State construction company digs up the old cemetery with the “help” of the police in central Albania

Fiks Fare program on Top Channel reported on Monday evening a scandal in the village of Gllavë in Memaliaj in central Albania, where the company that is building the Berat-Kelcyre road has destroyed the old cemetery and brought human bones to the surface.

In fact, the actions of the construction company were done with the “help” of the Memaliaj Police and the Buz Administrative Unit, which were present when the excavations were done. But not only that, as the firm and these institutions tried to hide the event, despite a local family’s denunciation.
The Cora family complained to the newsroom of the investigative show, denouncing the company “Cobial”, which is carrying out works on the road connecting Berat with Këlcyra, for destroying their old family cemetery. Haxhi and Paolo Cora show that on November 1, 2024, the company “Cobial” excavated near the family cemetery.
“We are not against the road, but they destroyed our family old cemetery and took out the remains of our ancestors and no one is responsible. Before they did these works, we persistently asked them not to do any works at the cemetery, but they did not listen to us. In fact, on the day they came and carried out those works, a police jeep also came,” say the family members.
Paolo says he warned company’s workers not to dig, but he was kept isolated by the police. “Now the bones have come to the surface”, he adds.
The show filmed some bones at the site, which were not complete. “These are not the only ones, as we also found bones in the soil pile. Before digging, the administrator of the Buz Unit, in Memaliaj, came with some workers with picks and shovels to excavate. We didn’t allow them because they didn’t have any exhumation decision” they say, as the excavations were then done. Paolo says that he filed reports and complaints, but even after the excavation, the head of the Memalilaj Police Station came again and said they found no bones.
After that, Fiks Fare talks with an employee of the company “Cobial”, who says that no bones were found there. The journalists show him the photos of the bones and then he repplies that he had no knowledge and that the bosses took him there.
The group of the show Fiks Fare also went to the Police post in Memaliaj, where they are looking for the head Erald Telo, who was present when the works were done. Other police officers said that the chief is not in Memaliaj, but in Tirana. The chief says that he notified the Administrative Unit and they went “to put an end to the conflict”. We asked the journalist for information that the cemetery was destroyed in that place, while he replied that “there was none”. But, when they inform him that bones have been found, even on the surface, he claims that “went twice there and didn’t find them”. At the end he says he will send a team to verify it.

Top Channel
Burimi