Meeting of the PDSH Executive Committee Yesterday, under the direction of its chairman, Mr. Eduard Selami, the Executive Committee of the Democratic Party of Albania met. During the meeting, the main issue discussed was the rapid deepening and expansion of reform, including privatization, which was considered a very important point in the Democratic Party’s program and the best way to increase the pace of Albania’s economic development. At the meeting, the Executive Committee decided to convene the DP National Council on 27 January 1995 to discuss issues concerning the Party’s organization. PDSH SPOKESPERSON SOKOL BALLA

U.S. Under Secretary of State Riçard Hollbruk met yesterday at noon with PDSH leaders. At a working lunch hosted by the chairman, Mr. Eduard Selami, those present discussed relations between the two countries. During the conversation, Mr. Hollbruk praised the achievements of democracy in Albania and emphasized U.S. support for further developments. Also present were the DP Secretary General, Prof. Dr. Tritan Shehu, Vice Chairman Al Spahia, and Tomorr Dosti. “RD” CORRESPONDENT

From the press conference of U.S. Under Secretary of State Riçard Hollbruk BLEDI KASMI “I am pleased to be in Albania,” said U.S. Under Secretary of State Riçard Hollbruk at the start of the press conference. He arrived in our country yesterday morning. “I am proud to be in Albania, and of the assistance that the United States of America will give to Albania. I know that democracy here is not yet perfect, but I understand that your government is working toward that.” “The U.S. is doing everything possible to help democracy and the development of Albania, as well as to Albania.” [?] development of the parties”; nevertheless, he is optimistic. “Greek officials assured me that they want normal relations with Albania and that the border between Albania and Greece has been definitively determined,” he stressed. Then, while analyzing U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Hollbruk at the beginning of the press conference. He visited our country yesterday morning. He held his first meeting with Albanian journalists in one of the rooms of the U.S. Embassy in Tirana. “I have always dreamed of coming to Albania. When I was a student in Greece and Yugoslavia, I saw your country from afar, since I could not get close to it, because at that time Albania was a forbidden apple. So today I am proud to visit a free and democratic Albania,” Mr. Hollbruk stressed as he continued his remarks. Mr. Hollbruk then expressed his sympathy for the Albanian people and their history. “I have great admiration for your people, for the way they overthrew communism and laid the foundations of democracy,” he stressed. Mr. Hollbruk went on to discuss at length the strengthening of democracy in Albania, as well as the assistance the United States of America will provide that goal.” “The United States is doing everything possible to help democracy and Albania’s development,” Mr. Hollbruk stressed. To give a concrete example, he mentioned the signing next week of a bilateral relations treaty. Another example of this cooperation is the 28 million dollars in assistance that the U.S. government has allocated to the Albanian government; this aid will be used for social assistance. In the military field, there will be ongoing contacts between the Albanian and American sides, aimed at Albania’s membership in NATO. Improving Albanian-Greek relations was another objective of Mr. Hollbruk’s visit to Albania. Following meetings a few days earlier with Greek officials, he said: “There are important problems between the two sides; Albania and Greece has been definitively established,” he stressed. Later, analyzing U.S. foreign policy in Europe, Mr. Hollbruk spoke of “a cautious expansion of NATO in the future.” “Bosnia is one of the West’s greatest failures, at least since the 1930s,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Hollbruk about the Bosnian tragedy. He stressed that the U.S. government wanted to help the Bosnian government. “We are doing everything possible to secure acceptance of the peace plan proposed by the Contact Group,” he stressed. At the end of the press conference, Mr. Hollbruk expressed optimism about the further development of relations between the United States of America and Albania.

