The former Kosovar prime minister has his own network, including in Tirana, which could organize acts to destabilize Albania on the eve of the local elections The Kosovar who has more than 600 million marks in his bank accounts organized September 14 in Tirana and is now destabilizing Kosovo page 2

Unexpectedly, the head of the Eurocustoms mission, Cea, has returned to the spotlight in recent days. Indeed, the problems connected with her and her relations with senior officials of the Albanian state, first and foremost the head of the Finance Ministry, are also on the agenda in politics across the Adriatic. Specifically, today Ms. Cea will brief Italian Senate representatives regarding her recent statements in Albania and what has been said and written about her. As is known, the head of the CAM mission in Albania made serious accusations against Finance Minister Angjeli, while once again shedding light on the threats made against her from time to time. From Ms. Cea’s way of speaking, despite her efforts to be as reserved as possible, it was not difficult to understand that the accusations of “favoring certain lobbies,” etc., were connected with the all-too-familiar phenomena of Albanian governments: corruption and smuggling. What is unusual in this case is that it is neither the independent press nor the opposition denouncing certain officials in connection with the above phenomena, but a foreign official making such a reality public. Given this one-sidedness, and considering the uproar and reactions in Italian political circles, the total silence of the Albanian government regarding the “Cea” case is striking. Moreover, the fact that Cea mentions threats from anonymous people, linked also to the accusations against Angjeli, indirectly creates the impression of unarticulated links with ordinary crime. On the one hand, it is astonishing that, although faced with extremely serious accusations, Minister Angjeli—presented as the main reason Cea abandoned the CAM mission—does not take the trouble to clarify his position regarding these accusations, let alone go on the counteroffensive by holding the foreign official morally and legally accountable. In a democratic country, resigning or temporarily stepping down from office would be the minimum step for an official facing accusations of this kind. Even more incomprehensible, however, is Prime Minister Meta’s silence. At the very least, he should also have urged Minister Angjeli to respond to Cea’s accusations, going so far as to remove or suspend him from office. Such total silence openly contrasts with the promises and commitments made by the Albanian prime minister to fight corruption and smuggling. Yet the stance being taken toward Cea’s accusations exposes those promises as a farce, and the removal of ministers Zogaj and Preç from the government as having been undertaken for reasons quite different from those concerning respect for the law. Although Meta intends, through his silence, to “spare” Angjeli, he then risks paying for it by falling from the head of government.

Meta, Simitis and Gheorgjevski yesterday at Greek Prespa Photo: REUTERS

The monster serving at the Italian Embassy and holding the fates of Albanians in his hands is denounced Albanian citizen Isa Kukaj has openly protested against the insulting conduct of the consular staff at the Italian Embassy in Tirana , accusing one of them of involvement in various illegal trafficking activities. He goes even further, saying that his Italian visa was denied by this very person, who works at one of the consulate counters and is “bothered” by the Albanian’s presence in Italy, since he knows all the details. According to Kukaj, a few days ago he and an Albanian business entity engaged in lawful activity approached the consular section to obtain visas, having been invited by an Italian counterpart for cooperation purposes. But although all their documents were in order, the first counter they approached categorically refused to issue a visa to the economist Isa Kukaj. page 13