The Ministry of Culture is determined not to spend a single lek on the Theater ON PAGE 8

Durrës Cigarette Factory cuts the prices of its products by 50% ON PAGE 5

Work halted at QSU: Government, ensure public order ON PAGE 5

After Rambouillet, Millosheviçi undertakes military provocations against Albania “No adventure can make Albanians yield their rights, and therefore I express my firmest conviction that, in the face of possible Serbian aggression, Albanians will be united and will give the butcher of the Balkans the response he deserves.” ON PAGE 3

Chairman of the pyramid-scheme monitoring group: Arapi is afraid to reveal the names of the officials Chairman of the pyramid-scheme monitoring group Arapi is afraid to reveal the names of the officials 2,000 officials have stolen 100 million One hundred million dollars have been stolen by around 2,000 people, senior officials of the current state administration. This was declared yesterday by the chairman of the Creditors’ Association, Gezëm Hoxha. According to him, this list cannot be published because all the people who took the companies’ dollars are current officials in power, and they are the same people who pressured the chairman of the pyramid-scheme monitoring group, Farudin Arapi. Hoxha says that three weeks ago a group of creditors and he met with Arapi and asked him to publish the list of the 2,000 people who took 100 million dollars from Vefa. Arapi promised to publish the names within two weeks, but he has no intention of doing so, Hoxha says. According to him, Arapi is afraid to publish lists with specific names. Hoxha says he bases this claim on the fact that Arapi himself told him that... ON PAGE 5

By Astrit PATOZI Prime Minister Majko tried yesterday to deflect the international community’s harsh accusations against his government by shifting attention away from the extremely serious problems the country is going through and toward the crisis in Kosovo. At a meeting with Council of Europe rapporteurs Sole Tura and Smorawinski, the prime minister surprised everyone when he declared that Albania had passed the point of its domestic crisis and had become an element in the crisis in the Balkan region. Majko’s statement came just one day after the publication of the Vienna conference document, in which the “Friends of Albania” had taken an X-ray of his government, underlining that all the elements of the crisis in Albania had not changed at all. at all. The Vienna meeting found that law and order in Albania left much to be desired, calling on Majko’s administration to fulfil its obligations, on the implementation of which aid to Albania would also depend. The “Friends of Albania” once again cast a spotlight on the coalition government’s most serious ills, corruption and smuggling, which have accompanied all cabinets since the elections of 29 June. The Vienna document, drawn up just one day after the end of the first phase of the Rambouillet conference, was in fact a summary of governance in Albania after Pandeli Majko came to power, replacing Fatos Nano, who had been forced to resign. By emphasizing the presence of all the negative elements of the crisis in Albania during Majko’s tenure as well, the Vienna conference made it clear to Albanians that almost nothing had changed in their government in recent months, apart from the replacement of the names in the cabinet. Majko’s statement at the meeting with the Council of Europe rapporteurs can be considered, more than a blunder by the prime minister, an attempt by him to hide from Albanians the truth about his government’s poor credentials in the eyes of the West. For it is simply impossible to believe that a prime minister does not know how to read correctly, without needing an interpreter, the direct accusations levelled against him in the Vienna document, which in fact summarizes the opinion of Europe and the United States on recent developments in Albania. The Albanian prime minister must surely have made the well-informed MEPs laugh, especially since they met with Majko after a series of other meetings with representatives of the judiciary, the press and the opposition. The day before, several media executives had made clear to the Council of Europe delegation the extent of the crisis in law and order, as well as the lack of state guarantees in Albania. The truths cited by the journalists were such that even representatives of the state media at the meeting had to acknowledge them. After treating the country’s emergence from crisis as an accomplished fact, Majko became witness to a statement that his government had played a decisive role in the preliminary results of the Rambouillet conference, because it does not allow him to see what is still alive? It is already a well-known fact that the foreign minister of his government, Paskal Milo, was forced to wait in the lobby of the Rambouillet talks, as he was not allowed to meet the Albanian side in the negotiations. It is easy to understand that this was Prime Minister Majko’s first lie about his presence at Rambouillet, when it is known that Milo, isolated inside the conference, was telephoning journalists outside to ask whether or not the agreement had been signed. Meanwhile, as for the leaders of the ranks, Tirana’s official representatives at the talks where the conference was taking place were ready to withdraw, following Majko’s conflict with the head of the secret service, Fatos Klosi. The debate over whether or not they had obtained Majko’s permission to take SHIK to Rambouillet was in fact a caricature of the Albanian government’s representation at the conference, where decisions were being made not only about Kosovo’s fate but also Albania’s. Majko’s enthusiastic statements about overcoming the crisis come at a time when there has been no progress in restoring order in Albania, while the pact proposed by the Democratic Party—which offers guarantees for stabilizing the situation, beyond control across most of the country—remains unresolved. If the Rambouillet conference has somewhat shifted attention away from what is happening in Albania, that does not mean at all that Majko’s government has solved any of the acute problems it inherited from its predecessor. The “Friends of Albania,” who noted Majko’s stagnation at the height of the Rambouillet proceedings, once again showed Albanians the factors behind the lack of security and the slow pace of reform. The Albanian prime minister cannot hide behind Rambouillet, even in the best possible scenario, if his government had contributed to reaching an agreement. Majko’s Rambouillet is in Tirana, and in the months since taking office as prime minister he has shown that he has not moved a single centimetre toward easing the crisis engulfing the country.

