16/04/1998
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Rilindja Demokratike

16 April 1998

Three lifeless bodies found

The marshes of Shkodër bring the consequences of the crime to the surface ON PAGE 4

6 creditors at the police station

They were demanding their money in front of Parliament ON PAGE 5

Yugoslav flag removed from the Embassy

Another diplomatic incident in the Albanian capital ON PAGE 4

Nano 4 stalls at the Presidency

Përpali and Ceka change their tone in Parliament. Votes against emerge from the red ranks. Dade and Brokaj have powerful stories to tell As of late last night, the President had not decreed the changes in the government. Meidani has Nano in his hands for 24 hours

The state is responsible for the tragedy

Witnesses shed light on the Levan massacre The victim’s anti-tank weapon is invented in Tirana. The “most wanted man” was on the state payroll Bujar Suli’s destroyed house. Photo: Albes FUSHA

The new government is born rickety

Gjinushi and the parliament’s submachine guns vote for the new structure of clan power. PD walks out of the session after procedural violations Berisha: Time for new elections, not for experiments with failed governments ON PAGE 3

Police label opposition journalists criminals

The “RD” news editor, Vullnet Elbasani, is terrorized Meetings of PD Secretary General Bode and MP Gjana in Bushtricë and Kukës ON PAGE 2

Dade: I have never slept with Nano

Strong reaction from the Minister of Culture Nano is turning the state into private governance. His resentment toward me began because I did not appoint one of his men to the International Cultural Center The Minister of Culture, Arta Dade, is ready to tell her account of the real reasons for her conflict with Nano. At the meeting of the General Steering Committee of the Socialist Party, she stunned everyone present when she declared loudly, “I have never slept with Nano, and I have no intention of doing such a thing.” Her raised voice, which stunned many of the other Socialist committee members, made it clear what Nano had said about Brokaj. Although very aggressive by nature, Dade nevertheless preferred to remain silent to some extent, warning that she would soon speak about what she knows. But in confidential circles she has also explained the real causes of her estrangement from, and later conflict with, Nano. According to her, everything began when Nano sent her a name to appoint as director of the International Cultural Center, but the minister did not sign off on the Prime Minister’s candidate. After that, says Dade, from being the “cream puff” of the government—as Nano called me in the first months of his government—I suddenly became the government’s most unwelcome member. According to Dade, this is not the only instance that has led her to conclude that Nano is governing privately, for his own people and his clan. L.M.

Shocking fluctuations of the lek

Worrying warnings for the national currency The lek experienced an unprecedented fluctuation yesterday… although yesterday it also shifted in the exchange rate, reaching low exchange-rate levels for several hours, around 170, against the dollar. After several hours the lek began to strengthen again against foreign currency, and by the close of the money changers’ market it had returned to the average levels of recent days. The money changers raised their hands in bewilderment at this fluctuation, never seen before, when the lek plunged and then recovered again after a few hours. Nevertheless, many money changers anticipate a further fall in the value of the lek, as well as an acceleration of drastic fluctuations that could cause severe turmoil in Tirana’s primitive exchange market.

Zogaj: Ceka’s departure, a political blunder by PS

PAD warns it may leave the governing coalition “The agreement on the changes had nothing to do with names” ON PAGE 2

Another 720 hungry people at the Kukës canteen

Absolute poverty grips Tirana ON PAGE 2

Institutions paralyzed

RTV’s governing council is not functioning The deputy chairman of the Radio and Television governing council, Sefedin Cela, told the ENITER news agency on Wednesday that the council is currently not functioning. “The body that must resolve this problem is the People’s Assembly. A solution to this problem has not come about properly...” ON PAGE 3

Nano changes the structures but not the crisis

Yesterday the Albanian government changed its structure and some names, but not the crisis. Once again, over and above the explanations, poverty and misery, deception and manipulation to do something for oneself will remain even harsher. A law changing the structure of the Council of Ministers can only expand or contract the government cabinet, but cannot affect even one indicator of the crisis that has gripped every aspect of life today. By order of the current Prime Minister, precisely those ministers who had no direct connection to the crisis in the country were removed from office. Thus, the crisis in Albania was not created, as the Dade and Culture Alliance claims, by Shaqiri Vukaj and the others. The crisis in the country has arisen from the lack of law and order, which has been encouraged by the Albanian Prime Minister and carried forward by the Interior Ministers; from the underlying financial policy, which a large number of ministers have extended across the Albanian government and state; from the Prime Minister’s huge lies during the election campaign; and from the negative results of carrying out all his absurd promises. The Albanian government was not at fault because of one or even ten ministers. It is at fault because of the policies and alternatives it chose, the administration it re-educates, the methods it chose to revive the economy, and its source of inspiration: the Leninist revolution of the past. The government did not manage to break away from the gangs and bandits it created last night; it was a gang, but not a gang capable of destroying the state. Likewise, the government did not manage to break away from the clans; it was ensnared in a circle that does not… The acquittal of the great number in all possible aspects of its activity. The government politically chose the official media, the police. The reason—perhaps sometimes the voices of what it muttered. The government and its officials deceived the creditors and stole their money. Tropojë first of all together. With that money the government could have opened new businesses, could have restarted the provision of loans, could have increased the number of police officers confronting crime, or raised the pensions of the elderly. Yesterday, without a shred of morality, Nano stood before his country and its citizens and decided to change the structure. Changes in structure are changes only in structure. Changes in names are only changes in names. However the goat is made to move, it is still the same: the sons of Marx’s revolution, who sit in Parliament, itself a product of the power of March, and a Presidency that is almost not one. They remain without those things; the government gangs remain gangs, and the powers remain, even the contraband; the elements absorbed into the administration are not brought to account, the stolen money is not returned to the country. From the era of Nano onward, there is no difference between Nano 2, Nano 3, Nano 4, Nano 5. Nano 1, 2, 3 and 4—only different names for Nano have come and gone. Only the names changed…

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