They flee Serbian violence and fall under the terror of the Teta police Ali Sinani: The Tirana police officers subjected me to several forms of mistreatment that even the Serbs no longer inflict in such cases. They asked me why I didn’t stay in Kosovo. I told them that I couldn’t leave the children to be killed there by the Serbs, so I came here. Kosovars should be killed, all of them, one by one, said one of the policemen ON PAGE 4

There is no court that can change the truth ON PAGE 3

Albania, as in 1948. The Kalashnikovs pass a law giving the security-service agents free rein to kill, imprison and terrorize the opposition ON PAGE 3 Secret police, a pistol in the prime minister’s hand. Everything depends on Nano, including the appointment of the “commissar,” who will be called the inspector general

Statement by the Chairman of the DP, Sali Berisha, on the meeting of parliamentary political parties on 31 August The government has excluded the opposition from the constitutional process. By law, the government allowed itself to appoint the opposition’s representative—the person it wanted, rather than the person who should have been chosen by the members of parliament from the opposition parties, on behalf of those who voted against this government. This is a fundamental issue that distinguishes false pluralism from genuine pluralism. Under these circumstances, after repeated efforts to choose our own representative to the constitutional commission, and without any prejudice, with goodwill and a determination to give the country a constitution that would not be the government’s constitution—for a government’s constitution lasts only as long as a government—but rather a constitution for the entire political spectrum, we proposed ten days ago that a meeting of parliamentary political parties be convened. As soon as the constitutional commission had finished its work, we sent an invitation to the parliamentary parties and set 31 August as the date for the meeting of parliamentary political parties. At that meeting, “Bashki- për Demokraci,” after consulting Albanian and international experts and consulting among ourselves, will present its options, assessments and objections regarding the draft constitution completed by the commission. We are going to this meeting with an unwavering willingness to compromise and to sign a draft constitution that will belong to all Albanians.

The television director swears eternal loyalty to his bosses. “There is no information blackout. The Arbnori amendment is invalid.” “There is no information blackout. The Arbnori amendment is invalid.” The information blackout that Albanian television has been experiencing for some time was dispelled two days ago in an interview by the director of the institution, Ardian Klosi. He dispelled it in his own way, citing the laws governing television in Bavaria, China, Slovenia, etc. And after comparing them with the television law applied in this country, he concluded that the “Albanian information blackout” is nonsense, just as, in his view, the Arbnori amendment is... ON PAGE 7

ON PAGE 5

They thought they had come out for a rally ON PAGE 3

Starova: Kosovars no longer come to Albania to seek refuge ON PAGE 3

Police arrest “canabis sativa” but not the friends of MPs who grow it A specially trained dog and a police escort carried out a blitz operation yesterday to uncover planted cannabis sativa, the narcotic plants that kill without being noticed. The operation by the police station... ON PAGE 4

Italy signs new aid agreement for Albania ON PAGE 3

Bosnia’s horrific crimes are repeated. Albanian homes in flames The President of the Republic of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, declared 7 August a day of mourning for Kosovo following the killings, massacres and mass atrocities in Rahovec, committed by Serbian police and military forces. Mr. Rugova announced the decision through his spokesperson on Thursday in Prishtina. At a meeting with Swedish diplomats in Prishtina, Rugova said that the situation remained dramatic throughout Kosovo because of the offensive by Serbian police and military forces. Serbian forces massacred a large number of innocent civilians, and are now systematically burning and demolishing settlements... ON PAGE 6

Nano orders a purge in the police to install his own clan there Sources inside the Interior Minister’s cabinet explain this government attack on police commissioners and directors as a clan war among the leaders within the PS, each seeking to bring as many smuggling areas as possible under their control in order to collect a share of the profits. In any case, Nano controls everything here and is rapidly installing his own clan in all the leadership structures of this ministry, both at headquarters and at local level. ON PAGE 3

