Old scholarships are unlocked and new ones approved Ambassador Foresti meets with students. Here are the names of the successful applicants, ready to leave BRIKENA CANI TIRANA — The doors are opening for Albanian students to go to Italy. After a year of waiting, the go-ahead was finally given for the 50 scholarships made available by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and allocated for the 1992-1993 academic year. And while telegrams are being sent from the Italian Embassy to the first 19 successful applicants, who will stay in Italy for four years, yesterday the announcement was officially made: the competition for new study scholarships for the 1993-1994 academic year. A total of 400 scholarship-months have been made available, from which at least around 50 Albanian students may benefit. And the 100 first scholarship recipients (who will all leave during this year) will soon be joined by all those who will attend courses and faculties in Italy with financial guarantees from private bodies or institutions. The calculations suggest that at least another hundred (though figures of 200 have also been mentioned) Albanians may benefit from this opportunity. Here are the names of the 19 scholarship recipients for 1992-1993, who are waiting these days for the notification telegram telling them to leave on 1 November: They are students in six different fields: Agricultural Economics: 2, Partid Federici, Adelajde Muzhani, Alda Zagaj; Dora Donalova and Artan Bici; Pharmacy: Edlira Pogaçe, Linda Pusttina, Elvis Kema; Law: Anila Bedali and Suela Fani; Computer Science: Roana Harito, Ardian Llagami and Elvin Sallabanda; Natural Sciences: Erlet Shehi; Italian Language and Literature: Lura Baci, American Sciences, Astirt Kolli, Mirlinda Çeliku and Alma Kashari. By 1 November, the 17 scholarship recipients who won postgraduate courses must leave: confirmation is awaited only from the universities concerned, some of which have already begun sending it to the Italian Embassy's cultural office. By 1 July, the 15 scholarship recipients from last year must also leave; they will attend short courses at the universities of Perugia and Siena for two or three months. Here too everything has been finalized: only a final confirmation telegram from Rome is awaited, and it should arrive in the coming days. But let us look at the announcement for the new study scholarships. Among the main points, we highlight: 1. Applicants must be no older than 40. 2. A very good command of Italian. 3. At the request of the Albanian authorities, the study scholarships will be for: 1. Special one-year courses for teachers of Italian; 2. Italian courses for the Italian language; 3. Economics (commercial, banking, social, statistics, political and business); 4. Medicine; 5. Natural Sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science); 6. Technical Sciences (geology, architecture, engineering and telecommunications); 7. Law; 8. Agronomy. Applications, to be attached to the relevant forms (available at the University of Tirana, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Italian Department, every day from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.), must be signed by the applicant and notarized, and submitted to the Italian Embassy by 15 June 1993. Italian. As if to crown these activities and underscore the friendship, the Italian ambassador himself, Paolo Foresti, accompanied by Cultural Attaché Nicola Firmbani, met with 300 students and Italian-language lecturers at the Faculty of Foreign Languages. The University Rector and the Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages also took part. It is the first time an ambassador has sought to meet directly with students. The discussion covered various student issues and the international situation. A physics lecture using modern equipment at an Italian university.

