A significant decline in cases over the past two weeks Cholera, the alarm is lifted Specialists are optimistic Hospitals have finally returned to calm thanks to the hygiene measures taken by the institutes TIRANA — Cholera is slowing down. For more than two weeks now, the epidemic appears to have been held in check, and the latest confirmed cases can now be counted on one’s fingers. Health specialists are optimistic and express confidence that everything really is under control. Naturally, it cannot be said that the risk of future vibrio outbreaks has been eliminated. A lapse in care or failure to rigorously apply the required hygiene and sanitary measures would bring cholera back onto the scene. Calm has finally returned to Albanian hospitals, and these days the anxiety over cholera is a thing of the past. The dozens and dozens of daily cases have now been reduced to only a few sporadic ones. “All this,” Bujar Bermeva, head of intensive care at Tirana’s Infectious Diseases Hospital, who has closely followed the epidemic’s developments in the district as well, explained to Gazeta Shqiptare, “is the result of the strong hygiene and sanitary measures taken by Albanian institutions.” According to Bermeva, chlorinating the water supply network—the route through which the vibrio spread across almost the entire country—is the main barrier that has brought about this slowdown. The drinking-water pipes throughout the networks are now kept under strict surveillance. It was the health authorities who, some time ago, announced strict measures against negligence in carrying out the disinfection process. The matter even went so far that criminal proceedings were sought against some employees in Peqin. The Ministry of Health will continue to remain on alert, and observance of the necessary hygiene measures will prevent it from striking again. One possible route of spread is through carriers: people who have had cholera but, because they have not been fully treated, become carriers of the vibrio. “Nevertheless,” Bermeva explains, “if the drinking water is protected through chlorination, the only possibility of infection spreading from carriers is greatly limited and remains confined to people with whom they have close contact.” But the greatest danger, according to Bermeva, is posed by sewage systems, which are not disinfected—with the exception of those in hospitals—and which then discharge into the sea, as well as by reservoirs and artificial lakes. “If these latter were contaminated, the vibrio would remain present for a long time: once there,” Bermeva explains, “it enters the algae, changes its genetic code and lives for years. Whenever it enters the human body in one way or another, it reappears and infects it. That is why the risk of Albania becoming an endemic area must be prevented.” Now that cholera has been brought under control, it is also up to international institutions to prepare the appropriate measures. It is for the European Union to lift the ban on exporting fish and seafood products to its member states, all the more so when it has been established that the epidemic in Albania was not spread through food products. Armand Mero is the main barrier that has brought about this slowdown. In all the districts, drinking-water pipes authorities themselves who, a short time ago, issued strict measures against negligence in maintaining criminal proceedings were sought against several employees in Peqin. The health personnel must also not be overlooked. Whereas at first cholera was a complete surprise, now it seems no longer to cause concern. “We were not prepared because we did not know it,” Bermema says, “but now we have learned a lot about it and, from a medical point of view, we can handle any situation. In all the districts, the utmost care is being provided, with nothing lacking.” The current slowdown of the epidemic does not mean, however, that it cannot regain momentum. The danger—even according to doctors—

Investigators are suspicious. Criminal proceedings begin immediately A 9-year-old child is killed The death of the young shepherd is a mystery The little boy had been found lifeless near a military unit TIRANA — The death of a young shepherd remains a mystery. Last Saturday—at around 10 in the morning—9-year-old Fatmir Nurja from the village of Yzberisht, Tirana, was found dead beside his livestock. At first, the fatal signs—a serious wound in his mouth that ended by reaching his ear—led investigators to consider an accidental suicide, perhaps caused by a detonator cap that the little boy may have used as a toy. All the more so because the victim’s father, Pëllumb Nurja, told investigators that for some time he had been keeping a detonator cap hidden in his house, which he might use to scare off a possible livestock thief. But after the little boy’s father learned the terrible news of his son’s death, he also checked and found that the cap was no longer where he had hidden it. The Prosecutor’s Office has opened investigations along two different lines. The unexpected turn began immediately after it was established that an ordinary detonator cap is known for its explosive, not piercing, properties, whereas it had acted on 9-year-old Nurja in the latter way. Moreover, on the day of the mysterious incident, the young shepherd was found very close to a military unit, around which there are also three posts staffed by armed personnel. These suspicions may have prompted the Tirana Prosecutor’s Office to open criminal proceedings for “murder,” in order to establish once and for all which of the two most likely hypotheses—murder or suicide—had taken the young shepherd’s life on the previous Saturday. Meanwhile, an easy way to solve the mystery of this tragedy for the Nurja family may be the tests investigators will conduct with different types of detonator caps, including ones similar to those the victim’s father had at home. If such a cap is indeed ultimately found to have piercing power as well, then it remains only for it to take on the “authorship” of the little boy’s killing. (Ed.La.)

