BIRN raises concerns: Rubber bullets against protesters and journalists, suspicions of repeated violations of international standards

The serious eye injury suffered by a 24-year-old protester has refocused attention on the use of rubber projectiles by Albanian police and raised suspicions that international standards on the use of force may have been systematically violated.

On October 24, clouds of tear gas covered central Tirana. Police gunfire mixed with the explosions of firecrackers and fireworks thrown by protesters.

During clashes near the Puppet Theatre, Erjon Vishkulli, a young man from Elbasan and a member of the “Red and Black Fans” supporters’ group, was shot in the left eye with a rubber bullet.

Footage of the incident shows Vishkulli running toward Skanderbeg Square, away from the area where police and protesters were confronting each other. He holds his injured eye with one hand and then falls.

Vishkulli, covered in blood, was initially taken to the University Trauma Hospital in Tirana and was later transported by medical aircraft to Italy. Doctors there are trying to save his sight.

This was the most serious documented case during the protests that have engulfed the Albanian capital since mid-October, but it was not the only one.

BIRN reviewed video footage, statements from injured people, public announcements and reports by human rights organizations. These data indicate that at least 16 protesters and citizens were struck by police kinetic projectiles between October 17 and 24.

Injuries were recorded to the head, face, neck, chest, abdomen and back; some people were hit multiple times. Six journalists also reported being struck by rubber bullets while carrying out their duties.

The injuries and footage showing officers firing horizontally raise serious questions about compliance with international standards that restrict the use of these weapons during protests.

The United Nations Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons, published in 2020, prohibits the use of kinetic projectiles for the indiscriminate dispersal of crowds. It also warns of the risk of targeting the head, face, neck and other sensitive parts of the body, which can cause serious injury or death.

Security and human rights experts who spoke to BIRN believe that the way weapons were used during the student protests in Tirana may have contravened these standards.

“Rubber bullets and other kinetic projectiles are not ordinary tools for managing a crowd of protesters. International standards consider them exceptional weapons, whose use is permitted only when necessary and proportionate,” said human rights lawyer Erida Skëndaj.

Security expert Redion Qirjazi said footage of the police interventions showed a lack of discipline and raised concerns about the officers’ training.

“What concerns me first is how freely less-lethal weapons are being fired,” he said. “They should be a measure of last resort and used only when there is an immediate threat of serious injury or loss of life to officers or civilians,” Qirjazi added.

The Director General of the State Police did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations. Interior Minister Ervin Demo, meanwhile, said he had repeatedly insisted that police interventions be proportionate and lawful.

“The Police Oversight Agency is investigating and verifying each case, both on its own initiative and following the 63 complaints and reports that have been registered,” Demo said. “No one is above the law, neither the protester nor the person in uniform whose duty it is to enforce it,” he added.

The October protests in Tirana grew out of a peaceful movement that began on May 31, 2026, against development projects in the coastal area of Pishë Poro–Nartë.

For more than four months, participants calling themselves the “Flamingo Revolution” protested against environmental damage, corruption and the rising cost of living.

On October 13, after large numbers of students and high school pupils joined, the movement turned into a revolt against the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

The clashes escalated with stones and pyrotechnic devices being thrown at public institutions. Police used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets, and carried out mass arrests.

A 22-year-old student at the Academy of Arts, who asked not to be identified for fear of consequences, told BIRN that he was hit by a rubber bullet on October 24 while trying to calm a confrontation between protesters and police.

He said the protest began in front of the Ministry of Education, where police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. Around 3 p.m., protesters gathered again in front of the Prime Minister’s Office.

According to the student, water-cannon vehicles sprayed water colored red and containing irritants, prompting demonstrators to retreat into Rinia Park.

During a confrontation near the Catholic Church, several protesters began throwing stones at police. The student said that he and another group who were in the front line were trying to prevent the situation from escalating when officers armed with shotguns began firing.

