Following on from their article on Albania’s sworn virgins, the BBC has written about one Albanian family’s plight resulting from a decades long blood feud:
“Eleven-year-old Nikolin dreams about the day he can walk out of his house without fear and attend the local school…Seated on the porch of his parent’s small farmhouse in northern Albania, he looks wistfully towards the gatepost which marks the boundary between safety and danger.”
Nikolin, his siblings and his mother are confined to their home because the family has a vendetta on their heads – the father murdered a neighbour during a street fight as a teenager. He spent time in jail but under the rules of the Kanun (Kanuni i Leke Dukagjinit) the victim’s family is allowed to take revenge on any male member of the murderer’s family, even years and years after the crime was committed.
Photo by em_diesus
According to reports, there are some 20,000 families, mainly in northern Albania, who remain in their houses (the code does not allow those seeking revenge to enter) in fear of being killed because of a crime committed years ago. This ancient practice dates back to the 15th century and was suppressed during the strict communist rule of Enver Hoxha in the 20th century. The tradition has had a revival since the fall of communism in the very poor, more traditional and remote areas of the country.
In an even more disturbing twist, the Telegraph reported last year that blood feuds have started being ‘outsourced’ to private hitmen which has doubled the number of blood feud killings in recent years.
It’s pretty amazing to read about these old, and I suppose very barbaric, medieval rules still being practiced in a European country, which aims to join the EU, on such a grand scale. The Albanian authorities certainly have a lot of work in front of them to combat these crimes and stop children and others suffering such a cruel punishment for the crimes of their extended family. Why on earth should Nikolin and the other children be denied schooling and the right to play outside with friends?
I had heard about these blood feuds before but didn’t really comprehend how serious it was in Albania, so take a look at both of the articles because they are certainly a very interested read.
What do you think of Albania’s blood feuds? Do old habits die hard? Click here to leave your comment.
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on Nov 19th, 2008 at 9:35 am
It’s the Hatfields and the McCoys, and then some. I don’t think this is something that is just going to disappear, and if its elimination is a condition (I hope) forEU membership, then Albanaia is decades and decades away.
on Nov 19th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
No, it’s not something which will just disappear any time soon. It will take a lot of work to eradicate something so ingrained in the culture of some Albanians.
There are organisations which try to reconcile feuding families but the process can take up to 10 years. It really is a shame for the children who can’t enjoy what others take for granted.
on Nov 19th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
You’re right Adam, it’s a terrible system that visits the sins of the fathers on the children in this way. Let’s hope that if nothing else eventually prosperity will bring enlightenment.
on Mar 23rd, 2009 at 4:08 pm
i read obout blood feuds and i feell so bed what is happing in albaina im envildes in blood feuds in albania
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