“A new era” with the neighbors is built on corpses ON PAGE 4

Supercriminals caught at a police roadblock ON PAGE 4

Ceka’s gang had imposed a 50-million fine ON PAGE 4

The week that is ending could be described as the week of smuggling and crime. On hundreds of kilometers of national roads it is impossible to travel because of the gangs that still have not received the tribute promised to them by the Socialist Party for its victory, and over just as many kilometers the cigarette-smuggling system continues. Thousands of tons of tobacco set out from Patra, Greece, to stop at Velipojë, Seman, etc., new ports belonging to the new rulers. From Seman, they are stored in warehouses throughout the villages of Fier and Lushnjë, while from Velipojë they cross the border via the “closed” routes of the northern customs posts. The Albanian press has clearly exposed the mechanism of this smuggling and has also identified the addresses where the money goes—offices occupied by the very people who should have stopped such a scheme damaging the Albanian economy. The farce of collecting weapons is played out through TV montages, while so far the number of Kalashnikovs and other weapons can be counted on one hand. The trumpeted offensive against the gangs has been replaced by advice from the Minister of the Interior to the bandits, who is providing technical assistance to all those who have committed crimes. On state television he told them to leave, thereby announcing the alliance he had with them ever since the days of the rebellion. Ceka’s gangs turn Elbasan into a battlefield. On Nano’s orders, gang boss Zani escapes the special forces. Velipojë, the port for the rulers’ tobacco smuggling. In Tirana, the police shoot without warning. While people say that order is being restored, the number of dead has not fallen, and gangs linked to politicians in power continue to extort money and lives from innocent people. Two days ago, Neritan Ceka’s gang kept a businessman surrounded for hours in order to rob him of his money, until his friends were killed by the man defending him. His former blockade-runner during the election campaign was merely grazed, received treatment at the hospital in the city of Librazhd, while Ceka’s police took no action against him. Nehat Kulla has likewise been allowed to get away by the criminal police. The police report says he sped off in another car, in which two other people who were arrested were also travelling. It has emerged that the order was not to arrest him. Fatos Nano’s friend is free, while his victims are in the graveyard. Such is the Prime Minister of Albania. Such, too, will be the order established by the government he leads. There is also a scandal in the case of Vlora mayor Zani, who was targeted but then got away. The citizens of Vlora themselves say this, while the Deputy Minister of the Interior will find it difficult to defend his order not to shoot at Zani. As a friend of Nano, Brokaj, Gjinsuh and the other members of the Nano 3 government’s gang, his freedom—and the deaths of hundreds of Vlora citizens at the hands of his gang over the past four months, with the next four months still ahead—make this clear. The police have been ordered to shoot without warning in every case; this is a flagrant violation of all laws governing the use of firearms, and sets a precedent even for a situation under a state of emergency. We believe that the victims of such an order were citizens in Tirana. Their families say that those killed had not been given any warning and were not police targets. This picture of the country in the week just past shows that the party in power is no more than a gang party: committing murder, smuggling, turning people into criminals and killers, and, on top of it all, providing them with passports and sending them off to Europe. Criminals are given visas and warnings to leave. Dozens killed and wounded in Albania The house of war in Elbasan and Minister Ceka. Police arrive after the bloodshed

OSCE concerned about obstruction of right-wing newspapers in the South No press freedom, no aid The free circulation of ideas is one of the conditions of the Rome Conference for Albania A senior OSCE official in Tirana, speaking for the OSCE’s En-ter agency, will ask the government to escort newspapers to southern Albania in an armored convoy, at least for a week. The official said that the international community is closely monitoring developments in Albania and that freedom of the press and the free circulation of ideas are among the conditions the Albanian government must meet in order to receive international financial support. The OSCE’s reaction follows protests across the Albanian right-wing press, which is demanding respect for its integrity, violated by armed gangs in many towns in southern Albania. The two newspapers, “Rilindja Demokratike” and “Albania,” published a blank page as another form of protest against the organized state obstruction preventing newspapers from reaching the South. Over the past six months, right-wing newspapers have lodged repeated protests, addressed primarily to the governments of Fino and Nano, but their demands have fallen on deaf ears. The fact that press freedom is one of the conditions of the Rome Conference is expected to arouse at least minimal interest among Albania’s new rulers. But not only have they not paid the slightest attention; they have organized people to continue terrorizing the press, and this is shocking proof that they are undermining the arrival of aid in Albania. A.GJ.

Attack on the head of SHIK. The smuggling government seeks wide scope for plunder Former Sigurimi agents have been waiting in line since June 29. By appointing an Enverist fanatic to head SHIK, Nano, Fino and the entire smuggling government aim to take complete control of every institution that could hinder the plundering they are carrying out against the state treasury ON PAGE 2

PDSH denounces the smuggler government officials The facts about the clandestine cigarette trade testify to a strong connection between the “Nano 3” Cabinet and the shippers sending goods to neighboring Montenegro PDSH denounces the cooperative policies of the Nano 3 Government with smugglers inside and outside the country. sending goods to neighboring Montenegro. PDSH views with concern that border crossings continue to be closed to Albanian government officials who engage in small-scale trade with the neighboring country, while the sophisticated smuggling system, based in the offices of senior government officials, is protected by modern weapons along the coast at Velipojë. Eyewitnesses, ordinary citizens as well as customs police inspectors, mostly those dealing with smuggling and acting on orders from above, confirm the full schedule of movements of goods arriving from Pana in Velipojë and going to Montenegro. They confirm the strict maritime and land security measures that ensure the goods are unloaded, and the number of speedboats and workers carrying out the unloading and monitoring every movement. This is happening at a time when both the independent press and the pro-government press, such as the KJ newspaper, directly accuse the government of carrying out the Patras–Velipojë cigarette trade, and report that the customs ships’ “angels” [sic] let every 15–25 trucks pass in convoy through Han i Hotit. The Albanian press has also reported the license plates of the trucks carrying out the trade: MA 0777 A, MA 1423 A, MA 156 A, SH 4091 A, MA 1224 A, SH 9224 A, SH 4919 A, SH 1524 A, etc., but the government remains silent. PDSH calls on the Nano government to reflect—not by boasting with impersonal phrases that justify the communist revanche in the administration, nor through irresponsible statements about ruling the country. The hare is sleeping in the Nano cabinet.

Seven political parties at a round table. The state sector of politics is absent The conditions set at the Rome meeting for Democratic leader Sali Berisha are not, and cannot be, humiliating for Albania; rather, they are vital to ensuring a democracy with foundations as credible as possible for the International Community. ON PAGE 3

Interview with Vladimir Mulaj, lawyer at the anti-revenge office affiliated with PD ON PAGE 3

Institute for the Integration of the Politically Persecuted – rehabilitation of Ramiz Alia & Co The strong reaction and opposition of the representatives of the “Democratic Anti-Communist Association of the Politically Persecuted” to the so-called “Institute for the Integration of the Politically Persecuted,” established yesterday with the signing at the Prime Minister’s Office by Prime Minister Nano and the rebel Kurt Kola, is an expression of moral… ON PAGE 3

The house of war in Elbasan and Minister Ceka. Police arrive after the bloodshed