“Gli occhi della guerra” talks about the phenomenon of blood feuds

Author: admin 27 February 2019

“Families which are supposed to take revenge sometimes, do not even mean to do it, but there is a social obligation that pushes them to take action. We believe that these families are victims of this phenomenon twice: in addition to the loss of a loved one, their members are regarded as potential assassins by the rest of society. We do our best to stand by both parts involved in the feud. Every day we visit these families in order to bring them some positivity and thereby defuse the tension. This is not easy. It is a long and challenging process.”

When talking about the phenomenon of the blood feuds in Albania, there is the risk to address superficially an issue that, actually, is difficult to grasp.
First of all, in order to understand the vendettas, it is essential to consider the Albanian socio-political context. At the beginning of the 90’s, Albania came out of a ferocious dictatorship, which lasted for about 50 years and attempted to make disappear several traditions of the country. Paradoxically, for this reason, nowadays the blood feud practices are so hard to eradicate. Indeed, despite the strides forward Albania has made in the last 20 years, the legacy of the previous regime, as well as the weaknesses of the democratic institutions and the shortcomings of their judiciary system, have created the conditions where traditional values and customs are practiced and carried out in a distorted way. This, among other factors, has led to a mindset that resorts to the Kanun Code in order to justify acts of private justice, hidden under the name of “revenge” or “blood feud”.
Thus, it is necessary to persuade the Albanian State and its civil society to enforce the rule of law and to tailor them to the contemporary Albanian social and cultural context.

Therefore, we invite all of you to read this article which investigates the phenomenon of the blood feuds in a simple but accurate way. For years, Operazione Colomba volunteers, together with local associations, have been asking the implementation of the law n.9389 of 4/5/2005, which establishes the creation of a Coordination Council and its functioning in order to cope with the phenomenon of the blood feuds. For this purpose, Operazione Colomba encourages everyone to join the campaign #KundërGjakmarrjes (Against Blood Feuds) to promote the transition to a restorative justice and to nonviolent means to eradicate this practices.