There is no doubt the main reason for yesterday's protest in front of Albanian government offices, lies in the continuation of “war within the species” that rages in the Democratic Party.

The agenda of the President of Serbia’s presence in Tirana was only a timely coincidence with the Berisha-Basha clash. Just as there is no doubt that an opposition is entirely in its right to have a dissenting opinion with the government on an important issue such as that of the Open Balkans, and to express it.

But what happened in the December 20 protest in Tirana with the burning of a Serbian flag is a great shame. We did not burn Serbian flags even when Milosevic massacred Kosovo, at which time the current President of Serbia was a cabinet member. Albanians have fought for freedom, democracy and Independence, not for people who turn from protesters into hooligans. There is no doubt that what happened 2 decades ago makes the other peoples of the Balkans today see all Serbian proposals with suspicion. This is the case with Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Kosovo in terms of the Open Balkans project.

But the burning of flags transcends us from the side of justice, to guilt and shame. Yesterday, with the flag burning, a very bad service was done to Kosovo and Albania.

There are still many missing people since the war in Kosovo, some of whom are from Albania. Instead of simply reading the names of these missing people on the Boulevard yesterday, an ugly and primitive show went in display that does not honor us as a nation.

Let us hope that the organizers of that protest understand that last night's ‘own goal’ was harmful for themselves and their cause.