They will declare their assets and income Here is the content of the draft law that will go to Parliament Delays paralyze ministries TIRANE — The state apparatus is in a kind of “strike” — in the sense that the outlines of so much reform, still unclear, are speeding up the restructuring of ministries and the replacement of some ministers, which is a real institutional earthquake, and before it manages to produce the positive effects for which it was made, it will perhaps cause serious consequences for ministries, very vulnerable to being taken over, before any model is certainly launched. In the reorganization there are very few reassuring answers from ministers who will change, but until the end of this government’s mandate, senior officials, civil servants and other employees are waiting. This waiting brings stagnation, and uncertainty causes inevitable obstacles for civil servants. Today Albania needs maximum state efficiency. This phase of blockage must therefore be overcome as quickly as possible. Tomorrow changes will be made; it is good that they are formalized quickly, so that everyone has time to adapt to the new system and the ministry activity for which they are appointed. In everyone’s interest. (c.b.) TIRANE — Now Albanian officials will also declare their wealth. The draft law approved at the Government’s last meeting — now awaiting parliamentary approval — obliges all senior officials of the state apparatus to declare their income and sources of income. The first details of this process are now clear, and it is hoped that it will be a first concrete step in the fight against corruption in the upper strata of Albanian politics, which is expected to become harsher over the years. According to the draft prepared by the State Control Commission and specialists from the Prime Minister’s Office, this law will cover, without distinction, the entire pyramid of the Albanian state: from the president to the chairmen of the municipalities and district councils. Everyone will have to declare their latest income as well as any kind of income, the source of its creation and the assets they possess. Each official must also disclose the bank account number where they have been deposited. To avoid the possibility of concealing this information, the draft law stipulates that the declaration of income and assets will also be required from the spouses and families of officials: the wife and children will also have to make the declaration. Severe sanctions, on the other hand, for those who try to evade the law’s obligations. According to the draft, large fines are foreseen — they may reach hundreds of thousands of lek — and even administrative measures, and an official may be dismissed from the state post he holds. The law’s force is not temporary. It will apply in principle at any moment, making it possible to keep under control all financial criminal activity of civil servants. The anti-corruption draft law appears at a time when a multitude of suspicions have created the current Albanian state situation, involving even its leaders. In fact, it is not against the wealth of officials, but against illegal income that may be obtained through abuse of office. Armand Mero Now three ministers fewer TIRANE — Three chairs are cut from Mexi’s cabinet table. Parliament has already approved President Berisha’s decree on the reorganization of the Government structure. The ministries that have been merged under the axe of the internal reform undertaken by the Albanian prime minister have given rise to four new ones: the Ministry of “Construction and Tourism”, the Ministry of “Industry, Transport and Trade”, the Ministry of “Labour, Emigration, Social Support and Political Persecuted”, and the Ministry of “Internal Affairs”, which is born from the merger between Public Order and Local Government. Mexi’s proposal has been accompanied by a series of debates in Parliament, where clarifications have been requested about the reasons that led to this change. Even the Socialists and individual deputies have asked that the prime minister himself, in a special interpellation, explain the reasons for this decision. The most discussed issue has been the restructuring and merger of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, over which PD supporters have argued that it is for the sake of coordinating work and does not at all aim to eliminate the powers of Local Government. The merger of Public Order with Tourism has also not escaped criticism, on the grounds that the latter is a branch that should be given separate priority. After these structural changes, the official announcement of the ministers’ departures and the names of the new officials who will now sit beside Mexi is expected. Government headquarters

