Albania "in forefront of reform", outgoing OSCE mission head says

VIENNA, 29 August 2002 - Albania has made encouraging progress during the last three years and is, in some respects, in the forefront of reform in south-east Europe, Ambassador Geert-Hinrich Ahrens said in his End-of-Mission address to the OSCE Permanent Council on Thursday.

When he took office in August 1999, gangs still operated throughout the Albanian countryside, the north-east in particular was plagued by lawlessness and political life was characterised by an extreme confrontation between government and opposition parties.

"Three years on, we can see that impressive progress has been made in all of these areas, amongst many others," the veteran German diplomat said.

"Of particular importance is that we have just witnessed an orderly transfer of power from one President of the Republic to another. These achievements have brought Albania to the threshold of opening negotiations for a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union."

Ambassador Ahrens, who was appointed Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania in August 1999 by Chairman-in-Office Knut Vollebaek, is leaving office at the end of this month. He will join the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, where he will write a book on his experiences during conflict mediation in former Yugoslavia.

The OSCE presence has a mandate to assist in promoting a stable Albanian democracy by strengthening judicial, legislative and executive institutions and contributing to a vibrant civil society and responsible media.

"Looking back over the past three years, it is clear that in several areas work has been done that, in my opinion, places Albania in the forefront of reform in the region," Ambassador Ahrens said.

For example, Albania is the first country in Europe to have drafted a poverty reduction strategy, a new requirement for countries that receive concessional funding from the World Bank and IMF.

"In addition to this, Albania should also be recognised for its efforts in police reform and decentralisation, developing its Anti-Corruption Plan and National Strategy on Trafficking in Human Beings, demilitarising its 1.6 million anti-personnel landmine stockpile within an 18-month period and destroying approximately 120,000 small arms and light weapons."

While welcoming the creation of institutional structures for fighting corruption, Ambassador Ahrens stressed that it was now necessary to ensure consistent implementation of reform and application of the law.

"The problem of trafficking in persons, of course, still exists in Albania and in the region," he said. "Its connection to drug trafficking is also worrying. However, trafficking is no longer a taboo subject. The police have been increasing the number of arrests of traffickers, as opposed to merely arresting the victims of trafficking for prostitution&#151a key concern of the Presence."

The OSCE Presence is working with the Ministry of Justice and the General Prosecutor's Office to draft witness protection legislation.

"I am happy to say that Albania has made great progress during the three years of my activity as head of the OSCE Presence and that the OSCE has made an important contribution to this progress," Ambassador Ahrens concluded.

"Nevertheless, Albania had to start from a very low level of development because of its unfortunate past and has therefore still ground to cover. In this, the OSCE can continue to make an important contribution."