DONATE TO GERDEC TRAGEDY VICTIMS

Dear Activist,

On Saturday, March 15th, 2008 a chain of explosions at an Albanian military base in Gerdec, a district merely six miles away from Tirana, resulted in a mass grave that has yet to be exhumed.  The blast was so powerful that the reverberations were felt as far as Skopje, Macedonia.  More than three hundred people are in the hospital from injuries.  Seventeen have been proclaimed dead so far but more than a hundred others are missing and almost certainly dead, having been buried alive under the pile of rubble left in the wake of the explosion.  Hundreds of families have lost their loved ones and their homes --they have lost everything.

The Albanian government has been rhetorically treating this catastrophe as if it were akin to an unpreventable natural disaster, as if it were some sort of earthquake. 

In reality, this tragedy is the result of unfathomable greed. 

Albania wants to enter NATO and, as a precondition, it must fully disarm the 100,000 tons of communist-era weapons that were manufactured to thwart an invasion that never came.  Now, seventeen years after the collapse of communism, these arms have turned upon the very people they were supposed to protect.  The communist dictator Enver Hoxha’s unimaginable paranoia combined with the despicable greed of today's politicians has resulted in an unprecedented tragedy for Albanians.  The Albanian government, in an effort to fulfill NATO’s stipulations, brought thousands of tons of armaments from all over the country to a military base six miles outside the capital.  This military base was surrounded by populated villages.  Impoverished villagers, pure civilians, including teenagers, were hired to disarm these weapons.  Negligible training was provided.  The government has exploited the abject poverty of the area to cheaply but dangerously disarm these weapons.  Survivors of the blast have recounted stories of mothers dismantling shells while their children were playing in the same room.  People smoked cigarettes around highly explosive materials.  Yesterday, a video recorded before the blast, showing teenagers at work in the base’s unsafe conditions, was aired on television.  It is a sad testament to these stories.   The government claims that the explosion probably resulted from "human error," but what they fail to say is that this human error was a result of the politicians' pure inhumanity.  They have been profiting financially from the disarmament process.  They have been selling the bronze casings of the shells that teenagers have been dismantling.  The price of bronze has doubled over the past few years.  Rather than disarm these weapons at a military base in a remote place (of which there are plenty in Albania) the government chose a populated area next to the capital, where more than half a million people live, because it would cut their transportation costs.  The base was only one mile from the airport, rendering it easier to ship out the bronze.  No concern was paid to the hideous consequences that the civilians would shoulder in the event of an explosion.

Employing unskilled civilians, young and old, to disarm dangerous weapons six miles outside a nation's capital in order to maximize profit is a complete disregard for human life!  People from these villages are in absolute desperation and shock.  They have lost their houses.  They are combing the area to find their relatives' bodies by themselves because the government is not intervening quickly or adequately enough to do so. 

In the face of this tragedy Mjaft! Movement is reaching out to you for help.  We are fundraising for the victims of the Gerdec tragedy.  Any contribution you could make, no matter how small, can make a difference in these people’s lives.  We will use the money to buy clothes, food and other necessities for the victims’ families and for those who have lost their homes.  Currently, the homeless families and the now-orphaned children are living in a military camp near the capital and they need as much aid as we can provide for them.  If you would like to donate to this cause you may wire your donation to the following bank account:

Ndihma për tragjedinë në fshatin Gërdec
(Support the Gerdec Tragedy Victims)
Bank name: ABA- American Bank of Albania
Bank account number: 1040831807
Bank address-- Rr.Ismail Qemali ,American Bank Building -NG NR 27 POBOX 8319
SWIFT code: USALALTR

In show of their support for this initiative, the American Bank of Albania has agreed to waive all incoming wire transfer fees for this account.

Thank you for your invaluable help,

Mjaft! Movement