“I felt it more like a piercing sensation in my neck, so I stepped back. I saw that my jacket had been torn and blood was coming out,” he recalled. According to him, before he was hit, he had been doused twice with pressurized pepper water.

Photographs the student showed BIRN reveal the damaged clothing and the wound to the upper chest.

He said a police officer shot him from approximately 20 meters away, holding the weapon in a horizontal position.

“The officer was not kneeling and did not have the weapon pointed downward; he held it straight and fired,” the student said.

He added that people providing first aid to the injured were also hit with water, gas and rubber bullets during the intervention.

The student’s account was included in the criminal complaint that the Res Publica Center, together with lawyers, citizens and civil society organizations, filed with the Special Prosecution Office, SPAK.

The complaint calls for verification of the role of Prime Minister Edi Rama and Interior Minister Ervin Demo, as well as an investigation into State Police Director General Skënder Hita, Tirana Police Director Oliger Torba, the commanders of the National Security Force and the “Eagle” units, as well as operational and criminal structures.

Irena Dule, a lawyer for the Res Publica Center and part of a volunteer group documenting and reporting unlawful violence against protesters, highlighted an audio recording from October 24 that was published in the media. She described it as important evidence of how the order to use rubber bullets was issued.

“A particularly important piece of evidence concerning the way the operation was commanded is the recording dated October 24, 2026, at around 5 p.m., in which, according to the transcript prepared by the complainants, the order can be heard: ‘With rubber bullets and gas! Do not hold back!’”

“The final words, heard in the context of the use of weapons and other uncertified substances against protesters, raise concern that officers may have been encouraged to use force without sufficient distinction and without the necessary limitations,” Dule said.

The complainants are seeking ballistic and forensic examinations of the weapons and ammunition records. They refer to the judgment of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, issued on December 11, 2025, in the case of Tsaava and Others v. Georgia, as well as the February 10, 2007 incident in Pristina, when protesters Mon Balaj and Arben Xheladini were killed by rubber bullets fired by UNMIK police.

Lawyers and civil society organizations have documented around 22 cases involving the improper use of kinetic projectiles by police, as well as around 180 other incidents of violations. These include 47 cases of beatings of people who had already been neutralized, overcrowding in cells and violence against minors, documented by the Ombudsperson.

The Albanian Helsinki Committee, AHC, is also calling for a full investigation into police violence during the protests. According to the organization, the investigation should not include only the officers who used the weapons.

“The investigation into those harmed should not stop with the officers who directly used force. The possible responsibility of the chain of command for planning, ordering, supervising and controlling police operations must also be assessed,” the AHC told BIRN.

The organization also warned that some injured protesters were afraid to go to hospital, fearing they might be arrested. This leaves open the possibility that the number of injured people may be higher.

“These testimonies should be examined and further verified, because fear of legal consequences must not prevent people from seeking medical assistance,” the AHC added.

Protests over the past two weeks in Tirana and other Albanian cities have left dozens injured. According to the Ministry of Health, 36 people received treatment at Tirana hospitals during the clashes on October 18 alone: 21 police officers and 15 civilians.

Cases documented by BIRN show that rubber bullets also struck people who were not directly confronting police.

On October 17, the first widespread use of kinetic projectiles was reported on Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard and near the Ministry of Education. Several people suffered injuries to the upper part of their bodies.

A young man was reported to have suffered an injury to his left eye from a suspected rubber projectile, a girl was struck in the forehead and a 17-year-old was injured in the neck.

Lecturer Maksim Meço reported a wound to his face near the eye. Lecturer Lush Susaj and another female lecturer at the University of Tirana were reported to have been hit in the chest.

In another case, a young man was filmed with seven projectile wounds. On October 20, a protester who had been hit in the abdomen underwent surgery at the Trauma Hospital.

According to lawyer Dule, the locations of the injuries and their recurrence raise questions as to whether the projectiles were used to stop specific threats or to disperse crowds.

“The injuries reported between October 13 and 24, including strikes to the head, face, eyes, neck and chest, raise serious doubts that the weapons were used in an individualized manner against people who posed an immediate threat to the life or physical integrity of others,” she said.