The President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, receives a delegation of senior U.S. Department of State officials, led by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, Mr. Riçard Hollbruk The President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, receives a delegation of senior officials from the U.S. Department of State, led by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, Mr. Riçard Hollbruk Relations with the United States have always been, and continue to be, of particular importance to Albania, President Berisha said, welcoming the American delegation. The assistance provided by the U.S. government and the American people has been very important in pursuing Albania’s foremost goal: its integration into Europe. We are determined to continue along the path of reforms to build a democracy based on the rule of law and a market economy, the only way to achieve this integration. I am pleased to note that relations between our two countries extend across all fields, but we would like to see more American investors in Albania. In our foreign policy, the President continued, we have striven for and contributed to peace and stability in the region. We have fruitful cooperation with our neighbors, such as Bulgaria, Turkey, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, etc. Our relations with Serbia and Montenegro are conditioned by the occupation of Kosovo. We have considered the American warning concerning Kosovo very important, and we would welcome making the lifting of the embargo against Serbia conditional on resolving the Kosovo problem—a problem that is decisive for a just resolution of the crisis in the Balkans. After a deep crisis in our relations with Greece, I can say that there are signs of calm and improvement. Regarding the case of the five Albanian citizens of Greek origin, I tell you that their conviction was made in defense of the values on which a democratic state is founded and of the dignity of the Albanian state. I want to assure you that the Albanian government has always been, and remains, open to unconditional dialogue with Mr. Papandreou’s government, and is convinced that the problems between our two countries can be resolved within the framework of the principles of the CSCE; for this reason, we have also proposed beginning a dialogue to reach a treaty based on these principles. For his part, Assistant Secretary of State Mr. Riçard Hollbruk expressed his admiration for the achievements of the reform process in Albania and for the Albanian government’s persistence in accelerating this process. Albania will continue to enjoy the full support of the U.S. administration, which is committed to finding ways to cooperate more closely with Albania. And at the Tirana Court The hearing of the “Arsidi” case continued

The hearing of the “Arsidi” case continued

As “ZP” reports, on occasions such as holidays, tragedies, anniversaries, rallies, etc., around 35 groups with 355 new members are added in the Pogradec district. If there were no such occasions, we do not know what would become of the PS. Of the 355 new members who joined the PS during 1994, 90 percent were admitted with 7–8 mentors, after the “ZP” referendum. We have all the holidays ahead of us: January 11, March 23, April 1, April 11, and May 1... Given the way membership in the PS has developed, and taking into account the population of Pogradec, people are rushing around so that we do not leave Pogradec in the mud (in the lake) and embarrass ourselves by increasing the number of new members. So we give some of the intellectuals the task of keeping the pace of admissions to the Socialist Party ever higher. Indeed, one of the new recruits, a 78-year-old veteran and a well-known intellectual in the city, declared with falsehood: “All our lives we will be with the PS.” FYMBYL HASANI

A reply to Mr. Skender Karigi’s article, published in “ZP” under the title “Deputy Malaj in the role of policeman in local government” I read carefully the article by Skender Karigi, published in “ZP” under the title “Deputy Pellumb Malaj in the role of policeman of local government.” To be honest, after reading your article, Mr. Skender, I felt sorry for you, because for the sake of the chair you are trying to smear the work of Deputy Pellumb Malaj. I do not want at all to defend Deputy Malaj in this article, because his work in the district of Librazhd speaks for itself, but I do want to state the truth about the issue you raise in that article. Let me clarify for readers that, on my proposal, Skender Karigi was appointed director of the eight-year school in Katjel. Mr. Skender claims in that article that he was dismissed as director by Deputy Malaj, but the truth is completely different. Until the day you were appointed secretary of the Prrenjas Municipality, you worked as a director. (Continued on page 2)

A seismic tremor measuring magnitude 3.3–3.9 on the Richter scale and intensity 4–5 at the epicenter was recorded at 20:45:55 local time (19:45:55 Greenwich time), about 75 km north of Tirana, near Puka. This was reported by Maksim Kapoli, spokesperson for the seismological center. It is reported that there was no damage.

