Fires in 12 prefectures, Xhaçka appeal to citizens of local government: Do not allow the burning of national wealth

Published: Monday, 01 April 2019 17:06

I want to share today with all citizens the concern about the very unusual situation that has been created over the last 3 weeks with the fires in different parts of the country. It is a disturbing situation because the damage caused is huge. So far over 245 hectares of forests and pastures have been burned down, while in many cases the fires have not been managed.

But it is also a worrying situation even though dozens of AF troops are working today ceaselessly, in very difficult and dangerous conditions to extinguish these fires, and especially to prevent them from spreading towards residential areas where damages could have been made much more severe.

I take this opportunity to thank all of those boys and girls for the work they are doing in service of the community and preservation of common wealth.
I want to give you some facts today so that both the media and citizens will understand better why I call this an unusual situation: During March, there were a total of 243 fireplaces scattered geographically in almost all of the country's territory. On average, 8 fires per day, although the temperatures were below 20 degrees, and in many of these areas far below that. Last year, at the same time this number was 0 even though atmospheric conditions were similar. And even if we to go back in time, you cannot find another year with this fire frequency. What makes this situation even more unexplainable is the fact that these fires are criminal acts, so they are deliberately ignited and in most cases without any profit. So we do not have to do with fires set up to create pastures or unpremeditated fires by burning debris, etc.

In the vast majority of cases, these are pure acts of vandalism, not to name them otherwise in the absence of concrete evidence that will be revealed by the ongoing investigation. These are acts that by logic and character do resemble a lot to those TNT attacks on high voltage pillars, which perhaps coincidentally have occurred during the same period.
In this situation, when such acts are not only destroying common property but also aim to create an alarming situation and concern among citizens, I urge all political forces, all politicians, to join us denounce and fight this campaign that does not go to the detriment of the government, but to the detriment of the country.

I have personally felt sorry and angry when I heard some people trying to create an alibi for this situation. There is and there can be no alibi or excuses for these acts. And there is and should not be any political force, despite the problems it has, to support by justifying or promoting through the language of conflict and violence acts that I emphasize do not harm the government but risk being turned into a threat for the property and citizens’ lives.
I call upon local authorities, all structures of local government units that in some cases have been almost inexistent in the face of these situations. The minimum that these structures have to do with employees, directors, municipal councilors and chief administrators, so with this army of people who are today in the payrolls of local government units is to timely inform about these fires and act immediately to prevent their spread.
Along with all of them, I invite all citizens to help us by timely informing us of the fires, but also by informing us whenever they have information about the individuals and groups behind these deliberate criminal acts.

Albania is of the Albanians, it is of our children’s no distinction made, today and tomorrow, and all together without any sort of division we must preserve the common wealth and protect the lives of our families, against any attempt to burn and destroy what is there donated by nature and joint work.