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ALEKSANDËR ÇIPA The scandal of the theft of the Treasury is degenerating into a comedy for the electoral market. Last night, the State Police arrested several dozen villagers from Kërraba and other outlying villages of Tirana, in whose homes small quantities of the numismatic coins stolen from the Treasury tunnels were found. Although, officially, the Prosecutor’s Office had made no statement about the latest development by late last night, the question of whether the Treasury will ultimately be found remains open. Meanwhile, the statement by the Minister of Public Order himself, Poci, as well as the police’s latest field operations, make one skeptical about having confidence that the Treasury will ultimately be found. The whole appearance of this operation by the blue uniforms bears the clear marks of a delayed campaign-operation. At the same time, another full element of this degraded scandal (as such, set against official seriousness) is the statement by opposition leader Berisha, in which the “top-secret” correspondence of former Minister of Public Order Ceka with President Meidani about the latest discovery in the Treasury’s tunnels, a few days after the left-wing coalition came to power, is openly exposed. But while Minister Poci’s campaign to find the perpetrators of the theft from two years ago remains belated and discredited, the opposition leader likewise falls into the trap of trampling on the legal obligation to protect state secrets. Yesterday, former President Berisha publicly disclosed the Treasury Code and presented almost all the materials concerning the tunnels in Kërrabë, symbolically disregarding the moral obligation to protect state secrets. The current high-stakes game in the scandal’s comedy, together with the opposition leader’s performance as he seeks to gain an advantage by taking the position of accuser and prosecutor, openly confirms that the “Treasury affair” is the next chapter in the electoral comedy that is now being staged and is finally exhausting people in this country. Neither side is going to bring back to the State Treasury any of the stolen gold bars or numismatic coins. In their respective positions, within and opposite those in power, politicians from the governing side on the one hand and those from the opposition on the other continue to play a game that comes at a high cost to this country, whose state has yet to be properly built. Meanwhile, the political players, in their customary roles, continue to ruin the fundamental structures of the state with reckless disregard. In this political rotation of roles, the “laughter” of this comedy continues to kill, while the victims themselves laugh—that is, the People.

Police officers and prosecutors discover another pit filled with treasure

page 8 Interview/European weightlifting vice-champion speaks Ilir Suli: Even at the Olympics, I’ll lift the bar while singing the Albanian anthem pages 22–23

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