The wounds of blood feud, a medieval atavism, continue to remain open in Albania, especially in the north of the country. Although the numbers show a decline, the media has reported over 500 cases in the last two decades. Women and children are also victims of blood feuds, even though they are inviolable according to the Canon. While the punishments for this crime have been toughened and the number of trapped families is decreasing, associations and NGOs present a different reality.
Author: Marsel Vocaj
Today, finding a family trapped by blood feud in Shkodër is not difficult, but having a communication with them is not very easy. Beyond the difficulties, dilemmas and problems he faces, BN, trapped for 20 years, chose to tell his story of how the blood feud began.
"...for a teenager's mistake on New Year's Day 2001, my family has been on trial for more than 20 years and, as much as we have tried to explain to Hasmi, that that bullet fired by my brother was accidentally fired, no we managed to find the path of reconciliation".
BN, has not left the house for two decades because of the conflict. He says he would like to say just two words to him: “That bullet that killed your father could have killed my father as well. Don't forget that you grew up together in a village."
The case of BN is the story of dozens of people who live with the drama of the test.
In the news chronicles of the last 20 years, more than 500 cases of blood feud are recorded, where, in addition to men, women and children are also affected, which contradicts the Canon. For more than 5 years, this phenomenon is no longer so disturbing according to the media, but also to many competent bodies, such as the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education, the State Police and the People's Advocate.
From the request for information, which was sent to the People's Advocate's office, it appears that the last study on blood feud was conducted by this institution in 2017, which underlines that the phenomenon is no longer as disturbing as before.
The Ministry of Justice has toughened the punishment for blood feud with a sentence ranging from no less than 30 years of imprisonment to life imprisonment.
From the statistics provided by the State Police and the Ministry of Justice, it is seen that the phenomenon of blood feuds and the number of isolated families in the last 10 years has decreased significantly, but non-governmental blood feud associations, such as the Committee for Nationwide Reconciliation , Justice and Peace and No Blood Feud, Yes to Life , have a different story than the one presented by the authorities.
According to the General Prosecutor's Office, in the last 10 years there have been 32 criminal offenses related to blood feuds (resulting in the loss of life) . For these murders there has been no maximum sentence under the Law on Blood Feuds . Currently, there are more than 150 people convicted after the 90s under the charge of "Premeditated Murder for Blood Feud".
Blood feud associations say that the number of isolated families is not at all low in relation to the number of families in Albania. The National Reconciliation Committee association , based on studies conducted, says that in Albania there are about 290 families at risk from this phenomenon.
Meanwhile, the Justice and Peace association , which conducts studies every 10 years regarding this phenomenon and based on data it has collected for the period 2005-2015, says that the number of isolated families was 138, of which 80 in the Municipality of Shkodra alone. Regarding the research expected to be conducted in January 2025, this association predicts that the figures may be increasing.
The data collected by the Local Police Directorates of the north of Albania show another result. In the last 10 years, according to studies conducted by these directorates, there have been less than 30 cases related to blood feud. Shkodra, the historical hotbed of blood feud, according to the Local Police Directorate, Shkodra has had only 4 murders and one injury in the last 10 years. The blood feud associations of this city say that only in the last 2 years there have been more than 3 victims as a result of blood feud.
"Blood revenge is one of the 12 chapters of the Canon," says researcher Luigji Milai, "but they are ignored."
"Blood feud has great limitations, there are rules and you can't do whatever you want. The canon is used as a regulator. In cases where murders have been committed between two families or tribes, efforts have been made to provide a solution, but not to commit more murders. He always had full respect for the victim. In cases where blood had to be taken, it was done according to the rules. No one respects the canon anymore, they only say it orally. If the Canon was respected, neither the woman nor the child would be killed. In 2015, Maria was killed inside the enclosure of the house, which contradicts the two canonical rules, where one is more serious than the other," says Milai.
"Reconciliation", as a business
In addition to the fact that the Kanun is not respected for its historical values, the president of the KPM ( National Reconciliation Committee ) association, Gjin Marku, states that not only is the Kanun being abused, but also the reconciliation process.
"It is not so easy to reconcile 2 families; then there are many pseudo-associations, which try to be mediators, but enter with the purpose of personal benefits".
The canon strictly forbids strangling a woman and especially killing her. In case you killed a woman, according to the canonical rules, two men used to be executed.
Maria, a 17-year-old girl, was executed in 2015 along with her grandfather inside the compound of their house.
"In the middle of the night, in the middle of the day, the women were very free, no one dared to say a word to them, let alone touch or kill them", says Marku.
