The law on the sale of assets on the desk of “Deloitte & Touche” ON PAGE 5

Residents of Cërrik show indifference to Meidani’s visit ON PAGE 3

Terror against PD activists intensifies ON PAGE 4

Miners ready to march from Valias to Tirana After using the police against the Bulqiza miners, Ylli Bufi threatens the strikers, showing the miners the prison cells because they are demanding a pay rise ON PAGE 2

Malaj announces in Vlora the secret agreement with Vehbi Alimuça Tushë and his followers declare a faction at the PS conference in Vlora ON PAGE 3

Local government officials oppose government oversight ON PAGE 3

Ambassadors review military plans for intervention in the Albanian-Serbian conflict Possible air operations may involve only forces from NATO’s 16 member countries, and not those of partner countries ON PAGE 3

By Edi PALOKA There had to be a reason to justify the new SHIK law, and a reason to justify the way that law was approved in Parliament—and a reason was found. Islamic fundamentalism is the “culprit” for which Albanians will henceforth be bugged even in their marital beds, as in the old days. For precisely this reason, a kind of story was concocted about Islamic terrorists who supposedly have schools here; it even went so far as to claim that Islamic terrorism is directed from Albania. These claims were contradicted by the current head of SHIK himself, who called all of them fantasies and fabrications. Nevertheless, despite the absurdity of these theories, Nano exploited them to rush a law through Parliament—a law that, to put it mildly, takes Albania entirely back to the days of the communist dictatorship. The law on SHIK approved by Parliament once again brings Hoxha’s infamous Sigurimi into the lives of Albanians. Some provisions of this law even turn SHIK into an organization far more dangerous than the former State Security Service. Thus, after the law’s approval, Nano will have the legal right to full control over the secret service, which means full control over the lives of all Albanian institutions. Since coming to power, Nano has worked specifically to achieve this goal. Seizing power by force naturally demands a more violent form of rule, and Nano had thought this through. To hold on to power he does not deserve, one must of course use methods outside the law, as democratic states do, and Nano had an example to follow. He could not have found a better example than E. Hoxha. For 50 years, Enver Hoxha controlled the lives of all Albanians through the State Security Service. The State Security Service had penetrated even the marital beds of Albanians, as well as the highest institutions. With the State Security Service, Hoxha controlled everyone, from the humblest villager to the prime minister. The State Security Service was above all and then dealt with everyone who “turned out” to be an opponent of the “leader”; Hoxha did not need to give an order to eliminate the informer. Nano aims to achieve the same thing. Nano’s strategy initially aimed to bring all former Sigurimi agents back into SHIK and remove everyone who might resist Nano’s goals. Bringing the old specialists in crime back into SHIK was only the first step. The second step would be to place all important state and non-state institutions under the control of this secret service... (Continued on page 3)

The inscription “Hotel Europa” can be seen in the background.

Representatives of the European Trio at a press conference yesterday in Tirana Pollo, Cikuli and Bano visit the Haxhiu family The DP is not afraid of terrorists The authorities must abandon the strategy of physically eliminating political opponents The Democratic Party’s deputy chairman, Genc Pollo, and the Democratic Party’s two MPs for Lushnjë, Maksim Cikuli and Ilir Bano, visited yesterday the former mayor, Kujtim Haxhiu, whose home was the target of a serious terrorist act two days ago. Pollo and the two MPs from Lushnjë expressed their regret at the shock caused to the Haxhiu family by the barbarity of the left-wing terrorist gangs, and assured them that the Democrats’ home would be made stronger by the Democratic Party and all Democrats throughout the country. Pollo called on government officials to hold accountable all the criminals who act in the name of the authorities against opposition activists and members, and to abandon the strategy of physically eliminating political opponents. The first non-communist mayor of Lushnjë, Kujtim Haxhiu, thanked the DP leaders for their great solidarity and the support he had received from all the democratic forces in the country in facing four terror-ist[s?]. Haxhiu assured Pollo that he and his family would not back down in the face of threats and violence by the terrorist state, but would continue to fight for the triumph of democratic ideals in Albania. P. S

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Defense Committee and DP MP, Azem Hajdari, comments on the law “On the National Intelligence Service” We have characterized this law as the law that transforms SHIK into Fatos Nano’s secret police, as a return to the old platform of the State Security Service, turning this institution into a powerful instrument of persecution and political and economic crime in the hands of a single person ON PAGE 4

BSPSh refutes the trade unions–government pact The press reported yesterday the signing of a trade unions–government pact at the latest meeting of the National Labour Council. We are convinced that this announcement came from important offices of the Ministry of Labour, so we consider it essential to refute it and confirm the truth, which is entirely different from what the ministry often wishes to convey in its press releases. At the latest meeting of the National Labour Council, BSPSh President Xhevdet Lubani firmly opposed, with incontrovertible arguments, the discussion of and signing of pacts with the Nano government. In the debate, Mr Lubani strongly insisted on meeting BSPSh’s demands, which, even after more than a year of the current government’s rule, are becoming more acute and more urgent to resolve every day. The BSPSh representative on the National Labour Council considered the idea of a “pact” with a government that has not formally recognized any union institution in Albania—and still does not—as wholly unacceptable and paradoxical. Nano’s continued disregard for the institutions of the trade unions has reduced the possibility of dialogue to zero, leaving only strikes and mass protests as a means of communication. BSPSh began these protests and suspended them for major political reasons, and will soon resume them for even more pressing economic reasons. BSPSh believes that the authorities’ use of the political emergency surrounding the situation in Kosovo—which is increasingly taking shape as typical demagoguery—is intended to conceal the economic disappointment suffered by the Nano government far sooner than it expected. In the face of this situation, and the haste of today’s rulers to wrap what remains of the national wealth in the cloak of privatization, BSPSh will very soon announce and implement its strategy of opposition by every means. In this context, the fanfare about the supposed signing of social pacts between BSPSh and the government has no basis in truth, whether logical or propagandistic. We consider it nothing more than flattery sent to Nano during his vacation in Greece by a cabinet that senses its chair slipping away because it cannot provide real and lasting solutions to the very acute and complex problems that characterize Albanian society today.

50th Anniversary of the Truman Doctrine (1948–1998) By: Gëzim HADAJ “Communism is a hateful thing, a threat to peace and organized government; but communism that combines capital with wealth, that is the offspring of arrogance, greed and selfishness, that deceitfully undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is far more dangerous than the communism of suffering and spiritual poverty.” These are the words of U.S. President Grover Cleveland, from as early as 1888...