“She spied...”, but the court awards her two years’ salary The secret files of SHIK have been discovered. New heads of the Secret Service have found documentation of the wiretapping of meetings and telephone conversations of opposition figures. Some time ago, Klosi dismissed his predecessor’s secretary. The man belonging to Gazidede was found to have opened five secret files on people with immunity, violating the service’s rules. The “lady of secrets,” promoted to the rank of first captain in the intelligence service, has thus been left out in the cold. The latest incident has apparently confirmed the opposition’s longstanding complaints about SHIK’s microphones. Klosi recently admitted that the former secret service’s activities had exceeded its authority by spying on important people. On page 4

It is still too early to answer the question of how to avert the threat of anarchy, which suddenly triumphed in the events of March 1997. Meanwhile, the population is still entirely armed with automatic weapons, while political tensions, political conflict, and social problems are moving in almost the same direction. The Albanian political class apparently does not want to understand that compromises, as an instrument for overcoming divisions in governance, and pragmatism, as an active philosophy in politics, are ultimately the tools proven most successful in advancing Western societies over this past half-century. It is understandable that emerging from an extremely violent totalitarian system after fifty years, and remaining in a state of poverty, naturally requires considerable order and great persistence throughout Albanian society to make progress. Above all, if we are unable to understand this, then we are also unable to understand the difference between a revolutionary court that emerges after an overthrow and state violence, and a parliamentary commission of inquiry, which is a continuation of the oversight of a state established and maintained through powers formed and removed by free vote. Therefore, in view of this, given that the state and its system are still those that emerged from the free vote of March 1992, it is clear that any individual grievance, any violation or abuse committed against a particular individual by the state or its institutions, must legally be an individual lawsuit brought before the judicial authorities in accordance with all procedural rules. Anyone who has understood a parliamentary commission of inquiry to be a revolutionary court is mistaken. If we are faced with serious events that have suddenly beset society, and with the sudden disruption of all institutions, it is clear that an inquiry must give us sufficient reason to identify the causes that brought this about. Anarchy never comes as a consequence of natural disasters; as a rule, it arises from the state’s institutional orientation. Therefore, if we truly want to explain how to avert the threat of anarchy, we must draw the right conclusions: on the one hand, how to strengthen the state institutionally, and on the other, how to discipline politics firmly so that it moves from a passionate struggle that seeks to use every means to retain political power (or every means to attain power) to a rational struggle, conducted within established legal rules, which must of course always remain inviolable. I believe this is the most reasonable way out of our crisis, which continues to spiral within the constant danger of anarchy, because we have now seen that, after the destruction of public order, society is always ravaged by murder and crime and comes under the control of unscrupulous criminal gangs. To this day, there is not a single precedent for social justice being established through injustice. …[?]. It is understandable that emerging from a violent totalitarian system after fifty years, and still amid poverty, naturally requires a great deal of organization and commitment to achieve anything serious. But time is showing that we still do not want to understand that the state is not the political property of a group of people, and that politics itself, as a struggle, is not passion but reason. In this respect, we are far from having sufficient reason to build our own secure legal system, because today’s political passion is always tied to the appropriation of power, while the individual egoism that characterizes politicians today is exceedingly archaic and wholly uncreative. Within this kind of primitivism, it is clear that the political passion for holding on to power at any cost still has no desire to understand that justice is law, not force. In a democracy, power does not give you the force to violate the law; on the contrary, it gives you the strength to respect it by every means of constitutional or legal reason. But today’s pressures, tendencies toward revenge, or the suppression of [unclear] rooted in primitive origins, seem once again likely to delay the rational stabilization of our society, because politics, once again empowered, shows signs of wanting to settle scores with its opponent without regard for justice and the law. The Parliamentary Commission for the Investigation of the Events of January–June 1997 may also be in such a situation. Ultimately, the January events are events, and the state is the state. The nature of the state cannot be confused with the nature of pro…

