Government: We will cooperate against terrorism TIRANA - The government will fight corruption by changing the laws. Dozens of changes to legislation and regulatory acts were finalized at yesterday’s government meeting and are included in the package of anti-corruption measures. The removal of minimum prices at customs and changes to fiscal tariffs are the first measures that it was decided to propose to Parliament. Finance Minister Malaj refuses to give details about which goods’ tariffs will change or by how much. “If these changes are made public today, there will be negative impacts on the market,” Malaj told the newspaper. Nano

The leader of the PS reacts sharply to the President’s action “He should not have sent the SHIK law back” TIRANA - “President Meidani should have signed the law on SHIK,” Gramoz Ruçi, the Socialists’ Coordinating Secretary, said yesterday. In his view, the President should show that he is independent and not that he is pursuing clan politics. But, according to Ruçi, he is entitled to return the law only once, just as Parliament is entitled not to take it into consideration. Another conflict between the Socialists and President Meidani. “I see no reason why the SHIK law should not be signed,” Gramoz Ruçi, the PS Coordinating Secretary, told the Albanian Newspaper yesterday. According to Ruçi, President Meidani should understand his institutional responsibilities well and not become an obstacle to the adoption of laws proposed by the majority. The Socialists’ Coordinating Secretary sees no grounds in the newly approved SHIK law that would undermine democracy in Albania.

Fierce battle along the border line. Artillery shells explode The villagers of Padesh respond with gunfire to the Yugoslavs’ attack A stream of refugees from Kosovo. 600 arrive. Among them are 20 wounded KLA soldiers; 3 are sent to Tirana TIRANA - A serious border incident near Padesh. The Albanian Ministry of Public Order announced yesterday that reports coming from a number of villages in the Bajram Curri district, along the border with Kosovo, spoke of a new provocation in the area of border marker C2. From the other side of the border, where Serbian border forces were positioned, shots were fired for around two hours straight toward a number of homes belonging to local villagers. Despite efforts by the Albanian border police to remain calm, from 10:15 until around 12:00, armed villagers from Padesh returned fire against the unjustified Serbian volleys. KLA soldiers in one of the outskirts of Pristina

SKIFTERI Yesterday, as Rugova announced the composition of the negotiating group that will hold dialogue with the Serbs, the KLA for the first time openly announced its political wing, asking LDK opposition figure Adem Demaci to give up his party functions and take on the role of leader of the military organization’s political wing. The KLA also announced that it would not agree to come under the umbrella of any of Kosovo’s political parties, and [to] foreign diplomats, that they are fighting not only for Kosovo’s liberation but also for its unification with Albania and beyond. Even if Rugova limits his demand to independence, there is little chance that the KLA will accept such a thing. Disagreements among the Albanians themselves are increasingly testing the nerves of foreign negotiators, and there is a risk that, after all these efforts, indifference will follow. calling on LDK opposition figure Adem Demaci to leave his party’s would not agree to come under any of the umbrellas of Kosovo’s political parties, definitively extinguishing Rugova and the LDK’s hopes of bringing it under their control and, at the same time, waking up to the need for Albanians to speak with one unified voice. Perhaps, seeing this situation, Serbia’s official information outlets are speaking more and more about divisions within the KLA ranks, about hatred between one another, trying to pour as much fuel on the fire as possible. This is a time when the West and all the international actors involved in resolving the issue are begging Albanians to speak with one voice, while they continue to look more toward one another than toward anyone else. The Contact Group has presented several models for the Albanians to consider, but now the question arises: which Albanians? Rugova’s Albanians or Demaci’s? KLA members have repeatedly stressed this, even calling on LDK opposition figure Adem Demaci to become such a [figure]. Disagreements among Albanians themselves are increasingly straining that, after all these efforts, indifference will set in. Perhaps the KLA fighters were encouraged by the semi-official legitimization extended by envoy Holbrooke when he shook hands with them about a month ago, and perhaps now they hope they can be recognized by the international community instead of Rugova. But the successive losses of territory showed their true strength; therefore, the best legitimization for them would be effective cooperation with Rugova, whom the West, despite his declining reputation in Kosovo, has absolutely no intention of casting aside. All these complications among the Albanian [factors] do nothing but strengthen Millosheviç’s position in the eyes of public opinion, push back the start of negotiations, delay the prospect of a possible military solution from outside, and at the same time exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe that has taken hold persistently in Kosovo.

PRISTINA - Yesterday Rugova announced who would be negotiating with Belgrade, while also calling for unity in the peace negotiations. He also appealed to the opposition parties of Demaci and Qoses to reconsider once again joining a single delegation. Meanwhile, also yesterday, the General Staff of the Kosovo Liberation Army announced the names of its political representatives. It asked the leader of the Parliamentary Party, Adem Demaci, to leave his post and take the lead of its politics, since the army has never wanted to come under the umbrella of any political party. On page 4

Tunnels filled with explosives are at risk FIER/ A prolonged battle with the flames. Police: It was deliberate FIER - The oil reserves at Marinëz were on the brink of disaster. A deliberately started fire, as the police also confirmed, of extremely large proportions threatened the oil decantation sector around midday. The materials being consumed by the fire made the firefighters’ work extremely difficult; they used chemical agents to put out the blaze, which, had it continued for just a few more minutes, would also have engulfed the oil tanks. Several hours later, another fire of similar proportions endangered the lives of soldiers and residents of the village of Vajkan. This time Hephaestus (the God of Fire) apparently seems determined to punish Fier. Fires have been breaking out one after another in this area, where, aside from [unclear: “shtjellave apo qendrave të panjohura”], oil-producing sectors and many important facilities have also been very close to danger. At midday on Wednesday, for the second time in succession, flames struck Marinëz in the oil sector, where the fire spread over an extremely large area.

DURRËS - “Only Parliament, which is now on recess, is keeping the Memia case on hold, and for this reason in September we will ask this institution to consider lifting his mandate.” This is what Durrës Chief Prosecutor Bardhosh Bari said, according to whom this criminal case has currently been policed more than necessary. Among the case files being reviewed by the Durrës district Prosecutor’s Office, eight concern large-scale smuggling; if we include the Memia case, they number nine.

FOOTBALL / APOLONIA DESTROYED On page 11

KLA soldiers in one of the outskirts of Prishtina

“How the city’s port survived over the years” On page 7 Tirana Newspaper The siege of Rinas People under the sun On page 5 Shkodër Newspaper Tragedy on the road 5 people massacred On page 6