TIRANA - An agreement has been reached between the Government and the Education Trade Unions. Yesterday, the two sides, after a fierce and prolonged “battle” with hundreds of others, signed a “ceasefire”: an agreement providing for an average 31 percent increase in teachers’ salaries. In this way, the indefinite strike that the union members had threatened to begin on 15 May if their demand was not met has been averted. Meanwhile, the disputes involving two other unions, Healthcare and Telecom, have still not been definitively resolved, although an agreement there also appears to be close. Education and the Government reached agreement yesterday after a lengthy meeting at the Council of Ministers’ offices. This time the union representatives had arrived with an offer somewhat lower than the one the Government had been demanding throughout this period. “We had decided the day before to be accommodating,” Lluka Prifti, a member of the National Council of the Independent Trade Union, told Gazeta Shqiptare, “and, according to our calculations, we had decided to come down to 31 percent.” After many debates and a maze of financial calculations, the two sides found a formula that could save the day. “Salaries will rise by 10 percent as part of the general increase in the budget sector, and its effects will begin on 1 May. The energy compensation will also be calculated on this base salary,” the joint agreement signed yesterday states. “The existing hardship allowances will also be calculated in the May payroll. Meanwhile, the hardship allowance will increase, starting in June, to 15 percent of the adjusted salary,” the agreement concludes. “So we have managed to bring the average increase to 31 percent,” Prifti explains. The union’s result appears satisfactory. Nevertheless, Education representatives say their efforts will continue. “We have decided,” Prifti says, “to sit down and talk with the Government again at the end of the year about a new salary increase.” Armand Mero

Strike averted After the national petition against the law on the sale and purchase of agricultural land, the six leaders address the President in forceful terms The land dispute: the Right attacks Berisha “If this law is approved, we will call on the people for help...” TIRANA - An unprecedented political turn: the Albanian Right Alliance is harshly attacking President Berisha. This time, however, the accusation concerns the law on the sale and purchase of land. A two-page letter—signed by the six leaders of the associations and parties that had formed the Right Alliance—was sent yesterday directly to Albania’s highest office, the Presidency, and even ended on a threatening note: “But if, in the worst-case scenario, the draft law goes to Parliament, we are obliged to declare that the Right Alliance will call on the people for help...” Thus, just a few hours after its first initiative—the organization of a national petition—the Albanian Right Alliance has reached its peak. But that is not all: the leaders of the Right now also have another document in their hands, which they will soon distribute to all the members of the Albanian Parliament, asking them not to approve the draft law on the sale and purchase of agricultural land. “We are determined to prevent the sale and purchase of land at all costs,” said PR Deputy Chairman Fatmir Mediu yesterday, immediately after the letter was sent to President Berisha, “and we are doing this because its implementation would inevitably cause unpredictable social tensions.” But while the PR’s number two more or less reiterates his party’s and the Right Alliance’s position, the letter sent yesterday to the head of the Albanian state is much more forceful. “You, Mr. President, hold different convictions and have on many occasions addressed Albanians with the wish, ‘May you enjoy your land,’” the letter says, “but our peasantry, which has the sense of ownership rooted in its soul, does not share this wish.” The latest letter from PR leader and one of the ideologues of the Right Alliance, Sabri Godo, addressed to President Sali Berisha, marks the latest phase in an almost five-year relationship with Albania’s current number one. Beginning in January 1991, when PRSH was founded, this relationship has had its “storms” and “flirtations.” The PD’s sharp rhetoric at its beginnings as the first opposition party was followed by a calm and balanced editorial in the first issue of the newspaper “Republika” in January 1991, signed by Godo, which emphasized that “...democracy requires calm and work.” In the March 1991 elections, the PD challenged the then-president in his electoral district, putting forward a mining engineer as a rival, while PR leader Godo, 48 hours before the first free vote, urged the people to vote for Ramiz Alia. This has remained an argument used by his opponents to criticize him in the years that followed. But it also marked the first “official” confrontation between Godo and Berisha. The Government of Stability, only a short time later, was the first moment of a shared alliance between Berisha’s and Godo’s parties. The alliance continued even after the PD left that government, in which Berisha was the main figure. The political alliance established between the PD and PR in 1992 was based on anti-communism. The victory of 22 March 1992 and the formation of the PD government with its allies PSD and PR also brought the first new disagreements with Gjinushi and Godo over the number of ministerial posts in the Meksi cabinet. Later, Godo would court those on the right of the political spectrum in order to win their votes, apparently satisfied with the PD’s program on the restitution of property, especially land. A new clash, but the alliance continued: this time over the referendum on the Constitution, when PR supported the “Yes” vote, alongside the President. This would also be the final moment of the PD-PR alliance and the beginning of their divorce, although Godo would be the last to leave the governing coalition. And finally came the most serious attack... The Right Alliance’s is much more forceful. But too... (the fragment continues beyond the frame). They maintain that under the new draft law the land has not been sold and, contrary to what President Berisha says when he accuses them of obstructing the return of property, their concern is that the land will end up as foreign-owned property. Another attack by several PD representatives in Parliament that...” (The article continues in the lower columns; text cut off at the edge of the photograph)

