The minister promotes an officer convicted of abuse of office. After Pobrat’s accusations, the Socialist parliamentary group convenes Interview with MP Spartak Braho: If Poçi does not change the Ministry of Public Order, Meta should intervene pages 2–3, 7

Mentor Kikia A dozen elderly people, as they fill at least the benches in gardens, buy a newspaper among four or five of them to see whether it says anything new about their pensions. They receive very little, complain that it is not enough, and constantly hope that their meagre pay will increase. In a decade or two they will be gone. Another generation will fill the ranks of people who call themselves “nusr” and play dominoes. But with one difference. The elderly of the future will not buy newspapers. They will not listen to the news on TV either. They will not care about their pensions... They will have no pension at all. Since 1990, when the Albanian economy declared itself capitalist, among the many upheavals that engulfed it and the state itself was the one involving Social Insurance. A multitude of small establishments, commonly called kiosks, construction companies and private businesses, Albanian and joint ventures with foreigners, make up the Albanian economy today. This sector has absorbed most of the workforce that is now called employed. They are more or less satisfied with the pay they receive, pay that is nevertheless better than staying at home. They go to work in the morning and leave in the evening, taking with them the wages they have earned that day. Among those who keep the private sector going through their work are ordinary people who know only how to wield a shovel. There are also intellectuals, engineers, agronomists, doctors, journalists and all kinds of professionals. More numerous still are those who work as emigrants abroad. And even more numerous than both groups together are those who dig in their fields every day. The villagers, who according to a modern version are called farmers. The state has the same fate in store for everyone. When they grow old, they will have no payroll register on which to sign for their old-age pension. The Social Insurance offices have no files on them, and consequently the Social Insurance office has no files on them, and consequently consequently... Since everyone works, there will be no reason to count their years of employment. Everyone works and is paid for what they do. Up to this point, the company owner is in the clear. But when it comes to Social Insurance contributions, nobody can be a volunteer in complying with the law. Meanwhile, the state, which licenses and supervises these companies, is content to call it “undeclared work” and punishable. And the Social Insurance Directorate also revealed another fact. Tens of thousands of workers who were employed at state enterprises have suffered the same tragic fate. There are 30 workers who worked in 1990 whose enterprise files were not submitted; since 1990, their enterprises have not sent their workers’ files to the Social Insurance branches. The state itself seems untroubled, since nobody remembers to claim what is due to them. Thousands of people who never fail to fill the squares at political rallies where people shout about politics will one day realize that it would be better to demand today what, in a few years, will be the sole consolation of old age: a pension.

page 9

On Sunday, the newspaper “Koha Jonë” published an interview with Luan Pobrat, a high-level specialist in the Albanian secret services, who was arrested during Berisha’s time. In his interview, Mr. Pobrat accused the Ministry of Public Order and its top officials of being involved in political corruption and working on behalf of foreign intelligence services and Berisha. He mentioned specific names within this ministry; the newspaper therefore accepts no responsibility for what is stated by an employee of the secret services described as a qualified specialist. Immediately after the interview was published, Minister Spartak Poçi, instead of examining the facts made public, rushed to convene an urgent meeting of the heads of the Ministry of Public Order and attacked the interview’s author as well as the newspaper that published it, using crude and foolish language—the same language that former Interior Ministry Deputy Minister during Berisha’s time, General Agim Shehu, also used against the newspaper “Koha Jonë.” The minister would do well to analyze the events of recent months too, since the situation has slipped out of his hands, bringing an increase in crime. We also clarify that the newsroom has received dozens of phone calls from Vlora, confirming Mr. Pobrat’s statement that “today’s ministry officials ordered the shelling of Vlora in 1997.” Finally, compelled by the Public Order Minister Mr. Poçi’s lack of integrity, and by the facts uncovered in recent days that drug trafficking is under the direct management of this ministry, the newspaper “Koha Jonë” will try to make public some further facts showing that the current Minister of Public Order has a problematic past involving the State Security service under Enver Hoxha, including denouncing his own father after his arrest as part of a “coup group” in the 1970s, as well as testimony against an engineer named Shkëlqim Bumçi, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison under the communist regime on the basis of Mr. Poçi’s testimony.