Deloitte & Touche is concealing the company’s other debts ON PAGE 5

Crime loses its way. He set out for justice, but ends up free ON PAGE 4

President Meidani orders Rakipi: Help Zani Çaushi ON PAGE 4

Nano 3 — The government of poverty. The Consumer Association publishes shocking figures ON PAGE 5

The government invites citizens to head for the municipal soup kitchen

Yesterday at 12 noon, hundreds of creditors gathered at the entrance to the Albanian parliament, chanting “We want our money” and “Down with the Government” Large numbers of police officers used violence against the protesting creditors, most of them women and elderly people. Several creditors were handcuffed and put in a green van with foreign plates ON PAGE 5

On Kosovo, the Albanian government supports Greece’s positions: Minority rights “His government’s platform for resolving the Albanian issue, and in particular the Kosovo issue, aims to democratize Serbia and the Balkans” . Nano joins Milošević. “His government’s platform for resolving the Albanian issue, and in particular the Kosovo issue, aims to democratize Serbia and the Balkans.” The Albanian prime minister repeats Papoulias’s theses in parliament. ON PAGE 3

The Albanological Institute returns to the Albanians . Serbian forces approach the border with Albania. The Pristina Albanological Institute was returned to the Albanians yesterday at around 18:00, after four years of occupation by the Serbs. Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, mediator of the Arsmir Agreement, handed the keys to its director, Dr. Sadri Fetiu. At 18:20, Dr. Fetiu announced the news to more than 100 journalists and thousands of Pristina residents gathered in front of the Albanological Institute. Those present greeted the news with applause and cheers. The Albanological Institute in Pristina is one of the largest and most distinguished centers of Albanian national culture. Its return, and that of the Albanians of the Republic of Kosovo, marked the beginning of the implementation of Protocol 3-5, pursuant to the agreement reached two weeks earlier. Meanwhile, Serbian police and military forces continue to keep Drenica surrounded and to bring in further police and paratrooper reinforcements from Serbia to various areas of Kosovo.

120 workers protest the planned layoff of half their number 120 workers at “DELTA,” an Italian-Albanian joint venture currently based in the former Valvit dhe Sapunit factory in Elbasan, stopped work yesterday. . “DELTA” LLC on strike. Yesterday, 120 workers at “DELTA,” an Italian-Albanian joint venture currently based in the former Valvit dhe Sapunit factory in Elbasan, stopped work. According to the workers, the reason for the stoppage was news from the current management that 60 workers would be laid off. They therefore began an indefinite strike during the day yesterday. Today, a delegation of workers will hold final talks with the Italian side, which currently owns 70% of the company’s capital. The workers had already reacted angrily toward the Italian owner, Pici, accusing him of not investing enough in the existing factory, which they say led to the work stoppage. According to a source at “DELTA” LLC, the Italian investor put only 17 million lire into the factory, while for a long time the factory operated solely with imported European Community oil, which came to Albania as part of humanitarian aid. Since its founding, the factory’s primary purpose has been to collect and process oil olives from Elbasan’s plentiful olive groves. But in the past two years it has disregarded this tradition and bought olives in Berat and Vlora at lower prices, but with a lower oil content. As a result, olive growers have turned away from selling to this factory, since its prices were unsatisfactory to them. According to the workers, this too has contributed to the shortage of raw materials, and the factory is currently facing its own problems. Yesterday, the workers gathered on strike in the factory courtyard particularly accused the owners of the factory of having driven olive growers away from selling to it, In any case, after today’s talks, the Factory Trade Union Council will make a final decision on the course of the strike. Fatmir TERZIU

