Curiosities and intimacies: Where Meidani, Berisha, Godo, Nano, Nexhmije Hoxha, Hekuran Isai, etc. will spend New Year’s Judges spending New Year’s with money from the VEFA Company Page 10

1998 Things past, (un)forgotten Conceived by Lefida Ruvina

Looking back on the wretched year, hoping that we will not again encounter the tragedies we experienced. The year 1997 entered Albanian post-communist history as a “wretched year.” Around 4,000 Albanians were killed and maimed as victims of a political situation, and not for moral reasons. The national trauma was very severe. The chances of joining Europe and sh- Europe were greatly diminished, and Albanians were subjected to a profound crisis of confidence. The DP became a symbol of the failure to build democracy. The PS’s and its satellites’ seizure of power did not arouse much enthusiasm among the public, since the Bonapartist character of the Albanian left has been demonstrated. People were interested in establishing a powerful police state, but Mr Nano’s government was unable to prevent crime, the most effective instrument of alliance and control over politics. Tolerance of crime hinders the executive’s work and institutional reform in general. The Socialists do nothing but debase new tendencies by resorting to old habits. While total misery reigns in the country, the PS has been gripped by a mania for fake subese. All sorts of dealings, smuggling, the black market, prostitution and drugs favor … Continued on page 4

Pages 8–9

Happy New Year 1998

Want to laugh and forget your worries? Read Satire and Humor on pages 11–14 From January to December. Through the camera lens, around the world Page 19 The Apostolic Nuncio writes to Godo Mediu: Elections? Berisha mocks him. Page 3 Washington Post to Bejdo Malo: Unpaid debts Page 17 Teodor Laço on trial for abuses Paskuqan rebels; residents attack the municipality He accidentally kills his mother Pages 2, 5, 6 Dibra’s traditional feast, the first table of reconciliation Page 4

Today at 11:00, at the PR Headquarters, the Party Presidium is hosting a cocktail reception with journalists on the occasion of the New Year.