Suspicions involving embassy officials This is the largest operation against passport trafficking FATOS BAXHAKU TIRANA — Forgers of travel passports are in the sights of the public-order forces. For several days, the Tirana Police have been conducting a large-scale operation against this phenomenon, which was becoming increasingly alarming. Its first phase has now been carried out, with 22 people taken to police stations. This is the first serious blow to this illegal activity, following individual arrests made earlier. According to the Head of the capital's Criminal Police, Arben Ujka, the police have so far struck two locations where the trade in forged passports usually took place. A very large quantity of fake passports was collected by the police at the end of the operation. Most are passports bearing fake Italian, Turkish and Greek visas. This time, a number of Italian residence permits were also found. Confirmation of something many had expected: an investigation is also under way into possible links between gangs of forgers and some foreign diplomats. The news involvement of officials from several foreign embassies in passport trafficking. These rumours have generally always been denied, including publicly by foreign representatives. Ujka told Gazeta, “but we have information about this problem. At first we did not have any significant information, but later our suspicions became increasingly clear.” According to Ujka, the police had been monitoring this illegal trade for some time. “We had been receiving information for a while and were preparing to crack down on this phenomenon,” Ujka adds. “Now we have decided to intervene more forcefully to the Chief of Criminal Police, some will be arrested, while the investigation into others will continue with them at liberty. Forged passports had become a profitable business for many people. Some sold the detached page directly, on which a visa obtained regularly at foreign consulates was located, while others turned it into a real industry of corruption and visas. And this is precisely for urgent family or health needs, or lured by the “dream of consumerism,” many people spent their savings to buy a “visa” on the illegal market, even though prices had reached astronomical levels: an Italian visa cost one thousand dollars, a German one one thousand three hundred. Some managed to get past the strict checks of Western border guards. The concern also spread to foreign authorities, which tightened checks on Albanians at border crossings. The passport market has mainly been a closed circuit within the country. abroad. Albanian refugees alone have managed to forge their residence documents and send them to their relatives in Albania. Passports and visas resistant to forgery coming soon TIRANA — New Albanian passport booklets and visas that cannot be forged: these are the main initiatives of the Albanian authorities and the Italian Embassy, intended to adapt measures to curb visa trafficking. The new passport booklet being studied for Albanian citizens will be made in such a way as to prevent pages from being replaced, something that happens continually today; it will also prevent the easy transfer of visa-bearing pages into different passports, where the visa is subsequently used as if valid. To prevent forgery, the Italian Embassy is studying a new type of visa that will be extremely difficult to reproduce. The new forgery-proof design is, of course, being kept secret.

MEETING OF DP AND PSD REPRESENTATIVES: COALITION TO CONTINUE — The coalition between the DP and PSD will continue. This was the outcome of the meeting held between representatives of the two parties. The announcement was made by the DP Press and Information Office. Both parties stated that, despite the differences between them, these are not serious enough to break up the coalition formed at the last parliamentary elections. The DP asked the PSD to return to Parliament, while the latter made its return conditional on the fulfilment of certain conditions concerning the adoption of the Constitution. Its request was considered fair by the DP representatives. Chairman Gjinushi said that they would decide on this on Tuesday in all the Parliaments, as they called them. The meeting also examined the problems of the political situation created after the recent arrest of Nano and socialist militants. APPROVAL OF REQUEST TO GRANT LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRY STATUS POSTPONED — According to sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tirana, although UNDP has shown a positive inclination, it postponed until another time the approval of “AS-IF-LCD” status, least developed country status, for Albania. Some countries did not support Albania’s candidacy, on the grounds that the report it submitted was not complete for 1992. PERPETRATORS OF CURRENCY-SHOP ROBBERY IDENTIFIED IN SARANDA — The Criminal Police of the city, together with the Saranda Public Police, have arrested Aleks Olti. He was arrested for the theft of 1.5 million lekë from the currency shop; the perpetrators were identified some time ago. His brother, Kostaq Olti, is also accused of the theft. Having fled to an unknown destination, he is being sought by the police.

