From Tirana prison, a grave accusation: “Vangjel Kosta was my wife’s lover, and my father-in-law knew it” Today the full letter that Dritan Abdylli sent to his father-in-law, Enes Sokoli, about the murder of his wife, Erieta, is published pages 2–3

By ALEKSANDËR ÇIPA “The neighbor’s gate creaks for the neighbor.” The saying, invoked in the name of eternal good-neighborly relations, comes to mind as one considers the need for movement in front of the consulates that Greece currently has in Albania. There are three consulates, in Gjirokastër, Korçë and Tirana, which at first glance have been established to facilitate and increase communication between the two neighboring countries. Yet, as a decade of a new era in relations draws to a close, the citizens’ right to travel remains violated through the archaic visa-issuing regime. In the name of the established order, Albanians continue to remain a crowd outside these offices, while the border gates of everyday communication remain difficult and time-consuming to pass through. At these gates and offices of the neighboring state, careless and insulting behavior, or humiliating brutality toward law-abiding but needy citizens, is commonplace. The cynicism of keeping people in queues and the occasional high-handedness of some people acting as guards inside the walls of these offices, in quite a few cases expose the racist syndrome of this group of people who have arrived under diplomatic cover. To complete this provincial portrait, whenever some criminal episode allegedly involving Albanians spreads through the airwaves of the two countries, these officials give way to uncontrolled arrogance in their conduct, forgetting that they serve on the land of all Albanians, where civic-mindedness is considered a virtue according to the same meaning of the word. These officials are once again behaving provincially these days, following the reported killing of a Greek border policeman by four Albanians from the Korçë area. While on the other side of the neighbor’s border a sweeping punitive campaign has begun, our side’s local police say they are close to identifying them and are responding properly in order to punish the perpetrators as soon as possible. (They remain ready to respect even the extradition of the perpetrators to face Greek justice.(!) In contrast to this reality, our diplomacy, with its handful of diplomatic outposts, has been unable for 10 years to create even one new arrangement to ease the movement of people. While our neighbors cite the tightening of procedures to comply with the rules of the Schengen Agreement as justification, our state’s diplomacy has not even once initiated a special delegation concerning this movement relationship between Greece and Albania, as Greece has chosen to do with Turkey, for example—a relationship conducted without this burden—as has Greece with Macedonia, or small Macedonia with neighboring states in the region. Athens and Tirana, in terms of citizens’ right to travel, are officially the most backward at these offices and gates, which make exchange and communication difficult. First, they must clear out the common rabble of officials and, at the same time, implement a special procedure for the exchange of people’s movements between them.

Prime Minister Meta and Serbian opposition figure Filipoviç yesterday at Hotel Rogner photo P. ILO page 11 Prime Minister Meta and Serbian opposition figure Filipoviç yesterday at Hotel Rogner. photo P. ILO

The investigation into the murder of Alban Dani by the Durrës prosecutor’s office is intensifying, as new facts have emerged about the people who were with him on the day of the murder. It is understood that a connection with the murder of Alban Çela is also being investigated, as several figures known to the Albanian public are also under investigation.

The goods came from Turkey to be consumed in Tirana. The operation continued all night. Dozens of people were taken in TIRANA – The boutique was a base for drug trafficking from Turkey to Albania. Police discovered 100 kilograms of drugs in the “Sonila” fashion store near the Academy of Arts and arrested its owner, a 35-year-old woman, her husband, and a Turk named Myrteza Aksaj. But the operation continued all night, and dozens of other people were taken into custody. It is even unofficially reported that the quantity of drugs seized was greater. page 5