The Financial Police orders strict measures "They attempted to import radioactive food" The Institute of Nuclear Physics will analyze only official samples ANDREA STEFANI TIRANE — “After almost 9 years, fear has been established in Albania over the consequences of the radioactive imports from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Now the danger does not come from the arrival of hazardous products through the atmosphere, but from the import of its residues together with food products. It is the General Directorate of the Financial Police that, in a letter recently sent to the Institute of Nuclear Physics, insisted on strengthening the control barriers that verify the presence of radioactive substances in food products and other imported goods. And there are several alarm signals sent by central government departments about the possibility of manipulations involving ‘food goods imported from Ukraine and other countries infected by the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant’, which has prompted the Financial Police to tighten controls. Among other things, the Institute of Nuclear Physics is also categorically asked not to accept analyses of samples sent to it by private individuals or legal entities. Such samples — the letter states — will be accepted for analysis only when officially sent to the Institute by control bodies designated by law. “There have been cases where activities to verify the presence of radioactivity — officials at the General Directorate of the Financial Police told Gazeta Shqiptare — have been offered by the importers themselves and this has created opportunities for manipulation.” The effects of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident — which occurred in April 1986 — were also felt in Albania. Some radiometric groups had detected low traces of it in areas such as Pogradec, Bilisht, Gjirokastër and Dardhë, as well as high levels of artificial gamma-radiation intensity especially in ferns, mushrooms and pine needles. And now Chernobyl threatens again, but this time through trade.

Alia has 10 more months in prison TIRANE — Next autumn Ramiz Alia will be outside prison gates. This was decided by the Amnesty of 27 November ’93, but also by the Court of Cassation on Wednesday — which ultimately forced the former president Alia to remain behind the bars of his cell for another ten months. However, it was a conclusion that required mathematical calculations, which had to refer to the arrest dates, time served in prison, the remaining part of the sentence, the 1/3 reduction and the final decision of the Cassation. And it was Alia’s own lawyer — the veteran jurist Kleanth Koçi — who solved part of this puzzle a few hours after the Cassation’s decision. From that moment he understood that his client — who had been sentenced to 9 years in prison by the Tirana Court, 8 years by the Appeals Court and 5 years by Cassation — had only ten months of punishment left. So while autumn 1995 will find former president Alia outside his cell, Hekuran Isai will need only three months for the same outcome. Two months later, Rita Marko and Veli Llakaj will have the same fate available to them, as each of them has five months left to serve. Then — next November — Rrapi Mino will be released, and one month later Vode Arran and Cela. The longest sentence left is for Zylyftar Ramizi — with two more months — while nearly two years remain for Simon Stefani. Thus, although the Court of Cassation has found Alia, Marko, Stefani, Isai, Çela, Mino, Ramizi and Hadrin guilty of “abuse of office in cooperation with consequences of violation of the freedoms and fundamental rights of citizens, as well as violation of the equality of citizens in cooperation” — even sentencing them together to 34 years in prison — the remaining time to be served is only 8 years in total. For a total reference of 26 years — from the final Cassation sentence and the time the former officials of the regime still had to remain in prison — not only their arrests since ’91 have had an impact, but also the Amnesty of 27 November, which reduced the remaining sentence by 1/3 for everyone without exception. Nevertheless, the harshest punishment has remained the civil one. Only former president Alia — after the Court of Cassation upheld the Appeals Court ruling — must pay a sum equal to 10,000 dollars. Meanwhile, this “debt” also applies — in different amounts — to the other former Bloc officials, Marko, Stefani, Isai, Çarçani and Myftiu. The story of former President Alia — and the other former high-ranking officials of the regime — with Albanian Justice now seems definitively closed. Edmond Laçi

Debate today TIRANE — Another round table will be added to those organized recently in Tirana. Today, at the International Center of Culture, a discussion will be held on the topic “Violation of human rights for Albanians in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. The organizers of the event are the Albanian Helsinki Committee and the QNK itself. Today the discussion will be based on a paper — which addresses the topic of the discussion in translation — prepared by the Human Rights Committee of Macedonia. The last debate organized by the Albanian Helsinki Committee — which had file problems — was held last December to discuss the situation of Kosovars.

