post-communist era, Nano has been no stranger to any of them.

Today's Albania may be a more orderly place than it was in 1997, when power changed hands amid country-wide unrest and a total collapse of authority. It may even, on the whole, be less poor and less miserable. But one thing seems clear: it is also far more corrupt.

Albania has become almost synonymous with organised crime, particularly with its seedier and more brutal businesses. Albanian human-, arms- and drug-traffickers have often made headlines in Western capitals, giving the country and its nationals - as well as those of Kosovo - a serious image problem. But corruption leaves Berisha with far weightier problems than a sullied image in the West.

According to a World Bank report published earlier this year, the level of corruption in Albania has increased by 300% since 1997. Corruption, now routinely described as "endemic", costs the country some EUR 990 million in lost revenues, the report claimed. International police officials have estimated that the value of drugs passing through Albania each year is now around EUR 2 billion.

So far, Berisha has made all the right noises, identifying corruption and the inadequacy of the country's institutions as key problems. Throughout his campaign and since his victory he has said that fighting corruption, enhancing the rule of law and establishing the basis for more successful economic development will be his priorities.

When asked how he would deal with Albania's organised-crime bosses, Berisha pledged to put them all behind bars. In a reference to the Nano government, many of whose members were themselves seen as corrupt, Berisha claimed that there would be no conflict of interest in his government.

He has even made some of the right moves on the corruption front line. A week before his cabinet was to be presented to the parliament, he ordered his nominee for the culture and tourism portfolio to sell his stake in a motel.

Though highly welcome, moves such as these should be considered as barely even equivalent to the opening salvo in the all-out war on organised crime that Albania needs. The opening campaign should perhaps be tough shock therapy followed by an offensive on vested criminal interests.

This is easier said than done in the best of circumstances - and Albania's capacity to wage such a war on crime is perhaps feebler than in any other European country. Its law enforcement is (and is widely seen to be) incompetent, politicised and pervaded with tribal rivalry. Berisha himself and many of his aides are themselves, in a sense, spoiled goods. These are no virginal newcomers, yet to muddy their hands in the messy business of politics; it is not unreasonable to assume that, in a country blessed with more political choice, many of them would now be regarded as hopeless have-beens.

Many of Berisha's aides have also been willing participants in Albania's unhappy post-communist clash between its two main political blocs, its rival clans, and even between much of the north and the south of the country. Berisha himself bears primary responsibility for the developments leading to the 1997 collapse of the country. It is for reasons like these that some of Berisha's moves against corruption, if he indeed makes them, will immediately be interpreted as revenge, narrowing his room for manoeuvre even further.

But Berisha won and it can reasonably be assumed that his victory was secured not by his past, but by his pledge to fight organised crime. His background may be rather different from those of the Georgian and Ukrainian Presidents, Mikhail Saakashvili and Viktor Yushchenko, but he now finds himself in a situation that bears many similarities with Georgia and Ukraine immediately after the revolutions. Like Saakashvili and Yushchenko, Berisha has a mandate to carry out far-reaching reforms - and to fight organised crime and corruption in particular.

Berisha's ability to move fast will also be of crucial importance for the country's bid to join the EU. Albania hopes the European Commission will soon recommend that it is ready to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, but this is unlikely to happen by November, when the Commission is to issue its annual progress report.

• Tihomir Loza is a Transitions Online correspondent. A longer version of this article can be found at www.tol.cz

Major analysis feature in which the author takes a look at the political situation in Albania which after the elections on 3 July 2005, for the first time since the fall of communism, experience a peaceful change of power. The new government under former President Sali Berisha declared that its priorities were fighting corruption, enhancing the rule of law and establishing the basis for more successful economic development. Author identifies corruption, the level of which had risen by 300% since 1997, as one of the most daunting tasks.