Operazione Colomba

The right to tell

With Operazione Colomba I have been in Albania two years and a half, yet I have never felt so strongly, as I have in the last five days since I arrived in Lesvos, the urge and the right to tell.
The pain of the Albanian families was intimate, profound, and thus I felt that it needed to be told softly, taking the time to process it, quietly, whispering to the ears of those who took the time to understand it.
But the pain suffered by the people on this island screams. So I feel it has to be told.
It has to be screamed so that it will reach everyone’s ears.
It has to be told quickly, to as many people as possible, because it is a pain that requires justice.
The pain of Lesvos’ refugees is an excruciating pain, that tells of violated Rights, of denied childhood and forgotten lives.
It is a pain that doesn’t require a great deal of words to be understood because it is immediate, it is an open palm strike to the face.

Common enemy

The newspaper “Il Sole 24 Ore” reports that 34 people have died since the outbreak in Albania.
Only on June 4th two young brothers died in a town near Tirana.
They have been killed.
But not by the Coronavirus.
They have been killed by another young man.
Killed for a deadly social plague which gives no break to the wonderful Land of Eagles.

Closure of Operazione Colomba's presence in Albania

After 10 years of nonviolent intervention, Operazione Colomba is going to close its presence in Albania.
This decision, not taken lightly at all, is the result of careful considerations and observations that were made starting from the positive results achieved during these years and evaluating the living conditions’ improvement of the families that Operazione Colomba took care of.

The Human Rights Council of the United Nations in Geneva (9-27 September 2019)

During the 42nd session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations in Geneva (9-27 September 2019), on September 19th were announced the outcomes of the third cycle of Albania’s Universal Periodic Review. On this occasion, the Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII Association read an oral statement to recommend and strengthen the commitment of the Albanian Government to combat different social plagues in the Country, such as the blood feud phenomenon, domestic violence, discrimination against minorities and failure to respect children’s rights.

Operazione Colomba: truth and justice for the victims of blood feuds

“We call on the Albanian Institutions to do everything possible to bring those responsible for Mario Majollari’s murder to justice and finally give his family an answer. There is no peace without justice”.

This is what Operazione Colomba, the Nonviolent Peace Corps of the Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII Association, declares in a note with regard to the murder of Mario Majollari. According to Albanian journalistic sources, the only indicted, Kastriot Gjuzi, was acquitted by the court due to lack of evidence. In 2018 on April 10th, 28-year-old Mario Majollari, repatriated from Sweden where his application for international protection had been rejected, was killed in Tirana on alleged blood feud reasons, as his father had killed Ilir Gjuzi, Kastriot Gjuzi’s brother, in 2000. Now the questions are who killed Mario Majollari and why.