By Adriatik Doçi
Until they united to govern the country together in July 2009, Ilir Meta has expressed his full conviction that Sali Berisha was the architect, responsible and the main culprit for Gërdec, now the symbol and corrupt face of the Berisha Family, which is believed to be another from the reasons for inclusion in the blacklist by the United States of America. Although Shkëlzen Berisha had not yet appeared on the scene, four days after the tragic explosion on March 19, 2008, Meta says that Berisha was not only aware of the affair in Gërdec, but was hiding the truth of the business that had been set up with his own hand. . Not only that, but Ilir Meta, in September 2008, cast strong doubts on the role of Sali Berisha in the mysterious and full of doubts death of Kosta Trebicka, the key witness of the history of Gerdec, with 27 victims, 200 injured and over 300 flattened homes and businesses.
Meta said that the residents had received an order not to help Kosta Trebicka at the moment when he was giving his soul in a field above Voskopoja. Trebicka had previously openly threatened Shkelzen Berisha that he would denounce him in the American media for his involvement. Trebicka accused Shkelzen of taking him out of business in Gerdec. Ilir Meta, today in alliance with Berisha against the US and justice reform, has shown the reasons why Berisha was not investigated by the prosecution. According to him, Sali Berisha has put pressure and blackmail on the prosecution, so that the investigation does not reach him, according to Meta, the main person responsible for the scandal.
On June 26, 2009, two days before the parliamentary elections, Meta spoke for the last time about Gerdec. After the elections, in which his party won only 4 seats, Meta joined Berisha. They split in March 2013 to reunite after two years, this time against justice reform, the largest US-EU investment in Albania. After three years of behind-the-scenes cooperation, at the beginning of 20018, Berisha and Meta pushed Lulzim Basha and Monika Kryemadhi to formalize the PD-LSI alliance, which suffered a flaw in the 2021 parliamentary elections.
However, Berisha and Meta have signaled the will to stay united. Berisha defended Ilir Meta by condemning the initiative for his dismissal from the post of President, while Ilir Meta defended Berisha, condemning the US decision to include him in the black list.
Ilir Meta’s position on Berisha’s involvement in Gerdec
May 19, 2008
“We have not raised our finger against him since the first day, because the first attention was on people in disaster and on the best management of this tragedy, but restraint was misused by the perpetrator to minimize the tragedy and hide the truth.
We also hear alibis of various kinds, such as those that foreign agencies always create and cause us such disasters before big events. Of course, it is up to the competent bodies to verify them. But, I am afraid that we have the agencies at the head of the Government, because I am convinced that a Prime Minister like Berisha, who also knows about a cleaner who is in opposition with the Democratic Party in an institution or directorate and dismisses her, how could he not know that there was such a factory for dismantling shells and weapons in the middle of the Tirana-Durrës metropolis.
Likewise, it is more than clear that such events not only did not reflect him, that he had them repeated, but on the contrary, he told us at the beginning that the mistake must have been human: But to whom will we ask this? are we wrong Those who were killed? Those who lost their lives? Those women and children we have seen these days on television holding shells in their hands to bring two lek more to their homes? Does not this incorrigible demagogue understand what poverty and misery he has brought to this country, when even in the heart of the Tirana-Durrës metropolis women and children go to risk their lives with shells and weapons to get two lekë more? Think about what is happening all over Albania.
He promised Albania in the age of the internet and gave us back the Sali Qameti’s Albania, because the children there were maimed and killed, working with shells in their hands and we did not see them playing online. “This irresponsible Prime Minister does not resign because he is worried about making identity cards, because he has free and fair elections in his heart in this country.”
June 4, 2008
“To show that it was not a mistake, he reinforced this today, deciding as an objective to arrest as many prosecutors and judges as possible, that this is the only indicator that Albania has not realized in the fight against corruption, when , unfortunately, the man who destroyed the state in ’97 and who bears the main responsibility for the Gerdec tragedy, instead of being today the first and formally investigated by the prosecution, gets the courage and courage to openly violate this institution independent, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Albania.
July 24, 2008
“This Parliament has all these months and is terrified to create a parliamentary inquiry commission for Gerdec, this is the biggest accusation for this Parliament, when in the USA a commission of inquiry has been set up for this issue. No Americans have been killed, while 30 of us have been killed, and here is still blocked, out of all procedures, a request, which has been made and signed by MPs to investigate the ammunition trade. Not only that, but you brought us back to ’97. In ’97, Berisha returned with the vocabulary he used against the deputy and everyone. “But our Parliament also came back in ’97, when it attacked the Americans, ousting them and the Europeans from the lodge.”
September 15, 2008
“The current prime minister once again proved his hypocrisy. Other words we heard from
Our Prime Minister for the late Kosta Trebicka, when he was alive, after he bravely denounced the Gerdec affair, where our Prime Minister and his relatives were mentioned, and other words (so today he was considered a responsible citizen and not a mafia) we hear after the death of the deceased.
I am not here to make a connection between the commercial spot released by the Prime Minister, who will fill the minds of all Albanians with how much corruption has been fought and, at the same time, invites everyone to make the denunciations. The Prime Minister and not the prosecution and the other fact that the most courageous citizen, who testified against corruption, lost his life, as I do not want to take over the attributes of the prosecution and local and international experts, but I say with conviction that public opinion is shocked extraordinary from such a loss, whether it be accidental.
I do not even want to dispute the report of the minister, because he too is based on experts, but not as a politician, but as a citizen, like all of you, I would really be even more informed, if we had heard the clock that when police were notified of the accident and the time when he arrived at the scene.
I would like to know if what another resident stated is true that at the moment the deceased was dying and the police were notified, he was asked not to touch the person until the police arrived, when it is known that, despite from any kind of accident and whoever it is, the effort is always made to give him first aid, to save him.
I do not want to add further doubts, because this is an issue, which is already being evaluated by international experts, but, in case all of this is irrelevant, and I would really like it to be irrelevant, unintentionally to profit, to politicize, there is something else that is very evident. “Our country is already caught upside down by Sali Berisha, unfortunately, the Prime Minister of this country.”
February 16, 2009
“We are proud that we were invited to join NATO only one month after the Gerdec tragedy, but if it were to assess security standards, Albania would not be admitted to NATO. “We all know that it was accepted because of its loyalty to the Alliance, because of its cooperation in the fight against international terrorism, and because of the geopolitical and geostrategic reasons of the United States of America and NATO.”
March 5, 2009
I invite all Albanians that on March 15, on the occasion of the 1st anniversary of the Gerdec tragedy, to join all the real opposition in “Mother Teresa” square, because in March all the tragedies happen to Sali Berisha and I am convinced “This is the last March with Berisha in power and in politics.”
June 26, 2009
“Here is the poll of Albanians that will throw the polls of Sali and all other corrupt people in the Lana River, who remember that they will lie to the Albanian people and manipulate the votes of the Albanians. Today I will tell you with the fullest guarantee that the Socialist Movement for Integration has reached the number of 34 deputies and is discussing 15 more mandates until Sunday. Today the Socialist Movement for Integration is the first force in 4 regions, first of all in Fier and Berat. Today, in the district of Tirana, the SMI and our coalition have 8 secure mandates and are fighting for 11 until Sunday. The corpses of corruption that killed the Albanians in Gerdec and that kill them every day with their corruption and greed are coming to an end from the awakening of the people “.