Yesterday at the Tirana Court Witnesses in this banking scandal will also include Genc Ruli, Osman Shehu, Edmond Spaho, Ylli Çabiri, Shane Korbeci, Fatos Nano, Emin Mysliu, Ligor Dhamo, Kristaq Luniku, etc. NDREKE GJINI Yesterday’s hearing in the trial of the four former bankers Tartati, Saliu, Xhyheri and Hoti, and former Prime Minister V. Ahmeti, accused of appropriating state assets in collusion with one another and other individuals, in what has been called the “Arsidi Scandal,” continued with the questioning of witnesses. The panel of judges, presided over by Judge Andi Çeliku, questioned Zhaneta Tole yesterday as a witness. She was the former head of recording transactions with foreign banks at the Albanian Commercial Bank. Witness Zhaneta Tole gave an account concerning the 16,000 dollars received by the Commercial Bank in the name of the defendant Ardian Xhyheri. This sum, witness Tole said, had arrived in October 1992 from Giro Centrale in Vienna and had remained pending, that is, unpaid, because the original confirmation had not arrived—only a second confirmation. The defendant Xhyheri, for his part, maintained that with regard to this sum of dollars sent to him, he himself had been the person giving the order, not its beneficiary. After a debate on this matter, the witness stated: “I saw the document concerning this not in Albanian, and so, regarding the payments I had to make, I contacted the defendant Xhyheri directly.” The lawyer for defendant Agron Salu, Mr. Perparim Sanshakу, asked the panel of judges to have the experts present in the courtroom at this stage of the trial. The request was rejected as unsupported and not grounded in law. The hearing then continued with the testimony of Brunilda Naçe, a former archivist, who gave an account of several documents that the defendant Agim Tartari had brought to the Commercial Bank archive after he had gone on assistance. Meanwhile, witness Adnan Shtylla, an economist at the bank, explained the assistance requested of him by the other defendant, Xhyheri, to add something to a letter concerning the fees Nikola Arsidi was to receive. Witness Shtylla explained that the sentence he added to the letter said that Arsidi would receive the fees only if he managed to reduce the foreign debt. Ardian Kamberi, the former head of information technology at the Commercial Bank, who had been called to testify in this trial, explained that in the former office of the defendant Agron Saliu, where he later installed the computers, he had accidentally found several letters on which someone had made trials, and on some had typed the words “bill of exchange” or “mandate” in favor of Arsidi. Witness Kamberi said that he handed these letters to the general director, Ilir Hoti. The witness also clarified details of a telephone call with former Governor Hoti, who was in the United States at the time; the defendant Hoti had expressed concern about a payment made in favor of Arsidi. The deputy director of the Commercial Bank, Qamil Tusha, was also called to testify yesterday. He gave his account of some materials the defendant Tartari had handed over after going on assistance, as well as a protest the Commercial Bank had lodged against Arsidi, who had illegally received fees from the Commercial Bank. The bank’s longest-serving former employee, pensioner Perikli Samsuni, who had continued working as an adviser at the bank even after retiring, entered the courtroom supported by others because he was ill. He said he had lost his memory, so prosecutor Gjokutaj had to read him the testimony he had given during the investigation, with which he said he agreed. Witness Liljana Nanaj needed more than three hours to explain the mechanism by which the two payments in favor of Arsidi had been made: one for 640,000 dollars, for which Nanaj had seen no document supporting the payment other than Tartari’s order, and the other for 945,000 dollars, for which she had been shown a bill of exchange in favor of Arsidi for 1.6 million dollars. In her testimony, during lengthy exchanges with all four former bankers, witness Nanaj said that she had carried out all the actions in accordance with the orders and instructions given by her superiors. This witness explained that she had entered these payments in the accounts later, after Tartari had handed her the drafts showing how the accounting was to be done. The last witness to testify at yesterday’s hearing in this trial was Commercial Bank economist Ferdinand Haxhia, who gave an account of documents that the defendant Tartari had given him to deliver to the Bank’s archive after Tartari had gone on assistance. Witness Haxhia said that he had handed these documents to the Commercial Bank’s deputy director, Qamil Tusha. The hearing also continued yesterday with the testimony of the merchant Genc Ruli, Osman Shehu, Edmond Spaho, Ylli Çabiri, Shane Kobeci, Fatos Nano, Gavrosh Pogaçe, Gramoz Pashko, Emin Mysliu, Arta Bishe, Ligor Dhamo, Suzana Garagjozi, Kristaq Lunik, Pllator Shtyti, Kostandin Shkurti, and Nica Verli. As for the request by the lawyers and defendants to release the other witnesses so they could be questioned in this trial, Judge Çeliku said that a decision would be made later, at upcoming hearings, after the above-mentioned witnesses had been questioned. The next hearing will begin on January 13, 1995, at 9:00.

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On January 6, 1995, the Secretary General of the DP, Mr. Tritan Shehu, and Deputy Chairman Tomor Dosti held a meeting with representatives of the Albanian Democratic Union party. The chairman of this party, Remzi Ndreu, presented the program of the PBDSH as a party of national missions and political resistance, supporting the DP’s political line on the economy, politics, and diplomacy. Mr. Tritan Shehu described this first contact as an introductory one and expressed the wish that a round table of parties from the same or a similar political spectrum as the PDSH be organized in the future. PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT The panel of judges then asked the defendants and their lawyers to state whether they wished other witnesses to be questioned in this trial. The lawyers and defendants requested that many witnesses, both local and foreign, be questioned. The panel decided to hear the following witnesses in this trial: Ligor Dhamo, Suzana Garagjozi, Kristaq Lunik, Plator hearing will begin on January 13, 1995, at 9:00.