BLOOD FEUD / The girl who avenged her father. Police: She did the right thing MAMURRAS - At her father’s coffin, she swore she would avenge her dad, and three months later, with a hail of automatic gunfire, she killed Fran Fufi and his 6-year-old son. This is the sad story of Entela (or Ela, as everyone knows her), a 13-year-old from Mamurras, who spent days with the law of the Kanun on her mind. Even sadder is the story of her family—her mother, Lubjana, and her three little brothers—who are now trying to escape the blood feud. After buying an automatic rifle, she had gone several times to the front of Fran Fufi’s house, but did not shoot because he always had his little boy beside him. On that last day of September, she came back from work as usual, at around 3 p.m. Together with her mother, she had met the daily quota by shelling beans and had earned her usual 250 lekë. For 13-year-old Entela, life had changed after fifth grade: she had been forced to leave school in Mamurras and work to support the family. On page 12 Entela Miloku’s two grandmothers (Photo: Hektor Pustina)

The Prime Minister changes course On page 3

BARDHYL MINXHOZI The exact number is not known of those who, throughout their recent lives, have held positions of responsibility and sought to improve their prospects in various ways. Thousands upon thousands of others leave legally. Hundreds have been convicted during this period for seeking a better life or daily survival. It has been repeated by everyone that the desire to leave is not going away. Every individual is responsible for supporting their own family. They are not concerned with what makes this country unsuitable to live in. They are not very concerned about unemployment rates, political or otherwise. They struggle for their family and answer to their children. They seek, at all costs, to live wherever possible, if society here has left them any opportunity and has fully raised them. This is not what is called the free movement of people. Statistics say that in the countries of the European Community only 5–6% of citizens work outside their own country. The reasons for this phenomenon are clear and need no comment. We have all become immersed in purely political discussions. For years we have said that the only proper solution is a political one. And in fact, it seems that all political forms have been tried: a Government of Stability, a Technical Government, a Government of National Reconciliation, etc. It is a game played on a contested field, where every solution is regarded as a victory for those in power. This effort to win has left us with just one principle: Politics first, politics above everything! In reality, politics should be—and should have been—in the service of the individual. Those individuals, regarded by the few fighters in the political class merely as a way to benefit a limited group of people, leave in despair in inflatable boats, risking their own lives and those of their children. Those who cannot leave live amid countless dangers posed by others and are under extraordinary stress. I believe the president finds it difficult, if not impossible, to explain the phenomenon that is happening in this country, where schools struggle not to close every six months, where people are killed every day, and so on, and so on. We are ready to believe in a fate determined in the past that cannot be changed. Indeed, foreign visitors, after staying in Albania for two weeks, ask: “Is Albania at war?” In some cases they say: “You see something happening in Albania, because we are all in Albania.” And people continue to risk the economy, discussing various kinds of figures without including some modern measures such as GDP, inflation, privatization, etc., and without clearly setting out the prospects for our economic development. These dozens of imported terms make the country seem well supplied. Meanwhile, citizens do not seem to realize that very few people understand these academic terms. People want to know whether there will be jobs, whether there will be security, whether schools will receive assistance and stay open. Since 1991, we have been talking about profound economic reforms and the mass privatization of the economy. Then one day the leader is in the media, trying to tell us that it has supposedly been privatized. The bitter irony of our reality is that for years we have been eager to call for making Albania attractive to foreign investors. And for years we have forgotten even to say: let us make Albania a more appealing place for Albanians. How can a foreigner come and invest in this country, with institutions so weak and so many problems to endure? It is truly hard that even after seven years of transition we still live in the hope that someone will give us something—whoever that may be. And not only that: this aid and support are openly exploited for political interests. Meanwhile, as foreign investors leave, foreign lawyers come to help Albanian emigrants with money and their situation so they can stay in the country, taking away even the little money other people have. Looking back at the minds of 40 years ago, when some countries enjoyed astonishing economic growth for several decades, three things emerge around two key factors: first, there can be no economic growth without exports, regardless of economic stability; and second, there can be no future without investment in school and vocational education. It is even said that political stability is not the issue, but it is clear that political stability is not just a thing in itself, but also depends on political combinations. Political stability cannot exist alongside such a low level of national economic development. The pyramid schemes were selfish and created a political stability that collapsed in 1997. The recent example of Russia likewise clearly shows how politics is shaken when growth fluctuations exceed their limits. As for us now, at the height of an economic and political crisis, I think there is no competence. Let it ...? It fights for one person, even ... strong imperial ...! When in fact the opposite should happen. This means a great deal, and nothing less than the existence of a freer economic and financial system, with genuine, honest rules. In these conditions, in Albania, political forms and Albanian parties have taken shape, whether they are in power themselves or have other ideas and have been put in their place. In this way, the only thing is timely, despite successive political concerns, and also for integration in the Balkans. The Albanian state is to help build the economy, although one thing is very strange: Albania still has a great deal of fear. When one looks at it to the end, it is politically true that Albanians and the Albanians of Kosovo will ultimately be driven away by violence because of Serbian policy. On page 9

“The hole Gjinushi dug for his building, we will fill” “The unlicensed kiosks belong to police officers” But the head of the Tirana Municipality does not name names TIRANA - “There are also kiosks erected without permits that are owned by senior police officers in the construction sector.” The sensational statement came from the mouth of Tirana’s mayor on Saturday, as he responded to several statements by the police the day before, according to which the Tirana Municipality was the obstacle to demolishing illegal buildings. “I say that the real obstacle lies within the police itself, which cannot demolish illegal buildings when some of its own members own unlicensed kiosks,” Brojka said, adding that he did not want to name specific people because there were many of them and they reached right to the top of the pyramid. On page 5 Ceka: Majko is not Nano’s tool. On page 2 Angjeli in the USA: Let the IMF bless us On page 9

DURRËS NEWSPAPER The Durrës man wounds the American On page 7

SHKODËR NEWSPAPER Teachers strike over wages On page 6

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Kofi Annan: Now the Security Council must decide On page 8

“Well done to the granddaughter who killed the blood-feud killer” Entela Miloku’s two grandmothers (Photo: Hektor Pustina)