Italian parliamentarian had cast serious suspicions on senior officials Albanian Presidency responds TIRANA — (p. re.) — “President Berisha has never, under any circumstances, appointed Arsid as negotiator of the foreign debt or recognized him as such.” With this unequivocal response, President Berisha’s spokesperson rebutted the accusations made in recent days by Alberto Alessio, a member of the Italian Parliament and of a commission that will begin investigating in September the distribution of Italian humanitarian aid. Alberto Alessio aimed his arrows at Berisha and the other current government officials at a press conference held a few days ago in Rome. “The Democratic Party received kickbacks and the Italian Government’s humanitarian aid went to pay Nicola Arsid. The Albanian Government should repay Italy with gratitude for the aid it has received”: this was the gist of Alessio’s statement, which caused astonishment in political circles in both countries, which are making ongoing efforts to raise the level of cooperation between them. The Albanian authorities’ response came immediately after the opposition press published reports from Italian news agencies in its main publication. “All financial transactions linked to the ‘Arsid Scandal’ took place before the Democratic Government came to power, during the Technical Government, and were reported to the judicial authorities by the current government; they were not uncovered by the Italian Embassy, as Alessio claims,” the statement by the Albanian President’s spokesperson says. On one of the most serious accusations—that the DP received Italian funding during the election campaign, when Berisha was party chairman—the position is unequivocal: “There was no violation of Albanian law in the DP’s accounts during the time Berisha was in charge. Any auditor, Albanian or foreign, is free to inspect them.” Another senior official, the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Hir Hoti—one of the people directly targeted by Alessio—mentioned one of the points the Italian deputy did not mention in his statement: the fact that the “Arsid Scandal” has been under investigation by the Albanian judiciary for some time. “I have no current account in any Swiss bank, and the confrontation in France has revealed none of the facts Alessio mentions,” Hoti said. Alessio claims, Hoti says.

The person who brought the seeds to the village of Sukë is being sought Police are also investigating other possible cases EDMOND LAÇI FIER — The alarm in Albania is growing after the discovery of yet another field planted with plants that produce drugs. Again in Fier, but this time what has been discovered is not an opium field, but around 250 square meters of marijuana. The farmer—who planted this crop on his land—Bashkim Kuko, 42, was detained by the Fier Public Order Department and is now under arrest. In addition, police officers are investigating the possibility of other plots in the village of Sukë, 22 kilometers from Fier. “It was a plant like a reed,” Besnik Kuçi, one of the police officers who took part in the operation five days ago in the village of Sukë, tells the Gazette, “and during the night the plant had grown to almost one meter tall.” Detained by police at around 12 o’clock, the farmer Bashkim Kuko immediately told investigators that he had planted this crop because it would bring him twice the profit he would have made by planting his land with corn. According to the initial investigation, the person who recommended planting it and supplied the seeds is a relative of his from Berat. A search has been launched for this person—whose name the Public Order Department has not disclosed because of the investigation. “Tests in Tirana on this plant,” Kuçi continues at the Fier Public Order Department, “have now confirmed that it was marijuana.” The latest report of marijuana being grown in Albania comes only a short time after the case uncovered in Fier as well, when a father and son from the village of Beshanak were detained after police found opium planted in their garden. “There is another place too,” Vladimir Kotorrri, Fier’s most senior police official, told the Gazette after the first case was discovered, “but because of the investigation, we cannot make it public.” His suspicion has now become reality—and one even more serious than the Beshanak case. Marijuana is a highly sought-after drug on European markets. Just one gram of it—processed—is sold for 13 dollars in Italy or Greece. Another particular feature of it—with obvious risks in Albania—is that it can also be used by drying the whole plant and then inhaling it in the form of a cigarette. In any case, the current alarm concerns its cultivation. All the more so because it is still an unfamiliar notion in Albania that penalties are provided for farmers who grow drug-producing plants on their land. A marijuana plantation

