Prime Minister Vujanoviç at meeting with Meta: We will separate from Serbia UNHCR and Shkodër Local Government begin preparations for refugees from Montenegro pages 5, 7

ENKEL DEMI Yesterday, the first bodies of the latest tragedy in Otranto were found. Albanian-Italian search teams are also looking for another 50 bodies, which are thought not all to be Albanian (perhaps a Turkish ship rescued some of them). This group of migrants, believed to have set off on 30 December, is also thought to include Kurds or people of other ethnic groups who have recently been feeding the Italian-Albanian smuggling routes. An alarm has been raised on both shores, while the media have been covering this story for days. If all the passengers on this speedboat have died, as is said in the Bay of Vlora, the tragedy is extraordinary. The only ones who have still not shifted from their cold positions are the diplomats of both countries. There has been no reaction from our Foreign Ministry, while no change in Italy’s visa policy for Albanians is expected from the Farnesina. Only weeks ago, the Italian Embassy in Tirana refused to issue visas to the relatives of the “Fourth of Rades”. Some of them protested in front of the Embassy with banners and photographs of their relatives swallowed by the sea, while others are said to have gone to attend the trial concerning the SPEEDBOAT. This is a scandal in itself. Those bereaved by the tragedy at sea risk their lives at sea again to find justice, because some Italian bureaucrat at the embassy does not consider it necessary to issue the victims a visa, even a short-term one. Although a consulate has opened in Vlora, the procedures for obtaining Italian visas are still difficult, and few people can manage to comply with the bureaucratic requirements imposed by this country’s laws. All Italian governments have issued visas that put pressure on official Tirana to stop trafficking, which once again involves not only Albanians, but also drugs, weapons and prostitutes. None of these governments has eased the visa regime for Albanians. This is not meant to ease Albanian emigration. This cannot be calculated—it is very simple. Physically. What can be calculated is very simple. Physically, Albanians are now unable to go to Italy. Those who are in the country today are the maximum number, so even if visas were abolished altogether, there would be no more Albanians than this on Italian soil. Those who take the speedboat are either the extreme few left who want to work in Italy, or people in desperate need, like the relatives of the Otranto victims. The absence of visas would also mean a total weakening of trafficking and make it easier to stop. But it seems that the Italian authorities themselves have no interest in bringing this story to an end. First of all, the pressure exerted on Tirana over trafficking is a means of keeping them hostage; secondly, the end of trafficking might mean an end to lucrative goods such as drugs, weapons and prostitutes, whose profits the officials of their country may well be benefiting from. So Albanians will have to keep queuing and crossing the sea for some time yet, while their own diplomacy does not protect them, but remains silent.

Pages 16–17 Let us not speculate about Rambujënë

Conflict between TOB artists and the administration escalates The artists of the Theatre of Opera and Ballet have announced a three-day general strike starting Friday. This is the form of protest they have chosen against the TOB management, following the latest decision taken by that management, whose implementation has led to the dismissal of artistic director Bujar Llapaj, choir master Suzana Turku, Merited Artist, and five orchestra musicians and one chorister. According to them, everything that has happened at the TOB over the past three months, including the dismissal of the artists mentioned above, “calls for the hastening of the end of the history of Albanian opera” and “clearly confirms the separatist intent of the infamous draft law ‘On the Theatre’.” Page 27