Yesterday Qeleshi summoned the Socialist Party’s chief economic officer The “ZP” case Farudin Arapi has refused to hand over the documents to investigators and explains... TIRANA - “If you don’t hand over the party’s financial documentation for the ‘ZP’ case, then I will seize it,” Prosecutor Arben Qeleshi told me. The person summoned was Farudin Arapi, Head of the Economic Department of the Socialist Party. After the first arrests and the testimony of well-known party figures, the latest person to testify in connection with the Prosecutor’s investigation into the “ZP” case is the party’s own “financial brains,” and the files of invoices in the “ZP” case. Arapi, who is being summoned by the Prosecution. If this happens, it will be the first time that Albanian justice has seized a party’s financial documents. Arapi appeared at the Prosecutor’s Office yesterday at around 12:00. The questioning of the party’s financial expert lasted more than two hours. “I had heated arguments,” he says, “especially with Prosecutor Qeleshi, but I never agreed to hand over original documents. They cannot constitute material evidence in my case, since we are the accused party, and our internal rules also do not allow me to do that.” Interview by Fatos Baxhaku on page 3

The Court of Appeal’s unexpected decision Armand Mero on page 3

PD meeting “So that we can win outside the corrupt party” On page 3 President Berisha

Major upheavals are taking place in the upper ranks of the police in Albania’s two hot border zones. In Malësia e Madhe and in Vlora, the police stations in both towns have undergone mass replacements of chiefs and their deputies. But while in the coastal city the wind of change has brought only transfers between posts, in Malësia e Madhe—overrun by fuel smuggling—it has removed the head of the Border Police from his position and subjected the head of Road Traffic to disciplinary action. On page 3

KORÇË / A fuel dealer is in prison The most sensational seizure to date in Albania KORÇË - Police carried out an anti-drug raid on Monday evening in a village near Korçë; more than 21 kilos of cannabis were seized, with a value that could reach as much as 40,000 dollars on the Western market. The drugs were found in the home of Skënder Xhehi, 45, from Çifliku; he was arrested. The results of the chemical analyses that the police ordered to be carried out on the plants are expected today, in order to verify the quality of the drugs. This is the largest seizure made so far in Albania in the fight against drug trafficking. Once again in the Korçë area, in the villages of Godeç and Pojan, other cannabis seizures were made several weeks ago, but in every case the drugs were of poor quality. On page 5

A new wave of speculation begins TIRANA - New trends have suddenly emerged in the black-market trade in privatization vouchers. Market values have fallen by as much as 90 percent. This depreciation has prompted pensioners to exchange them for cash immediately, while various speculators are also trying to profit. The vouchers themselves state that they expire at the end of June next year. Of the 20,000 lekë represented by each voucher, only 2,000 lekë—or just 10 percent of its value—have ended up in the pockets of unsuspecting pensioners. “We need money now,” many of them say as they queue to collect their money from the Savings Bank. In exchange, speculative middlemen immediately arrive, looking to buy them at this opportune moment. It is precisely these people, working for some boss, who are trying to gather as many privatization vouchers as possible. Concentrated especially outside the Savings Bank, the middlemen have succeeded in driving down as far as possible the price they offer pensioners for their vouchers. It is a new profession, born of the very absence of a competitive market for securities. Indeed, in one of the country’s newspapers, a private company has placed an announcement saying it would buy privatization vouchers for 20 percent of their value. Despite this unexpected depreciation, many of the pensioners who have received the vouchers do not intend to sell them. “We have a big need for them, and we’d like to be able to invest them,” one of them says. But he seems skeptical. “There’s no responsible party left, so we’re holding on to them because we can’t do anything else.” The distribution of the first wave of privatization vouchers began in the first days of this May. So far, around 30,000 pensioners have received them, or about 10 percent of all pensioners in our country; not all of them have waited for a genuine market in privatization securities to emerge. The government has currently prepared a draft law to establish Investment Funds, which will give voucher holders the opportunity to use them to buy shares in various enterprises that the state decides to privatize. GJERGJ PILLIKA (photo: H.Pustina) Pensioners queuing to collect vouchers The bank counter is missing Pensioners in Koplik are not receiving vouchers On page 3 Pensioners queuing to collect vouchers (photo: H.Pustina)

Will State Television also be privatized? On page 5 After killing him, he takes his own life The killer shoots at the policeman On page 3

CONTROVERSY On page 3

BALKANS On page 2

And nobody is taking in the Asians POGRADEÇ - Five employees have been dismissed from their jobs at the Qafë Thanë customs post. Two customs inspectors, two police officers and another border police officer have been removed from their posts after allowing undocumented Chinese nationals to pass through the border crossing. The day after the dismissals, the news spread quickly: officials sent from Tirana arrived at the customs post and, after carrying out inspections and checks, imposed the harshest measure. The Chinese had presented themselves at the Qafë-Thanë crossing without any documents, and this was evidently the reason for the accusation of corruption against the five employees. But while the Chinese managed to cross at Qafë-Thanë, 16 of their companions have been stranded for five days. Having failed in their attempt to get to Italy, the 16 Chinese—eight couples—wanted to return the way they had come. But the Macedonian authorities refuse to let them into their territory, while Albania wants to send them back. Thus, caught between bureaucratic and diplomatic disputes, the Chinese continue to live in a room at the customs post. Ed. F.

An unusual reality TROPOJË - A new function has emerged for cafés. Found almost everywhere, sometimes reviled and sometimes praised, even considered harmful, but always frequented, they are now being used for more than just relaxation. Someone has thought of using one for the most fashionable form of protest in Albania—the hunger strike. In Kam, a small mining town in the Tropojë district, 25 people representing 780 families have gone from being customers to hunger strikers. The news was reported by the official Albanian news agency. A dispatch from Tropojë reports that the strikers began their protest in a café. Fever, headaches, dizziness—all the classic signs of someone who has gone a long time without eating. According to the same source, their demands concern the most basic living conditions, which appear to be miserable: resolving the housing problem, providing drinking water, and improving healthcare services and medical supplies. The strikers have called for the Directorate of the Mining Enterprise to return to the town. They understand that the town’s development is connected to the exploitation of the mining industry. Discussions between the authorities and the people occupying the café have ended without concrete results. Now, shut inside the café, they are discussing the matter with witnesses. Their protest, on behalf of the citizens of Kuni, will continue as long as their shared situation remains unresolved by the local authorities. Until then, the café where the strike is taking place will not be able to return to its normal purpose. p.re.