The Speaker of Parliament reveals the threads linking him to the mafia According to him, the activity of migrant smugglers resembles the illegal kiosks of Tirana and other Albanian cities ON PAGE 2

The General Prosecutor’s Office will sue the foreign press ON PAGE 6

On Friday, a large rally in the center of Tirana On 12.2.1999 a grand rally will be held in Skanderbeg Square to protest against the government, which continues to hide the killers of Azem Hajdari, the hero of democracy and tribune of Albanian nationalism. On 12 February 1998, five months will have passed since the day when the ruling clique murdered the hero of December ’90, the hero of Albanian pluralism, Azem Hajdari. Everyone to the square to defend pluralism, everyone to the square to restore democracy to Albania, everyone to the square against the government that protects Azem’s killers, against the government of one side. Brothers and sisters, on 12.2.1999, at 12:00, everyone together in Skanderbeg Square.

The chairman of the Democratic parliamentary group, Genc Pollo, proposes the document for the release of political prisoners “I would not have believed that after the 1990s there would again be political prisoners in Albania” The Democratic Party parliamentary group discussed yesterday the political developments in the country, the positions of the Democratic Party and the parliamentary group in the face of these developments. The chairman of this group, Mr. Genc Pollo, proposed collecting a petition for the release of political prisoners. The Parliamentary Group supported the proposal made by Mr. Pollo, emphasizing that collecting signatures for the release of political prisoners is an initiative that should be supported. The first to sign this petition was Mr. Pjetër Arbnori, who spent 29 years in Albania’s prisons. ON PAGE 5

There is no substantial difference, not even noticeable details, in the government’s conduct toward the opposition from the day the PD left Parliament until today. These days, a large number of news items were distributed by the General Prosecutor’s Office to the press, stating that the lists of 14 senators are confessing, which means that another number of senators and members of the Democratic Party will also go to prison. But in order to construct as credible a situation as possible, the political prosecutor has declared that some of those arrested have accepted to cooperate with the prosecution, which will bring further developments in the investigations. This news is typical of the state security game, through which the aim is to create an environment as acceptable as possible for the new arrests that are being prepared. As if this were not enough, these days in a quick and secret government session the Tirana court decided to send the chairman of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, to the people of SHIK and other anti-opposition segments of the Albanian state. What is being referred to is the wiretapping of telephone conversations, which has been done frequently for two years, but also of e-mail, fax, electronic mail, including Internet e-mail, which is now known to be widely used even in Tirana. The wiretapping of the PD chairman may even be more coordinated, extending to the tapping of conversations with the spokesperson and the party leader’s other activities. In a word, all this activity by state structures does not show that government confidence is being shown toward the opposition, but rather government surveillance of confidence, which has been and remains a practice of totalitarian regimes. Likewise, the prosecution, which is the mouthpiece of today’s government of Albania, has interrupted or sabotaged investigations to find and capture Hajdari’s killers. In the Tirana Prosecutor’s Office, all the work has remained at the stage of the names of the authors, which means that the prosecution does not even intend to deal with the perpetrators or has not dealt at all with such investigations, at least until the reading or clarification of the statements of the PD and its leaders. The negative rule of the left, after the PD’s exit from parliament, continues to function even now as such, not only in its attitude toward the opposition through the building of conflictual and persecutory relations toward it, but also in its broad harmful action toward all Albanians and the country’s problems, starting from smuggling, corruption, involvement, mafia routes and lines in the administration, the preservation of the image of the gunmen and governance, and the keeping of some government officials still in place because of Albanian government influences in the time of Nano’s government. In just the last few days, not only the Albanian press but also the foreign press has mentioned, case by case, the support of the mafia by Albanian politics up to its highest level, where the institution of the President and of Parliament is also not absent. Now PD is being asked to go back to Parliament, whose chairman is accused as one of the state leaders operating in favor of the mafia, while many of the deputies are also implicated in various routes such as drugs and migrants. These days, when the PD has offered concern for public order, it was precisely the government and the center that obstructed even in the prosecution and other decisions that opposed such a thing. In order to preserve the mafia’s command, they do not mind continuing to inconvenience all Albanians in their own country.

The third day of the International Conference on Kosovo in Rambouillet From Rambouillet Mero BAZE ON PAGE 3 REUNION DE RAMBOUILLET The ambassadors leading the Rambouillet Conference, Petrich, Hill and Majorski Hill during a press conference Photo RD The ambassadors leading the Rambouillet Conference, Petrich, Hill and Majorski. Hill during a press conference. Photo RD

PD chairman Berisha and deputy chairman Pollo bid a final farewell to Italian National Alliance MP Xhuzpe Tatarela Yesterday at midday, the chairman of the Democratic Party, Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha, accompanied by the deputy chairman of the PD, Mr. Genc Pollo, and the mayor of Durrës, Mr. Agim Goro, took part in the funeral ceremony of the Freedom Pole MP, Xhuzpe Tartarela, alongside the chairman of Forza Italia, Gianfranco Fini, Italy’s Foreign Minister, Lamberto Dini, Chairman-Xhuzpe Tatarela, chairman of the Senate group, Mancini, parliamentarian of National Alliance The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Violante, and many Italian politicians and senior personalities. He was especially recognized as a mediator and initiator of dialogue that was made concrete in many fields between Italy, the region of Puglia and Bari, and the Balkan countries, an activity that earned him the name “Minister of Harmony”. ON PAGE 2 Xhuzpe Tatarela, chairman of the National Alliance group

Patos blocks the rigs: 8,000 oil workers against poverty ON PAGE 5

Today, 151 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 the government of Fatos Nano and his successor in the crime that shook the entire Albanian world. The governments of the former communists who leave the criminals who took the life of the December Leader free and untroubled show Albanians that yesterday they were toys in the hands of the killers, who have first and last names, but are untouched by power. The Democrats and all Albanians who loved and honored Azem Hajdari cannot under any circumstances tolerate this fact. The government must either catch and bring the criminals to justice, or publicly declare that it itself carried out the murder of Azem Hajdari.

Rakipi has asked lawmakers to tap the opposition leader’s phones ON PAGE 2

“After the meeting with the Prime Minister’s Office of the moneylenders, Redhërojnë: Where are the names of those who profited from the pyramids” ON PAGE 5

But this cannot be done by any other minister appointed by the parties of the governing coalition ON PAGE 3

Tens of thousands of Albanians will be provided with documents in Italy The decree legalizing 250,000 illegal immigrants is signed in Rome The Italian government yesterday approved a decree allowing the possible issuance of documents to around 250,000 illegal immigrants, many of whom are Albanians, who made a request for legalization at the end of 1998. A total of 308,000 people have requested regular documents from the refugee count on 15 December, within the framework of an operation undertaken by the government which provides for the granting of 38,000 residence permits, Interior Minister Rosa Russo Jervolino said on Tuesday at midday. According to the Ministry of the Interior, around 250,000 of them may ultimately benefit from this wave of regularization. They must meet the following criteria: have a job, a home, not have been penalized, and be able to justify their presence in Italy before 27 March 1998, the date on which a new immigration law came into force. Rosa Jervolino warns that immigrants who do not meet the required criteria will be expelled. The decree approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers strengthens the repressive measures against traffickers of illegal immigrants, making it especially mandatory to seize the small boats used by traffickers with Albania and Puglia. These seized boats will be made available to the judicial authorities, the police forces, civil protection, or environmental protection organizations.