The one that grants you asylum gives you other civil rights, but does not guarantee your safety if you return to the homeland you left for a set period of up to five years. As far as the French state administration is concerned, and given his worldwide fame, Kadare is an Albanian citizen who sought political asylum in France in the early 1990s. As such, he must apply for permission before coming to Albania. His international reputation and the French people’s particular affection for the Albanian writer have led the Paris authorities to turn a blind eye to his departures “without permission.” But this time, in order to come, he had to endure an approximately two-month ordeal through government offices to obtain the special official clearance. “It was Albanians who called the immigration offices, reporting my movements,” Kadare reveals the secret with a smile, without concealing his pain. The “informant calls” made by other Albanians in France, whose jealousy and inability to obtain Kadare’s privileges have blinded them—even to his name. Someone has suggested that the report came from the Albanian authorities, motivated by political considerations. A hypothesis that Ismail Kadare himself categorically rejects. Nevertheless, one thing remains: Kadare can no longer come so easily to his beloved Albania. The obstacle has been created by Albanians who still have not understood that Kadare’s fame is not earned in a day. So. Bal. TIRANA - It took two months before the special permit was obtained to return to his homeland, Albania. It seems unbelievable, but the protagonist of this story is just as unbelievable: Ismail Kadare. “It is true that I had difficulty visiting my country, but this had nothing to do with any kind of intervention by the current Albanian State...” Kadare says, but his adventure deserves to be retold. Kadare’s political status in France includes, in fact, a requirement to seek permission from the French authorities to return to Albania. This is a practice recognized by the norms of international law. The state that grants you asylum gives you other rights and duties, but does not guarantee your safety if you return to the homeland from which you left for a specified period of up to five years. For the French state administration, Kadare, setting aside his worldwide fame, is a citizen of Albanian nationality in the distant territory of 1990; he sought political asylum in France.

Blitz by the Italian Prosecutor’s Office: an Albanian among the 25 arrested VLORE - It was a long-standing suspicion; now it seems to have been confirmed: from Albania, [unclear in source], loaded onto speedboats, cocaine and heroin were being sent to Italy. Drug trafficking is run by people linked to the Apulian Mafia. The Anti-Mafia Investigation Office in Lecce (in Puglia) ordered 25 arrests yesterday on charges of international drug trafficking. The organization’s boss is an Italian, Salvatore Primavera, linked to the Sacra Corona Unita, the name of the Apulian Mafia network. A first arrest warrant was also issued for Gëzim Hoxha, 34, from Vlora, who was arrested along with Primavera on 29 April in [unclear in source], while unloading a kilogram of heroin from a speedboat that had departed from Vlora. Among those arrested are also criminals from Calabria and Sicily, the Italian regions where this drug arriving from Albania was sold. Also behind bars is a 41-year-old Albanian from the former Yugoslavia, Slavica Jovisic. According to the Italian anti-mafia investigative team, Albania is a transit country for cocaine and heroin arriving from Turkey and the Middle East. The drugs travel through Macedonia to Vlora, and from there are transported to the Italian coast on Albanian speedboats. In some cases, the same speedboats have been used to transport undocumented migrants. Suspicions about drug trafficking between Albania and Italy arose months ago, when a Turkish farmer was stopped in Tirana with 3 kg of heroin. The police understood then that the drugs could not have been intended for the Albanian market, but for the European one. For the past two years, Albania has been sending small quantities of drugs to Greece: by yesterday, 54 marijuana plantations and two more plots of opium poppies had been discovered in the country. However, to date, the Albanian network supporting international drug trafficking has not been uncovered. P.re.

