The court hearing for the imprisoned leader of the Legalist Party has resumed ON PAGE 4

Loans handed out sparingly by 7 foreign private banks ON PAGE 5

Difficulties in road transport and communications ON PAGE 4

The great writer once again draws the attention of Albanians: “Albania has serious problems with democracy” This faction presents itself as a continuation of the communist regime, with its methods, its sick hatred of people of culture, and its passion for delayed revenge ON PAGE 3

Kondi orders the Finance Ministry to halt funding for the largest opposition party The Director of the Codification Directorate, Artan Hoxha, or the nephew of Foto Çami and son-in-law of Sofokli Lazari, is preventing the Budget Directorate at the Ministry of Finance from releasing the funds due to the Democratic Party ON PAGE 3

The DP Secretary for Public Relations, Vili Minarolli, reveals the background to the Council of Europe Resolution on Kosovo Many Members of the European Parliament were convinced that trafficking, large-scale smuggling, and corruption in Albania were linked to and supported by the current senior government officials

The Inter-Parliamentary Union discusses the case file on persecuted Democrats The case file on the abuse of Albanian MPs was prepared by Ingeborg Schwartz, secretary of the Committee on the Rights of Parliamentarians

Berisha welcomes Minister Cook’s meeting with Kosovo’s political representatives The chairman of the Democratic Party, Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha, welcomed yesterday’s meeting in Skopje between British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Kosovo’s political and military representatives. Berisha welcomed President Rugova’s willingness to take part in the Paris International Conference and expressed confidence that the difficulties would not prevent the Kosovo Liberation Army’s political representation, the Kosovo fighters themselves, and representatives of the other political forces from taking part in the meeting and jointly defending, at the negotiating table, the vital, human and national interests of the two million Albanians in Kosovo.

Consolidating the DP’s structures is also a priority for the capital ON PAGE 2

The National Council of the Democratic Women’s League convened Yesterday, at its meeting, the National Council of LDGSH reviewed the League’s work over the past month and emphasized the need to organize LDGSH at every level, as well as the country’s grave political and economic situation.

Berisha meets with a group of Spanish diplomats and researchers Yesterday afternoon, the chairman of the Democratic Party received a group of Spanish diplomats and researchers, led by Maria Victoria Escolà, counsellor at the Spanish Embassy in Rome, and Carls Pouell, adviser to the president of the Congress of the Kingdom of Spain. The situation in Albania was discussed at length at the meeting. The Spanish diplomats and researchers showed great interest in the Democratic Party’s initiatives, the DP chairman’s views on Albania’s transition, the factors behind the crisis, and ways to overcome it. They praised Mr Berisha’s analysis. Those attending the meeting included the Democratic Party deputy chairman, Mr Genc Pollo; the deputy speaker of the People’s Assembly, Jozefina Topalli; the Secretary for International Relations, Leonard Demi; and the adviser to the Kingdom of Spain in Albania, Dr. Kita Sallabanda.

Today marks 143 days since the murder of the Right’s Leader Each passing day since the murder of Azem Hajdari, the symbol of democracy and pluralism, proves the involvement of Fatos Nano’s government and its successor in the crime that shook the entire Albanian world. The governments of the former communists, which have left the criminals who took the life of the Right’s Leader completely undisturbed, show Albanians that they have been and remain on the side of the killers, who have names and identities but are not touched 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 arrest the criminals and bring them to justice, or publicly declare that it itself committed the murder of Azem Hajdari.

Violence and torture inflicted on a Democratic activist in the village of Kallm, Fier On Sunday, January 31, 1999, at 07:00, a Fier police SUV filled with people wearing masks and police uniforms stopped at the home of Democratic activist Mr Vladimir Hatia. The group of police officers, using thuggish language, forced their way into the house and began searching it without any search warrant. The leader of the rapid-response unit, shouting that this was a “den of Democratic puppies,” personally directed the overturning of the household furnishings, causing damage and terror to the family members and nearby residents. They then forcibly took 28-year-old Vladimir away in his nightclothes and barefoot... ON PAGE 2

The war that political prosecutors and the dark elements of Albanian governance have waged against the great writer Kadare once again reveals these people’s regressiveness, now reflected in the great pan-Albanian crisis. This is only one aspect of the investment made by the country’s criminalized factions in keeping the Albanian crisis alive for as long as it suits the region’s mafia clans, as well as primitive Balkan nationalism, which manifests itself whenever Albania comes into the light. Since the 1997 crisis and the communist rebellion organized precisely through cooperation between the regional mafia and its interlocutors in Tirana, the emergence of destructive elements targeting the very soul of the Albanian nation has become more open and increasingly organized. But the greatest misfortune for Albanians is the infiltration of the regime into Albanian governance and other segments of the Albanian state. It is just as much a misfortune that, from this position, attacks are orchestrated against the country’s national, spiritual, human, and progressive values. A fierce political debate is one thing; opposition, no longer for political reasons, to such values—which also constitute a nation’s hope and potential—is quite another. In recent days we have witnessed a grave event against the state: an attack on the speedboat operators by a segment of it that rose up against the government and regional mafia. In a part of that very state, to which Albanians pay taxes to protect their values, the speedboat operators—who are the mafia’s pack animals on the Albanian coast—found unprecedented and unprecedentedly unexploited support. A party leader in the governing coalition equates the speedboat operators’ anger with that of thirty, and the concerns of the Vlorë families who make their living from this work, while also sharing in the business with these builders and collaborators of millions of other Albanians. To make five thousand residents of Vlorë more comfortable, three million Albanians—and all the other Albanians—are to throw away the keys that the West could use to open Albania, along with the possibility of millions of dollars in investment. Likewise, one of his counterparts in customs managed to rule against the state out of spite toward the people who were there at that moment. If the state is attacked whenever Albanians get angry, then we need to build one of the most … institutions … to amn… [illegible section]. This is a clear case in which the Albanian statesman, [text unclear], mocks the state and squeezes it until its life is drained from it, only for them then to start [text unclear] Albanians into doing one thing after another for a foreign protectorate or for a government like the one in power now. The current Albanian statesmen have repeatedly attacked Albanian values and the nation’s potential. The former Socialist prime minister never missed an opportunity to insult Kosovo and its movement, nor to play with the fate of two million Albanians in the name of the struggle against nationalist obscurantism, although he had understood the necessity of progress for the Albanian nation. The case of the struggle over Kosovo is also an unparalleled case of … [illegible section] the great positive part, and of leaving the Albanian people exposed to the political lynching of human values from the outset. Thus, these cases are only a few examples of the negative record of the Albanian administration and its senior nomenklatura, at least a part of it, which is doing the greatest service to all those who want our country to be a marketplace for the mafia, a marketplace for Balkan nationalisms and politics, and a marketplace for anti-Albanians. These are just a few cases in which the anti-nation can be identified.