SHIK orders Havar’s removal; he has revealed the secret. Coffee smuggling: 35 more behind bars
P. 6, 9
Republika
18 March 1999
Former MPs under investigation over weapons. SHIR, now the Albanian FBI $1.2 million disappear
P. 5, 8
Mediu meets Ambassador Lino Garuli: We lost the table, we won the people
P. 2
Fino announces Nano’s divorce
A fight for the state, or for the coffee monopoly?
To want politics soberly with Albanians would
of coffee?
Deciphering today's Albanian politics means playing a very complicated game.
For example, everyone talks about fighting smuggling, but when 13 smugglers are arrested (regardless of the symbolic amount seized), everyone erupts into political rhetoric. Regardless of who will hold the coffee monopoly from now on, and regardless of whether the Prosecutor's Office operation may also contain elements of the clan warfare taking place within the ruling camp, an anti-smuggling operation should be welcomed. Even if only because the first signs are appearing of the state getting back on its feet. Chief Investigator Agim Tirana said yesterday that “up to now, the investigative authorities have not been supported by the state.” A serious phenomenon has been observed in Albania. The problem of legitimacy has been replaced by that of authority. As a result, a tendency has emerged not to address the state directly, but to defer to other appendages, chiefly political ones. This is why we have had occasion to see strange things, which have no connection whatsoever with the criteria of ... [text cut off]
Today Kosovo signs the Agreement. The Russians: It takes two to tango
Rama: “Lesi, see you in court”
Rama abandons the MPs, meets the public at the ministry
. Rama: “Lesi, see you in court.” The Minister of Culture, Rama, summoned to Parliament for an interpellation at the request of MP Nikoll Lesi, despite some difficulty because at that time he was supposed to be at the relevant ministry, where he had a meeting with the public, answered several of MP Lesi’s questions. Rama’s short, laconic answers meant that he did not waste much time and was punctual for his meeting with the public, leaving the parliamentary session just as it had begun. One of Lesi’s questions concerned, specifically, the transfer of AAB
Inside:
• Explosives and panic at a school in Vlorë • Two assassination attempts in Durrës Page 7 • Pëllumbi: Nano, where were you on September 14? September? • Malaj: I will leave Albania Page 3 • TVSH union demands the right to choose the director Page 13 Sports • Real and Inter: Goodbye, Cup • Juventus survives in the final minutes • Lawsuit against Mohamed Ali Page 15
• The Reçak killings, a crime against humanity • The UÇK loses the Shala area Page 1