DRUGS Police operation in Durrës against growers of narcotic plants: two plantations discovered, 5 kilos of seed also seized The hashish villagers Two arrests, 20 kg seized DURRËS — Drugs again in Albania. After uncovering the heroin trafficking network headed for Italy, the Albanian Police has discovered in the villages near Shijak in Durrës two places where hashish was being cultivated, a soft drug in demand on the black market. Two people have been arrested and more than 20 kilos of drugs have been seized. The first operation was carried out in the village of Pezë, where the priest, Sait Milaqi, 51, had planted hashish in his garden — instead of tomatoes and eggplants. A cultivation spread over 40 square metres, which had produced 16 kilos of buds. The plants were being guarded in several sheds near the house. In the same house, police also found 5 kilos of hashish seed, intended for another plantation. The second anti-drug operation took place in the village of Hardhishtë, on the property of Nazmi Kapllan Isrefi, 39, also a hashish grower. Police found 35 square metres cultivated with the drug, which was, of course, seized. The two episodes show that the narcotics market in Albania continues to grow. The first hashish and marijuana crops were discovered last year near Shkodër, and at the time it was thought that the incidents were isolated and that the drug was mostly destined for export. Today, on the contrary, numerous signs show that the drug — at least soft drugs — is being sold to Albanian young people who use it. Domestic production, another ocean of life with lower prices than on the international market: one cigarette of "Albanian hashish" costs around 150 lek, about the price of three beers. Of course, investigators are convinced that part of Albanian production continues to be sold abroad. The prices of hard drugs, which are also consumed in the country, are higher. One ampoule of pethidine is bought on the black market for around 500 lek, while three grams of heroin can be found for 1,000 lek, more or less the same price as a vial. These hard drugs, in the end, pass through Albania and head for Central Europe, but Albanian traffickers of the "deadly" drug have also started buying it for the domestic market. (p.r.e) Heroin in Tropojë? TIRANA — Between Macedonia and Albania, specifically between the town of Gostivar and Tropojë, a large heroin trafficking operation aimed at Central Europe has been developing in recent months. This is stated by a law-enforcement source in a report published by the Drug Observatory in Yugoslavia (OGD). "According to an investigation carried out by our correspondent — the document says — truck journeys between the two cities, as well as official documents, cannot justify such intense trade." The article goes on to cite the existence of a large heroin refinery in the Macedonian town of Kumanovo, where the necessary chemical substances arrive to produce the drug, from a factory built by the Germans and located near the border with Greece. The magazine accuses the "Albanian mafia", made up mostly of Albanians from Kosovo and Macedonia, of heroin trafficking. For a similar trafficking network, the Italian Police carried out a major operation two weeks ago, arresting twenty people.

