Nano, Fino, Malaj, Islami, Ceka and Brokaj own the millions of dirty dollars moving every day across Albania. Meidani is both outside and inside state-run smuggling EU: Meet the conditions to receive aid President Meidani identified the heads of smuggling in Albania on Tuesday. Following repeated claims by the opposition and the press that the bosses of cigarette, fuel and arms smuggling are at the top of the Albanian government, Meidani appears to have decided to set the state machinery in motion to curb this phenomenon, which is eroding the Albanian state more and more each day. Prime Minister Fatos Nano, Deputy Prime Minister Bashkim Fino, Finance Minister Arben Malaj, Minister without Portfolio Kastriot Islami, Interior Minister Neritan Ceka and Defence Minister Sabit Brokaj own the millions of dirty dollars moving every day across Albania. Sources at the Presidency said yesterday that Meidani had received a comprehensive dossier containing all the details about the routes and people involved in the major smuggling operation carried out in the country he formally leads. Meidani’s move is spectacular, but he has decided to convene the Council of Ministers and have it enlist military personnel to bring the customs posts—overrun by the men and orders of the government’s senior leaders—under control. But this effort looks set to fail, given that this mafia group, which is fuelling smuggling and crime in the country, holds a majority in the Council of Ministers. Whatever the outcome of the meeting announced for the end of the week, Meidani will be the first among the current leaders to denounce the parts of the state involved in smuggling. That is all, because the fight against smuggling cannot be entrusted to those who engage in it and are at its helm. A prime minister convicted by Albanian courts of misappropriating humanitarian funds cannot lead the fight against smuggling, nor can a minister who established the pyramid schemes that stole the people’s money. This fight cannot be waged by a parliament of obstructionists and thieves, either. And certainly not by the physics professor who secured his career as president of the country by relying on the gangs of Çërrik and political crime. In any case, Meidani’s initiative suggests that the Albanian president may personally stand outside the legal machinery of state-run smuggling. But this fact can in no way serve as an excuse, since the highly profitable traffickers are directing the highest officials in Nano’s cabinet, with Nano’s own blessing. And if Meidani may himself have been put in place by the very smuggling bosses who wield far more power than the president in the administration installed in Albania, including in the run-up to 29 June, then by gathering around an anti-corruption table and bringing these facts to light, Nano and some of his ministers—who are implicated in the entire scheme—are in some way trying to wash their dirty hands in front of the Albanian people. No result can be expected from the announced meeting of the High Council of Justice, much less any reduction in state-run smuggling or the dismantling of the entrenched networks operating in Albania. Even if we had a normal president, rather than one like Meidani, who ascended to the country’s highest office with the coerced votes of Cërrik, he would still be prejudiced on this issue, or in favour of the government leaders involved in smuggling. For the past ten years he has been a minister in the Council of Ministers and has been committed to the smuggling front, which has been plundering and draining the country of its resources and wealth. Artur KOPANI

EU: Meet the conditions to receive aid

More than five wounded after a Serbian police assault in the municipality of Skënderaj President Meidani’s favorite, Slobodan Milošević, was waging war yesterday in Skënderaj, Kosovo. At least five Albanians were wounded by Serbian police shells during the attack on the villages and surrounding areas. The first phase of this assault involved shelling, while a large number of people and homes were mistreated and subjected to violence. It is not known how President Meidani felt when the correspondent of today’s TV reported from Skënderaj on the terror gripping the municipality and the Albanians around it. But Meidani apparently had reflected on this before and had already considered the possibility, since the Milošević regime has killed and massacred hundreds of Albanians and sentenced, imprisoned, beaten and humiliated many others. The president from Çërrik seems to have thought long and hard about where he got the votes to support Milošević’s dictatorial regime in the presidential elections. His statement to TV was one of those occasions when Meidani showed himself not only to be irresponsible about the fate of his nation, but also cynical toward this kind of suffering. When such a statement comes from the head of the Albanian state, one can imagine how concerned even a high-ranking official might be about Kosovo. The fighting and the evidence from Skënderaj are yet another indictment of the national conscience of both the President in Tirana and the Socialist government. Their indulgence toward the judiciary is laughable, and their policy on Kosovo is nothing other than support for those who abuse their governing power at the expense of Albanians.

Extraordinary Council of Independent Trade Unions convenes ON PAGE 2 BSPSH on the brink of a hunger strike

Pack meets with leaders of the Democratic Party A delegation of the European Parliament, led by Ms Doris Pack, held a meeting last evening with leaders of the Democratic Party at the Palace of Congresses, without journalists present. The PD was represented at the meeting by its chairman, Sali Berisha; parliamentary group chairman Genc Pollo; Secretary-General Ridvan Bode; former parliamentary speaker and MP Pjetër Arbnori; and Deputy Speaker of the Albanian Parliament Jozefina Topalli. In his presentation on the situation in the country to the European parliamentarians, Democratic Party chairman Sali Berisha outlined the opposition’s main concerns. Berisha stressed that “the opposition has three major concerns: the authorities’ violation of the laws, the threat of the opposition’s physical elimination, and smuggling by those in power.” Berisha discussed each of these issues in detail, analyzing the authorities’ conduct and actions in relation to constitutional and other laws, which are violated every day, as well as the political agreements breached by the Socialist Party since 9 March. The Democratic Party chairman referred to the continuing campaign of physical elimination of the opposition begun by the Socialist Party before the elections and continued afterward through a series of violent acts against PD members and supporters. It culminated in the killing of MP Hajdari in Parliament by a Socialist MP. The PD leader answered the European delegation’s questions about the parliamentary issue, stressing that the PD group had been forced out of its chamber at gunpoint and that the PD National Council would discuss the matter, since it had made the decision and it was for that body to reconsider it. But, Berisha stressed, Europe is not interested in having a façade opposition in Albania. Democratic Party chairman Sali Berisha stressed that, despite the difficult and conflict-ridden situation in the country, what had happened was not unprecedented. Berisha presented the European parliamentarians with the opposition’s perspective on the events arising from the severe crisis and its further deepening. SH. R.

Denunciation of the backlash against local government and violence against Democrats The Municipal Council and District Council of Kavaja and the District Council of Tirana describe the reinstatement of 29 November in the calendar of holidays as an act by communist nostalgics ON PAGE 2

Nano and Meidani divide the fairs into separate lots. Meanwhile, the Transport Minister takes the place of the fair’s general, becoming honorary president of the 4th International Fair organized by Klik-Ekspo-Klik ON PAGE 5 The Fairs of Futility divide the interests of those in power Gaqo Apostoli in place of Rrapush Xhaferri

The state: opposition journalists must be jailed at any cost ON PAGE 2