Where did Skrapar’s 35 tons of gold end up? DOCUMENT/Alimuçaj monitored the tunnel with a bag TIRANA - Where has the state treasury been placed, after being secretly transported from Skrapar in an unknown direction during 1992? Six years have now passed since a super-secret operation made it possible to remove the largest quantity of the state treasury from its permanent location. Buried deep in Mount Tomor in the 1960s, the Albanian state treasury has been surrounded by an unfathomable mystery... which accompanied it until the days when it was moved toward a new destination. Why has the Albanian state remained inexplicably silent for six years, instead of telling its people where the national wealth is? Is the current state able to give an answer as to whether it possesses such wealth or not? On page 11

An intimate account by the Minister of Health INTERVIEW/“My relationship with my wife, at work...” The head of the Ministry of Health, Leonard Solis, speaks about his private life for the first time. The Ministry and official meetings give way to coffee, meals, family, memories of years gone by and, sometimes, even dirty words. He is 1.82 metres tall, weighs 92 kg, is married and has two children; one is a girl who is vegetarian, a rarity in our country. He does not hold back when talking about the difficulties and amusing situations that arise in cafés. Among the few who know how to speak English, he is not afraid of the “amnesty” he grants. “Only the strong know how to speak,” Solis says. Great boldness often turns into “base” pride. The years pass quickly. The pampered child, raised under the care of his parents and unmarried aunt, would, 36 years later, take the helm of Albanian healthcare. On page 8

Prime Minister: Forgiveness is better than punishment Gjinushi: If you want to calm tempers, grant an amnesty Politics exploits Mother Teresa’s anniversary. The opposition in the square without [shari?] TIRANA - Nano announced the release of six people from the DP. Taking advantage of the day commemorating Mother Teresa, and inspired precisely by the figure of the great Albanian woman, the Prime Minister spoke yesterday of forgiving the sinner, who can be none other than Berisha and his people, blamed by a parliamentary report and the Prosecutor’s Office for responsibility for the events of March ’97. “Today forgiveness, not punishment, is the best justice. Today altruism and understanding are strength; they are what is needed. Today, to forgive is not weakness, but strength.” This is what Nano said, although he did not hesitate to respond to Berisha. “In what kind of country does one bury the country?” Nano asked; the reference was clearly to the coffin that the DP leader had placed in front of his house the previous day. Gjinushi, for his part, also touched on the idea of forgiving the six, saying that if one wants to bring about a change in justice, it is done by legal means: an amnesty. On page 3

