“The PD government sold arms, but through customs” TIRANA—The arms-trafficking case has been reopened. Zhulali accuses Teta of smuggling. “When Përikli Teta was Minister of Defense, the weapons and ammunition did not pass through customs, and any goods that do not pass through customs are called contraband,” the former Minister of Defense accused his successor in the post in an interview given to TVA. The politician, who served as Minister of Defense for five consecutive years, throughout the period of PD government, has stated that the companies to which Teta ordered arms to be sold did not have any of the documents or licenses required for such a business. But he refrained from saying whether or not Teta had benefited from this affair. “As long as I have no proof, I cannot accuse Mr. Teta of having or not having benefited from the sale of arms.” On page 9

Assassination after the France-Brazil match Rrem Haka executed Massacre in Tirana, 4 killed Muharrem Haka was executed. The bullets also took the lives of three other people accompanying the 29-year-old from Nikla. Near the “Qemal Stafa” stadium, the killers ambushed the victim’s car. The bullet barrages also killed Ilir and Luan Dalipi and Alfred Tusha, all three from Tirana, while a child who was in the car survived after receiving medical assistance. To make sure, the killers fired at Haka a second time, which led investigators to pursue the theory of a planned execution targeting the well-known figure following the murder of the two Neziri brothers. On page 4

“The government must be cleansed of sinners” Agolli: These [dja[j]] who persecute Albanians... 1. The largest opposition party left Parliament a week ago. The Socialist Party did the same two years ago. Do you agree with boycotting as a way of conducting opposition? 2. How do you view the recent clashes within the Socialist Party over corruption? 3. What do you think of the World Bank’s data, which rank Albania as the most corrupt country in Europe? 4. What should the Prime Minister of Albania do to fight smuggling? 5. What are our shortcomings as Albanian citizens, perhaps out of spite or ill will, in relation to the national question? DRITERO AGOLLI 1 There are particular historic moments; we have experience. In the years when the opposition party’s MPs boycotted Parliament, the PS also used to make statements, month after month. Today it is necessary. This does not work with those mistakes. Mistakes lead to more mistakes. The PD, with its mistakes, falls into an abyss and gives a weapon Dritëro Agolli

INTERVIEW/Boycott by the PD, threats of arrest, political vendettas... Daan Everts: Let the law decide about Berisha The OSCE ambassador speaks from his vacation TIRANA—The Bible seems to have become Everts’s last resort for calming the quarrels in Albanian politics. “The Bible says that people should not take revenge,” the OSCE ambassador quotes from the holy book, speaking from New York. The PD’s departure from Parliament and a possible request by the Prosecutor’s Office to lift Berisha’s immunity are the two main points of a telephone interview that the “voice-fixer of Albanian politics” gave to the newspaper. On page 3

GAZETA VLORA—Customs is holding the trucks and ships of traders who were in debt from the previous year. In recent days, the Vlora customs office has detained six trucks and one ship carrying various food products belonging to several traders who, during 1997, had failed to pay a substantial part of their customs duties. On page 7

Mytfinia: The two Egyptians taken by the CIA in Tirana belong to a dangerous sect

There are particular historical moments when a boycott of Parliament by the deputies of an opposition party is essential. This is part of the political struggle for high ideals or for a major national cause. But in the case of today’s boycott of Parliament by the PD, or of some of the boycotts it has carried out over the past year, we have instead seen a descent into a naive political uprising and perhaps an unrestrained passion for disrupting the choice in Albania, bringing about another social and political chaos so as to create the conditions for taking power again. We must be more reasonable. Power cannot be won by these forms of boycott after the PD’s five-year reign of ruin. The people’s memory is fresh: the destruction of the state and its administration, its ministries, the army, the courts and prosecution service, the economy and culture. Let us suppose for a moment that this destruction was caused by the “Reds.” Fine, let us accept that. But you, the Blue power, how did you allow the “Reds” to ruin the state? Was this state so rotten? Even if that were so, it is the fault of those who did not know how to build a strong, modern state with an honest, serious, contemporary administration, free of corruption and not subservient to local chieftains. Today, after a year, you have no moral right to pose as an “angel” and boycott the devils in Parliament. First take the time to drive the bogeyman out of yourself, then deal with other people’s devils. The PD would do better to boycott its own chief devil first, and then the devils of the other parties—and that only after it has also spent some time in the Cisterns of Time, when many bad things have been forgotten. We have been living in a pluralist society for seven years. We should have become accustomed to living in this society. We still think as we did in its first year, when we had no experience. In the early years, the PS also made mistakes, keeping Parliament in session month after month. We cannot proceed with those mistakes today. One mistake leads to another. The PD, through its mistakes, gets itself into a bind and hands weapons to its political opponent. Thus, at the last meeting of the National Council, some stood up and said that the deputies’ mandates should be burned in “Skënderbej” Square and that arms should be taken up to fight. Then the political opponent has every right to reply: “You are used to burning things. Now you have nothing left to do but burn your mandates, too. You opened the arms depots to arm yourselves and keep Kalashnikovs for occasions like this boycott.” Do you see how you yourselves fall into a trap by using outdated methods in the political struggle for power? The recent clashes within the Socialist Party show its concern and demonstrate that these profoundly anti-popular phenomena are being fought. This proves that the PS has a strong civic conscience and demands honest, modern governance without corruption or political prostitution from its own officials in power, if they have truly undertaken to advance Albania. The Socialist Party cannot remain indifferent to corruption. It supervises its officials in power and, as surely as one and one make two, will expose the corrupt and hold them accountable not only politically but also criminally. It does this, too, to preserve its honor and authority as the most progressive political and social force. Those senior state figures who have been caught up in a scandal in the eyes of Albanian public opinion will also be discussed in the PS forums, and they will be asked to explain themselves. The PS is not the PD, which does not have

The two Egyptians taken by the CIA in Tirana belong to a dangerous sect The Muftiate: to a dangerous sect Elbasan, a camp for Islamic soldiers SHIK: They wanted to give the Kosovars’ war a religious dimension to a dangerous sect The two Egyptians were preparing Islamic camps in Elbasan. The project they had devised during their two years in central Albania has been uncovered by SHIK in this city; the Egyptians are accused of terrorism. They wanted to train young people from Elbasan and then send them to the Kosovo war. Their aim: to give the struggle for Kosovo’s liberation a religious line. The Muftiate of Elbasan also confirms the existence of a dangerous sect in the city: “They are fundamentalists, faithful followers of Muhammad, who swear an oath unto death.” According to professors at the Turkish college in Elbasan, the two Egyptians were seen moving around the college and meeting with 3–4 young people who later disappeared.

THE MOTION SUPPORTERS READY FOR A FIGHT Today the PS rebels against Malaj PS headquarters On page 2

WORLD CUP SPECIAL FRANCE ’98 Ronaldina On page 2

DURRËS — Northern arms traffickers have entered the Durrës market. People involved in selling Albanian weapons intended for Kosovo fighters, faced with a shortage of their “goods” in the northern areas, have now arrived in Durrës and the surrounding villages. On page 8

SHKODËR — Five months after Shkodër Municipality was dismissed in the absurd February of this year, Mayor Bahri Boriçi describes the conditions in which he works. Ten people in two offices, under the Prefecture’s oversight, handle the problems of the 100,000 residents of the largest city in the North. On page 6

Durrës women for

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