Saturday, April 3, 2010

Albania struggles to deal with Communist past

Since the collapse of Communist rule in Eastern Europe in 1989, the countries involved have explored different ways of dealing with the past. Albania took a different path to many, something which is still affecting it today, says the BBC's Iain MacInnes.

Jani Plaku
Jani Plaku says he is not concerned with revenge

"All my life, since I was a child I have been searching for information about my father. I wanted to know who my father was."

We met Jani Plaku on the outskirts of Tirana, where he led us to a site, surrounded by police tape.

It was the latest part of his search for information about his father - the bodies of 19 people, buried where barracks once stood.

Barracks 313, which had once been a communications post during communist rule in Albania, is now revealing the secrets of its past.

Mr Plaku's father had been an expert in oil exploration, but the communist authorities believed he was working against the government, and charged him with sabotage.

Following a trial, where he protested his innocence, he was executed in 1976....

more see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8599574.stm

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