(An essay on politician-sinners) The deficiency that brings you to power YLLI PANGO I know this will make everyone angry, but this is where all the bad things began, and so, unfortunately, there is no other way for this country to move forward. Months ago, a prominent political figure from the capital pointed out that the distinguished province was defeating the politician or the city, especially in power, and in so doing stated a great truth that seemed very bold for the period and the existing social structure (in fact, we are still 60% peasants in the countryside, and perhaps another 30% or more in the city with roots only recently torn up, still carrying the smell of damp earth). But as soon as the gentleman was given a post, he fell silent, and it seemed to him that everything had been put right simply because a citizen like him had been shown respect for his worth, even though the government had just as many, if not more, masturbat[ors] around it as it did in... [text cut off at the bottom edge] ...taken in class battles, while shouting that it was all meritocratic (by gene) and nothing else. So, gentlemen prime ministers from the capital, please do not appoint ministers who have come down from the mountains. No, gentlemen prime ministers, do not appoint ministers who have never seen anything with their own eyes or who have no connections either, because that is where all the trouble begins, you should know. The former have spent years hating and can hardly wait to take revenge for the humiliation imposed only by themselves and their complexes toward those who have seen and do see. But they also need years to cast off the smell of masturbation and [vrgat?], complexes and ambitions that are not worth... [text cut off at the bottom edge] many others in the city with roots that have only just been pulled up and still that everything had been put right as soon as a citizen like him had his worth acknowledged, even though in government he had taken on just as much, if not more, responsibility as in the other [unclear] that had just gone and would never return. To push the idea a little further or clarify it, this is not so much about the peasant or the provincial, in terms of regional or national affiliation, but about someone who remains uncultivated or insufficiently refined, regardless of whether they come from a village, a province, or elsewhere and live in a town or the capital. And you can find as many such examples as you like, from the very top right down to the endless muddy outskirts of our beloved capital, brutally ravaged this decade by unadulterated provincialism. Nor is this about deeply insulting honest peasants or provincials, who undoubtedly have their own worth and place. But if you examine it closely and ask them themselves, they will be convinced that they are more honest and sincere than the proto-fascist propagandists of the chairman or the provincial [unclear] of the uprising. It is the peasants and residents of small towns who have the city, and even more so the capital, above and before them; they know its worth and aspire to approach it, or at least resemble it. Then why deny that what is good should be expected, or should begin, from wherever things are better or more developed? Or is it to please the broad rural or provincial masses, so they won’t get angry with us—or, even more, so they can feel like masters and as though they were born to rule, as they felt without a doubt in their pockets and amid the mud in the time of the [unclear], who mocked them and did as he pleased, while they ate for him, and he also threw them in prison or drained their lives in the fields or mines. He was the cunning devil and knew how to manipulate them, indulging the foolishness of cowards or punishing the more stubborn ones and those who opposed provincialism. All this is understandable if ... [unclear] and see that they were ... other places from the a post, he fell silent, and it seemed gone and would never return. No, don’t put them first, because, among other things, they are dead set against that job, and they hate it so much, as I understand it, that they say they have been deceived for years—either you ruin your sleep, or later you have to sit beside wrinkled old women for the sake of marital morality, when they can’t wait to betray you and make a mess of you, but the opportunity never comes: “I’ll be damned, I’ll be damned” (that is their quotation). No, don’t put them in, because some of them personally think we considered them patriots and friends, but it turned out they had been waiting for their due for years—not because we had wronged them (oh, how wronged?) but simply because, apparently, they had been our friends only to the extent that a lowly, envious or inferior animal can have friends—or worse. No, don’t put them in the seats of power, because it will take them a few years (or a term in office) to fill their empty or unsatisfied bellies, or to get their hands on some money, to secretly screw some whore or commit some other filth; and after them others will come who will keep screwing Mother Albania, and woe betide us. No, don’t put them in, because we will wait a few more years or decades for the stench to leave the government offices, and their successors will be just the same... Thus, after this exclamation-sigh into deaf ears, with a recent example in hand, we can conclude that by seating Edi Rama in the ministerial chair, Nano is carrying out—perhaps unintentionally—the most interesting experiment ever conducted in postwar Albania: putting on the throne someone who is sated, or at least not starving or deprived, leaving us to hope that he is at least more likely to work for pure idealism, even if in a ministry not exactly adorned with the highest levels of deceitful power.

TIRANA NEWSPAPER Italian pigeons On page 5 DURRËS NEWSPAPER Another trial for the ship “Stefano” On page 7 SHKODËR NEWSPAPER Alarm over illiterate children On page 6

PHOTO DOCUMENT: ALBANIAN MISSILES ON THE MOVE The Albanian army is moving slowly. After the destruction of recent years, our armed forces are being reorgan...

“We can’t afford another March” TIRANA – Minister Malaj says that if Albania is plunged into another crisis, like last year’s, its economy will never recover. “The recent events in Lazarat alone cost Albanian customs 270 million lekë,” the head of the finance ministry said yesterday at a press conference. At the conference, Malaj said that Slovenia had confirmed that all the cigarettes aboard the ship “Lucky Mar” were smuggled, giving the Albanian state the right to seize them.

0–1 against Georgia The national team lost its first match of the season to Georgia. A defeat due more to the result than to the opponent’s merit. “I couldn’t look my devastated teammates in the eye. We lost a match in which all we lacked was luck.” That is all Tare said, but even without his words it was clear that our team played well; in football, though, that is not enough. More than luck, it is your own feet that decide things... On pages 14–15 The specialists in Lazarat

The Albanian army is slowly being reborn. After last year’s destruction, our armed forces are struggling to reorganize. This photograph shows an old Chinese-model truck transporting a modern missile and is the most direct evidence of Albania’s efforts to restore the dignity of its army, which it lost in the bankruptcy of 1997.