KLA: “No political decision can be made without Demaci’s approval. We will continue the liberation struggle to the end”

ALBANIAN GOVERNMENT: “We congratulate the Kosovar delegation on reaching an agreement in principle and support a second round” BERISHA: “The Contact Group gave Millosheviç the victory” Everything about what happened yesterday in Rambouillet, analysis by the world’s best-known analysts, the positions of Albanian politicians, what the Albanians stand to lose and gain P. 2–9

THE END OF RAMBOUILLET

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Mentor Kikia Life has become a less costly commodity in this country. In fact, cheaper than a jacket at the “Gabi” market, which yesterday became the reason for the killing of three people in Durrës. The recent events—the macabre murder of a female student and the attack on lawyer Koci—have led to lawyers and judges taking to the streets in protest. The very people in the justice system have called for crime to be severely punished, without knowing whom they are making this demand of. For it is this branch of the state that seems to bear the greatest responsibility for the criminals now roaming the streets, perhaps even for the person who shot at Koci. Nevertheless, the positive thing is that certain social groups, more “well-positioned” than the broad masses, have become aware that crime must be punished. The police have said this several times too—the institutions hit by crime more than any other part of the state, considering that dozens of police officers have been killed. So, as has been said, “crime must be fought,” and this is also said by those who are actually supposed to fight it: the justice system and the police. But in the current situation in the country, the Albanian police—in other words, the Ministry of Public Order—seems less like a state structure intended to maintain order and more like a political structure belonging to the governing parties, changing whenever the balance between them changes. For every prime minister, it has been the ministry of discord. It is the hardest ministry to run at this time, but also the most coveted, which has meant that it is always filled with party loyalists. The repeated reshuffling of its personnel has meant that, instead of genuine anti-crime structures, appendages of this government have been set up, whose clashes are reflected perfectly in the offices of this ministry. Albanian parties, while bargaining over the allocation of government posts, also demand to have their representatives in this ministry. This has meant that genuine structures for fighting crime have never been consolidated there, and as a result crime has had an easier “passage” in its activities. Governments have come and gone, some sooner and some later, along with promises that order would be restored in so many days. Meanwhile, no one has set a benchmark for when order can be considered restored; no Albanian can be at peace with their state when they cannot be sure whether they will return home alive in the evening, or whether they will find their home as they left it in the morning.

THE CONTACT GROUP ANNOUNCED THAT AN AGREEMENT HAD BEEN REACHED, WHILE THE SIGNATURES MAY BE ADDED IN TWO WEEKS. THE ALBANIANS WILL RETURN TO KOSOVO TO EXPLAIN THINGS TO THEIR PEOPLE, WHILE THE SERBS REFLECT...

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