An average apartment has one and a half rooms Urgent housing needed for 10,000 families living in former owners’ homes and 5,000 former persecuted families. Several million dollars expected from the World Bank An average apartment has one and a half rooms Albania: 70,000 homeless, the “paradise” of a home still far away Urgent housing needed for 10,000 families living in former owners’ homes and 5,000 former persecuted families. Several million dollars expected from the World Bank ARMAND MERO TIRANA — The housing situation in Albania continues to be worrying. There are 70,000 families across the country who are currently homeless. The social developments of the past two years have further worsened a very serious situation inherited from the regime. Meanwhile, the pace of construction remains very slow in meeting ever-growing demand. Only 12,000 apartments have been built this year—or, more accurately, some of those started three years ago have been completed. The year 1990 saw a general halt to work on housing construction. The immediate rise in the prices of raw materials, as well as the suspension of their production because of high costs, were the main causes of this stoppage. It took about two years for this activity to resume, in an even more difficult situation. Population transfers and internal migration have increased demand for housing. This group now makes up about 80 percent of the homeless, or 55,000 families. They are joined by another 5,000 families from among the former persecuted. Meanwhile, the return of homes to their former owners has created a housing problem, by 1995, for another 10,000 families. The start of the privatization process on the one hand dismissed thousands of applications for extensions, at a time when the average apartment has only one and a half rooms. These requests stem from the very structure of apartment construction, where the three-room-and-one-kitchen layout accounts for only 4.5 percent of apartments throughout Albania. On the other hand, privatization was seen as a way to create a housing market that would also make exchanges possible. The law governing this process provides for the exclusion from privatization of families that have two rooms in excess. Nevertheless, 86 percent of apartments across the country have so far been privatized. “The remainder,” Antoneta Fano, a specialist at the Housing Directorate of the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Territorial Regulation, tells Gazeta Shqiptare, “are homes given free of charge to former persecuted people, families who are too poor to make the payment, and some cases that are before the courts.” Some funds allocated recently and the resumption of work on half-finished housing projects are the hopes for resolving this problem. “We are awaiting a loan of 15 million dollars,” says Fano, “which we hope will be disbursed by the World Bank.” The Insurance Institute will also make an investment of 12 million dollars. “We have the project ready,” Qemal Dashi, Director General of INSIG, tells Gazeta Shqiptare. “We will build a complex of 500 apartments.” Foreign and Albanian companies have also offered to build apartments. But the issue of land ownership has become a serious obstacle. Meanwhile, housing built by private individuals themselves cannot provide a significant solution to this problem.

In Syria, his other brothers are accused by the Justice system Koçi reveals the mysteries “The election campaign was a bluff” EDMOND LAÇI TIRANA — “The election campaign was a bluff. If my brother promised bridges and bread factories, it was a ‘lie’.” Fatmir Koçi, known as one of the first and richest capitalists in Albania, now speaks with handcuffs on. He is accused of the criminal offense of “fraud committed in collusion,” although, according to him, the accusation has nothing to do with him but concerns his two other brothers. Nevertheless, he agrees to speak, to say where his brothers are hiding abroad, and to accuse them as well: “I wasn’t the swindler; all the testimony is against my brothers, not me,” he explains to Gazeta Shqiptare. The Court has now also accepted the Prosecutor’s request for a civil claim against Fatmir Koçi, requiring him to pay around 400,000 dollars, while more than 300 people who were defrauded have been summoned as witnesses. “The trial against me—which began on December 13—has not yet brought any direct charge. In fact, my brother is not part of the ‘Koçi’ company, as has been interpreted, but of the ‘Mondial’ company, with a separate license and staff. The witnesses now asking for their money back made their contracts with my brothers.” Does your business activity still exist, and will you be able—if the Court so rules—to repay the sums cited in the charge? “I have now closed down the business. In any case, my personal assets cover the sums being sought. Although the 400,000 dollars has in fact been increased by interest of 220 percent.” For many people in Albania, your sudden enrichment has been a mystery. In fact, everyone thinks it was the property of all three brothers, not as you are saying now? “I opened my company—‘Fatmir Koçi’—in May 1991, when I had just started doing business. Only two months after me, my brother opened his company, ‘Mondial’. I personally started the business with 40,000 lekë, thinking that at the time it was possible to make a lot of money quickly. As for the inheritance story, it relates to a request I had made through the International Red Cross in Geneva, when I was looking for my relatives in Turkey. In fact, the people who turned up with my surname had no family connection to me at all, but out of kindness they gave me 35,000 dollars. That was all.” Tirana Prison “Albanian women, and a search has even been issued for them. Do you know where they are now?” “As far as I know, they are in Syria, but I have never been in contact with them.” Do you think the election campaign your brother—Shkëlqimi—ran for the March 22 elections was paid for with money taken from those who are now victims of the fraud, or are witnesses? “I was abroad at the time, but I know that he ran an election campaign. If bridges and bread factories really were promised, it was a lie, because my brother had no means of making them happen. Perhaps he thought that, after winning, he could make the promises a reality through state investment, but certainly not his own. There is no private individual in Albania who can carry out such things, which require enormous investment.” “What sense of guilt do you feel for your brothers?” “They must answer for everything they have done themselves. After all this, I feel I no longer have any brothers.”