BN, who has been trapped for more than 20 years, says that he has tried several times to reconcile with the other family. He tried the path of mediation through the "elders" (mediators in the Canon), but he was disappointed.
In the Canon, elders must intercede without profit, but today this fundamental principle of the Canon has been lost.
BN says that for the reconciliation the elders demanded significant sums of money, which it was not possible for him to provide.
"It is not easy to send the elders. It is not like in the Canon, that the elders are sent with honesty and manliness, today they ask for money. They go somewhere to 15 men, who, even if they would ask for 1000 new lek, which does not happen, since they ask for 10 times, it is an extremely high cost. At the head of the elders was N. SH, who asked me for 10 thousand euros just to start and, if the reconciliation happened, the amount I would pay would be higher. It has happened to me several times with many journalists at home. In front of the cameras, he presented himself as a gentleman and said that he did everything only for the sake of God and the Canon, and when the cameras were gone, he set the conditions", says BN, embarrassed.
Beyond the test, the main problem is the quality of life of these people, especially children, and the income they receive in the form of assistance from the state.
BN's family consists of 8 people and the assistance they receive is only 17.000 ALL per month.
When I asked him about the help from the state over the years, he half-jokingly replied: "From the state authorities, the only help we have received in relation to the blood feud has been the beating and torture they gave us, after my brother committed the crime. We spent 2 long nights with my father, my brothers and I, under the torture of the Shkodra Police. This was their first aid. Their help, the second is the assistance they give me. I get 170 thousand old lek, which today are nothing. I am the eighth at home."
Elona Prroj, pastor at the Word of Christ church and also director of the No Blood Feud, Yes Life foundation , aims to help isolated families.
In 2013, the Ministry of Education presented an instruction according to which stranded families with children should be provided with a psychologist and a teacher in the residence. Mrs. Prroj, who has been in constant contact with the trapped families for a long time, says that she has never had the chance to see a teacher or a psychologist near these families.
"I say that the teacher, the doctor, the psychologist are necessary for these families. First, trapped families need bread, which is unfortunately lacking in many families. The psychologist, the doctor, the teacher are considered a luxury, but they are absolutely necessary. Income from the state is low. We have two families in our projects, both mothers with two young children, who cannot go out to work. When I went to the house of one of them, he told me: "I got my dead husband's pension..." and the pension was 5 thousand ALL. With this assistance, it doesn't even go until the end of the week", she says.
In January 2022, in Lezhë, 17-year-old FP killed the brother of the person who killed his father in 2009.
The 17-year-old was often bullied by the residents of the area for not taking his father's blood, and due to psychological pressure, he committed the crime, for which he was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Forms, like blood feud business
In most cases, the families, who are related by blood, aim to leave Albania and the way to the West is secured through a sealed document. The seals were previously owned by blood feud associations, where abuses have been reported in many cases.
The forms, according to the KPM ( National Reconciliation Committee ), are useless, because they were created by an unaccredited association and they are not recognized by state bodies, but many people have left Albania through these forms, although sometimes the people who filled out the form were not in the blood. The countries targeted for asylum are the Nordic countries, such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, but also the countries of Central Europe. Until a few years ago, the most targeted country was Germany, where Albanian asylum seekers, who were in the blood, had the second highest number of immigrants after Syria, which was at war.
Adem Isufi, the last blood feud reconciler according to canonical customs, when asked if reconciliation is still done according to canonical customs, answers briefly: "Blood feud as a term is the same as it was a few years ago, but the ways of reconciling blood feuds have changed. In the Canon, you are only allowed to kill in three cases. In other cases, you have to sit down and talk to find a way to reconcile. In the old customs, a vow was also made , which today is rarely done or is done falsely."
The patriotic association, Dukagjini , which has been active in Shkodra since communism, with the aim of preserving old Albanian values, customs and traditions, especially in the Dukagjini area, has one of its main goals as well: preserving the Kanun as a “work of art”. They do not agree with the “power” of the Kanun even today. Mhill Shkëmbi, a member of the association, says that the absence of a state for various periods of time has “forced” people to return to the Kanun.
"Today we have a genuine state and the influence of the Canon, especially in blood feuds, should not be so present. The canon should be preserved as the first Albanian Constitution, but not be used even in 2024", says Shkëmbi.
The Canon, the first "Constitution" of Albania, but also among the oldest European constitutions, should be preserved and studied. The stronger the legal culture and institutions, the less influence the shadows of the Canon will have on everyday life.
This article is part of the Investigative Journalism Laboratory project, which is financially supported by the Public Relations Office of the US Embassy in Tirana. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the Department of State.