The Bank governor speaks, Mr. Hoti Albania's external debt: 450 million dollars The Bank governor speaks, Mr. Hoti The Arsidi scandal in Parliament Albania's external debt: 450 million dollars Building of the Albanian State Bank EDMOND LAÇI TIRANA — The scandal involving the 1.6 million dollars taken by the so-called negotiator of Albanian debt settlements, Nikola Arsidi, is once again in the spotlight. After Saturday's meeting with the former prime minister of Albania's Technical Government, Vilson Ahmeti, and the arrest of the two top officials of the Commercial Bank, the Albanian Bank governor, Iir Hoti, has also given an account. Following the settlement with former Italian prime minister Xhuliano Amato, who was to mediate the Albanian external debt free of charge, French citizen Arsidi was mysteriously able to take on this task. And without carrying it out, he could take from Albania the 1.6 million dollars promised upon success. “To implicate me too, documents were altered and signatures forged,” governor Hoti told the newspaper. “They may have been prepared that way, either here or in France. The court proceedings opened in both countries will reveal the truth.” Iir Hoti was compelled, through an interpellation requested by a group of independent MPs, to explain his side of the story. “Arsidi could not get a single cent from any other Albanian banks apart from those we managed and where he was required to settle,” he said. The governor of the Albanian Bank, formerly its director, had also been in that position during the period in question; he had been asked whether he had had a hand in appointing Nikola Arsidi as Albania's debt negotiator. “When the Commercial Bank revealed that it had paid Arsidi the sum of 1.6 million dollars, I had already been verifying the illegality for four months,” Hoti continued. “I immediately notified the senior Albanian authorities and filed a complaint in France as well.” France has since confirmed that investigative proceedings against Arsidi are under way and that all his bank accounts have been frozen. When Iir Hoti was appointed director of the National Bank two years ago, Albania had 450 million in external debt, 270 of which were foreign-currency dollar debts. “The external debt is the same as it was two years ago,” Hoti reports. “In this way, we have managed to somewhat restore our bank's damaged image among the world's other banks.” According to him, no investment has been made at this bank for some time. The incident took place in a small bar near Brick Factory No. 2, in the afternoon. After drinking, and following an argument and an angry exchange of vulgar words between the victim, Isuf Shabani, and three other people living in Kodër-Kamëz, Tirana, a fight broke out. Those present, who were able to give police investigators details of the incident afterward, testified as follows: “After Isufi was first struck on the head with a beer bottle, he was chased several metres outside the bar, where he was also stabbed.” The police arrived at the scene immediately afterward. In the course of operational searches, only Jetnor Elezi, 20, one of the three people who had argued with the victim, was detained. In connection with the case, it is confirmed only that the murder was committed for trivial motives.

Police arrest one person and pursue two others TIRANA — (Ed.La.) — A young man has been killed in Tirana. The victim was a 25-year-old young man, Isuf Njazi Shabani, who lived in a town near Tirana, specifically in Laprakë. He was struck on the head with a beer bottle and then stabbed; his injuries proved fatal before he had even properly reached the hospital. Following immediate investigations, the Investigative Police of Tirana District No. 3 managed to identify as a suspect the person who stabbed Shabani, but the police have not yet managed to catch the perpetrator. The incident took place in a small bar near Brick Factory No. 2, in the afternoon. After drinking, and following an argument and an angry exchange of vulgar words between the victim, Isuf Shabani, and three other people living in Kodër-Kamëz, Tirana, a fight broke out. Those present, who were able to give police investigators details of the incident afterward, testified as follows: “After Isufi was first struck on the head with a beer bottle, he was chased several metres outside the bar, where he was also stabbed.” The police arrived at the scene immediately afterward. In the course of operational searches, only Jetnor Elezi, 20, one of the three people who had argued with the victim, was detained. In connection with the case, it is confirmed only that the murder was committed for trivial motives. The investigation into the killing of the young Isuf Shabani has also been transferred to the District Investigation Office. A medical examination is expected to establish whether the fatal injury was caused by the bottle or the knife, after which the investigation will be conducted jointly by the two institutions. This was not an accidental incident, but the serious crime in Tirana was not committed by a family; this has not been said because the whole event is not part of a series of incidents, but concerns more general problems and not only problems affecting young people. 1 person was arrested by Tirana police. 5 other people are suspected of being connected to the incident. There is also a statement for the press that had been recorded earlier, despite the rise in incidents, which described the victim as a factor in the theft and said the killing was not direct, but involved a thousand problems, while the musculature of adults had been injured. The publication of this statement also provoked a reaction among residents of District 18 in Korçë, who, in a letter addressed to senior Albanian officials responsible for investigating the official version, made the matter an issue; the investigative authorities continue their searches.

