Ingrid Shuli caught red-handed PAGES 2–3 The minister signed off on the theft of 5 million dollars. Page 3

EDITORIAL Public opinion in Albania is voiceless; indeed, it is dead. It is denied, as part of the very being of the “people”, even the most fundamental rights. Not merely the freedom to speak, but also the freedom to react. In general, we sense public opinion’s silence over events in Albania as the silence of the dead. And, certainly, the fact that this opinion is alive—as it seems—does not make it react to the lack of electricity, the lack of drinking water, rising crime, theft, smuggling, corruption, people queuing outside embassies for a visa, or the looting of the Treasury. Nor, of course, to the education of children who sell seeds in clubs, or to beggars, wet nurses and idlers who hold out their hands instead of looking for work somewhere. When will public opinion react? What more must happen in Albania for people to demand solutions to the problems that those “elected” by their free vote have undertaken to solve? When will it feel outraged enough to raise the stifled voice it keeps inside? Dead and unburied. Such public opinion is worthless. Nobody cares that people sell things in front of their homes, nor does anyone else care when someone pulls a “string” and claims the right to everything, all under the state’s “nose”. A state made comfortable by the voice of dead public opinion; a state untroubled that this dead opinion remains unburied. The voiceless Albanian public does not even express surprise. Or it marvels at what is happening in its country and tells itself there is nothing it can do about everything being piled onto its shoulders. In other words, it feels powerless to change things. Often it does not speak and does not itself call for a reaction. Because it sees only what is within the walls of its own home. Because silence and indifference, willingly or unwillingly, lead us to “dig up” the harshest expression for a voice that has not been raised: that of civic reaction, so as never again to be “dead and unburied”.

REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA MINISTRY OF PUBLIC WORKS AND TRANSPORT CABINET No. 922. Prot. Trano, 16.6.99 SUBJECT: Cement terminal TO THE DEAR: Mr. LEONIDHA GJERMENI DURRËS Further to our letter No. 719, dated 22.04.1999, concerning the cement terminal at the entrance to your city. In accordance with the requirements referred to in your reply to letter No. 297/1 dated 31.05.1999, immediately in the undertaking in the media. The tender is to be held by 30.06.1999. All procedures for conducting the tender must be carried out in accordance with the law. INGRID SHULI MINISTER TIRANA

Government–Opposition, the next clash over the CEC Page 4

THE TREASURY / The government does not trust the police Page 9

Italian visas, now available in Vlorë Page 18

“If the left wins the local elections despite having increased misery, theft, smuggling and killings, then the people themselves will bear responsibility” Page 5

Massive theft at the Tirana Cold Storage Facility Page 19