INTERVIEW 18 December 1981: the Albanian Prime Minister dies in suspicious circumstances. It is suspected that he was killed for the first time in his own bedroom. And a new hypothesis emerges Was Mehmet Shehu also poisoned? “A mysterious stain was found on the floor” SANDRO BOLLANO TIRANA - The mystery surrounding the death of the former prime minister is beyond imagination. To shed definitive light on the event, eight hours of magnetic tape recordings are still kept in the Archives of the Ministry of the Interior. Even today the tapes have not been found, Zenel Kallulli, Mehmet Shehu’s adjutant, tells the newspaper “Gazeta Shqiptare”. He was among the first people to enter his bedroom on the morning of 18 December 1981. It was he and dictator Enver Hoxha’s personal doctor who were the first to be asked to make this macabre discovery. But the adjutant, for an hour and a half, was ordered out of the room. When he returned, he could no longer see anything. “By then there was a dark stain on the carpet, near the bed, as if something had been spilled,” Kallulli recalls. “I can’t tell you what it was, only that it looked like a liquid.” Did Shehu poison himself before shooting with a pistol? Did he die before they killed him? Kallulli raises further doubts. Even more troubling are the statements of a girl who worked in the house and was there at the time. Kallulli, convinced of the murder theory, says he heard a gunshot, but the girl claims the opposite. “When they told me to go to Mehmet’s room, I heard nothing,” she says. A fact that makes the story even darker. In those years, as the adjutant recalls, everything was kept secret. He was summoned to Mehmet Shehu’s house around seven in the morning. “They only told me that I had to go immediately. When I went in, I saw his body in bed. He seemed calm, but there were many people there, a lot of movement, a lot of tension.” Later, according to him, the official version of suicide spread. But the testimonies do not match. Kallulli says the marks on the floor, the way the place was immediately sealed off, and the presence of security personnel reinforce his belief that this was an organized operation. “For an hour and a half they would not let me in. When I came back, the room had been partially cleaned. That does not happen in a normal event,” he states. Today, after many years, the questions remain open: who took the recordings? What was hidden in that room? Was poisoning really the first stage of the elimination? For the adjutant, the answer is clear: “Mehmet Shehu was not allowed to speak. He had to disappear.”

The Block members in ç[?] “Why only us?” The unpunished enlarge the responsi[?]ities For us, not decoding it, they do not remind us of anything ENIO [IACI?] TIRANA - “Xhami! Qum a? Shiva? [??]” Such expressions, such surnames, or nicknames, have begun to surface whenever names from the former Block are mentioned. The temptation to explain things in this way, according to some of them, is no longer enough. “Why only us?” - this is the question that often comes up, as a response to accusations that fall on a limited group of people. They try to broaden the scope of responsibility. To say that the system was not just a housing block, or just a few families. According to them, responsibility was broader, distributed, sustained by entire institutions and by a general climate of fear and obedience. In this sense, they are asking that judgment not focus only on them. “If there is guilt, it cannot be isolated,” they say. But for public opinion, the name of the Block remains a symbol. Even when complete evidence is lacking, the moral burden continues to return to them. The debate thus becomes sharper: can individual responsibilities be separated from collective ones? Or is this just a way to soften the role of those who were closest to the center of power? The article brings reactions and irritated tones from those involved.

New Year / The municipality will allocate 8,000 dollars Thousands of kilometers with lights the capital dressed for the holiday ARMAND BRO[?] TIRANA - In the white squares, the [sidewalks?] with [trees?], the streets and shop windows are starting to take on a festive look. The Municipality of Tirana has decided to turn on the end-of-year decorations, allocating a fund of 8,000 dollars for decorating the capital. On several main routes, illuminated arches will be installed, while in the center the symbolic New Year tree is also expected to be erected. According to local officials, most of the funds will go toward electrical installations, cable repairs, and the purchase of decorative materials. Lighting will be concentrated mainly on the main boulevards and near public institutions, where the movement of citizens is greatest. However, there are also critical voices asking whether such an amount is justified under difficult economic conditions. Others see it as a moral necessity to give the city a more joyful atmosphere on the eve of the holidays. Work has begun and the municipality hopes that everything will be completed before the turn of the year. If the weather holds, the city is expected to appear more brightly lit than in previous years.

But we don’t know [??] who [??] TIRANA - [text partially unreadable due to resolution and page turn] The lower part of the article contains several additional paragraphs about political responsibilities, references to figures of the former regime, and the way public defenses are being articulated. The exact text is not sufficiently legible for reliable transcription.

Process of can[?]ers Notice [??] Article about [??] former secretary of the PS of C[??] ON PAGE 2 Anatomy of the “çupaku” 3 million a year from emigr[?]ts For 9 months the Bank has put into the market 14 billion lek ON PAGE 3

Editorial program 93/94 curated by Ancona Cable BINSAIC[?] SERIES The last friend [?] Myslim K[?]uli Dark green [?] Fini S[?]oli Albanian writers Mimoza Ahmeti I love Albania I did not burn it [??] Anthological Albanian poetry [?] Ali O[?]y Vi[?]or [?] Monographic issues of the daily [?] [?] Albania 1993 Yearbook [?] 900 Shqipëria [?] NEW ALBANIA Writing [?] E. Çi[?]ommo P. P[?]mmo A. Car[?]one B. [P?]aleso FROM TODAY'S TIRANA BOOKLETS PRODUCED BY THE ADMINISTRATORS OF ALBANIAN CULTURE Economic and social aspects of Albania Prospects for foreign trade Importance of international agreements Democracy and development in Albania

REFLECTIONS BY GUIDO DONDI AND A. VERDURA ON THE ADMISSION [??] IN THE SCHOOLS [??] OF TIRANA