The Deputy Speaker of Parliament assures: We seek only political accountability TIRANA - Namik Dokle sheds light on the mystery surrounding the report of the Investigative Commission. “We will not penalize Berisha; that is for the Prosecutor’s Office to do,” said the Socialist Deputy Speaker of Parliament yesterday, one day after he had accepted in session the presence of lawyer Ngjela. Dokle struck a notably moderate tone yesterday when he declared that the Socialists were less interested in criminal proceedings against former President Berisha than in issuing a moral and political reckoning for him over the crimes and the destruction of the state in March of last year. According to the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, there will now be a debate session between the MPs who asked questions and the members of the Commission, after which the report will be put to a vote. Dokle is convinced that there will be no problem securing the MPs’ votes in favor of the version of the report presented in Parliament in recent days. But would the approval of this report mean the start of criminal proceedings against former President Berisha, now the opposition leader? Dokle says the parliamentary report has nothing to do with the initiation of any proceedings, but rather with establishing the political and moral responsibilities of that political force, he said, which had directly instigated and contributed to the unrest. “The Prosecutor’s Office has been free to continue its work,” the Socialist Deputy Speaker of Parliament stressed. For Dokle, this means that the specialized bodies should not be influenced by Parliament’s report. On page 3

To stop the KLA, they block the paths used by refugees Nano: From today, the airports are at NATO’s disposal The government sends a super-team to Tropojë. Air exercises begin on Sunday Transporting KLA weapons into Kosovo (Photo: ANSA) Transporting KLA weapons into Kosovo (Photo: ANSA)

BASHKIM GJERGJI At the Prishtina bus terminal, 38 people are getting ready to leave, most of them women, elderly people and children, and only 3–4 young men. B.Sh., a journalism student, describes his journey from Prishtina to Tirana, not leaving out many details concerning the reactions of his friends and other students at the school. For many people in Kosovo today, such a journey is considered an adventurous undertaking that could cost dearly. It is not simply a matter of fear, but an inability to predict what might happen at Han i Elezit or at other crossing points, where the Serbs have deployed large forces and may at any moment raise their weapons or open the doors of the station (the police station). Yet student B.Sh. and the others (who are particularly in the sights of the police and military) seem to be luckier. “In Kacanik, at the place called Singapor, in Viti or Han Elez, there are passport checks. They checked us too, but there was no noticeably harsh reaction. Perhaps it was because we were leaving Kosovo. The only questions were: Do you have documents? Are you going to Albania? Has your family fled the war? And after our answers, the police officer added with a smile: You haven’t taken anything with you.” These questions, which remind many Albanians across the border of the so-called “informative interviews,” would be repeated somewhat differently at the Macedonian border post. Are you fleeing the war? After the travelers firmly replied that they were going to Tirana to visit or settle their elderly family members there and would then return to Deçan, Junik or the other combat zones through Albania, the police officer from the neighboring state insisted on finding out what it was like “up there in the North.” As he checked the passports and the few belongings of people exhausted by physical and psychological strain, without changing his expression or his monotonous tone, the state employee said, as if carrying out a duty: “That’s how it should be; it’s better to leave the country.” The journey, which the student and the others would like to describe in great detail, has another striking moment. Tetova is the stop for resting and eating. But the restaurant where the bus operated by the BELI company had stopped had music and paintings, as well as folk dances and even money thrown to the best dancer, with bills stuck to her forehead. Such a scene, long forgotten in Prishtina and in other towns in Kosovo, was on full display, not to mention the anger of the exhausted travelers. Perhaps one should ask the restaurant owner about this behavior, but whom, when...

MARASH HAJATI In Tirana, in the center of the capital, above the colonnades of the Palace of Culture, a large banner has been erected, all in black. It bears the words: ‘One nation, one position’. Kosovo is not mentioned on it, but the thousands of people from there who cross these streets every day know that those words belong to Kosovo, to our brothers who were once again forced to take up arms to defend their land, their homes, to defend their lives. Those words belong to all of us Albanians, wherever we are and however many of us there may be. Kosovo is a name history does not easily forget. Its life is synonymous with war. It is not Bosnia, divided within its territory into Muslim, Serb and Croat principalities. It is Kosovo, a unified sovereign entity, with Albanian lands and Albanian inhabitants. The boundaries of the war Serbia has imposed on it for centuries are not lines on maps or stones marking borders. The invader has brought the fire of war right to their hearths, their kitchens, the mouths of their wells and their schoolyards. Today it strikes with artillery and bombs with aircraft everything that stands, wherever it takes its fancy: in Skënderaj, Deçan, Pejë or Gjakovë. But it does not consider itself victorious. More than anything else, these wars have given rise to a sense of loss, a feeling that is powerful in Kosovo and its struggle. It has never stopped fighting. It is another matter that its courage and nobility lead it to take up arms only when its patience is exhausted. Although it is now burning in the flames of Serbian chauvinism, it has the courage not to be afraid, not to lose its bearings, not to lose hope and faith that the word is stronger than the bullet, that the words of those who love life more than the concrete-wielding men who command the war will force Millosheviç not only to withdraw from this shameful war, but to sit down for talks without preconditions and accept their wishes. Millosheviç is the enemy of peace. Ever since he came to power, he has held nothing but fire in his hands. He set the former Yugoslav republics ablaze on the shores of the eastern Adriatic. He reduced Bosnia to ashes. Now, before it is too late, the fire must be taken away from him, along with the hand that wields it. He owes this to hundreds of thousands of people. Kosovo is asking for help not because it cannot defend itself, but because this fire could engulf the Balkans. History will judge us harshly if this help, which is being considered everywhere in the world, does not reach them

On page 4 TIRANA - The Serbian-Albanian border is being mined. Engineer units began yesterday to lay explosive devices along the entire neutral line. According to observers at our posts, all the paths at Qafë-Prush and Morinë, previously used by refugees to cross the dividing line, have been blocked. The work of the Serbian soldiers continued throughout the day along the neutral line. The Serbs’ latest move has aimed to block the KLA’s links with the other side of the border. Yesterday, too, there was no major influx of refugees after the crossing routes were blocked. It is learned that mines have also been laid in other areas further inside the border, in places abandoned after the Serbian bombardments. On page 2

The joy of the French after the goal FRANCE TRIUMPHANT THREE TIMES On pages 10–11 THE SHKODRA GAZETTE Prosecutor’s Office: Shkodër was burned by UDB agents On page 6 THE VLORA GAZETTE “EkspoVlora ’98” kicks off; half the companies are missing On page 7 THE DURRËS GAZETTE The sunken ships will soon be raised from the seabed On page 8

After the accusations against him and Dokle. The Tirana Prosecutor’s Office objects TIRANA — Majko and Dokle are calling for the names of politicians entangled in the pyramid schemes to be made public. The request from the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and the PS deputy chairman came after accusations in the press and from the opposition that they had appropriated money from the pyramid schemes. “We officially asked Arapi to release the list of politicians implicated in the pyramid schemes,” the PS secretary-general told “Gazeta Shqiptare”. For his part, Arapi has stated that, at least so far, his lists do not include the names of senior politicians. On page 9

BURREL — “An attack because of his official duties,” police reportedly said about the explosive attack on the home of the district prosecutor, Ilir Çako. It was 10:10 p.m. when a powerful explosion shook the house where he lived, as well as many nearby homes. Shards of glass flew all around, while people froze for a few seconds. A few minutes later, law-enforcement forces arrived at the scene. This is the third attack against law-enforcement personnel, and yet the perpetrators remain a mystery. On page 6