The Contact Group sets another Dayton for Kosovo. On 6 February, Albanians and Serbs will hold talks in Rambouillet, France The Albanian-Serb talks will take place under the auspices of Vedrine and Cook. 21 days to implement the peace agreement. Tomorrow Solana and Vedrine in Prishtina and Belgrade ON PAGE 6

The White Coats of the University Hospital stop work in protest After education, the healthcare unions are the ones putting the government in the vise of economic and professional demands, threatening to begin an indefinite strike ON PAGE 5

By Astrit PATOZI The governing coalition is definitively rejecting the pact proposed by the opposition to restore public order, further compromising its position in the face of the crisis in Albania. But the government’s repeated failure to fight organized crime, at the worst possible time for security in the country, cannot be regarded simply as an attempt to win elections. Rather, it shows a total lack of political will to block the mafia, at a time when crime in the country is no longer only an Albanian problem, but one affecting the entire region. The government is demonstrating that its hands are tied when it comes to taking the investigation of the mafia seriously. Its hands are joined with those of other Albanian delinquents, proving that all the accusations of officials’ involvement in the criminal activities of traffickers and mafia smugglers are true. The serious incident involving the police director of Vlora was simply a public example showing all Albanian citizens the local mafia, in contrast with the impotence of the state in Albania. The criminal arrest of Koci and his release in exchange for the speedboats seized by the police have provoked an extraordinary reaction in the West as well. Italy, the country directly affected by the speedboat operators and other Albanian mafiosi, is calling for intervention so that it will no longer be threatened from Albania’s shores, expressing complete distrust in all the initiatives of the Albanian government. The speedboats’ escape and the involvement of Tirana officials in the black-market trafficking and drug trade in Vlora and elsewhere have caused extraordinary concern in many other Italian states as well. The concern that has gripped Rome and other Western chancelleries over what is happening in Albania has either not been mentioned here, or has been badly interpreted for the officials in Tirana. The governing coalition is irresponsible in its rejection and isolation of Skënder Gjinoshi, Neritan Ceka, Spartak Braho or Petro Koci, both with regard to the opposition’s public-order pact and the international alarm over the frightening scale of criminal activity in Albania. Former minister Ceka, one of those responsible for the deterioration of public order in the country over the past two years, blamed the press and the Italian opposition for the grave situation created in Albania. In the face of the forthcoming change of power, Ceka’s opposition received the approval of the socialist majority in parliament, demonstrating the policy of the governing coalition. In the same chorus as Ceka are the speaker of parliament, Skënder Gjinushi, one of the officials most notorious for his ties to mafia clans, as well as the Minister of Public Order, Petro Koçi. But while Ceka made his accusations against the Italian press quite openly, Gjinushi was very clear and direct in his statements at the end, confirming all the accusations about his links to crime. What more can be expected from a speaker of parliament who appears on television and says that, in criticizing the Vlora speedboat operators who took commissioner Koçi, the government’s assets could be threatened with seizure? An official who undertakes publicly to justify a repeated terrorist act such as the one in Vlora shows that he is no different from the boasts of Koci or Zani Causi. At least the speedboat operators can boast that in Tirana they do not have several MPs like the Minister of Public Order, Petro Koçi, but that their own leader, Skënder Gjinushi, is on their side too. This also includes the minister Petro Koçi, held responsible for the punishment of the Fier community in the events of March 1997, and Spartak Braho, as one of those who organized the failed assassination attempt in Shkallnur. Minister Koçi says that the public-order pact offered by the Democratic Party implies changing individuals, not policies, as if the opposition were particularly concerned that the Minister of Public Order is him and not someone else. This small chorus of opponents of the public-order pact is something the government must take seriously, not because its members have any standing or importance in Albanian politics, but because they have revealed the truth about the governing coalition’s regime and the elite it has turned into, presenting it in a disgraceful light. Pandeli Majko, and anyone else in his government, if they intend to do something for the country, cannot wash their hands of responsibility by hiding behind the irresponsible statements of Ceka, Braho, Gjinushi or Zani Causi, or shield themselves with excuses. Albania is in a state of emergency, since the state cannot control most of the country’s territory, while bandits, masked or unmasked, consider themselves masters of the coastlines, customs points and national roads. Albanian citizens do not care about the plans of the Socialist Party and its allies, much less about their reaction to police cooperation with the opposition in the fight against the mafia. If Majko truly has the necessary will to paralyze organized crime in Albania, he cannot hide his responsibilities behind conspiracies or accuse the opposition’s “collaborators.” Albanians want public order at any cost and at any price, and the opposition has done nothing more than synthesize their demands in a document. There is absolutely no element of political gain in this proposal, since under normal circumstances it should be the government that offers cooperation. This is all the more true in Albania, where the governing coalition has been in power since the elections of 29 June, and it is hardly the opposition that has refused to cooperate with it; indeed, the opposition has accused it of being the cause of the country’s harsh political climate.

KLA fighters on the battlefront REUTERS

PD Presidium member Albina Karamr[to] comments on the reactions of left-wing politicians to Berisha’s proposal “All the reactions so far seem to be individual and disconnected, coming either from people who are genuinely not interested in restoring order, or from people who may have links to certain sectors of trafficking, crime and the mafia” ON PAGE 3

How Fatos Nano forged official documents Without a government decision, he issued Hajdin Sejda four authorizations, dated 28.2.91 and 29.2.91, appointing him on behalf of the government as its economic, commercial and financial adviser, and authorizing him to negotiate with foreigners on the evaluation of oil contracts, its storage and processing, the securing of financial resources, and several projects in light industry, food, energy, building materials, etc. ON PAGE 7

Albanian government smuggling shocks the head of Division XXI. Natalia Çea meets Chief Prosecutor Arben Rakipi Alarmed by the dizzying growth of smuggling in Albania, the head of Division XXI, Natalia Çea, has leveled harsh accusations against the Albanian Prosecution for failing to investigate smugglers ON PAGE 5

Balli Kombëtar Demokrat calls on NATO to intervene militarily in Kosovo Yesterday, Balli Kombëtar Demokrat reiterated its call to the international community to intervene militarily in the conflict in Kosovo, where the butcher of the Balkans continues massacring the civilian population. “The inexplicable indifference of international organizations has become more openly expressed in the assistance they are giving to the Serbian regime. At a time when the Albanians of Kosovo are being brutally massacred, the Contact Group, NATO and the OSCE continue to shirk their responsibilities without end. The silence of the international community... ON PAGE 3

Today, 140 days since the murder of the December Leader “Every day that passes since the murder of Azem Hajdari reveals that democracy and pluralism prove the involvement of Fatos Nano’s government and its successor in the crime that has reverberated throughout the Albanian world. The government, by letting the criminals who took the life of the December Leader go free and unpunished, shows Albanians that it has been and remains on the side of the killers, whose names are known, but who are not wanted by the democratic authorities. All Albanians who wished to honor Azem Hajdari cannot tolerate such a thing. The government must either arrest the criminals and bring them to justice, or publicly declare that it itself committed the murder of Azem Hajdari.”

The Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE is alarmed: Albanian children are sold in Italy for organ transplants ON PAGE 3

Tirana Mayor Albert Brojka hopes for a unanimous vote by councilors from all political forces ON PAGE 2

Solis admits the crisis in healthcare: We cannot cope with the diseases 70% of hospitals do not function ON PAGE 5 Local government initiates cooperation with central government on public order Tirana Municipality convenes a roundtable on crime ON PAGE 4 The black market raises the price of passports for travel abroad 50 thousand drachmas for an international passport ON PAGE 4