. The government’s debacle (Nano 3) had been forecast from the moment it was announced. No crutch can keep upright a psychology and mentality so closely tied to the 50-year past, whose very name Albanians do not want to hear. Because no one in Albania has stronger ties to that past than the people chosen to govern. And no matter how the old woman tries to sit down, we cannot become muses. Despite the cosmetics (that is, mostly provincial cases and [unclear]), our eight-month-old government leaders, in their actions, prove themselves faithful to their physical or spiritual fathers. They imitated their luxury against the people’s customary destitution, state terror to smother alternative thought in its very infancy and, above all, crude propaganda to conceal their scandalous failures. They promised jobs and increased unemployment; promised to return people’s money, then took away even the little money Albanians had; promised “inclusiveness” and applied regional and party-based genocide; promised a civil society and surrounded deputies and institutions with tanks; proclaimed freedom of thought and sowed intellectual fear; professed freedom of religion, while all the government officials declared atheism a moral value. Indeed, in the name of this atheism, they provoked churches and insulted Saint Kozma. In the name of this atheism, they re-entered buildings in violation of ownership, because [unclear] (more precisely, this is unclear), they would never have allowed colossal work [unclear], unless they had [unclear] the dependence of the Albanian Orthodox Church on the Greek one. For these and many other reasons, the government’s debacle was not merely forecast, but declared on the day it was formed. The formation of this government came as something as ridiculous as it was insulting to Albanians. “Take…” The efforts of national intellectuals, who had given their word to lead and inspire a conscious people, were lost in the mass crowds and everything that passed. Moreover, with the political dismissal of… With their compromised pasts weighing on them, Albania’s politicians created the “so-called coalition,” which is a house of cards. The only result of this coalition is wasted time for Albania and the fact that the party that won the elections (regardless of how it won) has appointed a prime minister who is controlled by the “1 and 2 percent parties.” This government will also be remembered for something else: it seated two types of ministers in office: rolling ministers, who could spend their whole lives without seeing an inch of road, and sleepwalking ministers, who even in their dreams see “an uprising in the north” and equate the opposition with the enemy. The philosophy—or lack of philosophy—of the “Nano 3” cabinet has failed completely. The prime minister continues to yell demagogically, because he is the most powerless prime minister in the world: the only moves he can make are never in his own hands or those of his party, but in the hands of the two-percenters and in the diplomatic weakness of foreigners, which may once again bring us ministers who are delusional or sleepwalking. But what importance do changes in the ministerial cabinet have? Will this once again be a demagogic game inspired by the spiritual winds of our government leaders, who, whenever things look bad, sacrifice two or three heads in the state leadership, temporarily placating the dissatisfied millions? Today’s cabinet, if it has even a shred of wisdom, should give Albanians the one and only good thing they voted for it to do: resign completely, because if you do not leave when you should, we will remove you alive… At least the “Nano 3” cabinet may be remembered for something: whereas the first legislature had lasted three months, they managed to bring it down to two months, so that they could [unclear] and be blamed so much, because Albanians do not have the fathers they deserve governing them as they wish. And, as [unclear], no child can be blamed for [unclear], because “you don’t choose your father yourself.” Bardhyl LONDO

. No maneuver is stopping the devaluation of Albania’s national currency. The dollar gained ground against the lek once again. The unstoppable slide of the national currency appeared to have been checked by some dubious maneuvers by the Central Bank. But yesterday the lek began tumbling toward the abyss again, increasing uncertainty about the future of positive deposits and citizens’ pockets. Yesterday the dollar was exchanged at 161.50 lek, gaining further ground against the lek. The instability of the national currency against foreign currencies and its continually declining value are, among other things, consequences of the severe economic crisis, which shows no signs of abating.

. The editorial staff of the newspaper “Rilindja Demokratike” wishes Prime Minister Nano and his cabinet a happy third day of April. In its heartfelt greeting, it also conveys the message of millions of Albanians who have learned firsthand just how serious the government is about honoring the promise that caused such concern, embodied in the sacred day of April 1. Thousands of greetings have reached our editorial office from Vlora and from all over Albania, condensing this sentiment into the highest praise for the greatest deception of the century in Flag Square, concerning the diversion of money, which bears the prime minister’s personal signature. Best wishes to Nano and the other government officials, who have shown themselves so consistent in observing April 1, when they promised to restore order, create 200,000 new jobs, and provide seasonal employment in Italy and Greece, with great benefits for the government. These wishes come especially from those who have been laid off, in whose view the government has exaggerated its claims, but which nevertheless fall within the ancient principle of April 1. Being convinced that until the final day of your time in power you will remain consistent in keeping your April promises, I take this opportunity to express our highest regard for the great achievements that rank our government first in the world, without any doubt that you have carried out the greatest deception of the century. Once again, Nano, we wholeheartedly wish you a happy April 1. Respectfully, The editorial staff of “RD”

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