TIRANA — Blood feuds kill even in the villages around the capital. Last Friday—in a place called Pluni i Motrës, between the villages of Gjinam and Cekrezë near Tirana—Qazim Cana was found with nine automatic-weapon bullets in his body. According to investigators, who also found 22 shell casings and two more unexploded bullets beside the victim, the incident must have taken place on Thursday evening, at around 18:30. Only two years earlier, another serious incident had shaken the Cana clan, when the son of the latest victim, Qazim Cana, had been accused of killing his close cousin, Vesel Cana. Perhaps for this reason, investigators from Tirana Police Station 4 immediately detained four close cousins of the victim: brothers Kujtim and Saimir Cana, as well as Gani and Mehmet Cana. The criminal case has only just begun, and suspicions against the victim’s four close cousins—initially accused of murder—have not yet been fully substantiated. (e.l)

Gardens turned into private cemeteries KAVAJË — They could not find a place for their dead baby and were forced to bury the child in a garden cemetery. The road leading to the cemetery in the village of Karpen was blocked. In fact, for some time it could no longer be called a village road, but rather a strip of land enclosed by a fence. A fellow villager of the baby’s father now claims that the road crosses his property and, as such, cannot be crossed—not even by the dead. Funeral processions have to find another way. This story took place in the village of Karpen, Kavajë, a few days ago. The dead baby, now resting in the garden of the villager D.I., lived for only a few days. As usual, the family and the other villagers wanted to arrange the ceremony according to local customs. Everything went smoothly—if that word can be used in the case of a death—until they reached the road enclosed by the fence. Thus, property disputes have now reached even the kingdom of the afterlife. The baby’s case does not seem to be the only one. Some time ago, the lifeless body of an elderly woman[?] likewise could not be laid to rest in the cemetery of a village in the remote area of Kavajë. It may seem strange, but the cause was a quarrel between her nephew and his father, precisely over a property dispute. In that case, too, the family had eventually managed to improvise a grave. Now people in these villages are wondering: “What will become of the dead?” The elderly are counting their days and have already begun digging out plots for their final resting places. Many of them have already begun to feel unfortunate compared with their fellow villagers who are no longer alive. Those people did indeed live less, but at least after death they did not have to struggle anymore.

TIRANA — One of the most powerful figures in the Greek lobby in the United States will visit Albania. Nicolas Gage, a writer and journalist known for his connections with politicians and American circles, and one of the greatest propagandists of the Greek cause in America, will henceforth be able to visit Albania; his name no longer appears on the Foreign Ministry’s list of “persona non grata” individuals. His effort to visit the areas of the Greek minority in the south of the country has thus become a realistic prospect, although the exact date of his arrival has not yet been confirmed. Despite his fervent propaganda in favor of Greek claims, the Albanian authorities have not denied Gage the right to enter Albania. Here he will have the opportunity to see for himself, on the basis of the personal contacts he will make.

Sentence equal to time spent in pretrial detention TIRANA — The five servicemen accused of being responsible for the Peshkëpi massacre are going home. On April 10, ’94, a Greek commando had attacked a center for Albanian recruits. Although found guilty by the Tirana Military Court—and sentenced to between 6 and 8 months in prison—the servicemen Meraja, Stroka, Ndini, Guma and Sëlfo will all return to their families this week, four of them after spending eight months in Tirana Prison. The only ones to have had their “handcuffs” removed immediately after the Court’s ruling were the former Chief of the Gjirokastër Police Station—who had been investigated by the branch of the free [unclear]—and the other serviceman, Stroka, who was sentenced to time already spent in pretrial detention. The other three defendants, sentenced to 8 months in prison, are now only a few hours away from regaining their freedom. (p.re)

She had helped the Greek’s killer TIRANA — “Jorgica Morina is not the ‘murderous woman’ of the Greek merchant Qirjakos Dhudhës.” This is what the capital’s judges said on Tuesday, at the end of the trial that had begun with a serious charge against Jorgjica Morina. By changing the charge from “Intentional murder for the purpose of revenge” to “assisting after the commission of the crime,” Morina escapes the harsh 15-year sentence sought in his closing argument by the prosecutor, and is left with only 7 years. According to the judges, the “killer” of the Greek merchant in a house in the Albanian capital had been another Greek citizen, named Sotiris Apostolis, who is said to have been found hanged some time after the crime in a village in Greece. Although Jorgjica Morina and her lawyer had denied the charge during the trial, the panel of judges, presided over by Martin Deda, Vice President of the Tirana Court, found her guilty because “she helped Apostolis conceal the crime committed against his Greek wife, Dhudhës.” And for this, 7 years in prison. (p.re.)

VLORË — LIFE arrived at the hospital of death. A woman admitted to the same gynecology ward of Elbasan Hospital where 17 patients died of cholera several weeks ago has given birth to a girl. When the abortion killed her roommates, the woman was in her seventh month, while she was in her sixth, because, among other things, she also suffered from anemia and was carrying what seemed to be a tiny baby in her womb. In one of these rooms, life was crowned with its arrival. “Vigilance has been hunted? Zeta we ...”? (the following text is blurred and partly illegible) ... Another girl, who had previously been in the same hospital in Elbasan, has given birth to a child: it was the baby of two patients, and now it has been admitted [unclear] that the child inherited from its parents — ... also the name ... — the same ... also for life ... (the text is blurred)

A serious bureaucratic mix-up DURRËS — Saimir Haxhia, a 30-year-old citizen of Durrës, arrested by the Italian Financial Police on a murder charge, was released just 24 hours later. His arrest had in fact been caused by a serious bureaucratic error: the international arrest warrant issued by the Albanian authorities in May 1993 was for another person with the same first and last name. The Italian authorities, however, did not know this. As soon as the error was discovered, Saimir Haxhia was released immediately. Haxhia is also innocent of the suspicions circulated by the Italian Police linking him to arms and drug trafficking. It was, therefore, an ugly story, resulting from the poor functioning of the bureaucracy.

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