Ambassador Withers' criticism of the Albanian Parliamentary vote. The Petition

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Please Join us in this petition to the US Government to support the
right of the Albanian Parliament to protect their Judicial Branch by
not appointing Judges who used their office to politically persecute
Albanians during the communist dictatorship. Help us by signing the
petition and spread the word by sharing this. Thank you



http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/ambassador-withers-criticism-of-the-albanian-parliamentary-vote



Ambassador Withers' criticism of the Albanian Parliamentary vote. -
The Petition Site

Target:
President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, Secretary-of-
State Hillary R. Clinton

Sponsored by:

Nicolas Mirakaj-Alempijevic

Ambassador Withers' criticism of the Albanian Parliamentary vote.

May 29, 2010


President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Vice President Joseph Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Secretary-of-State Hillary R. Clinton
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC 20520


We the undersigned do hereby petition the President of the United
States Barack Obama , the Vice President of the United States Joseph
Biden, and the Secretary of State of the United States Hilary R.
Clinton, to call to their attention, the remarks of the Ambassador
Withers regarding the matter described here below.

As American citizens of Albanian descent, we are very concerned about
recent statements made by Ambassador Withers in Albania regarding the
vote by the Albanian Parliament to strike down the nomination of
Vanjiel Kosta as Judge of the Constitutional Court of Albania.

Ambassador Withers called the decision of the Albanian Parliament
"puzzling, if not incomprehensive,%u201D and incited the media to
fight this decision at a time when the world is concerned with
political stability in Albania again.

In a further attack on the vote by the Albanian Parliament, Ambassador
Withers also stated that "the reasons given for this rejection
strangely resemble the criteria of last year's draft lustration law,
which was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court and
the Venice Commission. "

I find myself compelled to point out the misleading nature of that
statement. The draft lustration law to which Ambassador Withers makes
reference, called for a revision of the past of elected officials. The
law was not passed, based on the potential for political coercion and
manipulation of existing elected officials, which it might have
caused.

The Albanian Parliament, however, did not act in accordance with the
principles of the draft lustration law at all in this case. Vanjiel
Kosta was not, is not, an elected official.
The principles on which he and two other nominees were judged, and the
vote and decision of the Albanian Parliament were formed on, were the
following:

1) That the nominees fulfill all the professional competencies
required by the position for which they were nominated.
2) That the nominees did not take part in any of the political
processes of the communist dictatorship.
3) That the nominees did not hold a political office during the last
20 years of pluralism, either with the Socialist Party or the
Democratic Party.

While two of the nominations were approved, Mr. Vanjiel Kosta's was
not, as he was found to have participated in the political processes
of the communist dictatorship as a Judge, and to have sentenced
several people to jail for attempting to leave the country in order to
escape dictatorship and defect to the democratic West in search for
freedom. Sentencing dissidents who are simply attempting to leave a
coercive system such as the communist dictatorship in Albania, clearly
is partaking in the political processes of that system by enforcing
it's suppression of freedom and of the people.


The people of Albania are freedom loving, just as any other people
would naturally be, and they have suffered tremendously from the
harshest communist dictatorship in Europe for five long decades. It
would only seem natural and just that they would now expect their
judicial branch to be free of those who partook in their oppression
during the communist era.

Ambassador Withers' statements seem to be uninformed at best, and to
be confusing the problems of last year's draft lustration law, with
today's legitimates efforts by Albanians to keep their government and
judicial branches free of those who took part in their political
persecutions during the dark era of the communist dictatorship.

It is our deep belief that the United States of America has always
stood, and still stands today, for freedom, and against dictatorship
in all of its forms, and we find it hard to believe, that Ambassador's
Withers' statements would really reflect the true views of our great
democracy. We urge you to review this case with urgency and with the
attention it deserves, and would appreciate hearing from you on this
matter.

Respectfully

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http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/ambassador-withers-criticism-of-the-albanian-parliamentary-vote