In Tirana, the Italian Anti-Mafia prosecutor Vignia: “Your mafia is linked to the Turkish and Italian ones” “In some regions of Italy, Albanian mobsters control drug trafficking, cars and prostitution” Page 2

In the anti-government madness of the last days of the previous year, a smartly dressed man, accompanied by several other officials, was walking from the General Prosecutor’s Office of Albania to the Hotel “Tirana”. It was Pjer Luixhi Vinja, the Italian Anti-Mafia prosecutor. The most protected man in Italy, even more than President Skalfaro, was walking through the bullet-riddled streets of Tirana after a nerve-wracking meeting, without the “forgotten” car that his Albanian friends were supposed to provide. Walking like that, without bodyguards, he did not say a single word until he reached his room. And there was a reason for that. He only needed to think. To think very deeply about what he was seeing and feeling in a country that resembled a man who had fallen out of an airplane and was now in free fall, at the mercy of the winds called usury. On those 500 meters of road beside Hajdin Sejdisë’s pit, the head of the oldest Anti-Mafia organization in the world was reminded of the details of intelligence service reports on Albania. In one of them, as the London press reported, two Albanian ministers were described as the architects of drug trafficking and other illegal trades, in a “gangster state.” Accustomed to the unreal world of mafia signals, Vinja undoubtedly understood that the “forgetting” to provide him with a car meant that Albanian justice had absolutely no intention of cooperating. And to cooperate, in the language of the symbolic anti-mafia investigator Giovanni Falcone, means that a Mafia turncoat decides to cooperate with the state. The Albanian mafia state could not cooperate with the anti-Mafia. A state that, with PD’s signature through “Shqiponja,” legally controlled fuel trafficking by breaking the war embargo in the former Yugoslavia, that controlled drug trafficking through SHIK and the police, and arms and cigarettes trafficking through the Ministry of Defense, had reasons not to cooperate. Vinja arrived a few hours ago, again in Tirana. He is escorted and protected like any other high-ranking personality from friendly countries. He spoke openly with Albanian colleagues, showing them the alarming level reached by organized Albanian crime, not only in Italy. In Milan and Turin there are two Albanian Anti-Mafia offices, while in Tirana this institution is missing. Its opening and the urgent start of its work will undoubtedly be the first sign of the transition from the mafia state to the Anti-Mafia. ALFRED PEZA PD Chairman Berisha yesterday at a press conference near the strikers Photo GENT SHKULLAKU

PD Chairman Berisha yesterday at a press conference near the strikers Photo GENT SHKULLAKU

The National Council elects the new leadership Berisha, T. Shehu outside the PD leadership F 3 The strike continues. PD forcibly sends a van “Autori” Pollo to the prosecutor’s office, F 2 Green light for Albanian-Yugoslav dialogue Nano-Milošević, meeting in Crete F 4 The court passes sentence on usurer Sudja, 5 years in prison for 60 million USD F 6 Health trade unionists one-hour protest Strike at the weapons factory F 13 The decomposed body was that of a 29-year-old Corpse in a sack under the Babrusa bridge F 6 ON 9 NOVEMBER The concert “Projekt Jon” First Collaboration: Ard[it] Gjebrea with “Koha Jonë” READ PAGE [?]

To all respected shareholders of the Arab Albanian Islamic Bank INVITATION TO ATTEND THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING To all respected shareholders of the Arab Albanian Islamic Bank INVITATION TO ATTEND THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING I have the pleasure of inviting all respected shareholders to attend the General Assembly Meeting for the closing of the 1996 financial year. The meeting will be held on 11 November 1997, in Istanbul, Turkey. The agenda will be as follows: 1. Approval of the Annual Report of the Board of Directors 2. Approval of the balance sheet and profit and loss account 3. Appointment of the External Auditor for 1997 and determination of their remuneration 4. Discharge of the Members of the Board of Directors from their responsibilities for the work they have carried out 5. Report of the Religious Council If you are unable to attend the meeting, please fill in the relevant form indicating the name of the person who will represent you and vote on your behalf You will be informed of the exact time and place of the meeting in due course Best regards Ing. Sulejman Al-Kherajji Chairman