Two members of the murderous gang detained. The others are being sought Ministry: it was the work of Gaxhai. Fier objects Clash on the Ballsh road. The blue uniforms fall into an ambush; three are killed FIER - Three police officers from the Ballsh police station have been massacred, while another is in hospital with injuries. Bullets fired by a gang hiding on the national road caused the tragedy. The incident took place on Thursday evening, around 21:30. A short time after the battle—in which the victims had gone out without bulletproof vests and in a vehicle whose windows had been replaced with plastic—large police forces patrolled the road in search of the killers. One of them was found wounded and questioning began immediately. Several suspects were taken to the police station and are being investigated in connection with the incident. Four perpetrators of the crime have been identified and two of them detained. Sources at the Ministry of the Interior identify Gaxhai as the perpetrator of the crime, but local police chiefs rule out this possibility, blaming a gang known in the area around Ballsh. A day that should be forgotten as soon as possible On page 5

Fatos Baxhaku Yesterday was one of those days we would wish to forget as quickly as possible. The number of people bloodied on the country’s roads has once again risen alarmingly. Perhaps it was simply a coincidence that bad luck and blood returned so violently to Albanian roads. Perhaps these are the final convulsions of crime, which, like a wounded beast, becomes even more ferocious than usual. We could go on with “perhaps” for a long time... so long that we might tire the reader. What struck us, the journalists, was the high number of victims recorded, with so many bodies and pools of blood strewn across the scene... Three police officers were killed last night while carrying out their various duties in the fight against masked gunmen. The grim reaper was not content with that. On the other side of the country, on the icy slopes of Kukës, a bus plunged dozens of metres down a ravine as it attempted to connect Kukës with Shkodër. In Vaqarr, very close to the capital, three people were found massacred in the courtyard of a house. The bloody toll of yesterday as a whole was tragic: at least 14 dead. Regardless of anyone’s personal or political sympathies, and regardless of old or new grievances, each of us, in the few spare moments available, has asked: why is it like this? Why does brutal violence refuse to leave this country, which has suffered from violence even before its recent past? How can this wave of crime be stopped—not only by politicians, but by all of us together? After thinking hard, many of us have realised that giving an answer is not so simple. [Column continues above and in the side text:] ... with organised crime, which they have encountered from the outset... Let those who should be the first to answer this question do so. In these days... we would very much have liked to transcribe the messages that the people of Renit have for everyone to hear during these difficult days. We have done so and will continue to do so, because we consider it our duty. But sometimes we are also reminded of unpleasant things, such as the abrupt hang-ups and the unpleasant messages that come with them. Not many days ago, one of the most important figures in the fight against crime, perhaps the most important one in that role in Albania, sent us such a signal: “Be careful with the headlines; you’re painting reality black.” After that we heard only the “beep-beep” from his disconnected phone, and felt bad, almost like people who remain powerless in the face of crime. We had tried only to do our job and had received an insulting response. Now, seeing what is happening in Albania, we believe we were right. There is so much crime that it is difficult for the state alone to confront it, and even more so for the Ministry of the Interior alone. Crime can be confronted only by a healthy public opinion opposed to it. That is why sometimes we need to write “blackened headlines.” Only in this way can we all fight together, journalists first and foremost, our worst scourge—the one that continues to take human lives. This concerns our blackened professions.

