The source of light is guarded with weapons against organized attacks seeking to destabilize Heavy weapons and 140 people guard the Hydroelectric Power Plant The source of light is guarded with weapons against organized attacks seeking to destabilize “Attempted attack in Fierza”; commandos on alert Heavy weapons and 140 people guard the Hydroelectric Power Plant

BY ALEKSANDËR ÇIPA The Balkans have reached the most opportune moment for sanctioning certain geopolitical changes within their space. The West reaffirms its view that in this region, where the reality symbolized by the expression “powder keg” has been left behind, the time has finally come for the affirmation of democracy and interregional openness. The Zagreb Summit, scheduled for the last days of this November, has also been announced under this motto. This event remains the first conference to sanction the renewal of political arrangements for the old republics and those emerging on this peninsula. Meanwhile, the protocol of this summit makes readable the move beyond the federalist mindset—which dominated the Balkans for more than five decades. Zagreb will be the Balkan forum for a new outlook, where Kosovo in particular will be represented by the UN’s interim chief administrator, Kushner, and Albanian political representatives, while voices from official Podgorica have stated that they tend towards representation outside Yugoslavia’s “federal corset,” as a single-republic state. The challenging gestures of the small Republic are growing, with the decision of the Montenegrin presidency to legalize the mark as the currency for national financial transactions. The establishment of this currency across the vast territory of the former federation, together with the shifting geopolitical positions of these newly emerging republics (including Kosovo), heralds the integration of the Balkan economy into the Community. Meanwhile, beyond the quiet work of diplomacy, Macedonia is entering the scene with explosive risks because of the devaluation of the “fences” mindset. In its representative description, Macedonia too gives the impression that possible clarifications within the new geopolitics—issues discussed and debated in paradiplomatic circles in various possible versions for a new image of the Balkans without “bloodied fences” (that is, traditional borders)—are at hand. The EU’s official chief, Romano Prodi, in the context of political developments in the USA and referring to Republican Bush’s alleged options for the American role on our continent, added that Europe has a duty to resolve its own issues, which perhaps need to be resolved as soon as possible. President Prodi’s diplomatic concept of making up for lost time refers above all to the Balkans. From this perspective, the day before, NATO headquarters issued an assessment of the Russian diplomacy’s appraisal of the situation in the Balkans. According to Alliance officials and Moscow’s chief diplomat there, today’s Balkans are described as a “period of Moscow and violence.” This current panorama and the dossier for the summit in Croatia express the Balkans’ growing closeness to the European Union. Reading this emerging reality is an imperative task for local and national diplomacy, while the policies of this classification remain under trial, at a time when the politics of this peninsula are more than ever in need of non-obstruction. The politics of the peninsula alongside continental politics, held close to the far-sighted version of continental policy.

page 3 Meta yesterday at the conference on poverty. Photo: P. ILO

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They did not disclose the real shareholders page 4

page 11 The fearsome man of Fushë-Krujë is killed page 10

The joint-stock company “Media ’99” announces an audition for announcers at “KOHA” Radio and Television, starting today. Applicants should contact KOHA TV director Evis Vojka, or request information by calling 04/247003.