The Rexha brothers are shot in Durrës. The ’86 story returns The two brothers who carried out a failed assassination attempt against Ramiz Alia back in 1986 were killed on Saturday evening near Shijak. Nebi Rexha, 55, and Veli Rexha, 47, fell in a hail of automatic-gunfire. They had served five years in prison for a failed but highly publicized assassination attempt in 1986 against the head of state at the time, Alia. One of the brothers, Nebiu, has meanwhile managed to survive and is currently in critical condition at the Military Hospital. On page 17

OPINION Can the Constitution be implemented? Mirosh SAKO The adoption of the Constitution laid the foundations for creating a legal system in line with European standards. This will be a guarantee for building a state governed by the rule of law, but it is not everything. The need to create a legal consciousness, in terms of its requirements both for lawmakers and for those who implement the law at every level of the justice system and public administration, is an imperative that the new society will face. The most direct way to create this new way of thinking and acting is to free the parties from the party-state concept. In modern constitutional law, it is understood that parties across the entire political spectrum must recognize that their ties to the state consist solely in their relationship with the legislature, through which they secure, by legal means, the implementation of their programs, in which the interests of the electorate they represent are protected. In turn, adoption of the Constitution must have its effects on reforming the parties’ mentality, so that from now on they see their ties with the electorate in terms of the interests they will defend through their programs—programs from which the electorate benefits directly or indirectly through the tax systems offered, social assistance, healthcare, public order, education, etc. In this context, reforms in public administration are to be expected, making it capable of meeting the requirements of the law, staffed by knowledgeable personnel with a sense of responsibility toward their duties, rather than temporary party activists and sympathizers. This would stabilize the administration, increase the effectiveness of its lawful action, and directly help strengthen public order, which is not solely the responsibility of the police. Without an administration with a professional culture supported Continued on page 3

The Shkodër MP Topalli meets Albanian prostitutes in Italy. During a recent visit to Florence, Italy, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Jozefina Topalli, went out onto the streets of the city and spoke at length with some of the girls and women from her country who were forced to sell their bodies across the Adriatic. “I personally met some of these women, and they told me more or less their painful stories. On page 16

THE APPEAL OF HOPE “Now, a more tolerant policy toward Albanian refugees who will knock on the western shores of the Adriatic,” declared Italian Prime Minister D’Alema during his visit yesterday to a refugee camp. On page 10

HOW CIVILIZED WE ALBANIANS HAVE BEEN On pages 12–13

DECEMBER 8: THE MOVEMENT THEY DREAM OF REPEATING On pages 4–5