07/06/2000
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Koha Jonë

7 June 2000

Meta sharpens his sword; 3 ministers will go

Cabinet reshuffle before the elections. Hajdaraga, Xhuveli and Panda are expected to leave Defence Minister Luan Hajdaraga is waiting for his ticket to... the USA page 2

The Old Man and the King

BY ENTON ABILEKAJ Not even three years have passed since the chaos and violence involving Leka Zogu at the Palace of Congresses, where the Central Election Commission was working. Men with Kalashnikovs, some of them borrowed from Berisha, and gunshots that threatened the counting of the free vote in broad daylight and in the middle of the capital turned the country, for several hours, into a land of terrorists seeking blood in the name of a false election result. That is why Leka Zogu is on trial and wanted for arrest. He was Leka the First and the last Don Quixote. The trial continues, while another process, this time a political one, has begun in Tirana. The Municipality proposed that the boulevard named after Stalin be called King Zog Boulevard, and the prefect signed the proposal, rehabilitating a very important part of history. Political emancipation did not bring Leka Zogu’s trial to a close. Nor could it have done so after the vote of 29 June, when the Monarchy lost to the Republic and Leka I was transformed from a royal heir into the son of the former King. As an old and ordinary citizen, Leka also enjoys the right to be equal to everyone before the law. After all these events, the son of the only Albanian King has decided to set out and return to Albania. On 24 June, precisely the 76th anniversary of the June Revolution, he has decided to attend the ceremony marking the boulevard’s new name. All of this seems highly contradictory, but it is entirely possible. It is by no means impossible for Leka Zogu to present himself at the nearest Albanian embassy and obtain a visa; nor is it impossible for him to enter Albania without a visa and be allowed through by the police. It is also possible that, despite an arrest warrant, he may enter and leave—or not leave, as he wishes—across the border and continue to “reign” in the shadow of another referendum. If the defenders of the State do not act in accordance with the law and the Constitution, what happened three years ago will happen again. Leka Zogu forfeited his right to take part in the ceremony on 3 July 1997. Under the law, he must surrender to the police.

Zogu under arrest? He will come to Tirana

Zogu under arrest? He will come to Tirana Page 2

Berisha’s opponents

PD reformers, a third alternative page 4

Village chief in handcuffs

The village headman rapes a fellow villager page 7

New chief appointed

Not a pothole director, but a roads director page 12

Standardizing written Albanian

Albanians now all have one primer page 13

Partizani, born to be great

page 22