State Audit Office defense: Explain the old story Former minister responds: Are they still dealing with this? It is a closed matter The incident caused a stir 5 years ago. Çela: The Prosecutor’s Office closed the investigation TIRANA - The Zhulali file is back. A request received by the State Audit Office from the Ministry of Defense looks set to bring to the surface one of the most mysterious cases of 1992. The head of the audit office, Mustafa Kërçuku, yesterday submitted a request to resume the work of his specialists on the file in question. Meanwhile, the terse response of former defense minister Zhulali has arrived from the other side: “I consider the matter legally closed.” But another Democrat apparently does not share this view. For Blerim Çela, who headed the State Audit Office, the file has an interesting and somewhat mysterious history. It was Çela himself who initiated the “investigation” into this matter back in 1993. But an unexplained order from the prosecutor’s office sent him back, saying, “the original invoices are missing; photocopies are not accepted as such.” Çela believes this matter remains open as long as it has not been fully cleared up. Kërçuku, for his part, confirms that intensive work is being carried out along another line of inquiry. On page 4 Prime Minister Fatos Nano at yesterday’s press conference (Photo P. Ilo)

These strange politicians of ours... Teodor Keko Our politicians belong among the strangest species in the world. Today they say something publicly, tomorrow they say: “We expressed ourselves differently”! But this time, with not a shred of character in them, they are doing it rather shamelessly. Look, for example, at Saliu! When he was in power, he drove the hunger strikers out with sticks, including Azem Hajdari himself! Today he says that a hunger strike is something noble, sublime, and who knows what else! Which Saliu are you supposed to believe? The one from back then, or today’s one? If Saliu were the only politician like this, that would be half the problem, but they all seem just like him. Today Meksi, together with Tritan Shehu, are criticizing their leadership for not allowing factions in the party and for expelling so many prominent figures from the party. But do these friends remember how they reacted when Neritan Ceka, Gramoz Pashko and the others were expelled from the DP? Either they insulted them in unison, so that Saliu could hear them all the way at the Presidency, or they kept criminally silent. Now that they themselves have been thrown out, they speak differently. But they are not the only ones. There are some prosecutors who well remember the pressure Zef Brozi put on them when he was merely an MP, to get Nano put behind bars. When he was removed as chairman of the Court of Cassation, Zefi too began speaking like an Ameri-American! But there are others too, like Selami and company... People have memories and can make comparisons. For this reason, the piquant politician on “1” has been overtaken by Shefqet Musaraj’s famous lines: “Where were you, hey efendi, when we were fighting for Albania?!” This monumental fragment also proves another truth: that chameleon politicians in Albania have a solid tradition! God grant that the young people are made differently, although some of Nano’s boys are also beginning to look like broken springs turned inside out!

After the controversy, Kosovo’s Prime Minister seeks to understand Meets with Nano and Berisha: What is happening? TIRANA - Kosovo’s leadership rushes to Tirana. Bujar Bukoshi, the Prime Minister of this region, met Nano and Berisha yesterday. “To better understand what happened during the Crete Summit” was the purpose of Bukoshi’s immediate visit to the Albanian capital. Bukoshi told Nano that Milosheviç had never given any evidence that he was ready to move toward a solution for Kosovo, and that this could happen only through mediation by the US and the European Union. Nano replied that his meeting with the Serbian President did not at all mean replacing Kosovo’s leaders in this matter. “We are convinced that only in the spirit of modern dialogue and the opening of borders will we be able to resolve our national question.” This was the main point of Nano’s message to his counterpart from Kosovo, Bujar Bukoshi. “We have no intention whatsoever of replacing Kosovo’s legitimate representatives. I met in Crete with all my Balkan colleagues, just as I also met and spoke with the President of the Federation of Yugoslavia. We have not changed our positions on the problems of Kosovo, and only through dialogue and the European agreements established for discussing these issues will we be able to move forward along the path we have chosen.” This is what the Prime Minister of Albania declared to his counterpart, who had arrived from Germany. Bukoshi also met yesterday with the leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, with whom he again discussed the Nano-Milosheviç talks. Both sides stated that Kosovo cannot be discussed without Kosovo’s legitimate authorities. For his part, Berisha, according to the statement distributed by the DP spokesperson, praised the Kosovo Government’s statements on the eve of the Nano-Milosheviç meeting as an important historical record. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Bukoshi, also according to the DP statement, expressed great gratitude to the DP and its former government for the considerable assistance and support this party had given Kosovo, as the statement says.