KORÇË — Police officer Ylli Kadilliu was arrested in Korçë; he is believed to have caused the death of Ramë Gaca, 28. Immediately after the incident, according to information from the Korçë Public Order Police, the Ministry of Public Order set out the official version of events in a press statement. It portrayed the victim as being involved in theft and said the killing was not direct, but stemmed from a thousand problems, while the musculature of adults had been injured. Publication of this statement also provoked a reaction among residents of District 18 in Korçë, who, in a letter addressed to senior Albanian officials responsible for investigating the official version, made the matter an issue; the investigative authorities continue their searches.

SHKODËR — The Shkodër District Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into a recent incident at the border, for which several officers of the district's Internal Affairs Branch and border forces are considered responsible. One of the main accused is Çapajev Taçi, former Head of the Internal Affairs Branch, currently in prison after being convicted of participating in the massacre of 2 April 1991 in Shkodër. This time, Taçi is accused of responsibility for the killing of a young man near the border with Montenegro, in Malësi e Madhe. The young man's burial order was recently found and has been delivered to the family. Another officer, Engjëll Rama, former commander of the Samrisht border post during the same year, has been arrested on the same charge in connection with a number of killings and injuries at the border during December 1991. According to sources at the Shkodër Prosecutor's Office, police have issued a wanted notice for another person, whose identity has not been disclosed in order to preserve the secrecy of the investigation. This person is considered by investigators to be responsible for the killing of two young men from Veliopoja, near Shkodër, who were hanged by border forces while attempting to cross the border illegally.

TIRANA — “Three signatures against violence. The leaders of the parties organized at the initiative of the Peace Club in Tirana, from Shkupi Italia-Shqipëria për Kooperimin and from ‘Friends of the Earth’, an initiative for these [unclear] hunger strike launched by the Albanian Movement for Peace and Freedom in Kosovo, which has also been supported by 10 Albanian governments, are simultaneously collecting signatures at universities and other schools for this purpose: a petition addressed to the UN. The petitions will receive support, mainly at local and international levels, once again for the issue of Albanians in former Yugoslavia; the hunger strike [unclear] and will mediate for solidarity with all the hunger strikers and solidarity with the other strikers and for the protection of the rights of the Albanian people in Kosovo. The initiative's organizers have distributed around 500 copies for volunteers of the petitions, which will also be signed [unclear] at the universities of Tirana.”

Do you have a relative, a friend or a loved one far away, across the sea? Would you like to reach them with a greeting, a message or simply a good wish? This space is yours: use it, and they will read you. If they are in Italy, you can write to this address: GAZETA SHQIPTARE, Viale Scipione l'Africano 264, 70100 BARI — If you are here in Albania, you can write to this address: GAZETA SHQIPTARE, Rruga Bajram Curri 370, Tirana. Today we are publishing a letter quite different from Vera's letter. It comes from Librazhd, but we had to shorten it for reasons of space. Here it is, together with a photograph of its author: Zenepe Lika. The letter begins: “The beautiful May of flowers has a special day this year for the great singer who bears the name Albano Karizi. 20 May is the birthday anniversary of this joy of Italian song. What can I say, Albano and Romina, wherever you go, you have always been my favourite duo. At the beginning of democracy I decided to write to you: ‘I admire you with all my heart for your wonderful voices; I have loved you passionately.’ Their humane feelings led them to reply, sending me, with great kindness, a cassette with the film ‘Albano e Romina story’ and also their book ‘Albano e Romina dalla A alla R’, which I am doing everything I can to publish in Albanian. Years passed, with more letters and postcards. In this song of joy I have put on display the mementos they sent me. I see them at the beginning of the day in a little video, and sometimes they send them to me in the morning before I go to work, so that the day will be happy, and they thrill me before they leave me, to wish me a good day. Soon I will go to meet them. O Dio non vedo l’ora”. Here is the woman who wrote our newspaper a long letter, expressing her great admiration for the singers Albano and Romina. Photograph of Zenepe Lika

Soon, in “Gazeta Shqiptare”, you will find a free space for your commercial notices. Send your message, no longer than 15 words, to one of our addresses: In Tirana: Rruga Bajram Curri, 370 Or in Bari: Viale Scipione l'Africano, 264 State in your message what you are looking for or offering, your name and your address.