Journalists reporting from the protests were also exposed to the gunfire.

The Association of Albanian Journalists, AGA, said that at least six journalists and media workers reported being struck by rubber projectiles during protests held between October 13 and 24.

On October 17, two Reuters journalists were reported to have been hit. The following day, Elkier Bushkolaj of SYRI TV was injured in the leg.

On October 19, Gazment Seiti of KlikNews.al said he was hit while covering the protest. That same day, Armand Bajrami of A2 CNN was shot during a live broadcast from Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard.

Bajrami told BIRN that he was near Rinia Park, together with cameraman Erald Kuçuku and other media teams, when police began using tear gas and rubber bullets after stones were intermittently thrown from the direction of the park.

“I was speaking live and trying to follow the movements of the police and protesters when I felt a strong blow, like a punch, between my chest and right shoulder,” he said.

He said he had seen an officer with a shotgun stand up to fire and move the barrel horizontally.

“I cannot determine whether the rubber bullet fired at me was accidental or deliberate. But the officer fired while standing, holding the weapon horizontally toward a well-lit area of the boulevard, while other media representatives were also near me,” Bajrami said.

On October 24, Ardit Hoxha of Euronews Albania also reported that he had been hit by a rubber bullet.

These cases add to dozens of other reports of obstruction and violence against journalists during the protests, including physical assaults, phones being seized and video footage being deleted.

After repeated reports of injuries, the first investigation publicly announced by the Tirana Prosecutor’s Office into the force used by police began only after Erjon Vishkulli was seriously injured on October 24.

The Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had primarily registered criminal proceedings and, in cooperation with the Police Oversight Agency, had obtained around 20 medical records of other people injured during the protest.

Klevis Qose, director general of the Police Oversight Agency, told BIRN that the agency had created a working group to verify reports in the media and on social networks covering the period from October 13 to 26.

According to Qose, the agency had launched investigations on its own initiative, sent materials to the prosecution and opened two inspections into procedures for escorting, detaining and arresting people, as well as the equipment used by police.

The inspections cover kinetic projectiles, tear gas, the water used by water-cannon vehicles and other possible chemical substances.

The Police Oversight Agency did not provide details on whether weapons-use protocols had been followed or whether commanders could bear responsibility, saying that the verification process was still under way.

The day after Vishkulli was injured, Prime Minister Edi Rama said he had personally intervened to ensure that he received treatment in Italy.

In his public reaction, however, Rama linked the incident to the violence during the protests and the responsibility of the political opposition.

“It is clear that participating in violent protests also puts at risk those who use violence themselves and those who stand near them,” Rama said.

“I am very sorry whenever anyone is physically injured, even a violent protester. But how can every possible injury be avoided if violence defines the character of the protest?!” he added.

Responding to the government’s critics, the prime minister said they were “the darkness that took the light from that boy’s eye.”

At a meeting with police commanders on October 19, a few days earlier, Rama had said that people near violent protesters could also become targets of police intervention.

“You are just as much a target for the police officer as the other person,” the prime minister said.

At that meeting, he also announced a bonus of around 270,000 lek for each of the 2,821 police officers involved in the protest operations.

International standards, however, require police to distinguish between people who pose a concrete threat and other participants in an assembly, even when a protest escalates into violence.

Kinetic projectiles should be used only when necessary and proportionate, against an identified threat, and fired in a manner that reduces the risk of serious injury.

Lawyer Skëndaj said that institutions appeared to have treated allegations of police violence differently from cases involving protesters accused of breaking the law.

“Such cases should be investigated quickly and independently by the prosecution. When a protester is caught in the act, he is escorted and arrested; when a violation is alleged against police officers, we have seen only suspension being applied,” Skëndaj said.

“This results in unequal and disproportionate treatment of the protester and the police officer, even when video footage documents the inhumane treatment of demonstrators by officers,” she concluded.