TIRANA — Heavy reinforced-concrete doors, narrow corridors whose end is impossible to see, partly covered by water that has accumulated recently, books—many of them by Enver—files, sheets of documents and signs of burning: this is the sight that appears in the labyrinths running through the underground floors of the former Central Committee building of the PPSH. This is where several archives flooded by water were recently discovered by chance. “We will soon take the metal boxes out of the water and inventory them. I fear they will be badly damaged from having been underwater for so long,” said the Director General of the State Archives, Luan Maltëzi, who has been personally dealing with the matter. Rumors had been circulating for some time about the disposal and abandonment of secret PPSH documents. The case in recent days, when, in addition to the flooded boxes, several documents bearing Enver Hoxha’s signature and the marking “secret” were found, was the first to be verified. The abandonment of documents has been regarded by archive officials as a serious breach of the rules for the administration of archival and documentary materials. Meanwhile, the state continues to take custody of other PPSH documents, which until last year were administered by the Socialist Party. View of the basement of the former PPSH Central Committee building where the documents were found Luan Malltezi, who has been working on the documents

View of the basement of the former PPSH Central Committee building where the documents were found

The extradition of seven accused people is expected

SHKODËR / The protagonists detained

The extradition of seven accused persons is expected VLORË — “For 1993, the clearance rate for serious crimes, such as assaults, murders and major thefts, is 100 percent.” VLORË (Ed. Lu.) — “For 1993, the clearance rate for serious crimes, such as assaults, murders and major thefts, is 100 percent. For crimes in general, it is 70 percent.” This is the reality at the Public Order Department of Vlorë, a city whose population is catching up with Tirana every day, and where more than 5,000 passenger cars are now on the roads. “Crimes are now reported publicly,” Fari Shaska, Head of the Department, tells Gazeta, “which is why it seems there are so many.” According to him, although Vlorë is a city with many problems, serious crimes have begun to decline over the past year, while the clearance rate has risen. The department is also continuing its work to repatriate seven people who fled after committing crimes.

SHKODËR / The protagonists are separated SHKODËR — (Ar. Ça.) — The attempt by a group of ten young men to steal building materials from the warehouse of the Xunkth-Kashë Enterprise in Shkodër ended tragically. The enterprise’s guard, Ndue Harusha, was seriously wounded, but his attacker, 26-year-old Ardian Alia, was killed. All the other members of the group were detained by the Police. The sequence of events in the tragedy is now known. At around 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the group of young men tried several times to steal the enterprise’s materials from its premises on the outskirts of the city. When they met with the continued resistance of Ndue Harusha, the enterprise’s guard, one member of the group of offenders stabbed him seven times, intending to kill him. Although very seriously wounded, Ndue Harusha managed to use the weapon he was carrying, striking Ardian Alia nine times in succession and causing his death. According to the Shkodër Police, all members of the group of young men have been detained, and each person’s individual responsibility is being investigated. To address the other issues surrounding the incident—which was already tragic enough—and prevent any revenge, the Police have also confiscated the weapon belonging to the victim’s brothers.

Sport What will Serie A be like? “The Old Lady” is... running late Juventus’ hopes: 7 years without a league title For several years they have called it “the unfinished one.” It is the old and beloved Lady of Italian football, Juventus, who last won the championship in the spring of 1986, seven years ago. A considerable delay for a team that has 22 Italian titles, without ever being as dominant as Inter, and which, over 1,080 matches played, recorded 1,017 wins, 670 draws and only 393 defeats. Among the many statistics, another detail stands out: in 1,080 matches it scored 1,980 goals, that is, more than one goal per match. The number of goals scored is striking: 3,410, with an average of 1.7 per match. Giovanni Trapattoni has once again been called upon to lift the spirits of Juventus fans and guide them. Giampiero Boniperti, Juventus’ undisputed star with 178 goals, nicknamed “Duce of Barengo,” believes the mosaic is complete and that last year’s shortcomings have been addressed, especially with the acquisitions of Porrino from Atalanta and Fortunato from Genoa. Ettore Boniforti, one of the leading black-and-white supporters, says: “Juventus would have done well not to lose Panucchi. Moeller must try not to limit himself to just one role. Otherwise, everything is fine, and we fans would like Casiraghi to be sold, in the hope that a goalkeeper who knows how to ‘come out’ confidently will be bought.” And yet this is a very capable Juventus, although the fans would like it to be stronger and more complete. As it stands, it has the potential to make Milan and Inter tremble. SQUAD: Goalkeepers: Peruzzi, Rampulla, Marchioro; defenders: Porrino, Fortunato, A. Francescini, G. Baldini, Carrera, Julio Cesar, Kohler, Torricelli, Dal Canto; midfielders: Dino Baggio, Roberto Baggio, Conte, Moeller, Galla, Marocchi, Giampaolo; forwards: Vialli, Casiraghi, Di Canio, Ravanelli, Ban, Del Piero. COACH: Giovanni Trapattoni. 6—continued Coach Trapattoni

