Agolli warns that the Chairman will leave at the upcoming Conference By Edi PALOKA ON PAGE 3

By Lazër STANI ON PAGE 2

Another “Srebrenica” in Kosovo. Milošević’s army bathes Reçak in blood. Among the victims are dozens of unarmed civilians ON PAGE 7 Armed Serbs patrol the Albanian border. Albania calls for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council and NATO intervention

By Sami NEZA The massacre in Reçak, carried out yesterday by the Serbs, in which more than eighty Albanians were killed, including many women, children and elderly people, shows that for a year the situation in Kosovo has remained at a standstill, without managing to secure a solution or any hope of a solution. Immediately after the terrible news, Tirana called for an urgent meeting of the Security Council, while representatives of European diplomacy said they felt disappointed and insulted by Belgrade. Almost a year ago, the Serbs carried out one of the major massacres of Albanians in the villages of Drenica, and immediately after that massacre the international community pledged that it would not allow such a thing to happen again in Kosovo. But it happened again, right under the noses of OSCE personnel, who no longer feel any safer than any Albanian in the Republic of Kosovo. The Serbian perpetrators seem to feel at ease, but no one is able to explain why they should be safe. Just a few days ago, all the international organizations were involved in securing the release of eight Serbian hostages, and Vollebek’s achievement with the KLA was considered a major victory. Now it is not known how Vollebek, Clark, or another representative could possibly reach an agreement that would bring back to life the more than eighty people barbarically killed by the kind of soldiers they had released. First and foremost, Albanians must read the Reçak massacre carefully. Not only because, since the Drenica massacre, there has been no breakthrough toward a solution, but also because there has been a complete lack of political benefit. For a year, Kosovo’s history has been enclosed between two massacres that are not very different from one another, dissolving, as if into a drop of water, all the efforts of Pristina’s politicians, the sellouts of Tirana’s travelling politicians, Contact Group meetings, threats of NATO strikes, and other political actions whose results, ultimately, ought to have been visible on the battlefield, not in diplomatic salons and at receptions. The political spiral, which seemed to have been set in motion for the good of Kosovo’s war and with results, now appears to have coiled around itself, snarling as it tries to make room for all those tables and treaties drawn up in abundance in Pristina, Tirana, Rome, London, Bonn and elsewhere. World diplomacy was no more able to stop the perpetrators of the massacres or to confine them to their lairs in Belgrade than Kosovo Albanian politics—whether moderate or radical—was able to get its people out of the massacres. The Reçak case cannot be considered, at this point, to be like the Drenica case. The latest massacre was no less credible than the one a year ago, and the Albanians were not as overwhelmed by the Serbian military machine, nor less organized or less armed than they had been during the Drenica massacres. To defend yourself, you do not need to ask permission from OSCE observers; nor is it absolutely necessary first to issue a brave communiqué, a request for international protection, and so on and so forth. None of these is a bargaining chip when the occupying Serbian soldiers have trampled Kosovo and now want to do the same to its living people. You do not need to learn about Belgrade’s abuse of table diplomacy from Milošević’s interviews or Jovanović’s statements. It is made clear in Reçak by the children who were killed and massacred. A people left without resilience becomes even more so when they are served a peace that is quiet, more confining and harsher even than war. When missiles were launched at Iraq, Saddam had not yet committed a massacre; it was merely supposed what he might do. His Balkan counterpart both commits massacres and makes agreements to cover them up, yet no one bombs him. Reçak’s bloodshed has been declared the failure of peace made outside Kosovo. Europe and the United States must now think differently, about a peace made for Kosovo that works there.

The Albanian government does not unify its positions on Kosovo The Foreign Minister stated that the Kosovo issue can be resolved only through negotiations and dialogue. Such a statement is in complete contradiction with the Albanian government’s own statements, in which it has called for NATO military intervention ON PAGE 3 Papulias and Milo on the same wavelength on the Albanian issue “NATO, stay away from Kosovo” ON PAGE 3

The state’s meagre budget hits the copper and chromium industries On 16 December 1998, the government presented the draft budget for the “socio-economic paradise of workers for 1999”; on 17 December, it sealed the decision to create another wave of mass unemployment! ON PAGE 5

Deals among officials in the justice system, 5 customs officers flee after stealing millions of lek Dozens of files on smugglers had been lying in investigators’ drawers, but now they are no longer even mentioned. It is not known exactly where the high-profile files ended up, but a source from the General Prosecutor’s Office says... ON PAGE 6

Today, 127 days since the murder of the December Leader Every day that passes since the murder of Azem Hajdari, the symbol of democracy and pluralism, proves the involvement of Fatos Nano’s government and his successor in the grave crime against the entire Albanian world. The government of the former Communists, which has left the criminals who took the life of the December Leader free and unpunished, has shown Albanians that it has been and remains on the side of the killers, who have names and surnames but are untouched by those in power. Democrats and all Albanians who loved and honored Azem Hajdari cannot tolerate this fact under any circumstances. The government must either catch the criminals and bring them to justice, or publicly declare that it itself committed Azem Hajdari’s murder.

Republican Çeku speaks about the budget and foreign debt “When the PD was in power, a solution was found for repaying the inherited foreign debt, and more than 550 million dollars were paid off,” says the expert and former Deputy Minister of Finance, Robert Çeku ON PAGE 5

Heads of households protest outside the prefecture. The prefecture shut its doors on them. The conflict remains unresolved and heated ON PAGE 2

A visit to the political prisoners of the socialist regime By Pjetër ARBNORI ON PAGE 2

By Prof. Dr. Albert KARRIQI ON PAGE 4

By Bardhyl LONDO ON PAGE 10