On the brink of disaster. A grenade against the giant tanks Bomb-disposal experts alerted. They took 50 minutes to deactivate the bomb and cut the assailant’s wire The explosion of ten tanks containing thousands of liters of oil and gas could have caused an unforeseen tragedy PATOS - The oil-producing area of the city, as well as all the surrounding areas of Patos, narrowly escaped disaster. If a mine placed in the early morning hours near the fuel tanks had exploded, specialists say, an unpredictable-scale tragedy could have occurred. The terrorist act planned by a group still unidentified by the police would have had extremely tragic consequences. Only a report by an employee of the nearby facility and the immediate arrival of the police and bomb-disposal specialists averted the grave incident. A defensive bomb had evidently been removed, and this one, connected to a thin, almost invisible wire, was just waiting for the slightest disturbance by a worker or even a bird to trigger the terrible explosion. It all happened on Sunday morning, when all the oil-sector facilities were observing their day of rest. On page 5

What happened in the corridors of Parliament The truce between the government and the opposition is broken What happened in the corridors of Parliament Rustem Gjata escorted out of his office by police: “I will return” The truce between the government and the opposition is broken Moments of tension yesterday in front of the Constitutional Court (Photo: Hektor Pustina) Police officers and vans to remove Rustem Gjata from his office. Parliament surrounded by police. Godo: “This is a shameful police act” TIRANA - Rusten Gjata is forced out onto the street by the police. The President of the Constitutional Court found himself surrounded by a squad of police officers, who made him leave his office and permanently step down from the leadership of the Constitutional Court. “I will not leave my seat,” Gjata said a few hours earlier at a press conference. According to him, the media campaign pursued to remove him from his office is typically communist, but he will not be intimidated by such blackmail and acts. Along the same lines, and on the offensive, is PD leader Sali Berisha. “An unconstitutional coup,” Berisha said, according to whom PD will respond harshly to such an act. Gjata’s removal from his office yesterday is seen as having reignited the conflict between the government and the opposition, which for days had been in its longest period of détente. On page 3

The Democrats had not set foot there since the bloody March Surprise visit by the PD leader TIRANA - PD freely sets foot in Vlora. Genc Pollo, deputy chairman of PD, visited Vlora on Saturday at the head of a high-level delegation of Democrats from Tirana. It seems that the Democrats’ boycott of the capital of the anti-pyramid-scheme protests has also come to an end. The visit by the capital’s Democratic delegation to the city of protests against PD and Berisha caused no incident. In fact, at the local branch meeting, people chanted in support of Berisha and slogans were shouted against Fatos Nano. The Democrats of Vlora supported Pollo’s repeated calls for a technical government and new elections against socialism. The right-wing leader of Berisha’s party, Genc Pollo, was in Vlora on Saturday, delegated by the Executive Committee to attend the local branch meeting. Pollo’s visit was entirely unexpected and took the party by surprise; even his departure from Tirana was almost confidential. Nevertheless, the head of the Democrats’ parliamentary group freely set foot in the capital of the protests and even in the heart of the city, where he led the meeting of the Democrats of Vlora. Pollo was accompanied by Luan Maltezi, a member of the Democrats’ National Council, one of Berisha’s most ardent supporters, for reasons beyond their shared ideals. Pollo and Maltezi set off from Tirana in the morning and reached Vlora without any obstacle; it was almost midday when they passed through the city center and encountered only peaceful faces. It seems the people of Vlora had forgotten the threats and petitions saying that PD would never come to Vlora. Until Saturday, only a few members of the PD leadership had managed to cross the Mifol Bridge, such as Vjesti, and the Secretary-General Bode, who had played no significant role during the unrest of the previous year. Pollo’s challenge may therefore come as a surprise to the Socialists, who consider Vlora their most fervent stronghold. By contrast, PS’s Gramoz Ruçi was berated a week ago by his own Socialist colleagues for the coalition government’s ineffectiveness. r.ra

VLORA On page 7

KOSOVO / “Sanctions are needed” TIRANA - The US is hardening its stance toward Belgrade. “We will dramatically strengthen sanctions against Serbia.” The Deputy Secretary of State chose Tirana to issue a clear warning to Milošević. The man representing Albright in the region was content to wag his finger at Belgrade. But there is also a new position from Nano. The Albanian prime minister has ensured that Rugova and Milošević enter talks soon and without conditions. Both interlocutors agreed that the time has come for dialogue to take center stage and for violence to be put aside by both sides. Strobe Talbott arrived at Rinas yesterday and sought out Nano in Belgrade. The senior State Department official did not hesitate to be blunt and to move away from typically diplomatic language. Pleased with the course being followed by the official Tirana, Talbott considered that Albania was taking an acceptable position and was part of the solution, influencing the modernization and restraint of what the Americans might regard as something serious. On page 2

TIRANA - One more person has been arrested in connection with the recent events in Shkoder. “Yesterday, we received the materials concerning one of the people most actively involved in the burning and destruction of February 22,” senior officials of the General Prosecutor’s Office said yesterday. “Yesterday, the Court ordered the suspect held in pretrial detention, upholding the prosecutors’ request.” Gjon Gjekaj, 37, is the latest person detained during the special forces’ wave of searches several days ago. He is accused of armed theft from the treasury bank during March of last year. But, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, Gjekaj faces more serious charges than that. On page 8

EMPLOYEES THROW UP THEIR HANDS: THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO Sex as early as eighth grade Concern at the Ministry of Education TIRANA - The Ministry of Education is concerned about the spread of the phenomenon of premature sexual relations among schoolchildren. The director of eight-year education at this Ministry, Eduard Shehu, says that the phenomenon of sexual relations in the country's eight-year schools has become more widespread. Some surveys conducted recently in many schools have shown that at least 5–8 percent of pupils in eight-year schools have already had sexual relations, while the Ministry of Health says the figure is certainly higher. “This phenomenon is very well known, but what we can do is limited to curbing it, because eliminating it is out of the question,” the director of eight-year schools, Shehu, told me. The Ministry of Education will organize several activities to raise awareness of this phenomenon and combat it, as well as successive surveys and tests to monitor its progress. But that is all, while in schools there are prejudices and the number of children who use drugs [is rising]. Under these conditions, as we find ourselves surrounded by vulgarity and low vices in the very place where people are educated not to indulge in them, two things may have happened in our schools. Either, in its attempt to become as liberal as possible, the school has slipped away from universal moral standards, or, amid a general environment that is increasingly hostile to what is good, Albanian children have begun to feel grown up very early. In eight-year schools, where classes are still held in shifts, where facilities are lacking, having been extensively damaged over the past year, and where even firewood is lacking for the cold Albanian winters, the things that have begun not to be lacking are sex and drugs. Unnecessary for life, but perhaps they are the lost consolation for thousands of Albanian minors who, along with their schoolbags, are sometimes forced to carry a log under one arm for the classroom stove. Finally, they must have little room left for surprise, considering all of this.

TIRANA “The house gang” arrested On page 6

ECONOMY The drachma crisis in Tirana On page 9