New alliances between the Government and the Presidency TIRANA - Islami is moving away from Nano and drawing closer to Meidani. The political debate over smuggling has revived some of the old ties within the governing majority, but it has also brought about high-profile shifts in positions among officials, including some of the Government’s most senior figures and the main party leaders in the coalition. Thus, voices in Nano’s cabinet say there is certainly a cooling-off underway between the Prime Minister and his deputy, Islami, which has brought him closer to the other figure, President Meidani. But this does not mean at all that a cold war of statements has once again begun between the heads of state. On the contrary, relations between them seem to be passing through a calm climate of understanding. On page 2

Special forces: “They don’t keep their promises. Minister Teta doesn’t want to meet us; he’s afraid of us” “ We are being shot at, the Government is betraying us” RENEA on strike accuses: Politicians are exploiting us The protest of the “rambos” reaches Parliament TIRANA - Albania without special forces. As they waited for Minister Teta to arrive, RENEA continued its protest yesterday. At a three-hour meeting attended by all the unit’s personnel, a report was drawn up, which they asked to have read in Parliament. In addition to reviewing the operation in which Elezi lost his life, the special forces raised a series of grievances accumulated over several years, during which those in power had promised a great deal for this unit but had done nothing. And the 60 RENEA men have remained steadfast in their position. After refusing food and their daily training, the special forces have also refused to respond to any alarm that might require their intervention. For three days, Minister Teta has refused their request to visit the unit. [...] “Legjisti and I had each been allocated three and a half million lekë as a reward. I haven’t collected it yet because I didn’t consider it important, but now that they’ve reminded me, I’ll take it just out of spite. Also because I need it. I’m going to Canada to take part in a seminar devoted to the fight against corruption; I am the only representative from Albania,” Ceka said, shedding light on some statements government officials had made about him and the services he was supposed to have received.

INTERVIEW TIRANA - Nertitan Ceka tells the story of the Public Order rewards. yet because they hadn’t considered made by government officials about him and the rewards he was supposed to receive.

ARBEN MEÇE It took the World Bank report and the EU’s statements for corruption to be acknowledged as a threatening reality in Albania. Consciousness and responsiveness to the message of this report notwithstanding, politics reacted in its own way. It took advantage of this element of the report from diametrically opposed viewpoints. It is the right of political sides to manage this phenomenon to their own advantage. But, at the same time, completing a unified front in the fight against corruption is an obligation. In this regard, I believe it is impossible to fight or neutralize this social metastasis as long as corruption is not identified in a timely manner. As long as corruption itself is diluted and lost in the political struggle between competing factions, being inflated or exposed wherever interests clash or coincide. As long as it is reduced merely to personal or factional grudges. We must distinguish corruption as a phenomenon, as a system, from corruption as an offense, as a criminal act. This is a distinction that I believe must be clearly made in order to respond properly to the legitimate concern of the World Bank and the EU. Corruption is not individual, nor is it the work of an individual group. This is the philosophical, legal and institutional foundation of the phenomenon. The specific act is a matter for the competent body to investigate and punish as a criminal offense. The conditions that have been created and so easily exploited are the work of politics; consequently, they are the object of its awareness and of its sincerity in fighting and minimizing corruption. Second, it is politics that appoints the physical detachment, the active vanguard force that directly carries out anti-corruption action. It appoints the police officer, customs official, tax employee, judge, public servant, and so on. It chooses to protect, threaten or neutralize the “disobedient,” the “rebel,” the “nonconformist.” Under the banner of political militancy, there are factions within political groups that organized structures and schemes of corruption in 1992–97. But, by the same logic, these same factions can easily identify and define it as truth today. It is unforgivable that today, when we claim to be building a state, our gratitude should remain underground, and that someone who has lost their job should not have a single legal document in hand to protect them from pressure (and from sequestration). It was right to differentiate wages for thousands as an instrument that should have [...] from corruption as a criminal offense. This is a distinction that, I believe, must be made clearly the BBD and the EU. Corruption is not an individ-ual or a group of individuals. This category is simply “law enforcement officials.” Corruption is: First, the terrain in which these law enforcement officials operate. Second, the instruments that control, surveil and uncover the legal violations. Third, the instruments that enforce the legal provision against those responsible for legality. Fourth, it is an institution organized at the highest level, with a leader, a staff, a philosophy, an ideology and plans. It is inherited, administered through actions and structures by state hierarchs, and continues in “compromise” with new leaders. Its retreat in certain sectors, rather than across the entirety of its philosophical and actual existence, does not mean that there is “no fight,” but rather an attempt to take part in it. From the same perspective, I would also identify the efforts to “create supplementary institutions for investment in, or the fight against, corruption” (mentioning the “Committee of prosecutors” or the “National [Atë ko-mbëtar] etc.”). Albanian, Made in Albania. It is impossible to define clearly the fight against corruption as a whole without unifying the approach on all three of the aforementioned fronts, especially in the political, legal, physical and psychological terrain in which it operates. Politics unquestionably lies at the heart of the discussion. First, it is politics that conceives and structures the formal logistics for empowering corruption. It is politics that controls all state instruments for building state schemes to fight the “metastasis” of corruption. But it is precisely politics that distorts reality from the political rostrum, in an effort to win back the vote it lost in the “corruption” pyramid. It is politics that coexists and silently co-builds, speaking up only in the poorest of cases, when it condemns or distances itself from the “pyramid.” Look at the most varied statements and candidacies which, in the whirlpool of resentments or lack of self-control, create the “perception” (opinion, belief) that the only thing missing from what they say is this bitter key to the fight against corruption. They speak of individuals and smuggling operations, but never beyond personal or clan resentments. that, I believe, must be made clearly of the discussion. If even now the response is, “you did the same thing to us too.” I think that precisely here there should also be moral inspiration, stimulation and encouragement for corrective action. There is no more pleasant environment for corruption than a politically tense environment. Third, politics is the one that sifts out and blocks corruption case files. No one today is pursuing the scandalous matter concerning the 75 files created by the State Audit in the years ’92-’96. Who has them now? Who is being blackmailed, and in exchange for what? Corruption does not begin today, nor did it start today. It has origins, but no birthday. But can it fight corruption, that which inherited it in its name, when the files are “not information, but documents”? I have focused only on this moment in order to address this truly troubling issue. At the heart of the problem lies troubling issue. At the heart of the problem lies