MAJKO SPEAKS “The Socialist Party cannot be turned into an employment office. I know there are also people who are dissatisfied, but we cannot satisfy everyone; there are 1 million SP voters.” Pandeli Majko, the SP Secretary-General, explains the work his party is currently doing, the internal organization of the parliamentary group and the latest debates over the rules, as well as comments on the Nano-Milosheviç meeting at the Summit in Crete, Greece.

FOOTBALL Fortuzi after scoring the goal (Plator Ilo) Tirana-Vllaznia continue their symbiosis at the top of the standings On pages 10-11

CUNEO - Truffle alarm from Italy. The precious plant, widely used in Western cuisine, is the subject of a protest by its Italian producers in northern Italy. The cause is the competition from Albanian truffles, which arrive in the neighboring country at a price ten times lower. If a kilogram of Italian truffles costs around 2 million lire per kilogram, those arriving from Albania sell for only 50 thousand lire. This has greatly harmed growers, who have therefore reported the matter. This type of plant is in fact among the most popular in foreign restaurants and kitchens, and is consequently very expensive. This could also be a business opportunity for Albanian tourists and restaurants, which would find a worthy clientele among the foreigners passing through Albania.

Nostalgics pay visits from a distance TIRANË - Yesterday was November 8, and the wind was blowing through all the streets of Tirana. Yesterday autumn paid its first visit to all the trees in all the gardens and courtyards, even to the plum tree in the yard of an abandoned house in the east of the capital. Everyone knows that something was born in the house in eastern Tirana. Two and a half Albanians together with an eight-year-old born in the “42-shi” neighborhood, their groups scattered around in various places in a party they baptized as communist. Is this good or bad? It is too soon to determine. The truth one finds this morning is that things are as they have been 97 times at this school, yesterday, the rest without political distinctions, eastern ones that would be political [??] for many years in Albania. In the lane branching off to the right from Rruga e Dibrës, a bar keeps the music volume very high. This has nothing to do with any celebration, but with a curious increase in pensioners who, at all costs, tried to look as if they just happened to be there. One of them even asked about a blacksmith who, according to the neighbors, had not existed in that lane for some time. Unsure whether to leave or not, the pensioner wanders along the lane with confused steps. He was the guard of this house for a long time and knows it better than his own home. He is saddened to see that the house he served for years, although it still bears traces of its former splendor, has only broken windows and unpainted walls; an unpainted wall under the indifference of a dog barking incessantly nearby. For the former owners, November 8 really becomes a day of celebration. “The party was born,” he says. “Which party? The one that created Albania.” The house, symbol of communism, now stands far away beyond some crumbling walls, with a plum tree smiling inside. The house where the Communists founded the party 56 years ago On the first floor, for 9 years, then a truly cheerful house, among people, perhaps [??] failed to demolish because the party was embraced by it? The house where the Communists founded the party 56 years ago. On the ground floor of the ruined lane, where the initials of the two current Albanian political forces have been scrawled in white chalk, placed correctly, one on the right-hand shirt and the other on the left. Between them, a large lock sits enigmatically in the dark. The neighbors say that on the pleasant November 8 nothing much happened, except for a quick-

TV NEWSPAPER FROM SUNDAY WITH MENTOR THROUGH SATURDAY, 15 NOVEMBER 1997 Arjan Kosta in the first volume National festivals “Weeks” for Kosovo Will Smith “falls in love” Our horoscope The actress most beloved by cinema enthusiasts is, according to them, meanwhile among the latest. Ormea [?] so sensational! Ormea [?] cannot be compared today. This day is experiencing in dreams [?] ... Gerard Depardieu, filming? the actress in her film ... for herself on stage, again ... WILL SMITH On page 3

“The SP is not FOOTBALL