The photocopied file, armor-plated against the Government’s smuggling ON PAGE 4

Elmaz Sherifi’s brother robs 200,000 dollars ON PAGE 5

Smuggled goods again at the Durrës customs house ON PAGE 5

Government gangs are worsening the tense situation in the district of Tropojë ON PAGE 3 The robbers, sometimes masked and sometimes wearing police uniforms, are Kastriot Islami’s trusted men, Nano’s deputy during the Greek holidays

. Parliament has brought its proceedings to a close. Our MPs are nursing their wounds, sitting in cafés, or tending to their own affairs, from the most ordinary matters to those yielding profits of hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars—matters about which they have been talked about so much, not only in the press but also within their parliamentary groups. Meanwhile, “parliament” continues outside, in their conversations and concerns. Yet ... this law is precisely the opposition and, more broadly, free thought and speech. Especially in September, with the approval of the law on the protection and classification of state secrets, the prime minister will also be declared the owner of the truths of the Albanian world (truth, like smuggling, will also become a monopoly). Only he, and the bodies appointed, paid, and directly dependent on him, will monopolize the truth, while non-governmental organizations and the press will have the unlimited right to expose the “regime” of 1992–96. The approval of the latest laws sidelines and silences the current pro-prime minister, as well as any prime minister who may come to power tomorrow. This law, even when the prime minister may be acting properly, pushes him and tempts him to act as an all-powerful authoritarian. In any case, however, this concerns the future, because the first laws to be approved under this parliament will be precisely these infamous laws. The current Albanian parliament has exceeded all expectations. It disappointed even those who believed in it, or forced themselves to believe in it. Ultimately, this is the nature, the essence of this parliament: it cannot be other than what it is. Freedom and human rights, including those of MPs and political parties, will fall prey to the power of the prime minister and the police bodies enslaved to him. Apparently, current MPs do not need more freedom and rights than those granted to them by the prime minister or their party—but what about the vast majority of the population, which has fought so hard for these freedoms and rights? Even those who until now considered parliament an evil that had befallen us and that we should get rid of (to put it diplomatically: acceptable under the circumstances) now think quite differently. Evil is laid in snares. That is why we need a new parliament. [The text in the left-hand columns continues an article cut off at the edges of the image.] ... of the brothers. The members of parliament are owners of cafés, or they attend to their own affairs, starting with the most important and ending with those that bring in hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in profit, Meanwhile, the “parliament” continues outside, in people’s conversations and concerns, in their preoccupation with the future of their freedoms and rights. Those who are most indifferent and inattentive to these serious discussions and concerns—and who often even view the intensity of these discussions with cynical pleasure—are precisely the members of parliament and, in complete unison with them, the non-governmental organizations that defend, or rather should defend, human freedoms and rights. According to these organizations, after June 29 democracy in Albania is nearing its end, and the only thing that has concerned them so much is the current opposition’s shining record on human rights. The gloom surrounding the future, especially with the approval of the infamous law on the secret police and the one expected to be approved in September on the protection and classification of secrets, grows even darker when one considers that nowhere else in the world do organizations defending human rights cooperate so openly with those in power as they do in Albania. Regardless of this cooperation, the sincerity of the parliamentary proceedings was extremely provocative for Albanians. After the remarks, expressions and heated discussions this provoked, the magistrates, as in the tragedy “Macbeth,” certainly warned: “Rejoice, Prime Minister, tomorrow you will be king!” And indeed, the culmination of parliament’s work was in fact the unofficial crowning of the Prime Minister as king. In addition to the extraordinary powers he already had—some granted by law, others by the Albanian mindset and mentality of placing power in the hands of one person—with the law on the secret police he now becomes the holder of an extremely dangerous weapon. In this way, he rises not only above the freedoms and rights of ordinary citizens, but also gains the ability to abuse the freedoms and rights of the members of parliament themselves and of political parties, especially the opposition, without being answerable to anyone. Perhaps the current parliament does not feel the fatal weight of this law, because it created it this way and, throughout its few months of existence, has provided undeniable proof that it has been entirely obedient to one man, who is regarded as greater than power itself, because for him this obedience and submission mean freedom and independence of action. What is seriously at risk from

The government of Kalashnikovs continues to kill political opponents Resmi Aliaj had no enmity or dispute with anyone; on the contrary, he was known as a hardworking and courteous man and was respected by everyone in the Mallakastër district. The sole reason for the hail of bullets being fired at him was that he was among the first members of the Democratic Party at its founding, as well as one of its prominent activists ON PAGE 3

Mejdani and Nano’s ministers will not be welcomed by the legitimate local government authorities Nano’s ministers will not be welcomed by the legitimate local government authorities Gramsh: Mr. President, don’t meet with bandits! ON PAGE 3 Nano’s ministers are “very busy”

[Part of the headline cut off at the top edge.] ... don’t meet with bandits! ON PAGE 3

Nano’s ministers, “very busy,” refuse to meet local officials Fuga: We can’t even meet the ministers’ secretaries ON PAGE 2

Meeting between the chairman of the PDSH, Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha, and the delegation of the European Union troika ON PAGE 3

The Prime Minister uses every means to secure an acquittal The two judges removed from the panel were exceptionally conscientious in their work and were therefore the only ones Nano feared ON PAGE 3

The Cultural Monuments Branch stands like a monument Their physical restoration requires 40 million lek in investment and a year of work ON PAGE 7 Photograph of an old cobblestone street with buildings alongside it.

The former President’s spokesperson refutes the distortions of his interview In recent days, several left-wing Albanian newspapers have circulated an interview published in the Polish press in which, according to these newspapers, the Chairman of the Democratic Party, Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha, supposedly stated that Albanians in Kosovo should not ask Europe to ensure respect for human rights. The former president’s spokesperson categorically refutes such a statement as false and specifies that his office has all the relevant documentation on the matter. Nor did he say this to the Polish journalist, for whom Mr. Berisha has respect and believes that if what the left-wing Albanian newspapers claim was written in his newspaper, it is simply a slip of the pen, and in no other respect does the issue of the Albanians

The former President’s spokesperson refutes the misrepresentations of his interview In Kosovo, Mr. Berisha did not consider it a matter of human rights, but rather a matter of the human and national rights of the 2 million Albanians in the Republic of Kosovo, which must be resolved by reconciling the principle of self-determination with that of not changing international borders, and by ending violence. The spokesperson says that the regrets expressed by Albanian left-wing extremist circles—those who ambush Millosheviç’s men in Kosovo, or share with Millosheviç’s allies in Tirana, Prime Minister Nano and his associates, the money collected through fraud from Albanian patriots—are merely a desperate attempt to conceal their anti-Albanian positions in these difficult times that the Albanian nation is going through.

A black-and-white photograph of a group of people, some carrying bags, walking along an unpaved road.