The Yeltsin phenomenon is being repeated in Albania What President Berisha is currently doing has precedents in the history of states and governments. The most recent precedent is Russian President Yeltsin. Last year he turned the guns on Parliament, and after that he found himself in a very tight spot. He had to renew his severely damaged power at all costs. To achieve this, he used precisely the path of a referendum on the constitution, which gave Yeltsin power. That is what happened. Is the same thing not happening here in Albania? However, the Albanian president should bear one thing in mind: Yeltsin had the support of the powerful. Does the Albanian president have that too? Pages 3, 4 by Frrok Çupi

French Foreign Minister Alen Zhype said last night that France had set itself the goal, together with Germany, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, of resolving by the end of the year at least one of the problems pitting Greece against three of its neighbors, Albania, Macedonia or Turkey. Asked by Athens’s private television network Mega, speaking from Luxembourg, Zhype stressed that the current situation between Greece and its neighbors “was not sustainable.” “If by the end of the year we manage to resolve one of these three problems, that will mean that good work has been done. This is the goal we have set ourselves,” he concluded. German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, speaking on behalf of the European Union in Luxembourg on Tuesday, expressed the wish that the tense situation between Greece and Albania “give way to a reduction in tension,” following Athens’s renewed refusal to unblock European economic aid earmarked for the country. He also announced that the European troika (currently made up of Greece, Germany and France) would meet in Athens after October 16 and would travel to Macedonia in a new effort to resolve the dispute between Greece and this former Yugoslav republic. Greece, which has imposed an embargo against Skopje since February 16, refuses to recognize a state to its north that bears the name Macedonia, a name it considers exclusively Greek and that is also the name of one of its regions. Athens is also blocking the settlement of the fourth Turkey-EU financial protocol, worth 600 million ECU. (AFP)

Tirana Quarantine in prison to protect against cholera - Prisoners on hunger strike Even the thick walls of Tirana prison have been unable to withstand the monstrous fury of cholera. Cholera has now brought a string of Albanian cities to their knees and spread panic; it has also extended its terrifying grip into the capital’s prison, which for several days has been under strict surveillance by prison authorities. Visits from relatives and the delivery of food by them have been suspended. But the inmates currently serving sentences in this prison, as well as the detainees being investigated for various crimes, have reacted. In protest against the extreme measures taken to protect them from the danger of the dreaded vibrio, they went on hunger strike the day before yesterday. Thus, “a prison within a prison” has been created. Z.D.

Will there be a parliamentary crisis or a political pact? Page 3

Speaking: Kleanthi Koçi, Luan Omari, Fehmi Abdiu, Veli Budo, Dilawer Bengasi and Shefqet Muçi Jurists comment following the proposal for a referendum Page 5

- Defense and verdict today Tirana Page 2