An intelligence tip sets the giant security operation in motion Special forces are still searching everywhere for the enigmatic figure Visitors to the “Fiera” and nearby venues are being screened “OWN COMMISSION.” THE ACCUSED DEFEND THEMSELVES TIRANA - Prodi in Tirana amid fears of an assassination attempt. A few words were enough—“Be careful, they want to assassinate the Italian prime minister”—to set the people responsible for protecting VIPs on edge and in a state of anxiety. By Wednesday evening, everything had ended without any problems. Sources at the Ministry of Public Order confirmed to the Gazette that alarm signals had been received a day before the Italian prime minister’s arrival in Tirana, prompting the highest alert for all police and SHIK personnel tasked with protecting foreign and local dignitaries. Although official sources are reluctant to confirm anything of the sort, it was not difficult to detect tension and nervousness among the respective security details and the local police, fully engaged in the operation to protect President Nano. So much so that at one point the previously planned protocol was changed without explanation, and the two prime ministers did not appear at the joint press conference.

Meksi, Shehu and Berisha during the time when they were together at the head of the DP TIRANA - Berisha calls for investigations into the wealth of former ministers. “A parliamentary commission to investigate all former officials and current high-ranking state officials,” Berisha declared at a press conference. This time, the concerns of the DP leader are also directed against people close to him, Meksi and Shehu, as well as against his current rivals, the current Socialist government officials. Berisha’s idea has also been endorsed by one of the leaders of Parliament, Namik Dokle. “There needs to be a clean-hands operation for all politicians,” Namik Dokle, the Socialist Deputy Speaker of Parliament, declared yesterday to Gazeta.

GAZETTE of Durrës DURRËS - Central Albania is coming together in a League. This is the first initiative by the “Durrës” association to establish ties with sister associations in Elbasan, Tirana, and Kruja, with the aim of raising their voices in support of creating a joint League that will unify cultural, political, and economic interests. On page 8

GAZETTE of Shkodër SHKODËR - The story of the criminal police officers’ rebellion before the courts. The Military Prosecutor’s Office has closed the file investigating the incident of 19 January this year. That afternoon, around 15 officers from the criminal investigations sector rose up against their newly appointed chief, Mit'hat Havari. On page 6

PS and PD in the election with one each VLORË — The coastal city continues its battle over the mayor’s preferred candidate. It seems that [unclear] and the fight continues to grow ever fiercer. Other independent candidates have also entered the scene, while the PS and PD have decided to enter the battle with two friends, both well-known and reputable in the city of Vlorë.

The summer risk TIRANA — The cholera alert has shaken the Ministry of Health. In a report to Minister Solis, the director of the Institute of Public Health called for immediate intervention by the ministry, since, according to him, “the risk of a cholera epidemic breaking out is possible.” Nothing can prevent cholera from entering Albania, the report went on, asking the minister to issue an order to all health centers in Albania.

Large-scale exercises soon, and an entire fleet in Durrës LUXEMBOURG — Yesterday, the meeting of the Alliance’s foreign ministers decided on a series of measures concerning its presence in the volatile Balkan region. Military exercises with Albania have thus been planned for the end of August, within the framework of the Partnership for Peace, with the participation of air and ground forces. As part of this partnership, a NATO–Partnership for Peace center will open in Tirana. In parallel, the ministers decided to send part of NATO’s Mediterranean Fleet to the port of Durrës at the beginning of August. NATO has also planned an assistance program to help Albania and Macedonia establish security along their borders. Yesterday’s exercise near Durrës (H. Pustina)

Is he or isn’t he an honorary citizen of the capital? TIRANA — Nikita Khrushov is back on the scene. Albanians have once again turned their attention to a name much discussed in the 1960s and ’70s. The former Soviet leader visited Albania, and so far there seems to be nothing wrong with that, especially since it was the visit of a communist leader to another country that at the time orbited the USSR. But things begin to get complicated precisely in the details of this visit. Many people still remember the famous ceremony in which the Soviet leader planted the tree of friendship, as well as the laying of the cornerstone of the National Historical Museum by him.

Meksi, Shehu and Berisha during the time when they were together at the head of the DP