Following Nano’s public pressure directed at the Prosecutor General of the Republic, all branches of the Prosecutor’s Office and the Secret Service have been set in motion page 3

BY ALEKSANDËR ÇIPA The electoral campaign of the two leading candidates for Tirana Municipality, namely the Democrat Mustafaj and the Socialist Rama, in both its façade and its substance displays a tendency to act with a new civic morality. While the Socialists’ contender returns, through a special campaign spot, to the Cemetery of the Nation’s Martyrs, the Democrat ambassador raises the level of his public engagements, distinguishing himself in his career by meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions. Even the contenders from the smaller parties, in a tone of admirable competition, offer promising action rather than irritating propaganda. Yet, despite this tendency toward a new electoral morality, the leaders of the two main political camps, Socialist leader Nano and Democrat leader Berisha, once again appear “to have thrown down the gauntlet” to each other. In their political capacity, the two luminaries add the harsh colors of threats, conflict, bulging veins and, indeed, even pathology to the reality of the competition. Mr. Nano’s threatening statement against prosecutors who have not done their duty—and, worse still, are not doing it now—finally discredits his “Olympian” stance so far toward Berisha’s unlawful precedents. Meanwhile, in relation to the party’s representative candidate in Tirana, the Socialist chairman has disrupted the harmony and elegance of his electoral presentation and conduct. The same must be said of the head of the Blue headquarters, Berisha, in relation to candidate Mustafaj, when, for example, the latter publicly apologizes to the “persecuted,” while the chairman speaks of “flight” and of overturning everything after election day. The spectacle presented by these two aspects of electoral competition on the one hand, and political rivals on the other, simultaneously lays bare the clash between the new morality and the old. The election duel and the candidates’ moderating tendency in the competition herald the arrival of a new political game in the near post-election period. The two political luminaries, despite sensing this too, thanks to the electorate’s long-standing mindset, reappear in their familiar “old routine.” Their electoral-political “poster” has remained unchanged. This prompts the new candidate-politicians to convey, through their arrival, their own new contribution—that is, a new morality.

REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF ALBANIA No. 1425 Tirana, 14.09.1998 PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA MR. SKËNDER GJINUSHI, CHAIRMAN OF THE PRESIDIUM OF THE PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY The Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Tirana District Court has initiated criminal proceedings for the crime of armed insurrection provided for under Article 221 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Albania, which took place

the Republic of Albania, which took place on 13 and 14 September 1998 in Tirana. So far, investigative actions have been carried out into the events involving the mass destruction of the state’s main institutions as well as a number of privately owned properties. According to the evidence gathered so far, it has been established that, among others, the organizer of this armed insurrection was Mr. Sali Ram Berisha, a member of the People’s Assembly. Taking advantage of the funeral ceremony of the former member of the People’s Assembly, Mr. Azem Hajdari, he and his close associates and armed individuals violently seized the central state institutions—the Prime Minister’s Office, the People’s Assembly, the Constitutional Court, various ministries and Albanian Radio and Television—from which battle calls, insults and disinformation were broadcast, and they openly proclaimed the uprising’s success, which, according to them, ended with the seizure of state institutions. This plan had been announced by Mr. Sali Berisha some time earlier and, in particular, in the days preceding its execution. He openly called for the violent overthrow of the constitutional state institutions, placing himself beyond any shield as the organizer of everything that took place in Tirana. This conduct of his, which constitutes a continuous and uninterrupted act of preparing violence, fulfills the elements of of the Criminal Code. Since the criminal offense committed poses a serious threat to society, we request that the People’s Assembly of the Republic of Albania lift the parliamentary immunity of member Sali Ram Berisha, authorize the initiation of criminal proceedings and order his arrest. This request is based on the provisions of Article 22 of Law No. 7491, dated 29.4.1991, On the Main Constitutional Provisions, and Article 288 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Albania. PROSECUTOR GENERAL Arben Rakipi Facsimile of the letter from the Prosecutor General of the Republic, Arben Rakipi, requesting that the People’s Assembly lift the immunity of and arrest the Chairman of the PD, Sali Berisha