KUKËS / Tragedy on icy roads. Students among them

A new clash between the two rivals is expected. Pëllumbi: I will speak differently at the Conference TIRANA - Nano-Pëllumbi, or a clash foretold. “I will speak differently at the Conference,” the Professor declared yesterday, saying that his position remains the same as in the open letter, but that he may adopt a harsher tone. Although he does not wish to make any further comments, Pëllumbi adds that his stance will depend on the situations that arise at the Conference. Meanwhile, Nano has made yet another recent move. The professor’s name was missing from the list he submitted to the Socialists of new members for the General Steering Committee. Sources within the SP say this was a deliberate move by the leader, who seems likely to receive Pëllumbi’s counter-response today. On page 3 SOCIALIST PARTY OF ALBANIA • 1991

BREAKING NEWS GJIROKASTËR - A powerful explosion shook the city late at night. Two modern venues were badly damaged, while there are still no reports of casualties. Police sources say that a large quantity of explosive—whose amount has not yet been determined—was placed at the intersection of the roads connecting Sarandë with the city of Gjirokastër. The damage also affected several buildings near the venues belonging to Hari Balloma and Spiro Dralo. It is thought that one of these two may have been the attackers’ target. The explosion occurred at 21:55, and the police rapid-response unit, together with experts, went to the scene, but by late night nothing had been learned about the identity of the perpetrators.

KUKËS/ Tragedy on icy roads. Students among them KUKËS — Tragedy in Kukës. A passenger bus plunges into a ravine and four of its passengers lose their lives. The horrific [sic: people] are injured and are in the hospital in the northern city. 7 are in a coma. Among them are students. The journey began as it did every day, as it had for the past 20 years for the driver, Shaban Pashku, 48, without knowing that this time fate had a terrible tragedy in store for him. He waited at the bus station square for the passengers who were to travel to Shkodër yesterday. It has been very cold in Kukës these days, but it has not snowed. At this time of year, the roads are covered only with ice, very dangerous for vehicles, but Pashku, with his long experience of travelling in these parts, is not frightened by this. On page 6

Fest ’97 TIRANË — “Will they sing ‘live’ on the third night or not?” This is, we believe, the festival’s biggest question mark. The angels some time ago in the press, but also much discussed among the artists’ cliques even on the day before the live night, we cannot say anything with certainty. Music lovers have grown tired of seeing the singers’ faces as they manage only to perform on stage, while others have taken care of their voices. Perhaps the empty rows of seats in the hall speak to the audience’s boredom ... On page 4

THE HOTELS’ MOUNTAINEER TIRANË — Not infrequently, but three times a year, one man becomes the focus of attention of the entire “Skënderbej” Square in the capital. He is the window cleaner of Albania’s tallest building, the 15-storey “Tirana” hotel. People stop in the middle of the street and, looking upward, praise or criticize, as the case may be, the courage or stubbornness of this man, who from a distance looks like a real hero of the heights. They call him Lulëzim, and he is just a former mountaineer who has found the modern version of his profession: cleaning very tall buildings. A father of four, 43 years old and a first-class cleaner, Lulëzim says that if he keeps working for another ten or fifteen years, perhaps he will manage to get a small apartment for his poor family. He is constantly reminded of the clause in his work contract that requires him to do a thorough cleaning of the hotel’s glass façade every four months. For this, he receives 100,000 new lek per session. “From up there the world looks less dangerous and more humane than it really is,” he says, inviting you to have a coffee. In his physique, standing over two hundred centimetres tall, there is something of the legendary heroes of the region he comes from. In distant Tropojë there are no tall buildings, and the towers there do not have many windows. So, ten years ago, Lulëzim was forced to move with all his belongings to Tirana, where, after several years of unemployment, he managed to find the promised land. Kavaja Street gives him a measure of what is coming. “Another skyscraper is going up there,” he says, and that means another possible workplace for him. The tourists’ camera flashes from the seaside and the hotel’s luxurious rooms no longer distract him, nor do the old ropes and belts he uses to hang from the tall roof terrace stir the fear he remembers wrestling with “the first time.” A complete cleaning of the hotel windows takes him a week; he spends that week swinging from one window to another, while the people he sees below let out shrill cries and get frightened. “It has happened that I’ve heard people commenting about me while I was coming down to take my lunch break,” says the man who gets along most easily with the birds, and for a moment his face takes on an expression as if to say: “In fact, things aren’t all that complicated.”

The third night: “live” or not?