An Analysis of Reconciliatory Mediation in Northern Albania: The Role of Customary Mediators

Abstract

Blood feuds are still festering wounds in northern Albanian society. This study will describe the process and the mechanisms utilised by traditional mediators in resolving blood feuds in northern Albania. It will describe the practice of mediation in northern Albania, and will discuss the reasons why people resort to traditional mediators in blood feuds, what their roles are in the process of mediation, forgiveness and achieving peace and what norms or values are used to influence the parties to make peace.

Notes

Among others they include the Kanuni i Lek Dukagjinit, Kanuni i Skenderbeut and Kanuni i Laberise.

The Albanian parliament passed a law entitled ‘On the Dispute Resolution through Mediation’ (Law No. 9090) on 26 June 2003. The law outlines who is eligible for blood feud mediation, who can work as a mediator, and how the mediation process is conducted.

They include, in history (Fischer 1999; Gjuraj 2000; Mile 2007), in anthropology (Schwandner-Sievers 1999, 2001; Krasztev 2002; De Waal 2005; Mustafa & Young 2008), in sociology (Grutzpalk 2002), in Albanian and Ottoman studies (Vickers & Pettifer 1997; Vickers 1999; Lawson & Saltmarshe 2000; Mile 2007), in law (Stanfield & Kukeli 1995; Oakes 1997), in conflict studies (Voell 2003; Young 2006; Elezi 2006), and in criminology (Arsovska & Verduyn 2008).

All the respondents were mediators and they are all identified by the initials of their real names. The interviews were all conducted between 22 September and 31 September 2007, by Alma Shkreli only.

These NGOs mainly work on conflict prevention and resolution. The Albanian Foundation for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation of Disputes (AFCR) aims at contributing to the democratisation of Albanian society through mediation and reconciliation of conflicts and disputes arising among individuals and social groups. It has set up nine Mediation Centres in Albania where workshops are held in order to strengthen community-based mediation processes in Albanian society. The Committee of Nationwide Reconciliation (CNR) is an NGO that works toward encouraging the rule of law in Albania, has contacts with Albanian state organisations and conflict resolution groups, deals with national policy, arranges conferences and issues reports on blood feuds.

In the LCCs (such as Australia, Germany, the United States) conflicts are seen as legitimate struggles of competing interests, and are handled either in a problem-solving manner, minimising subjective desires and needs, or through adversarial techniques of open confrontation. Debate, challenge and refutation, and controversy carry no threat to the ego (Cohen 1996, p. 114). However, in HCCs, where the community is valued more than the individual, conflicts are mostly seen as results of violations of collective expectations and can be resolved by relationship-oriented and implicit communication procedures.

Saving face refers to maintaining a good image, often in spite of adverse circumstances. It is highly valued in HCCs. Cohen points out that the more traditional, collectivist honour-based cultures are meticulous about ‘protecting the face of the parties and prefer to communicate elliptically and nonverbally’ (1996, p. 114).

Reparation is an essential element to achieve justice in VOM (Marshall 1999, p. 27). It may be in the form of financial payments, work for the victim, work for a community cause selected by the victim, specific undertakings (such as attending a counselling course), or a mixture of these (Marshall 1999, p. 11).

For details of Callister and Wall's list of the strategies and their relevance to the Albanian context, see Table A1 in the Appendix.

Bajraktarët were military leaders of their clan/tribe and were appointed by the Ottomans to this office, not by their compatriots. Bajraktarët held civil and administrative powers. It was their duty to recruit troops for any battle that the Ottomans intended to fight. In peacetime bajraktarët exercised civil duties, such as collecting taxes.

Women, however, were held in such low esteem that they were exempt from all feuds, as was a potential victim caught while in the company of a woman. Children of both sexes were also immune from the killing (Vickers & Pettifer 1997, p. 132).

The unwritten law of the Albanians had been in place long before the fifteenth century when it was codified by Lek Dukagjini. Nevertheless the Kanun is attributed to him, and it is now recognised as ‘the Code of Lek Dukagjini’ (Mile 2007).

Albania proclaimed independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912 (Vickers & Pettifer 1997, p. 132).

In 1997, due to the breakdown of pyramid investment schemes the country entered a phase of social–political instability in which angry victims of the schemes attacked and looted the military arms depots. These events placed a large number of arms in the hands of civilians (Vickers & Pettifer 1997, p. 132) and ‘more than 3000 people were killed and many more injured’ (Lawson & Saltmarshe 2000, p. f).

‘Besa’, meaning truce, according to the Kanun of Lek is ‘a period of freedom and security which the family of the victim gives to the offender and his family temporarily suspending pursuit of vengeance in the blood feud until the end of the specific term’ (Fox 1989, p. 166).

This second prescription was applicable at the time when the Kanun emerged, but nowadays it does not apply to the practice. Mile states that the only concrete sanction against the blood feud (itself a sanction) was the provision in the code of a large amount of money (grosh) and goods that the family of the offender (dorerasi) had to give to the family of the victim and to the authorities (bajraktari and the council of Elders) for the spilled blood. Also the reconciliation process required money, thus raising considerably the financial cost of taking blood (Mile 2007, p. 31).

The Kanun refers to mediator as ‘ndërmjetësi’, meaning the middle man.

The Restitution of the Land Code necessitated the re-establishment of the pre-communist Council of Elders (pleqni/pleqesia) and the Headman (kryeplak). In theory the Code's rules were followed exactly: each clan in a village elected a representative to sit on the council, and those in turn chose the headman of the village among them, regardless of political affiliations. Some villages for example chose a descendant of a former bajraktar or similarly a prosecuted family descendant to be headman (Mile 2007, p. 40).