After the decision in Brussels TIRANE — Optimism has grown for the improvement of strained Albanian-Greek relations. A statement issued by the Albanian government on Wednesday, a few days after the EU aid was blocked for the balance of payments, stressed: “The Albanian government is open and determined to dialogue honestly with Greece” and that “the current Albania-Greece situation could also be overcome immediately.” The Albanian statement gave the impression that “good will” now exists on both sides. “A factor of influence in this direction is the assistance of mutual goodwill,” it concludes. The Albanian government thanked all EU member states that helped unblock the Greek veto. “Albania values the decisive stance of the EU and thanks those countries that never agreed with the veto blocking the balance of payments against Albania.” (p. re)

TIRANE — A geophysical expedition has focused on the borders above one of the most important faults in Albanian lands in the area near the center. The deep fault, which continues from the city of the Albanian-Montenegrin border, is the “culprit” behind some of the bloodiest earthquakes of recent centuries, including the one of 15 April 1979. The group of Italian geophysicists took measurements along this fault all the way to where the violent contact of former Yugoslavia left off. The conclusions recently drawn from the work carried out by Francesco Speca at the National Institute of Geophysics in Rome were made known at a scientific congress concluded on Wednesday in Rome. The tectonic zone on the Albanian-Montenegrin border is located in an area that still contains a fault which in geophysical language is called the “Greek seam” — beginning from the Aegean islands — and is one of the most tectonic points on the globe, giving Albanian territory a high level of seismicity. The giant plate has been rotating for millions of years, moving beneath the Indian subcontinent, and one expert has calculated that over the last 50 million years it has rotated on average one degree every one million years. Professor Eduard Sulstarova spoke to Gazeta Shqiptare about the importance of studies in this area, along with the seismologist Jake from Tirana, which cooperates with the Rome institute. “This fault has long been studied by our scientists too,” Sulstarova said. “If it is confirmed by these studies, which are expected to begin and to be more clearly recognized in its details, it will be an important step in finding the roots of earthquakes.” (v. b.)

The family accuses. The police explain The city of Vlora VLORE — Death at the police station. This time it is 25-year-old Enrik Islami — accused and arrested for “murder” for 17 months — at the hospital, after dying at midday on 28 November, right inside the Vlora Police Station. The unusual event immediately prompted reactions from the family, friends and residents of the victim, who together signed a protest with serious accusations — and has now ended up at the Prosecutor’s Office, which has ordered the opening of a criminal case. “It is an unwelcome event for us,” Hasan Hasani, head of order at the Vlora Police Station, told Gazeta Shqiptare, one of the people among the “volunteer groups” who are with Ismaili. “What I want to tell you is that a crime is judged by the Court according to the law. As for the causes of death, they are determined by autopsy; the young man, Islami, but he was a boy and only 6 months remained, and he was killed and it was a state crime, and no, it was a premeditated crime.” But although investigations are still ongoing, at the Vlora Police Station the news circulating suggests the possibility of a premeditated crime, even though this time there is all kinds of talk about a crisis in the “self-killed” case. The grave discrepancies noted by doctors and by the deceased’s family have remained unresolved: Enrik Islami’s relatives claim that the victim had marks on his body, that he was not sick, that he did not suffer from heart problems, while the police, on the other hand, dismiss this hypothesis. Senior officials — together with the deceased’s family — claim that he “killed himself” because he had suffered mental disorders due to his worsened condition. But the boy’s relatives reject this claim and recall that for 17 months in pre-trial detention the young man had been in good health. Although people around the city are saying that the autopsy would be carried out by a group of doctors brought specially from Tirana, the family knows nothing. They say that the officials of the bodies handling the case and of Public Order are keeping it secret. (H. La)

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Kopliku back in Tirana again Deputy Prime Minister Bashkim Kopliku has returned to his homeland after a relatively long convalescence in an Italian hospital. He had injured his leg and arm after a car accident that happened some time ago near Korçë. The “flight rules” are approved Parliament approved the “Law on civil aviation” on Wednesday. After this measure, it is hoped that there will be fewer procedures at Albanian airports, but more order and economic efficiency. Elbasan, woman and cow victim of an accident The tragic collision left her lying by the roadside, but a speeding car caused the immediate death of 32-year-old Qamilja Hika, thus tragically ending her life. The cow was also killed. The incident happened in a small village almost on the outskirts of Elbasan. The car that caused the accident flew several dozen meters and its driver and a passenger were injured. After treatment in hospital, the driver’s relatives surrendered to the police. The police “Ford” overturns Only a few injured is the final toll of the accident that could have had tragic consequences. It happened on Saturday when the police “Ford” ended up in a ditch while travelling on the Delvinë-Sarandë national road. Some time earlier, the Delvinë police station had been involved in a similar case.

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