Here is what can be privatized TIRANA – Public property is born. A draft law that will be added to the Civil Code—approved on July 29, ’95—now seeks to determine the types of public property and the differences between their legal regimes and those of property that is simply state-owned. The need for a draft law—according to the explanatory report also signed by the Minister of Justice, Hektor Frashëri—had also emerged because “railways, mines or any other public property that previously belonged exclusively to the state are now treated as assets that can be privatized.” Since these are “regulated by no specific law,” the drafters of the bill have provided for them to be subject to the regime governing public state property, even if they are currently considered only state property. Thus national roads, city roads, road networks and other state roads, waterfronts, beaches, roadsteads, ports, rivers, lakes and other waters can all be designated public by special laws. The same applies to railways, airports, water-supply systems, and museum, archive and library collections. This would also make it possible to privatize them. The draft law will also serve as a legal basis for transferring the powers of state bodies in the administration and disposal of state property. (e.l)

Proposal from the Right-Wing League TIRANA – The current election law could become an obstacle for the Albanian Right-Wing League. Having announced their strategy for the upcoming elections, the right-wing leaders are now calling for the election law to be amended, or at least for a modification to the existing electoral law. Their efforts, so far confined to political meetings, are intended to give the Right-Wing League the opportunity to be seen as a single entity. The Association of Former Political Persecutees, the Legality Movement, Balli Kombëtar, the Democratic Union, PR, and the Association of Former Political and Economic Persecutees believe that if their proposal is taken into account, the distribution of votes will become more “rigid,” as it is called in electoral jargon. According to the leaders of the Right-Wing League, amending this part of the current election law would give them a better chance and more seats in Parliament, while aiming to minimize the predicted success of the others. In any case, everything has now been reduced to political meetings, so that before making a public request, consensus can first be secured among the forces that will enter next year’s elections. (e.l)

Serbian delegation for the first time TIRANA – “Let us turn the Balkans into a miniature of a united Europe.” Representatives of Serbian, Greek, Macedonian, Bosnian, Croatian, Slovenian, Romanian, Turkish and Bulgarian youth shared this idea and gathered in the Albanian capital, where for two days they debated at the first seminar, “The Balkans, our common home.” The Albanian organizers—the “Free Albania toward Europe” Association and the Idealist Youth Association—expressed great optimism yesterday to Gazeta Shqiptare about achieving what, in today’s heated Balkan climate, can only be called a utopia: “The young people of the Balkans can achieve what has not been achieved at government level,” said the participants in this very rare meeting. According to them, the dream remains a Balkans with open borders, like the open European space. Meanwhile, they see the path to achieving this in the creation of a center for youth exchange. The seminar, which concluded yesterday, made it possible for a Serbian delegation to come to Albania—perhaps for the first time in many years. In their own country, they represent non-governmental organizations. What made this seminar special was that young Kosovars from the “Dardanica” Association were also invited, while the organizers reported that they had observed no sign of nationalism during the seminar. Described as a new development in inter-Balkan relations, the Tirana seminar will also remain a shared national achievement by these young people: “the Balkans as a miniature of a united Europe.” Gadhshull? [sic] has begun... (Ed.La)

And finally came the most serious attack...

Vlorë: speedboats are hidden On page 3 The secrets of Krasa Grabocka and Lacos On page 5

Cinema Festival On page 5