Albpetrol, a victim of oil smuggling ON PAGE 5

There will no longer be free care; hospital beds will be rented out to patients ON PAGE 2

In at least 320 cases, the police operation against crime was compromised in advance ON PAGE 4

NATO exercises in Albania end ingloriously. Naval exercises in the Adriatic fail. Atlantic Alliance soldiers play football at the international training ground in Bizë ON PAGE 3

The World Bank Board of Directors is alarmed by the worsening economic and financial situation in Albania When the Board urged the left-wing coalition government to take the necessary steps to strengthen governance, it implied that it sees efforts to initiate reforms in the Public Administration as having been compromised. ON PAGE 3

By Afrim KRASNIQI Fatos Nano, just returned from Greece, announced that he would launch a harsh police and military offensive against “crime, prostitution and drugs” in the northeastern areas. This racist and xenophobic decision by Fatos Nano came on the same day that Millosheviç’s criminal army attacked the border villages in Tropojë for the seventh time, and as foreign diplomats in Tirana began [text unclear/corrupt] international [text unclear/corrupt]; that the cars of foreign officials are not stolen only in Tropojë, but also in Tirana, Durrës, Lushnjë and other cities. The public has recognized and denounced the existence of only one kind of organized crime in the northeast. (It is clear that Fatos Nano and Neritan Ceka conceived and carried it out during the previous year. As soon as Nano came to power, Nano and Ceka appointed people to head the police, security service and justice authorities in Tropojë, people Fatos Nano, newly returned from Greece, announced that he would launch a fierce political areas under investigation. the very same day that Milošević’s seventh time, and when foreign diplomats in Tirana began evacuating the army because of the danger to their lives. From the day Nano came to power until today, he has pursued a discriminatory and racist policy toward the northern part of Albania. He removed from the government all left-wing politicians originating from the country’s north and refused to appoint Catholic Albanian citizens to the government. Government xenophobia toward the north reached its peak in February 1998, when special police and army forces issued violent orders that set Shkodër ablaze and arrested dozens of innocent citizens. The Shkodër scenario, where a police commissioner from Vlora was initially appointed, was repeated in Tropojë, where the appointment of a “meritocrat” from the Cole neighborhood led to the Fierza hydroelectric power plant being set on fire. The country’s only national television station was also put to work in support of Nano’s short-sighted policy toward northern Albania. Over recent months, and especially in recent days, this racist television channel has continued to broadcast sensational arrests, such as that of five citizens born in Tropojë who had stolen a minibus. Giving prominence to this ordinary incident, while 32 murders took place in Tirana in the past week (the most sensational occurred 30 meters from the RTV building), is meant to create the impression that all Albanians living in the northeast are criminals, thieves, and vandals. Regardless of the campaign by television and pro-government print media, the government offensive against the northeast has no justifying legal or professional basis. Everyone of sound mind in Albania knows full well that drugs are not cultivated in the northeast, but in the homelands of Nano, Tepa, Ruci, and Rakipi; that their users are not in the poor villages of the northeast, but in Tirana’s high schools, right up to the prime minister’s family; that clandestine trafficking does not take place in the mountains of Tropojë, but along the beautiful coast of Vlora, Durrës, Golem, and Saranda; that organized prostitution has certainly never “been a problem” in the northeast; that the army’s weapons depots are not being multiplied in Tropojë, but in Gramsh, Berat, and Gjirokastër; that the smuggling of fuel, cigarettes, food, electrical appliances, etc., does not take place in Has and Zogaj, but in Vlora and Këpucë; in the Albanian sea and at the headquarters of the Ministry of Finance; that no one has declared the northeast a “champion of corruption,” but it was the Nano government that began awarding this shameful title. cities. Public opinion of organized crime in the northeast: the kind devised and carried out by Fatos Nano and Neritan Ceka power, Nano and Ceka appointed to head the police, security services, and judicial bodies in Tropojë people who are widely accused of numerous murders and have been known for the past ten years for their close ties with the Yugoslav secret police. Nano’s “meritocratic” leaders in the Tropojë police are remembered for having, with the public support of their prime minister, executed a senior police officer in the commissioner’s birthplace, eliminated two prominent KLA figures, and, in January 1998, massacred three founding leaders of the democratic opposition. Forgotten by the government, plunged into poverty and mass unemployment, impoverished and mistreated by local police chiefs, attacked with rockets by Milošević and with special police by Nano, the inhabitants of the northeast are living through their most critical days. Their only “fault”—of which they are still proud—is that a year ago they voted overwhelmingly against the prime minister and his party; that when the Albanian state set an ambush at Koman for Kosovars fleeing the war, the people of Tropojë gave them shelter and have continued for three months to share their daily bread with them. Before blaming an innocent population of 70,000 for nonexistent offenses, before sending special police, security, and army units to Tropojë, Has, and Kukës, Nano should bow respectfully and publicly apologize to those poor and generous, honest and patriotic people who, when Nano’s state was vacationing in Greece, stood guard at the Albanian border in Padesh; when Nano’s state was frightened by the arrival of Kosovar refugees, sent trains to collect them; and when Nano’s state was handing out election-time flour in Kavajë, shared their daily bread and poverty with the 100,000 victims of Milošević’s ethnic cleansing. The people of the northeast, and all Albanians, are not asking the government for imposed racist and regional discrimination and division, but for it to accept full responsibility for restoring the country’s lost governance, lost peace, lost employment, lost prosperity, and lost national dignity and sovereignty. If this continues to be done differently, and Albanians continue to suffer the consequences of the government’s gangs and the rule of Crete, then they must no longer allow it, but must be ready to stand up to a group of adventurers and criminals. Before the worst happens, the Greek government in Tirana must immediately stop turning the northeast into a target for its mercenaries and those of Milošević.

[Photograph of a vehicle bearing the “ARMY” insignia]

Klosi warned of the terrorist act in Shkodër The National Intelligence Service has ha-

The National Intelligence Service had full knowledge of the attack on the Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Shkodër; nevertheless, it did not make even the slightest effort to prevent the terrorists’ activities to destroy the religious institution. Just two weeks earlier, the head of SHIK, Klosi, warned through the press that the institution he heads had information that the situation would worsen in mid-August. ON PAGE 3

The compensation story returns. Dry bread for civil servants Heads of household may receive compensation of up to 500 lek per person per month, but no more than 1,500 lek per month, while all Albanians who received compensation from the Meksi government in ’92–’93 are not entitled to receive even the 500 lek. This whole game is being played while most of the ministers in his cabinet are enjoying holidays costing several million, and at a time when newspapers are quick to publish reports about their children’s education, also costing several million.

The rains have begun; 25 km of roads remain unpaved According to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, since the beginning of the year , the main obstacle to completing the paving of the roads has been the rain. Not a drop of rain fell during July, August, and the first half of August. Now it seems the heat has subsided and the rain will begin, at a time when roads can be asphalted only in dry weather. ON PAGE 5

They are seeking support from coalition parties to remove Nano as party leader Anti-Nano Socialist motion supporters will appeal to the parties in the governing coalition to take a position if the current leadership of the Socialist Party does not consider their request, which is for a vote of confidence in the party chairman. Socialist parliamentarians said on Friday, according to sources. ON PAGE 3

The Finance Ministry seeks “compensation” from KESH 800 million dollars, the stake in the conflict between institutions ON PAGE 5

An American missile heading toward the terrorist target