Minister Malaj to “2K”: We refused them a license The first reactions following the Government’s decision to investigate 8 new “pyramid schemes” TIRANA - The Government seems determined to see the borrowing process through to the end. The other eight companies, which the Council of Ministers decided to inspect at its meeting two days ago, will be examined by the Supervisory Group, chaired by Farudin Arapi. “Their inspection will establish whether or not they are pyramid schemes,” Finance Minister Arben Malaj confirms. Fino announced that citizens’ complaints submitted to the Government and the Supervisory Group were taken into account when deciding to place them under inspection. The two cabinet members say that the Council of Ministers’ decision to investigate the finances of seven companies that have collected capital or securities from the public was adopted unanimously. “All 17 members of the Government voted in favor,” Malaj confirms. On page 9

TIRANA — The leaders of the Vlora gangs before justice. Yesterday, the Tirana court ordered the arrest in absentia of Kakami and Gaxhai. Prosecutors have brought charges of forming gangs and committing numerous crimes against the two “terrible” figures of the first months of last year in the coastal city. On page 7

DURRËS — Telekom has decided to ask the Directorate to collect outstanding telephone bills. It has even seized a ship—the property of the Fleet, which is also a debtor—which Telekom will soon sell to obtain the unpaid money. On page 8

SHKODER — Migjeni “takes his place” among the homeless. The unfortunate fate of the great poet, Millosh Gjergj Nikolla, is that his house museum no longer exists. More precisely, the building still existed, but the objects that Migjeni used during his life and which, after his death, became precious artifacts are no longer on display there. On page 6

Brazil sold the final match Ronaldo and Bebeto On page 11

Falcon RENEA special forces have abandoned training for two days, while issuing an ultimatum that they will not take part in any operation until their demands are met. The only unit that truly confronts crime in Albania has risen in revolt against the people who use it according to political changes. This time their anger has reached a peak, and it seems it will be very difficult to change things. The people who live next to Tirana prison have accepted worse conditions than those of others they have faced several times, just to keep their jobs and allow this Government to work in peace. The only response from those in power, apart from cutting salaries, has been silence. Total indifference has taken hold of the Government and the Ministry of Public Order toward the 70 people considered to be close to the unit that confronts crime and gangs. Worried for months under the label of carrying out their duty, the special forces have felt more abandoned than ever. A minister who has been in his chair for only three months has not deigned to meet them, despite a promise made days ago, perhaps not realizing that he has committed an even more serious gaffe for his career. All the people in his own ranks, as well as the person above him, know very well that it was RENEA that saved them in their most difficult moments. Teta and Nano must know very well that the absence on 24 February in Shkodër could have had a different outcome if they had tried and found themselves in the positions of the last two days. If he would only remember this fact, Teta should have dropped everything and hurried to the old building next to Tirana prison. But perhaps the shadow of his chair was more powerful than a meeting with the special forces. The optimistic words senior officials offered the personnel when it suited them, and the assistance they trumpeted, are completely overshadowed by one simple fact: “If the Ministry had not bought an armoured ‘Croma’ car to protect the bosses’ heads, then they could have bought 20 ambulances that would really protect us from bullets, unlike the ones we’ve been given. We put seven vehicles to the test, and only one survived a Kalashnikov bullet.” The officials must surely have done this simple calculation too: protecting their own heads is clearly the wiser thing to do.