RESEARCH / The first study on Albanians in Italy and Greece This is why they sought to emigrate (but many want to return) ANDREA STEFANI TIRANA — For the first time, on the occasion of the year 90 — which can be described as the year of the mass exoduses — data have been announced and presented concerning the Albanian population and the structure of Albanian emigration. Although based on a relatively narrow circle of people compared with the ever-growing emigrant mass, the survey — the results of which were presented by Professor Vladimir Misa at a seminar organized by the Academy of Sciences — aims to shed at least some light on something that is little known and almost mysterious in official statistics, the mass of 300,000 to 450,000 emigrants. What groups does it mainly consist of, how do they live, and what are the reasons for the painful departure of those who are now leaving Albania? First of all, the survey aimed to identify and show the demographic preferences of emigration. The educational level of emigrants — from a survey of 21 emigrants in Greece, 151 in Italy and 350 people in Albania — turns out to be 26 percent with primary and 8-year education, 35 percent with secondary education and 21 percent with higher education. Most of them are of working age — for which, in addition to the surveys, data from the Ministries of Labour and Interior of Italy and from the Tirana Institute of Statistics were also used — and the emigrant population is presumed to be between 18 and 82 percent male and 18 percent female. The vast majority of them — around 50 percent — are aged 20-29. Ages 0-14 account for 0.8 percent, ages 30-39 for 21 percent, 40-59 for 7.3 percent and ages 60 and over for 1.4 percent. In terms of religious affiliation, the surveyed emigrants turned out to be 58 percent Muslim, 30 percent Orthodox and 11 percent Catholic. It also emerged that 10 percent of those who emigrated have families of up to 3 members in their place of origin, 31 percent have families of 4-5 members and 59 percent families with 6 or more members. Another objective of the survey was to assess the socio-economic indicators of the emigrants. It emerged that 79 percent of them had been employed before emigrating, while 21 percent had not. To the question of how their earnings in Albania had been, 86 percent answered "bad", 11 percent "normal" and only 3 percent "good". As for employment in the country where they live, only 85 percent are working. In Italy the employment rate is 90 percent, while in Greece it is around 70 percent. Among those employed, 36 percent work in construction, 24 percent in industry, 23 percent in agriculture and 27 percent in other sectors. How do they live on the income they earn? To this question, emigrants in Greece answered 29 percent "good", 60 percent "normal" and 11 percent "bad". In Italy the answers were 36 percent "good", 63 percent "normal" and 3 percent "bad". The responses concerning the length of time they can continue working and their return to the homeland showed a fairly strong impatience and a preference for moving to another country. For emigrants in Greece, the most preferred destinations are, in order, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and the USA. For emigrants in Italy, the most preferred countries to move to are Germany, Switzerland and Austria. ISSUES COUNTRY GREECE ITALY WORK STAGE 1-3 months 30 percent 3 percent 4-9 months 36 percent 3 percent 10-15 months 18 percent 12 percent 15-20 months 9 percent 67 percent over 20 months 7 percent 15 percent DO THEY WANT TO RETURN TO ALBANIA? Yes 40 percent 30 percent No 9 percent 7 percent Do not know yet 13 percent 42 percent Want transfer to another country 38 percent 21 percent The survey revealed that the desire to return to Albania is clearly linked to the emigrants’ view of "helping the family in the homeland" as a motive for emigration, on the other hand 29 percent of those surveyed. Then there are 20 percent of people driven by better working conditions and technological level, 10 percent by better overall living conditions, 5 percent by school-related motives and 4 percent by personal education or that of family members.

YESTERDAY IN ALBANIA Work on the schools in the villages of Sqep, Çorraj and Kodër will continue this year, and the completion of work is planned at the schools in Jezercë and Shalës. The school whose future has begun in the last weeks will be the first school of this type for political exiles — and to furnish the two new buildings, which had another destination, for housing needs and are now to be handed over within the day. BUILDINGS ARE UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN BURREL — 108 apartments are to be made available for forestry workers in Burrel. Some time ago, the authorized local offices to be freed received a positive result. Now work is under way on 50 unfinished apartments, on 20 new ones — half of which will go to political exiles — and on 9 the postponement of the second new building, which had another destination, but the housing needs of this enterprise must be handed over within the day. BULQIZA FRANCOPHONIE FOR CARDIOLOGY IN TIRANA — In Tirana, the French Cardiology Association of Shkodër and the Albanian Cardiology Association organized a seminar at the University Hospital to exchange experience in heart diseases. During the seminar, Albanians and their French colleagues took part, various clinical cases were examined, and patients were given diagnoses and medical treatment recommendations, as well as clinical assessments. French and Albanian doctors expressed readiness to continue and expand cooperation in the future with other seminars.

TIRANA — Albanian Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi is taking part in a meeting of foreign ministers of NATO member states and the "Partnership for Peace". Besides the expected importance of the meeting organized in Istanbul — for the Albanian Foreign Minister this will perhaps be a chance above all to meet separately with his Greek counterpart Papulias. The possibility of such a meeting — in which the many issues recently present in relations between the two countries would be discussed — has not, however, been officially confirmed up to his departure from Albania on Thursday.

