National Council appointed, 25 percent women
Democrats’ congress concludes yesterday: “Berisha at the head of the election campaign”
The Congress approves a series of changes to the party statute. The minimum age for becoming a member is now lowered from 18 to 17. The DP will have one chairman, one deputy chairman and three secretaries
TIRANA - The DP elects its new chairman. Starting yesterday, the party’s leadership seat, currently held by Berisha, will be occupied by Tritan Shehu. Shehu—who had held the post of DP Secretary-General for about a year—received 397 votes through a secret-ballot process, while his only “rival,” DP MP Ferdinand Xhaferri, received 195 votes. According to the statistics, 607 delegates out of the 644 present at the Congress with valid credentials chose to take part in the vote.
On page 3
Berisha congratulates Shehu (photo: H. Pustina)
The 1996 elections: the country is “redistricted”
Yesterday: presidential decree
The 1996 elections: the country is “redistricted”
115 constituencies designated
The Presidency
On page 3
Heart attack at the cocktail party: Shehu is a doctor again
INTERVIEW
Shehu: “During the vote, it was like taking an exam”
Tritan Shehu has not forgotten his past. Just 24 hours before putting on the mantle of DP chairman, he left politics for a few moments and returned to medicine. Resuscitation specialist Shehu was reminded of his success in medicine when he brought a life back from the very brink of death. It was Petrit Shehu, a member of the Academy of Sciences, who suffered a heart attack at the cocktail dinner welcoming the foreign delegations attending the Congress. The commotion and commiseration gave way to panic. So did the words about the professor’s life. And just then Tritan Shehu appeared in the role of a “medical angel.” He took off his jacket and offered the party’s “whistle.” At that moment politics was the least important thing to the former resuscitation specialist. His hands, accustomed over the years to signing as a minister or as head of the DP, recalled the past. A massage on the heart that had stopped beating, artificial respiration, great emotion, and [unclear text] broke the spell. And then it happened. The patient was out of danger, quite unexpectedly. And in the end, shampoo again?
Military bomb injures three people
KRUJE
On page 5
Pharmacists’ protest: “We won’t give up the premises”
BERAT
On page 5
The Murriqan border crossing opens on September 1
SHKODER
On page 5
Poor construction quality: apartment block collapses
Korçë, built in ’75
The building was constructed and reinforced; apart from the damage, there were no casualties
A five-storey apartment block in Korçë partially collapsed in an instant on Friday morning. Five families were left homeless, but escaped a tragedy for one reason: none of them was inside their homes at the time, in a building that no longer exists.
On page 5
Koka: For the Kavaja match, I pray to God we don’t come away without a point
FOOTBALL / Week 28
Koka: For the Kavaja match, I pray to God we don’t come away without a point
“Miloti”: “For us, every match now is like a final”
On page 8
Republican leader in Ishëm
Godo: “Vote for the PR and for the Union”
PR leader against the Socialists: “Their return to power would be a catastrophe”
On page 3
Sabri Godo
Here is the map of the major trials
Two parallel trials on April 16
ANTI-GENOCIDE / Dates set for the case files
TIRANA - Dates have been set for the trials of all the former communist officials whose case files have gone to court. On April 16, two groups will sit in the dock at the same time. Meanwhile, five others will begin their trials a week later.
On page 5
The genocidaires on trial (photo: H. Pustina)
“The cemetery is mine”: Fists at a funeral
TIRANA - A person had died, and relatives had gathered around the grave to pay their final respects at the village cemetery.
As often happens in villages, someone had set off for the cemetery to dig the grave. But... many things had changed in the meantime. Someone else had arrived at the cemetery first and, as it turned out, was there to announce that “the deceased could not be buried here, because this is my property.” The mourners’ anger turned against the “owner” of the cemetery. He was struck with a shovel, in the very place where the grave was to be, and seriously injured. This story, which took place on a hill in a village near Tirana, is now being examined by the Tirana court.
After being deprived of their rights for 50 years, many people have tried to become owners of everything. Disputes over a road, a fence, or a piece of land have often been the source of tragedies among ordinary people in villages. But when the land ran out, its owners even laid claim to cemeteries. A cemetery, a place where everyone, sooner or later, will finally rest. Yet even there, people’s spirits cannot be at peace. Someone stands over them, seeming to say: “Leave, this is my land.” A similar case occurred some time ago in a village in Kavaja, where a dead person went unburied for two days. A villager had claimed ownership of the cemetery road, and the deceased had to wait to make his way to his eternal “home.” (me.ki)
Theater: people want comedy
TIRANA - Theatergoers prefer comedy, preferably Albanian comedy.
According to observations, the largest audiences have attended performances of comedies by Albanian authors.
On page 7
Chechnya: the peace pact is broken
From the World
On page 2
A bunker for milk, not bombs
Wanted for lease as a dairy
Fier, unusual request comes from Holland. Still not approved
FIER - It was built to withstand war, and one might think that a bunker in Pojan has now fallen on “hard times.” The women want to turn it into a village dairy where milk will be processed. Ninety women from the village are seeking to rent the bunker, but even though five months have passed, nobody has signed the lease.
A Dutch foundation offered 15 thousand dollars to establish a dairy in the village of Pojan, Fier. The sum was enough to obtain the equipment, but not to build the premises where it would be installed. They thought of making use of a bunker near the village by renting it. But five months of efforts in a row have proved fruitless. According to the village women, the obstacles are bureaucratic. The district privatization office refers them to the Ministry of Defence, which owns the military facilities as well. The procedure also requires an application from that institution specifying the fees; it has not yet been submitted. Meanwhile, the Fier division knows nothing about the issue, and so the bunker is still waiting for its new destiny.
Hu. Re.