EDMOND HAJDERI One of the worrying issues that has been discussed for some time is the risk that our planet’s temperature may rise as a result of human activity. One of the worrying issues that has been discussed for some time is the risk that our planet’s temperature may rise as a result of human activity, with serious consequences for agriculture, the water system, ecosystems, endemic species, etc. It is enough to mention the melting of the vast ice masses at both poles, which would cause sea levels to rise and, consequently, flood agricultural land, transport routes and many other structures built in ports or near coastlines. The rise in the planet’s temperature, or what is called the greenhouse effect, is caused by the presence in the troposphere of certain gases which, because they absorb radiation in the 8-to-13-micron range, prevent some of the radiation—mainly infrared rays—emitted by the Earth as it warms due to solar radiation from escaping into space, thereby retaining the heat generated. These gases are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons, which pose a threat and have varying absorption capacities. Changes in the concentrations of most of these gases have caused the average air temperature over the past hundred years to rise by around 1½°C. It is telling that the five warmest years of this century (1980, 1981, 1983, 1987 and 1988) fall within the last decade. The presence of carbon dioxide (CO) alone in the atmosphere has increased by 25% compared with levels before the Industrial Revolution. The main causes of this increase are the use of fossil fuels (oil and its derivatives, natural gas) and the extensive deforestation of the Earth’s surface. It is difficult to say with precision what the future consequences of the greenhouse effect will be, but approximate forecasts can be made based on the system’s sensitivity and estimates of gases released into the atmosphere. A recent study in this field by the World Climate Programme examines the consequences of three different scenarios: in the worst case, by 2050, temperatures will rise by 5°C; under the second hypothesis, temperatures will rise by around ¾°C by the end of the next century; and, in the third case, temperatures will rise by 0.5°C over the same period. The rise in ocean levels is also linked to the increase in atmospheric temperature; over the past hundred years, sea levels have risen by 12 centimetres. Under the second hypothesis, this level will rise by 30 cm, while in the first case the rise will reach as much as 150 cm. As a result, according to these forecasts, vast coastal areas are at risk of being flooded. Egypt alone could lose around 15% of its agricultural land, while in Bangladesh 10 to 20 million people could lose their land and homes. We will discuss in detail the other factors that influence the greenhouse effect in upcoming issues of this column. Life and the Environment

IN THE TUNNELS OF THE FORMER PPSH CENTRAL COMMITTEE THERE ARE ALSO THE REMAINS OF POLITICAL OPPONENTS DISAPPEARED BY E. HOXHA — The sensational hypothesis that “the tunnels of the former Central Committee of the Party of Labour contain not only hidden documents, but may also hold the remains of political opponents who disappeared at the hands of Enver Hoxha” was confirmed to the Albanian state news agency by a person who, according to the agency, was unidentified. This report came immediately after the discovery of a secret archive in the basement of the former Central Committee building. No specialized investigative body has yet provided an explanation regarding the report distributed by ATSH. THE FIRST SHOPS IN ALBANIA SELLING VIDEOCASSETTES OPEN IN SHKODËR — Videocassette shops have opened in Shkodër, establishing this new service in Albania for its many consumers. According to one of the owners, the videocassettes contain films by the greatest directors and actors of this century, as well as videos by singers who have recently been much talked about. The only problem is translation, since they are Greek-made. Specialists from the city of Shkodër estimate that the number of videos brought into the district may reach 2,000. AN UNDECLARED MILLIONAIRE IN BALLSH CONTINUES TO RECEIVE SOCIAL ASSISTANCE — The citizen Bedri Druar from Ballsh, listed in the records as the investor in “Ndipenser”—a private construction company—also regularly receives social assistance. According to Kastriot Asllani, Director of the Assistance Office, “this person has not submitted any declaration that he has started a private business.” He also says this is not the only such case and that it points to a very serious phenomenon.

The slow withdrawal of the Serbs from Sarajevo Face to face: the Pope and Clinton A new push to launch the spacecraft

Crimes by location of occurrence 1988 — 212 crimes 1989 — 219 1990 — 281 1991 — 470 1992 (first six months) — 154 1992 (second six months) — 91 1993 (first six months) — 108 Intentional murders 1988 — 6 murders 1989 — 6 1990 — 5 1991 — 14 1992 — 7 Deaths and serious injuries from accidents 1988 — 15 1989 — 16 1990 — 15 1991 — 33 1992 — 31