Fier, cases of food poisoning are increasing Analyses begin on the population FIER — The lead-in-the-blood alarm has reached the Ministry of Health. The many cases identified in the population of the Fier district have mobilized specialists, who are now seeking to intensify research even further to determine the extent of the phenomenon. In Fier is now the head of the Department of Occupational Diseases of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Skënder Meksi, one of the leading specialists in this field. This time the Italian team is also part of the group of doctors. Dr. Giusepe Elia will help his Albanian colleagues during blood analyses. Such cases had also been identified some time ago among the many inhabitants of the villages around Fier. At the time it was said that the main cause was flour milled from lead-contaminated wheat. Now the situation is seen as broader still. Several cases have been verified in which lead was present in livestock products, which are easily distributed to many consumers. Doctors now intend to carry out large-scale analyses across all age groups of the population in order to form a clear picture of the situation. Lead poisoning — as it is now called by "lead in the blood" — is a recognized occupational disease among printing-house workers. From time to time, cases of it have also been identified among various groups of residents. Mainly in the countryside, and also among children, pain, vomiting and nervous disorders are some of the symptoms of this disease. Enkela Myftari

— One of the squares in the capital will take the name of Fan Noli today, the best-known figure of the June 1924 revolution. An official ceremony will be organized on Wednesday for this occasion. The name of the politician, famous publicist, teacher and bishop will be given to the area in front of the Academy of Sciences and the headquarters of the Democratic Party. In parallel, some streets in Tirana will be named after other figures such as Sulejman Delvina and Stavro Vinjau. This is only one point on the long list of official activities being organized across the country to commemorate the event from which, 70 years ago, the first Albanian democratic government was born according to today’s concepts.

ABANDONMENT Children and women who survive only on alms speak out "This is how we live like beggars in the capital" After the butchering of a "colleague", concern grows TIRANA — “Not a night of horror, when a 30-year-old policeman returns a thief’s hands and feet with alms, I left the children, I left my mother and the mountain slope left so much. I approached the policeman. The policemen, the men of the woman[?] were gathering, lifting and now worn down by this activity have taken a road. Easy to say and to extinguish, living in life and in life whoever knows. But that is not all. They need to be fed, they need, this? the village keeps the main[?] this. He keeps children with their hands on the road. They have taken me[?] from their world asking a little the rocky columns, the village mothers rarely have help, the usual alms of every person, that the gifts not rarely bless the poor with waters[?] with fate something t[?] may God make it halal” — the mind must continue through the alleys, starting in the late hours of the night and ending in the late hours of the evening. “I come out here in the center every day — says Limoza Basha, 18, who has dragged her feet wrapped in the bright shoes of the urban luxury environment so as to give and her hands — and I am on the road taking out money for my brothers and sisters. Even if I don’t go out at all, it’s not as if my father comes.” They are linked by what? by families with many villages and usually with other parents — who must go together and see each other on the road in the city. They cannot speak for all their peers. The only ones who have the luxury of sitting by the doors asking for money. “I wanted to stay in the center without ever being for votes, Vijana Zyberi, from Sht[?]. The House of Children in Tirana. A center looked after by KE has carried out, which gathers every day some standing at the feet of alms and gathered and at first my mother told me that I knew and begged.” This made them sad. A cough and the day of these little beggars and their mothers, often amid fear and being washed out into the street in the morning and the afternoon, and with crutches. “Then I said[?] often 200-300 lek — that’s all, beggar[?] money and only came because we were heading toward then they took water from me”. “Meanwhile they did not want to do me. Here you need money to finish. So you need money and teachers?” explains Edlira Gashi, 14, another beggar. She does not know and passes through school and the cultural palace and she has police. “So there is no harassment.” Unemployed and distant from friends who do not need here and need not row? each has solved being to secure. This? she lived beautifully with me alone”. “Johana t'kishme and achieved and how much? night she will come down. He needs nothing, the despised one and the person to be killed in Albania, I do not know where? so that you will see them and for school, only let it be Tirana. Armand Mero

TIRANA — A review by the court of fact, an important stage of the trial against Alia and the other objects, was considered and the highest annual recruitment. The evidence and documentary materials of more than 10 defendants were said to have been proven in court. Only three days earlier had the testimony of 48 witnesses who appeared directly in the courtroom been completed, while in order to give a preferred reading, the testimony given to the police by the investigative group was to be read out. It is a process nearing its end.

Disagreement over the Macedonian issue Athens distances itself from Europe ON PAGE 2 Football, "earthquake" in the FSHF Albania without a national team ON PAGE 3