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The Orosh valley in the Mirdita region. An
inaccessible valley that neither the Turks nor the Communist regime of Hoxha
were ever able to penetrate or to change the profound Catholocism of the
people who live here. The Kanun of Lek Dukagjin has been preserved for
centuries in this valley.
Summary:
Kanun is a body of law which began regulating the
lives of the Albanian people between the 13 and 1400's; it is still practiced
in many parts of the country, expecially in the north. Blood revenge is just
the best known aspect of Kanun. It regulated relations with the Catholic
church, marriages, property, economic activities, social order and the
punishment of those guilty of crimes. Trajedy and drama are basic elements of
Kanun. It developed because State control over the administration of justice
in that part of the country was historically weak. With the fall of Communism
in 1991, and the resulting weakening of law and order nationally, the number
of vengeance killings has multiplied. Today, in a country that is trying
desperately to rebuild itself and one where the judicial system is still not
able to guarantee the enforcement of State laws, this resorting to assassins
in the name of Kanun has assumed really threatening proportions. The Albanian
mass media have documented that since the mid-1990's, the crimes, horrors and
atrocities committed in the name of Kanun are a growing cancer even as the
precepts of the ancient code are completely misinterpreted and often used as
a pretext to justify common criminal acts.
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