US, 14.6 billion dollars against Milošević Skopje, bomb against the mosque P. 5

Solana writes to Meidani P. 3

Koçi falls, Poçi rises… the scenario continues P. 7

By Maksim BEGEJA The tragedy of the Kosovar people seems to have no end. Ethnic cleansing, mass killings, arson and massacres of the Kosovar people by Serbian forces are increasing day by day, in direct proportion to the intensification or reduction of NATO’s bombing campaign. This ethnic cleansing, this extermination of Kosovo’s Albanian population, is the only weapon in Milošević’s hands, and, to be realistic, he is using it successfully to the very end. We are convinced that the day will come when Milošević capitulates, but no one is in a position to say when that end will come. NATO’s bombings have also been conditioned by the weather. If the bombings continue until the beginning of autumn, it is understandable that their effectiveness will decline because of worsening atmospheric conditions, which will help Milošević catch his breath. Alongside these bombings, which have been continuing for almost two months, Kosovo is being emptied of Kosovars, and at the current pace of ethnic cleansing, within another two months Kosovo will be completely emptied, burned and devastated. The Serbs want a Kosovo without Kosovars. The question can be posed from another angle: according to this balance sheet, who gains and who loses the most? The greatest loss is, of course, the loss of human life, the loss of identity. Continued on page 7

P. 10

From “Republika” correspondents in Kukës and Tropojë, Ilir Aliaj and Miriana Përzhita P. 2

• 103 children and women set ablaze at sea P. 10 We will feel Lino’s absence Lino, the “enigmatic” ambassador, is leaving Albania. At the courtesy meetings, politicians never stop thanking her. Meanwhile, she nods as if to say: I know what I’ve had to put up with from you,

up with from you, naughty “children”! And indeed, she knows what she has had to endure. One person would get angry, then another. “Trouble with the buffaloes and trouble with the oxen,” as the proverb goes. P. 3

• The Mafia trips up the Tobacco Law P. 8

58,116 families caught out by their generosity Charitable families in Tirana queue to be registered on the assistance list. According to a record of families in Tirana who have sheltered their Kosovar brothers, the number of families P. 16

P. 7,12