Yesterday, hundreds of Tirana trade unionists protested NATIONAL LIBRARY ON PAGE 5

Nano repeats the story of the plundering of the state treasury ON PAGE 2

Silence over the professor’s mysterious murder ON PAGE 4

Nano and Meidani: “We don’t care about the Council of Europe” The state attacks the judiciary. President Meidani delivers a punitive speech. Dictatorship emerges from the Presidency

Elections are near

Fatos Nano’s expenses in Paris reach a record figure: $76,000 in three days Paris reminds the Albanian prime minister of the sins of his government Instead of the 100 million dollars he had requested, Nano returns from Paris empty-handed. The French government has turned a deaf ear to the Albanian prime minister’s requests for aid, while making clear to him that it is concerned by the sins of the left-wing coalition government in Albania. The flagrant and ongoing violation of judicial independence, violence against the opposition, smuggling and corruption [text unclear] whom he had summoned to the Presidency, as if they were the institution’s guards and waiters. France cannot help a government mired in smuggling and corruption, which is unacceptable even to the activists of the party that won the elections [text unclear] acceptable only under the conditions. No foreign investment can be expected from an administration which, in just nine months, is driving even serious Albanian investors out of Albania. Thus, Nano’s promise and claim that he was going to France to return with 100 million dollars burst like a soap bubble. Instead of the much-promised sum, he brought back to Albania an empty suitcase and the record bill of 76 thousand dollars for his expenses during three days in the French capital. Three days and three nights in the most luxurious hotels and restaurants in Paris, as if he were the Sultan of Brunei and not the head of government of Europe’s poorest state. Fatos Nano’s visit to France cost Albania as much as the combined pensions of 3,000 pensioners. The tour also included extravagant spending on clothes bearing the “Pier Karde” label, which have now become an obsession of the Albanian prime minister. After all this, it turns out that brought back to Tirana a debt of 76 thousand dollars—at any rate, far more than one person’s expenses for three days. T.GJ. returned, Nano turns back, is the axis of ?-risi. Albanian prime minister’s requests for assistance, flagrant and ongoing violation of the independence of the judiciary, violence against the opposition, smuggling and government corruption, censorship of state information media, the unrelenting political purge of the administration, and the constant violation of human rights by the state’s repressive instruments have been the real reasons for Paris’s refusal to assist the government of Fatos Nano. After his meeting with French Prime Minister Lionel Jhospen, the Albanian prime minister was forced to mention as the only important parts of the discussion the issue of Kosovo and general words about the possibility of investment in Albania. Even Nano’s unworthy announcement suggested that Kosovo was the only subject on which Jhospen was interested in hearing the Albanian government’s opinion. On all the others, it seems that the floor was left to the continuing reports about occupants? that Paris has received from Tirana throughout recent times. While Nano was meeting the French prime minister, in Tirana Meidani was delivering the final blow to justice by threatening the judges, the

By Azem HAJDARI President Meidani’s arbitrary summons to the judicial body set an unprecedented [?] precedent in a democratic country, thereby carrying out the [?] aims of turning the judiciary into a vassal of the Socialist Party’s politics. Meidani’s action, as president and Chairman of the High Council of Justice, could not have been undertaken and could not have occurred in any democratic state, as it is prohibited by constitutional law. As president, he has no right to summon the judiciary, which, as a branch of power, is separate from the executive and legislative branches; it is an independent power on an equal footing with the other two and is appointed under constitutional provisions. Meidani could not summon yesterday’s gathering of judges and prosecutors, not even in his capacity as president of the High Council of Justice, because the HJC, as a constitutional body, has the sole authority to appoint and dismiss, and to impose disciplinary measures only on first-instance and appellate judges, as well as prosecutors. The HJC’s regulations also prohibit him from exercising state authority as president over the judiciary and place him in a position of equality among equals. By unlawfully imposing his authority over the courts and prosecutors, Meidani has committed a constitutional violation, thereby subjecting the judiciary to political coercion. Yesterday’s gathering thus marks the return of the brutal, authoritarian, arbitrary and ideological politics of the Socialist Party, intended to suppress every form of judicial independence once and for all. This tendency has recently been demonstrated by Justice Minister Kondi’s attacks on courts and judges. He has issued unlawful orders to suspend the courts’ activities and control their budgets, dismissed judges for political reasons, and changed the composition of the law on the organization of justice adopted by the High Council; this has been followed by Interior Minister Neritan Ceka’s attacks on the Court of Cassation, which he called a den of criminals, and by other irresponsible statements against prosecutors’ offices, courts, prosecutors and judges. This was also accompanied by the Prosecutor General, Rakipi, acting as the government’s persecutor and placing heavy pressure on the courts, telling judges that he would arrest them and that they would not find anywhere to sleep. This campaign by the Socialist ideological power was brought to a close by President Meidani with accusations and prejudgments against every level of the judiciary. By accusing the judiciary of incompetence, politicization and collusion in corruption, and by pressuring judges with threats of specific penalties, President Meidani reminded Albanians of the First Secretary of the PPSH, Enver Hoxha, and Ramiz Alia, and their motto that the party makes justice and that nothing is above constitutional laws. Meanwhile, he and Nano openly defy the Council of Europe and the West in general, placing their boot on the justice system. Just a few days ago, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Leni Fisher, warned the administrations of Nano and Meidani to be careful with the judiciary. Nano and Meidani told the Council of Europe that they did not care about it at all. Yesterday, Meidani dropped the mask of a neutral, non-partisan puppet and displayed more clearly than ever during these months his ambition for power. The Meidani he chose is identical to that of the former ideological leaders. Meidani, Kondi and Rakipi’s anti-constitutional act in their high state offices also constitutes an unequivocal [?] violation of the law, restoring executive power and the ideological party above the independent judiciary and its authority, as well as imposing communist dictatorship over the laws and civil society as a whole, degrading the judiciary and reducing it to the worst and lowest state in its entire existence.

New documents on old PS scandals The PS withdrew 151,350 dollars from the PPSH bank account at a time when, by government decision dated 14.1.1992, this money had been transferred to the state budget ON PAGE 2

The news blackout against the opposition continues Yesterday, the state television station Minga-Mazi-Radi, unscrupulous servants of the neodictators, did not broadcast a report on the PDSH activity attended by its chairman Berisha in the city of Fier, even though the report footage was sent in good time. According to all the rules governing the state media, this television station should have broadcast it, like the activities of other political parties, in the 20.00 news bulletin. The PD denounces this repressive stance by the television station of the neondoktarëve, which continues to violate the sacred principles of the opposition’s freedom of speech, principles that are its masters. In denouncing this anti-PD stance of the Minga-Mazi-Radi troika, the filthy censors of RTV, who with political amorality and shamelessness seek to justify their dictatorial past before the officials they serve in the basest way, the PD considers this action deliberate, intended to maintain a news blackout against the party of the nationwide protest against the coalition government, the rise in the PD’s standing, and the people’s demand for a technical government. These acts of violence against freedom of speech and politically preferential reporting require the television station to be repeatedly scrutinized, showing how badly? this institution and its leaders blindly serve the policy of the antidemocratic coalition government.

The economy in focus By Mitro Çela ON PAGE 7

When I go out to sing at concerts or festivals, I avoid certain outfits that I feel don’t bring me any luck Interview with singer Bleona Qerreti ON PAGE 11

More than 100 police officers killed since the former communists returned to power Investigators have rushed to cover up the real traces of the crime by spreading the claim that the two police officers may have killed each other ON PAGE 4