P.T., personal interview, Bajzë, Malësi e Madhe, September 2007.

These mediators were members of the ‘leading families’, that is, they were either from the ‘Bajraktar’ families or members of ‘pleqnia’, elders of the village in the past. Four mediators in this study were descendants (sons or grandsons) of the bayraktars’ families, one was from a family who was prosecuted during the communist regime, three came from a family whose fathers or grandfathers were traditionally part of the elder groups of villages.

This is also due to the fact that Albania's population is mixed in terms of religion. According to Antonia Young (1997), it is composed of approximately 7l% Muslim (55% Sunni Muslim and l6% Bektashi, of which about 5% are Shiite), and 29% Christian (19% Orthodox and 10% Catholic). Gjuraj argues that the kinship system established in Albania played down religious differences and that ‘people (are) more loyal to the customs and habits of the clans in which they lived than to their personal religion’ (2000, p. 24).

A.I.M., personal interview, Ura e Shtrenjt, Shkodër, September 2007.

N.L., personal interview, Vau Dejës, Shkodër, September 2007.

Institutions, or institutional structures, such as the headman of the neighbourhood or village.

A.K., personal interview, Shkodër, September 2007.

F.L., personal interview, Bushat, Shkodër, September 2007.

N.L., personal interview, Vau Dejës, Shkodër, September 2007.

After a killing has happened, accidental or not, usually the killer's family or kin or tribe confines itself immediately in order to escape revenge.

N.L., personal interview, Vau Dejës, Shkodër, September 2007.

F.L., personal interview, September 2008.

A.K., personal interview, Shkodër, September 2007.

P.K., personal interview, Mirditë, September 2007.

See Table A1 in the Appendix. Technique numbers refer to the list in Table A1.

Xh.G., personal interview, Shkodër, September 2007.

N.L., personal interview, Vau Dejës, Shkodër, September 2007.

P.T., personal interview, Bajzë, Malësia e Madhe, September 2007.

However, this needs to be taken with caution. As will be argued later, some cases need to establish the guilty party and when ‘guilt’ and the ‘guilty one’ are disputed, mediators can also ask for beja (an oath to tell the truth).

A.K., personal interview, Shkodër, September 2007.

F.L., Bushat, personal interview, Shkodër, September 2007.

K.B., personal interview, Shkodër, September 2007.

Y.M., personal interview, Stongolem, Shkodër, September 2007.

Y.M., personal interview, Stongolem, Shkodër, September 2007.

A.K., personal interview, Shkodër, September 2007.

A.I.M., personal interview, Ura e Shtrenjte, Shkodër, September 2007.

N.L., personal interview, Vau Dejes, Shkodër, September 2007.

P.T., personal interview, Bajze, Malesi e Madhe, September 2007.

P.K., personal interview, Mirdite, September 2007.

A.K., personal interview, Shkodër, September 2007.

P.K., personal interview, Mirdite, September 2007.

The same argument can be found in the work of Sharon Lang (2002) who studied the Sulha process in Palestine. Interestingly, Sulha is a very similar process to the local mediation in northern Albania. For a detailed analysis of the Sulha process, see Lang (2002).

P.K., personal interview, Miredite, September 2007.

A.K., personal interview, Shkodër, September 2007.

N.L., personal interview, Vau Dejes, Shkodër, September 2007.

A.I.M., personal interview, Ura e Shtrenjte, Shkodër, and F.L, personal interview, Bushat, Shkodër, September 2007.

P.T., personal interview, Miredite, September 2007.

N.L., personal interview, Vau Dejes, Shkodër, September 2007.

Gj.M., personal interview, Lac Kurbini, September 2007.

A.I.M., personal interview, Ura Shrenjte, Shkodër, September 2007.

P.Gj., personal interview, Lezhe, September 2007.

A.I.M., personal interview, Ura e Shtrenjte, Shkodër, September 2007.

P.T., personal interview, Bajze, Malesi e Madhe, September 2007.

Y.M., personal interview, Stongolem, Shkodër, September 2007.

Even though in the Kanun there are some references to God, most of it is composed of traditional rules of a patriarchal nature.

Y.M., personal interview, Stongolem, Shkodër, September 2007. In the Kanun there are many references to God, especially as a reference to the Catholic religion.

Fox (1989) argues that in times of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, the Kanun of Lek Dukagjini was influenced in certain parts by the Shariat Law used by the Ottomans. Thus, overlaps in practice can be found here as well.

Y.M., personal interview, Stongolem, Shkodër, September 2007.

Gj.M., personal interview, Lac Kurbini, September 2007.

P.K., personal interview, Miredite, September 2007.

P.T., personal interview, Miredite, September 2007.

F.L., personal interview, Bushat, Shkodër, September 2007.

According to the Global Peace Index 2008, Albania scores 1 (most peaceful on a 5-level scale) in organised crime and 2.75 (moderate) political stability. For other scores, visit the website at: http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/albania/2008/ (accessed 18 May 2010).

Insider-partial mediation is mediation that is carried out by a person who is already involved in the conflict (someone who is an ‘insider’), and, at least to some extent, is aligned with one side or the other (hence, someone who is ‘partial’). Although this kind of mediator is common in many developing nations, it was first identified in the conflict resolution literature by Wehr and Lederach (1996, p. 56) and on the basis of their work in Central America (Maiese 2005).