Albanian police have been accused of firing rubber bullets at student protesters outside the Ministry of Education in Tirana on Saturday, the fifth day of a movement demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation.
Reporters on the ground said an officer stationed by the ministry fired a weapon designed for rubber rounds into the crowd. Local media reported one protester was hit in the chest and another in the leg, while Top Channel footage appears to show an officer loading the weapon and firing.
One young man showed cameras his bloodied chest and the bullet he said had struck him. Journalist Klodiana Lala displayed a spent casing found at the scene.
Police have not officially confirmed using rubber bullets. Police sources told journalist Dorjana Bezat that officers had used distraction devices. If confirmed, it would be the first use of such rounds since the protests began; until now, police had relied on tear gas and water cannon.
Under the UN’s 2020 Human Rights Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement, paragraph 7.5.8, kinetic impact projectiles such as rubber bullets should not be aimed at the head, face or neck. The guidance says they should be fired only at the lower abdomen or legs of a violent individual, and only to stop an imminent threat of injury. Weapons that can be individually aimed may target only people engaged in violence, not a crowd at large.
Thousands of young Albanians gathered outside the ministry on Saturday, according to Reuters. The protest turned violent when masked youths threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at riot police, who responded with stun grenades, tear gas and water cannon. One officer was taken to hospital by ambulance.
The unrest began on Tuesday as a student protest over university conditions, tuition and the cost of living, but quickly grew into a revolt against Rama’s government. It has since spread to Durrës, Elbasan, Korçë and other cities.
On Friday alone, 21 people were treated at Tirana’s trauma hospital: eight police officers, ten protesters, including three minors, and three passersby. Police arrested 10 people that day, and dozens more have been detained since Tuesday, including minors aged 15 to 17.
Earlier in the week, Albania’s police chief suspended four officers and a local public order commander after video emerged of a 19-year-old with a broken leg being roughly carried away. The Police Oversight Agency says it is examining every possible legal violation by officers.
Rama, who won a fourth term last year promising to take Albania into the EU as early as 2028, has refused to resign. “We had elections last year, not a revolution,” he told Reuters. On Friday he blamed “foreign hands” for the unrest, insisting it was not a student phenomenon. On Saturday, he said his government respected the students and would protect their right to protest.
The protests follow a summer of demonstrations against a Jared Kushner-backed luxury resort on Albania’s southern coast.