Clarification requested from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs VLORE — Tension between Italian motorboats and the Albanian authorities: in recent weeks, at least several incidents have occurred involving boats arriving from Puglia that were detained and heavily fined. The Italian Embassy in Tirana has also sent a note requesting clarification from the Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to a complaint filed in Italy, the maritime authorities even stopped a motorboat by firing a machine gun, fortunately with the shots fired into the air. Following the now well-known incident at Shëngjin — where an Italian fishing boat was stopped during the first period [as stated] provided for in Albanian maritime regulations, and fined 15 thousand dollars for this — other incidents have occurred in recent days. The accusation is always the same: entering Albanian national waters without 48 hours’ prior notice. The law — the only one of its kind throughout the Mediterranean region — dates from 1985. Parliament now appears set to amend it. But in the meantime, the incidents keep following one another. “We had to come to Albania for work,” says Vittorio Bruno Stamerra, director of a newspaper in Puglia and a victim of the recent events. “We were on my motorboat, Blody Mary, when the captain of the Port of Vlore detained us. The accusation was that we had come here without giving prior notice. They held us in port for two days, and we managed to leave only after paying a fine of 3 million lire. An absurd amount for a trivial irregularity.” An even more serious incident was reported by another Italian, Mr Contaldo, who insisted that the Albanian authorities had even fired a machine gun to stop his motorboat and that of a friend. “Then,” he wrote in his complaint, “they took everything we had on board, and in the end we had to pay a fine.” For this and other incidents, the Italian Embassy has requested clarification from the Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

SARANDE — Two women, a mother and daughter, have been detained by Saranda Police on suspicion of a monstrous crime: Hajrie Alushi and Mimoza Alushi. Both are suspected of murdering Dalan Muharremi, from the village of Shalë, the husband of the former and the father of the latter. Muharremi had been reported missing on 21 July, but his body was discovered in the ravine of a [?] near the place known as Gryka e Bogazit. The causes of this tragedy have not yet been established, nor have the details of how the incident unfolded.

SHKODER / Two more victims SHKODER — In two days, three serious accidents occurred in Shkodër. Three victims: that is the death toll of recent days. The accidents happened for different reasons, but the most serious occurred in the waters of the Drin River. During these hot summer days, residents of Shkodër go to relax at the bathing spots surrounding the city, but for Ali Mataj, Wednesday, his day off, turned into a tragedy. At around 12 o’clock he drowned. He was 42 and had three children. The incident happened at Ura e Zusit. His daughter was in danger of drowning. After managing to save her, Ali disappeared into the waves of the Drin. Apparently, Mataj suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. Despite the immediate arrival of the rescue teams and around 20 people who voluntarily jumped in at once to search for him, his body was not found. A day later, another incident. While working on his own machine at the cement factory, 28-year-old Astrit Drabecia died. The victim lived in the village of Zus. The details of the incident are unclear. The third accident occurred on Thursday as well. While returning to the city, Gezím Karabeci, 28, opened the door of the stopped car in which he was travelling as it was going around a bend, and another car coming from behind inflicted serious injuries on him. He died a few hours later at Shkodër Hospital. Criminal proceedings have been initiated in this case.

EDMOND HAJDERI Studies conducted so far show that the marine environment has been less affected by the increase in artificial radioactive radiation than other ecosystems. Consequently, the risk to human health from the standpoint of radioactivity is lower than that posed by the radiation transmitted in other environments. However, activities in recent years at nuclear power plants and facilities, as well as the new installations being built both in Europe and in African countries, are grounds for further increases in artificial radioactivity in the Mediterranean Sea, whose water-exchange process is quite slow. Radionuclides such as C137, which was released into the environment and persisted after the Chernobyl accident, accumulate in people throughout the body and are most readily detected, particularly in the muscles. The radionuclides most readily available to the majority of marine organisms are those found in ionic form, while those in a colloidal state enter the food chain through filter-feeding organisms, mollusks and zooplankton. Various data show that different organisms, when incorporating metal ions—particularly heavy metals—are unable to distinguish between isotopes of the same element. Consequently, the incorporation of radioactive isotopes may be similar to that of the corresponding non-radioactive element dissolved in seawater. After an organism has taken in a quantity of radionuclides, the consequences are not always immediately visible. For example, damage to the chromosome apparatus becomes apparent only in subsequent generations. Algae such as Ulva Enteromorpha, Fucus and Porphyra can usually accumulate considerable quantities of radioactive elements compared with their concentrations in water. Interestingly, although these algae can accumulate such concentrations, they do not appear to suffer any harm. Bivalve mollusks, being filter-feeding organisms, can therefore concentrate a considerable quantity of radionuclides. Other organisms, such as planktonic crustaceans, accumulate smaller quantities than algae and mollusks because of their short life cycle. Experiments conducted on fish show that radioactive radiation does not affect fish of different species in the same way. In some, effects are observed on osmoregulatory mechanisms; in others, it causes a reduction of up to 50% in globulins and albumins. The effect of radioactive radiation on the embryonic stages of organisms is interesting. The results of these experiments have provided considerable information about organisms’ ability to survive radiation at these stages of development, and about the various mutations that appear in the species tested. Similar results from experiments on mollusks during the first 48 hours after fertilization have shown that the adult individual may not develop a complete shell, while in some fish a reduction in aggressiveness has been observed in adulthood, during the growth phase, etc.

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