Lezhë, people from the North occupy a farm LEZHË — (p. re.) — The movement of Northerners to lower-lying areas continues. This time, however, 170 families from Puka and Tropoja have occupied land that had in fact previously been allocated to the Italian-Albanian joint venture “Alb-Italia”. The complaint was made by the Italian representative, Michele Tartaglia, who has also brought the matter to the attention of the highest state officials. “The families who have arrived have already begun building their illegal homes,” Tartaglia writes, “and they are even threatening our workers cultivating the land, saying that if they continue working, they will blow up their tractors.” The area of land allocated for the company’s use is around 450 hectares and is located near the villages of Ishull Lezhë and Tale. During this period, the “Alb-Italia” company had planned to plant winter crops. But the managers of the joint venture have complained about more than just the occupation of the land. “At night,” entrepreneur Tartaglia continues, “they came and destroyed the seed that we had brought from North America to plant.” A new form of property conflict has thus emerged. Until now, the real owners of the land had been an obstacle for foreign investors; now, the phenomenon of internal population migration is being reported, which—according to this letter—has caused disputes of an even more serious nature. The problem of internal migration arose after the repeal of the old communist law restricting the free movement of individuals. Those most directly involved in this phenomenon are, in particular, residents of the northern areas, which are marked by pronounced economic backwardness and a shortage of land. But this migration, which seems intended to realize a right denied for decades, has caused a new and still unresolved conflict.

Solidarity BERAT — (p.re.) The residence for people with disabilities is being restored. A reconstruction project will transform the facilities of the home for people with disabilities in Berat. The miserable condition of these premises, inhabited by people living in equally miserable circumstances, had recently shocked international public opinion and prompted the British Duchess Sara Ferguson to visit Albania. Now, about two months later, 140,000 dollars will be invested in renovating the home, which was described as “The Hell of Berat”. Everything will be changed: the kitchen, the sanitary facilities, and the heating system. The funds have been raised by the international Red Cross and Red Crescent association, as well as the English organization “Feed the Children”.

Durrës, religious mission intervenes TIRANA — (An.St.) Solidarity defies death. Another instance of humanitarian action in the service of human life has now been recorded. This time it is the “Madre Tereza” mission, based in Durrës, to which the citizen Jerina Tartari, also from this city, is grateful for the continuation of her life as normal. This humanitarian aid brought together two hospitals, separated by miles of sea, one in Tirana and the other in Bari, Italy, to save the life of a patient they had in common. With a severe form of meningitis and an advanced infection of the veins of the brain, 40-year-old Tartari remained in a coma for about 26 days in the intensive-care unit of Hospital No. 4 in Tirana. The care provided by the ward staff made it possible to bring the patient out of the coma. “However, her further recovery and the assurance of her survival,” says Bujar Beragama, the Albanian official in charge and head of the ward, “depended on hydromassage and neuropsychological exercises that cannot be carried out in Albania.” The missionary Clara Belocchi acted as intermediary, making it possible to send the patient to a clinic in Bari, Italy, while also covering the considerable travel expenses. Now, after only a few days of treatment in Bari, the patient is out of danger.

In Tirana, a special initiative by an entrepreneur from Italy A cemetery for the iron “corpses” A site for collecting old cars is approved TIRANA — (Ar.Me.) Soon, cars too will come to rest in their own special cemeteries. For the first time, one will open in Tirana. An Italian from Ravenna — to whom Tirana Municipality gave 5,000 square metres of land for the cemetery site — will collect dozens of wrecked car bodies left abandoned without any rules. “At this cemetery, whose construction is due to begin in February, the cars will undergo several processes,” Shaban Kamberi, Head of the Environmental Protection Section at Tirana Municipality, tells Gazeta Shqiptare, accepting the “Dinamo” Factory. “The metal parts will be reused, while the resulting waste may also be recycled. Diesel and engine oils will thus be separated and placed in special tanks. Care will also be taken with the batteries because of the lead they contain. Their contents will not be discharged into water channels. A special device will be used to shred the tires. Cooperation with Pololinë Rrugaore is also of considerable interest. According to this idea, cars found not to be in full working order will be sent to this site for a complete service. The car owner will have nothing else to do but pay the required fee for the necessary servicing.”

Bari, Albanian gang uncovered 17 thieves arrested ON PAGE 2 The compulsion to steal: origins, symptoms, reasons Women are more prone to the disorder ON PAGE 3

PRESIDENT BERISHA SPOKE WITH THE HEAD OF THE IMF MISSION — “Because of widespread poverty, Albania is obliged to address the social component of the market economy as well,” Berisha said during his meeting with Scott, the head of the IMF mission in Albania. The meeting was organized on the occasion of the conclusion of talks on the 1994 economic program. For his part, the IMF representative, after thanking them for their cooperation, expressed confidence that the program would be implemented. WORK IS UNDER WAY IN LUSHNJA TO RECONSTRUCT SCHOOL BUILDINGS — The school in the village of Dibjakë, in the district of Lushnjë, has been inaugurated; several million lekë were spent on its reconstruction. Meanwhile, work is under way to complete the building of the eight-year school in the village of Kryekuq. Nevertheless, many school buildings in this district remain out of use because of the earthquakes that occurred in the first year of the transition period. ASSISTANCE FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES IN BURREL — 620 families in the municipality of Burrel have received economic assistance distributed by local government authorities. In just a four-month period, around 370,000 lekë were distributed as this type of assistance. On average, each family received 4,000 lekë per month. IN LAÇ, HUMANITARIAN AID COMPLETES THE HOSPITAL’S EQUIPMENT — A new clinic has begun operating at the hospital in the city of Laç, with assistance and donations from several European countries providing some of the equipment. Following the reconstruction of the radiology department, the hospital now also has a new medical polyclinic offering qualified care.