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EDITORIAL One million women are protesting in Washington against unlicensed firearms that take people’s lives in the USA. The protest has gained international recognition and has been covered by a wider public than that of the USA. In Albania, for weapons to be destroyed in Gramsh, actor Dagllas had to come, while people filled the square and protested alongside him. We have no electricity, water, jobs, or security. The Lek is losing value. The government remains silent. We do not protest. The economy is being siphoned off through tenders. We do not protest. We are used to going to Square X when an announcement appears in the media. We cheer for leaders, political bosses. They say what we want to hear, and we hold banners, shouting ourselves hoarse. We never want to go out somewhere on our own streets and curse the potholes in our neighborhoods, the water that does not reach our homes when we are in the dark. We worry that the treasure being sought will not improve our well-being, while we go to the stadium and cheer on the joke-making politicians who put on their next show in their underwear. Those politicians who amuse themselves around the ball with scraps never miss a chance to take pieces from our daily lives, from our pockets, from our moods. They sit cross-legged at every coffee table. We talk about them. They have become our everyday characters, reducing us to ordinary gossipхm[?]xin. We know when Berisha faints, when Nano watches from the sidelines in Washington, but we do not know why Erieta loses her life in the Romanat pit, why Flamurtari of Vlora is slaughtered at Llogara, why Judge Zyflo dies, why our neighborhood neighbor is no longer here, why our sister does not come home, why the child is kidnapped, why they find gold belonging to Pellumb in the garlic patch, why the neighborhood’s old woman begs. Perhaps we Albanians are too proud to admit our misery, to be blind when the Government pretends to fill the potholes. Although at night, after we close the door of our home, we whisper about the meal gone cold, because there is no electricity.

Meta–Nano Row in the Socialist Party Page 4 Photo: Armando Babani

Statistics\ Crimes galore In one week, 56 criminal offenses were committed, with 62 perpetrators. The blacklist of people held responsible for committing a crime during the seven days of the past week also includes two children under the age of 14; the others are over 18. Page 7

The stolen treasury, the file in Parliament The investigation into the treasury has reached the Prime Minister’s Office. The country’s top government official will now be obliged to report publicly and testify about everything he knows (and has not yet said) regarding the stolen treasury case. Ilir Meta will appear today for an interpellation during the morning plenary session in Parliament. Page 4

The conflict Page 14

Kondi opposes Meidani Page 4

HYSENBELLIU: Circle of suspects narrows The murder of Agim Hysenbelliut after the DP rally in Vlora may have been a straightforward political murder. Sources at the Vlora Prosecutor’s Office told “Republika” that one line of inquiry into Hysenbelliut’s murder is the political one. The General Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that an investigative team has begun work in Vlora on Sunday’s murder. The manner of execution indicates a professional hand, skilled in this kind of killing: a pistol bullet entered the back of the head and exited through the front, where the wound was extremely large, causing immediate death. Page 5