Former head of SHIK, Minister of Public Order PAGE 2

EDITORIAL Genci COBANI The breaking point and the legendary patience of Albanians toward their state have not only reached their extreme limits, but passed them long ago, now entering the realm of absurdity. An entire population has now turned into an indifferent crowd, indifferent to everything happening in its country, so much so that nothing happening in its community, in the country, makes an impression on it for a moment, cursing, stealing and killing, they begin to dissolve everything, mocking the hopes stirred in the few naive people left in this country when they hear words about understanding, tolerance and coexistence; citizens frightened by the feeling of paradisiacal situations and campaigns that begin with explosives and blowing memorials up... There are not few; indeed, they are that can express what a misguided politics, pregnant only with resentment and hatred, with death and death again, can do to its own country. The destruction of the memorial to one of the best-known political figures of the last decade in Albania is more than a crime and worse than a disgrace. More than that, it is a bad omen, following omens even more... these days, now part of a so that nothing that happens in their community, country, or so-called state makes any impression on them anymore. People who leave without even daring to look back; others who, even if they have not left, think about doing so day and night; perverse politicians who care only about lining their own pockets; citizens frightened by the flare-up of pre-election tensions and campaigns that begin with explosions and the blowing up of memorials... There are many—indeed, more than enough—to convince us that Albanians can be called nothing other than citizens of a dreadful state and inhabitants of a country that deserves no other name than “Bubu-Land.” There can be no other word for what has happened in Albania over the last decade: it More than that, it is a bad omen, following even worse omens that this country’s politicians have chosen instead of messages for their own people. After all, anyone can see that nothing else can be expected from a political class that begins its election campaigns by killing the dead all over again.

NATIONAL LIBRARY TIRANA ALBANIA

No chance of peace with the justice authorities. Rakipi’s people accuse the Police No chance of peace with the justice authorities. Rakipi’s people accuse the Police The Prosecution accuses the Police of threatening prosecutors. According to it, Police officers demonstrated their force and arrogance toward prosecutors at the court hearing against the Criminalistics experts at the Central Laboratory Page 5

TEPELENË Page 3

EMIGRANTS Page 6

FILM FESTIVAL Page 13

Today, 28 April 2000, at 11:00, the National Assembly of the PRSH will meet at the Palace of Congresses in Tirana.