SUMMARY: A series of recent political trials have questioned the country's commitment to human rights.

(Financial Times, 12-10-94)

Ten years ago, Mr Sokol Bregu, was sentenced by an Albanian court to 12 years in prison for spreading propaganda against the state. His crime was committed in an overheard conversation over coffee with friends when he suggested that, compared with other Western European countries, Germany had the strongest economic potential. Mr Bregu spent seven years of his sentence in the notorious Spaci jail where he was forced into hard labour in a chrome mine. He was frequently beaten, his family and friends were rarely allowed to visit and he was only released in 1991 following the liberalisation of the communist regime.

Compared with 45 years under Enver Hoxha's repressive Stalinist regime, Albanians are undoubtedly ejoying more freedom now than ever before. Since their election in March 1992, President Sali Berisha and his Democratic party-led coalition government have made much progress in starting to rebuild the economic and social structures of the country. Despite severe economic difficulties, the novelties of shopping in well-stocked stores, of taking home money earned through private enterprise, and of talking openly about the outside world, have still not worn off.

Over the past few weeks, Albania has been closely watching a controversial trial of five men from the country's ethnic Greek minority. They were sentenced last Wednesday to between six and eight years in prison on charges of espionage and illegal possession of arms. The men were leading members of Omonia, an Albanian political movement which campaigns for the rights of the country's ethnic minority. The case was widely seen as a warning to extremists in the minority to drop their demands for limited autonomy in the south.

It is just one of a series of political trials in Albania over the past few years and its outcome has not only severely damaged already strained relations with Greece, but also reopened the debate about Albania's commitment to human and civil rights.

The Omonia trial came under criticism for its proceedings and was described by many as a throwback to the communist era. It was conducted under an amended version of the old penal code drawn up by Hoxha's regime. An unofficial report written for the International Helsinki Federation of Human Rights said that "much of the evidence against the defendants seems circumstantial and vague".

Diplomats in Tirana say that the problem lies with the country's institutions which are remnants of the old regime and have yet to be modernised. Others say it is the continuing totalitarian attitude of the government, many of whose members are closely associated with the communists. "There is still a big gap between our (new) laws and the mentality of our institutions which is difficult to change," explains Mr Gramoz Pashko, an opposition MP who is probably the president's harshest critic. Dr Berisha, he says, "is not the most tolerant when it comes to political minorities." He cites the case of Mr Fatos Nano, the former prime minister and leader of the opposition Socialist party who is now serving nine years on charges of corruption, as an example. "I'm not convinced that Fatos was proved guilty, it was a form of vendetta," he says.

Other former senior politicians have been sent to jail for alleged crimes against the state. The president has defended these measures as necessary to prevent a wave of revenge attacks. But strikingly, Albanians are not interested in taking revenge on those responsible for the previous era. Other criticisms focus

on the slow pace of constitutional and legal reform.

A new constitution and penal code will be essential in assessing the government's democratic and human rights credentials and also to Albania's application to join the Council of Europe. A decision on membership has been postponed until 1996 because so much of the country's legislative framework is still lacking.

James WHITTINGTON