Although Majko remains untainted by smuggling, he still is not ruling with an iron fist Page 4 Divergences in the Government, clashes within the SP, and the growing number of dissatisfied members from the Socialist ranks are bringing about a final showdown in the Presidium

Two armed, masked men stopped the bus carrying workers from “Fresh compani” on the Kakavijë road shortly before midnight last night, terrorizing the passengers and wounding the driver. According to the president of the company, Kosta Bezhani, the incident occurred just 30 minutes before midnight last night near the village of Haskovë, about 10 km south of Gjirokastër, and it was only the driver’s courage that saved the passengers from being mistreated and robbed by the masked men. One worker who was present at the incident said that two masked men, warming themselves by a small fire beside the national highway, stepped in front of the bus and began robbing the workers at gunpoint. “The driver grabbed the automatic rifle from one of the robbers, but then a hail of bullets was poured onto him, wounding him in one hand and in the leg,” the witness said. Last night, at this very spot, armed individuals reportedly fired on a car, wounding a citizen whose identity has not yet been made known, according to police sources. In recent days, despite the measures taken by police to monitor the national road from Gjirokastër to Kakavijë, at least five robberies have been recorded on this stretch. In recent days the number of robberies and killings on the national roads throughout the country has risen again, bringing back psychological terror, to the point that people dare not travel once darkness falls. A. BREGU Within a few days: 5 robberies on the Gjirokastër–Kakavijë road, 4 on the Tiranë–Lezhë road, 3 on the Lushnjë–Berat road, and 6 on the Milot–Peshkopi road

Cartoon by Medi Belortaja

Public order and security have always been the weak point of all the teams that have governed the country, especially after the events of 1997. First, it would be wrong to ignore the fact that most Albanians are now armed, which significantly increases the likelihood of crimes being committed. Nevertheless, the continued absence of public order at an acceptable level has more to do with other factors, especially those of an economic and social nature. The ongoing economic decline of most Albanians, the difficulty of making ends meet at the subsistence level, and the inability to secure a livelihood by honest and legal means are the main reasons pushing many unemployed people to seek opportunities through crime. In this respect, the influence of the example set by those who act illegally, abusing their functions, cannot be ruled out; they do not hesitate to make alliances with the world of crime. In most cases, it is precisely this ruling class which, by siding with crime, has an interest in the country drifting into chaos and, through pressure and other forms of interference, sabotages the work of the police. Nevertheless, thanks to the dedication and work of honest people in uniform, arrests have not been lacking. But such people, who are not few in the police ranks, usually become the target of an intense campaign by certain immoral officials, who play every card to seize leadership positions—or those where “there’s something to be gained”—for their own people, even within the public-order structures. Naturally, we must not forget the moral “support” that public opinion gives crime through its constant indifference, as well as the umbrella provided to bandits with PD membership cards, who are kept apart from the police, which in many cases is led by accomplices of crime and smuggling. In this way, the true professionals in this field have been forgotten, something that inevitably shows in the lack of effectiveness in the fight against crime. This also explains why, despite the continual changes at various levels of the Public Order hierarchy, no noticeable improvement has been seen in the capacity to detect and strike against crime. The clearest, though painful, example is the case of the electricity pylons, where to date not a single individual or group responsible for this heinous crime has been identified. Ill-advised changes in the police have caused another problem. Finding themselves in a climate of impermanence, public-order officers cannot be mobilized; worse still, there is a strong likelihood that they will be unable to resist the temptation of corruption, etc. Given the impact of public order on every sector of the country’s life, its current state will be one of the decisive factors leading to the fall of the present government as well.