Local government calls for expanded powers The limited powers of local government in Albania are expected to be strengthened through the development of a package of reforms for decentralization and for empowering local-level government... ON PAGE 3

In Albania, the infamous State Security Service law is returning, along with all the Byzantine structures and methods that caused this country 50 years of executions, torture, wounds and unimaginable suffering. Only 8 years have passed since the collapse of the sinister edifice that had become, over the course of a century, a symbol of terror and fear for an entire people, and now, unfortunately, we are witnessing its revival. The parliament, now christened with the name that suits it better than anything else, fired its “Kalashnikov” yesterday to vote for the reconstruction of the State Security Service. The new law on the secret police, which failed to get the name Nano wanted, “Security Information Agency,” is in fact the legalization of a political mafia institution, to be used, as in the past, to eliminate political opponents. The deputy-Kalashnikovs approved it with their prime minister, Fatos Nano, eager to use the blind instrument of violence against the opposition, and to protect himself from anything that might threaten his power in the future. A cursory glance at the law is enough to understand how Byzantine it is and, worse still, how barbaric the acts expected to be carried out by SHIK’s members will be, who now retain that name only as a formality. The parliament of last year’s rebels and of the smugglers and thieves of the past year thus enshrined in law what had in fact already happened: the old security-service agents had returned to the National Intelligence Service building. After the violent elections of 29 June, SHIK fell into the hands of the old guard, who immediately began operating with the methods and tools of Hoxha’s dictatorship. The security agents’ takeover of SHIK was more advanced than any other political purge carried out in the Albanian administration after the barbarians came to power. After a year, it can be said that the State Security Service is now an established reality in Albania, because the new security agents have provided dozens of examples showing that they know how to use pistols, ropes, rubber truncheons, money and all the other instruments of terror and intimidation, just as they did eight years ago—in fact, as in the darkest days of the dictatorship, during the waves of executions, imprisonment and internal exile and deportation, when the class struggle was intensified. But the law that the “Kalashnikovs” passed yesterday has several provisions that go beyond even the powers of the notorious State Security Service itself. One need only look at the articles making the prime minister all-powerful over the secret police; no further comment is needed. He is the person who appoints its chiefs and inspector general (the commissar), while keeping all SHIK activity entirely under his supervision. Even the State Security Service that ruled in the time of Hoxha and Alia, without formal independence, was answerable to a collegial body such as the Political Bureau of the PPSH. But the harm does not end there, because the law has a very clear tendency to create a vast veil of secrecy around the activities of the former security agents, who will now be under the umbrella of a new entity of his. Fatos Nano and Fatos Klosi’s SHIK, which will be based on a law comparable only to that of North Korea, can now do anything illicit in all institutions, ministries, banks, embassies, newspapers and the press in general. At the same time, the law allows it to restore the old fronts for cigarette and arms smuggling that were run by the State Security Service in Hoxha’s time. Likewise, the salaries and personal details of its structures can be kept secret, leaving room for the mass recruitment of thugs and informers to be used to surveil, attack and even physically eliminate political opponents. The State Security Service is returning in all its strength and severity to an Albania where the wounds of 50 years of one of the continent’s most brutal dictatorships have yet to heal, and where the wounds inflicted by those who returned to institutions under Fatos Klosi during last year’s rebellion are still bleeding. In a country that has had more than its share of oppression and cruelty, political monsters, over 40,000 prisoners of conscience and more than 400,000 persecuted people, it is catastrophic to show people the sword and the whips once again. Albanians who experienced the horror of those years must not, under any circumstances, allow those who killed, looted and burned during the rebellion to become their watchers, eavesdroppers and interrogators today, as they were eight years ago. The consequence of this infamous law and the dismantling of this institution’s mafia-like organization, which is being used as a weapon against Democrats, remain the first obligation after the opposition’s victories. The restoration of the State Security Service by law is a very powerful reason to motivate Albanians in their efforts to overthrow Nano’s neo-dictatorship. “Rilindja Demokratike”