the punitive speech. Dictatorship comes out of the Presidency …for the Council of Europe"

Paris reminds the Albanian prime minister of the sins of governance Fatos Nano’s expenses in Paris reach a record figure, $76,000 in three days Instead of the $100 million requested, Nano returns empty-handed from Paris. The French government has been deaf to the Albanian prime minister’s requests for aid, while at the same time making it clear to him that it is troubled by the sins of the left-wing coalition’s governance in Albania. The blatant and continual violation of judicial independence, violence against the opposition, smuggling and government corruption, censorship over state media, the relentless political assault on the administration, and the near-constant violation of human rights by the state’s instruments of repression have been the real reasons for Paris’s refusal to help Fatos Nano’s government. After his meeting with the French prime minister, Lionel Jospin, the Albanian prime minister has been forced to mention only the discussion of the Kosovo issue as an important part of the conversation, as well as vague generalities about the possibility of integration in Albania. Even Nano’s spokesman’s statement suggested that only Kosovo was the topic on which Jospin was interested in hearing the Albanian government’s view. Everything else seems to have been set aside in light of the ongoing information Paris has received in recent days from Tirana. At the time he was meeting the French prime minister, Mediu’s relatives dealt the final blow to the government by demanding a court, which he had called to the presidency, as if they were career guards and institution guards. France cannot help a government mired in smuggling and corruption, something unacceptable to Paris’s billions, a government that won elections only under favorable conditions. There can be no expectation of foreign investment for such a embrace, which in just 9 months is forcing serious Albanian investors to leave Albania. The exploitation of such things as Iluskë aapunë, the promise and pride of Nano that he was going to France to return from there with $100 million. Instead of the promised amount, he brought back to Albania an empty suitcase and the record bill of $76,000 in three days’ spending in the French capital. In the luxurious hotels and restaurants of Paris, as well as in Brunet and as chief ruler of the poorest state in Europe, Fatos Nano cost Albania during his visit to France as much as the salaries of 3,000 pensioners combined. On this tour there were also staggering expenses for branded clothing “Pier Kard,” which has now become an obsession of the Albanian prime minister. After all this, it turns out that instead of the requested $100 million, Nano brought to Tirana a debt of $76,000, still a lot for the expenses of a single person over three days. T.G.J.

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 news that the two police officers may have killed each other ON PAGE 4

and hundreds of Tirana trade unionists protest ON PAGE 5

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

Silence over the mysterious killing of the lecturer ON PAGE 4

ON PAGE 7 Bleona Qerreti

old scandals of the PS