The boy’s frightening adventure from Shkodra toward the Italian shores Only nine years old, he left his home in Shkodra, boarded an inflatable boat in Durrës, and crossed the sea in search of his father, mother, and sister, who had left for Italy a year earlier. The child spent an hour with his feet in the freezing waters of the Adriatic, just a few steps from the shore at Monopoli, in Bari. This was also the torture inflicted by the speedboat driver, who forced him and dozens of other Albanian undocumented migrants to get off the inflatable boat into the water. Nine-year-old Jentlani was found by Italian Carabinieri in a van, almost completely hidden behind the bodies of the other cold undocumented migrants. On page 15

OPINION Teodor Keko Policemen are the most criticized people in Albania today. All the evils are being attributed to these people today: they are thieves, robbers, people who collude and organize gangs, they are criminals... They are the country’s evil. Today I met one of these VAGABONDS, in the Albanian sense of the word, of course. He, a man like all of us, tried to explain to me why this country, along with his family, is suffering so much. I’ll try to explain to you in direct speech what he said: - Here, my friend, there’s only a beginning! A police director is appointed and removed after a month! For a month, there’s no technology to show you how you can start corruption! But that’s not the only problem. I was forgetting that the director needs three months to understand the situation and another three months to start taking action. I don’t understand why those who are dismissed from their jobs don’t hand over the office keys when they’re removed! Everyone is aware that they are appointed for nothing and removed Continued on page 2

“Irregularities in the voter lists” The DP is calling for the referendum to be postponed. The request was made public yesterday by the seven opposition members of the Central Referendum Commission. The opposition’s deputy chair at the CRC, Pellumb Çela, said yesterday that serious legal violations had been established and that, as a result, it was impossible for the referendum to be held on 22 November of this year. The request has also been sent to the President of the Republic, Meidani, the OSCE, the Council of Europe office in Tiranë, etc. “But this request cannot be made conditional on our boycotting the process if it is not taken into consideration.” On page 3

THE RAILCARS Ilir Meta gives a statement to the Prosecutor’s Office regarding the issue of the Austrian railcars. The Albanian Deputy Prime Minister appeared yesterday afternoon at the district Prosecutor’s Office to give testimony regarding what part of the press has called “the railcar scandal.” On page 4

TROPOJE The English charity worker has been wounded. The “Angel of Mostar” was shot on Sunday in the center of Bajram Curri by unidentified individuals. Although a helicopter and Minister Solla himself were dispatched from Tirana, the wounded woman did not wish to make a statement. On page 4

THE TORTURE OF ORPHANS, THE OTHER SIDE OF A DICTATORSHIP On pages 12-13