The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Doomed lives of Albania’s children of vendetta Posted: 05 Oct 2013 11:29 PM PDT The boys are imprisoned because of a blood feud, or vendetta, with neighbours that have made them fear for their lives. Their uncle killed a neighbour in a 1993 dispute and, although he was jailed for 25 years, the victim's family - living only a dozen metres (yards) away - has vowed to avenge the death. Albanians still respect the tradition of vendetta, which dates back to the 15th century and spares no male in a family, including babies. The brutal custom is widely followed in the poor mountainous regions in the north of the country, but also in some villages and towns in other regions. Nikolin and Amarildo spend most of their lives in a cold, sombre room at their home in Mazrek, a village about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of the capital Tirana. They are surrounded by photographs of dead relatives on the walls, their small window covered with iron bars. The bitter feud has already led to some casualties and the two youngsters, entangled through no fault of their own, could be next. "Outside, we are facing death," Amarildo whispers. He says he dreams of having a ball and playing with his only friend, the brother that shares his fate. The boys' mother, Vjollca, recently committed suicide, unable to stand her family's captive life any more. She was 29. "I found her hanged in the barn," Amarildo says, his voice choking as he fights back tears. The rival family gave them three days to mourn and bury her, promising not to kill them during that time. Condemned to death The boys' only link with the outside world is their teacher, Liljana Luani, who comes twice a month to teach them to read and write. "The children of vendetta are condemned to death," says Luani, who has asked the Albanian authorities to bring an end to what she calls an "unacceptable crime for a country that wants to integrate into Europe". Almost 600 Albanian children were unable to start the new school year in September, hiding at home from vendetta threats, which sometimes now extend to women and girls, Gjin Marku, who monitors the problem for a local organisation, told AFP. Police say there have been 225 victims of blood feuds in Albania in the last 14 years, but activist groups estimate the real number could be much higher. "In Albania, vendetta was developed due to a weak judiciary system that pushed people to settle scores on their own," sociologist Suela Dani explains. During the communist era in Albania, from the end of World War II until 1992, a strict application of the death penalty in cases of vendetta allowed the regime to suppress it. Since communism fell, the maximum punishment has been life imprisonment, but a lack of confidence in the justice system has led to an escalation in blood feuds. Dani says "all the state structures" must make a real commitment to ending the ruthless practice, which can derail the lives not just of those targeted but also of those seeking vengeance. When his uncle was killed, Alfred Vekaj, 17, swore he would get even. "Every morning on my way to school I saw a man from the family that had killed my uncle and one day I hid my grandmother's gun in my school bag," he says. "I did not want to kill him, just to prevent him from passing in front of my school any more." But Vekaj missed his target and killed a passer-by. "At least I am alive," he told AFP from his prison cell in Kavaja, the city where he is serving an eight-year sentence. – AFP, October 6, 2013. |
| “Thank God I’m not dead”: Malala’s first thought after shooting Posted: 05 Oct 2013 08:45 PM PDT But the 16-year-old, among the favourites for the Nobel Peace Prize which will be announced on Friday, said she was unable to talk, had no idea where she was and was unsure even of her own name when she emerged from a coma after six days. In the extract from her book, I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, which is published on Tuesday, Malala said she remembered almost nothing of the attack itself. The last thing she recalled on October 9, 2012, the day she was shot, was sitting with her friends on a bus as it rounded an army checkpoint on the way to school in the insurgent-riddled Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan. Friends told her that a masked gunman came on board the bus, asked "Who is Malala?" and then lifted a gun to her head and fired. Her friend said Malala squeezed her hand. "I woke on October 16, a week after the shooting. The first thing I thought was, 'Thank God I'm not dead.' But I had no idea where I was. I knew I was not in my homeland," she wrote in the extract published by the Sunday Times. Malala said she tried to speak but there was a tube in her neck, while her left eye was "very blurry and everyone had two noses and four eyes". "All sorts of questions flew through my waking brain: where was I? Who had brought me there? Where were my parents? Was my father alive? I was terrified. The only thing I knew was that Allah had blessed me with a new life." A doctor gave her an alphabet board and she spelled out the words "country" and "father" – her father was headmaster of the school that Malala had attended in Swat. "The nurse told me I was in Birmingham, but I had no idea where that was... The nurses weren't telling me anything. Even my name. Was I still Malala?" After the shooting Pakistani military neurosurgeon had carried out an emergency operation in which a section of her skull was cut out and placed under the skin in her stomach until it could be replaced in her head. Malala was then flown to the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham for further treatment. In Britain, Malala said her head ached so much that injections failed to stop the pain, her left ear kept bleeding and she could feel that the left side of her face was not moving properly. Malala said that in Britain she enjoyed watching the cookery show Masterchef but did not like the film Bend it Like Beckham, saying she asked nurses to turn it off because she was "shocked when the girls took off their shirts to practise in sports bras". She enjoyed halal fried chicken and the British cheese potato snacks Wotsits. Her parents were finally able to get to Britain 16 days after the shooting and Malala said it was the first time she was able to cry since she was shot. "All that time alone in hospital I hadn't cried even when I had all those injections in my neck or the staples removed from my head. But now I could not stop. My father and mother were also weeping," she wrote. "It was as if all the weight had been lifted from my heart. I felt that everything would be fine now." The Sunday Times reported that Malala, who is now at school in Birmingham, central England, would meanwhile meet Queen Elizabeth II in the latest in a series of honours for her campaign for girls' education. – AFP, October 6, 2013. |
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