The state loses a mountain of smuggled cigarettes Yesterday, on the outskirts of Patos, nine tanker trucks were impounded. They were stealing oil from the train. Caught red-handed War against smugglers in Fier. Police and customs officials accuse one another of involvement. FIER — Three trucks loaded with cigarettes and nine tankers carrying fuel have fallen into the hands of the police. The major operation took place on Monday evening following a tip-off received from the Ministry of the Interior. Of the eight trucks loaded with cigarettes that encountered the police roadblock, only three could be stopped, while the other five drove off into the interior of the thickets. The sudden gunfire wounded a police officer. Meanwhile, the dispute shifted to the people who had organized the ambush. The heads of the local police argued with customs officials. Both sides accuse each other of involvement in smuggling. The oil tankers were stopped near Patos. The drivers of nine of them were caught red-handed as they were taking fuel from a train. The driver of one tanker and the train driver were taken to the police station, while the owners of the other eight tankers were made to wait a long time for the vehicles to leave the courtyard of Fier’s second police station. On page 6

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Berisha Nano TIRANA — Berisha extends a hand to Nano. “Thank you for the invitation to Rome.” One day after the Albanian prime minister proposed that the opposition leader participate in the Rome Conference, the latter hurried to thank him for the invitation. “This is an important event in Albanian politics,” Berisha was quick to say in his reply. But the opposition leader was of the opinion that he would not be a mere façade for the delegation in Rome. On page 2 Berisha. Nano

TEPELENE - Attempt on the head of Kuçovë’s crime unit. Ilir Bida was stopped in the center of Tepelenë, the city where he was born, and struck on the head with the butt of a Kalashnikov. Bida, 30, appointed a month ago to the Kuçovë police station, had been head of the crime unit in Tepelenë during the unrest, and yesterday’s attack is linked to that period. He was traveling in a car with two relatives when three armed men threatened them, ordering the car to stop and demanding that only Bida get out. They spoke there, then suddenly struck him on the head with the butt of a Kalashnikov.

“In Fier, 800 cubic meters of poisonous substance” TIRANE - “In Fier there is a veritable deadly arsenal. Nine hundred cubic meters of arsenic are at risk of polluting the Adriatic.” This is the alarm raised in the Italian Senate by the Greens, following their visit to Albania. “In Albania,” the report presented states, “there is a real risk that a large quantity of arsenic will reach the Adriatic, which could be catastrophic for the fauna in this sea and for the peoples along its shores.” The Italian team’s warning is based on a large quantity of arsenic stored at a former chemical plant near Fier’s Azotiku. The plant is deteriorating, and, according to the Italian Greens, all the highly dangerous materials could end up in the Adriatic.

TIRANE - The destruction of the Albanian army, at least its beginnings, is shrouded in mystery. During investigations into several senior military officers, now amnestied, investigators managed to uncover some of the most shocking truths about the March tragedy. Edmond Zhupani, commander-in-chief of the Naval Defense Forces, the fleet’s operations chief Roland Nasto, and others had been accused of abuse of office, but were amnestied. The investigation reveals a shocking truth. Although the highest-ranking generals were periodically informed about the condition of units in the south, the army continued to remain at its normal level of readiness, as if nothing had happened. In Vlorë and Sarandë, in the weeks before the units were attacked, two teams from the Ministry had landed.

TIRANE - “An institution’s director cannot be dismissed with a slip of paper. Even when a cleaner is fired, there must be a reason and an explanation.” The director of the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet began a hunger strike yesterday. From his office, he told Gazeta Shqiptare that he had no intention of accepting Minister Arta Dade’s order. “There is no official reason for my dismissal,” he says, “and that is intolerable.” Xoxe then explains that appointments and dismissals in Albania cannot continue this way. He says a civil service status must be established to protect employees from every change in political staff. “I will continue the hunger strike,” Xoxe declared, “until Dade understands that my demands have nothing to do with the director’s chair, but with the human rights of mutual respect, which she does not recognize.” He went on to explain what he wanted. “She must explain to me why she is dismissing me from this post and where I am supposed to work, taking into account an assessment of my work as a director and not as an artist.” Meanwhile, another letter from Culture Minister Arta Dade, delivered to the director of the National Theatre, Tonin Ujka, has announced his dismissal from the position of director. No reason for his dismissal was given in the decision, nor was he assigned another post. The same thing happened to the director of the ballet school, Ramazan Këllëzi, who also received notice of his dismissal. But this time the school’s students and teachers appear to have decided to rebel. Yesterday, upon hearing the news from the relevant ministry, classes were halted, and today the students and teachers will prepare a petition calling Ramazan Këllëzi’s dismissal unjust. “This director has done a great deal for the ballet school,” one of the teachers says. “He could not be dismissed without any convincing reason. They must explain it to us, too.” Agron Xoxe

. Ramiz Alia will be sentenced neither for genocide nor for crimes against humanity. Why Albania’s last former communist president can breathe a sigh of relief. The General Prosecutor’s Office itself, which had previously accused him in the harsh terms cited above, has now requested that he be cleared of the charges. This act seems to bring to a close one of the most debated chapters in Albania’s recent history: the trials of the former regime insiders. It is still much too early to speak, and not enough time has yet passed for us to judge things with the cool-headedness that events of this kind require. So the state was apparently wrong when it accused the former leading figures of the harshest dictatorship in the communist world, laying charges against them that proved entirely baseless. Weary after lives that have already been long, the final years of which they spent in prison cells, the elderly communists can now return to normal life. Thus another path into Albanian life has begun: that of great forgiveness. But is the state right to do this? And what do they—the victims of totalitarian violence—think now that the people who once convicted them are themselves free? The discussion is not so simple, since, as in every case where history is judged, morality and the law become badly entangled. As far as the law and the state are concerned, they rely only on this: the former regime insiders are innocent. But morality has its own laws, which are sometimes even more influential than the articles of criminal codes themselves. And as far as morality is concerned, since everyone agrees that the dictatorship was one of the darkest periods in Albania’s history, the former regime insiders cannot be considered entirely blameless. That is why this whole story is so complicated. Perhaps a public apology would be good for both sides: the former victims and those who once sentenced them. Sometimes it feels good simply to say: “I’m sorry.” f.b.

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