Ambassador Withers' criticism of the Albanian Parliamentary vote.

May 29, 2010

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Vice President Joseph Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Secretary-of-State Hillary R. Clinton
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC 20520


We the undersigned do hereby petition the President of the United States Barack Obama , the Vice President of the United States  Joseph Biden, and the Secretary of State of the United States Hilary R. Clinton, to call to their attention, the remarks of the Ambassador Withers regarding the matter described here below.

As American citizens of Albanian descent, we are very concerned about recent statements made by Ambassador Withers in Albania regarding the vote by the Albanian Parliament to strike down the nomination of Vanjiel Kosta as Judge of the Constitutional Court of Albania.

Ambassador Withers called the decision of the Albanian Parliament “puzzling, if not incomprehensive,” and incited the media to fight this decision at a time when the world is concerned with political stability in Albania again.

In a further attack on the vote by the Albanian Parliament, Ambassador Withers also stated that “the reasons given for this rejection strangely resemble the criteria of last year’s draft lustration law, which was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court and the Venice Commission. “

We find ourselves compelled to point out the misleading nature of that statement. The draft lustration law to which Ambassador Withers makes reference, called for a revision of the past of elected officials. The law was not passed, based on the potential for political coercion and manipulation of existing elected officials, which it might have caused.

The Albanian Parliament, however, did not act in accordance with the principles of the draft lustration law at all in this case. Vanjiel Kosta was not, is not, an elected official.
The principles on which he and two other nominees were judged, and the vote and decision of the Albanian Parliament were formed on, were the following:

1) That the nominees fulfill all the professional competencies required by the position for which they were nominated.
2) That the nominees did not take part in any of the political processes of the communist dictatorship.
3) That the nominees did not hold a political office during the last 20 years of pluralism, either with the Socialist Party or the Democratic Party.

While two of the nominations were approved, Mr. Vanjiel Kosta’s was not, as he was found to have participated in the political processes of the communist dictatorship as a Judge, and to have sentenced several people to jail for attempting to leave the country in order to escape dictatorship and defect to the democratic West in search for freedom. Sentencing dissidents who are simply attempting to leave a coercive system such as the communist dictatorship in Albania, clearly is partaking in the political processes of that system by enforcing it’s suppression of freedom and of the people.


The people of Albania are freedom loving, just as any other people would naturally be, and they have suffered tremendously from the harshest communist dictatorship in Europe for five long decades. It would only seem natural and just that they would now expect their judicial branch to be free of those who partook in their oppression during the communist era.

Ambassador Withers' statements seem to be uninformed at best, and to be confusing the problems of last year’s draft lustration law, with today's legitimates efforts by Albanians to keep their government and judicial branches free of those who took part in their political persecutions during the dark era of the communist dictatorship.

It is our deep belief that the United States of America has always stood, and still stands today, for freedom, and against dictatorship in all of its forms, and we find it hard to believe, that Ambassador’s Withers’ statements would really reflect the true views of our great democracy. We urge you to review this case with urgency and with the attention it deserves, and would appreciate hearing from you on this matter.

Respectfully