Tensions in Kosovo accelerate NATO’s military moves NATO’s military moves are accelerating as tensions rise in Kosovo Americans anchor “Enterprise” in the Adriatic Aircraft carrier with 70 aircraft aboard

The President of Kosovo denounces Serbian military strikes in Kosovo ON PAGE 6

PD leaders were invited by the British government

Aircraft carrier with 70 aircraft aboard arrives in Trieste tomorrow The American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier “Enterprise” will arrive tomorrow in the Gulf of Trieste, where it will remain at anchor until March 2. The aircraft carrier has a crew of 5,000 and carries 70 F-15 and F-16 bomber aircraft aboard. It is part of the U.S. naval force in the Mediterranean under NATO, and will remain on standby for an order to launch, if necessary, air strikes against Yugoslavia. “Enterprise” can anchor in the Mediterranean only at the ports of Marseille and Trieste.

PD leaders were invited by the British government After a visit of several days to England, Jozefina Topalli, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, and Fatos Beja, Organizational Secretary of the Democratic Party, returned to Tirana.

TIRANA — According to information received from our embassy in Greece, 20 Albanian prisoners escaped on Thursday from Crete’s high-security prison. Greek police have launched a large-scale search for them, but by Friday none of the escapees had been caught. Around 2,000 Albanians are currently serving sentences in Greek prisons. During this.

Former Speaker of Parliament comments on the conclusions of the “Friends of Albania” meeting in Vienna ON PAGE 3

The Democratic Front is dissatisfied with the outcome of the Rambouillet conference ON PAGE 3

PSD and PAD, a new alliance! The two parties that make up the numbers in the left-wing governing coalition, PAD and PSD, are complaining... ON PAGE 2

Today, 167 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 crime that took place on Thursday in the Albanian world. The government of the former communists, who are free, and the criminals who took the December Leader’s life, but remain powerless, show Albanians that they have been and are on the side of the murderers, who have names, but are untouched by those in power. The Democrats and all Albanians who loved and mourned Azem Hajdari cannot tolerate this fact under any circumstances. The government must either capture the criminals and bring them to justice, or publicly declare that it itself committed the murder of Azem Hajdari.

Breaking news Yesterday Prime Minister Majko did not show up at the office. The reason for the Prime Minister’s absence from work is not related to Australian flu or any family problem, but to the inauguration of the modernization of the Vorë–Tirana railway. Majko set off by train from Vorë to Tirana on the rebuilt railway line, which he himself inaugurated, and has still not reached the capital. According to a railway employee, Mr Majko is continuing his journey on the rebuilt railway line, and there is no information about when he will arrive in the capital. His [unclear] has meanwhile not specified whether Majko will show up at the office today, but has explained that, despite having a reason for yesterday’s absence from work, he will have a day’s pay deducted because he did not give advance notice of the delay.

The prosecutor’s request to disqualify Judge Zhilla is rejected ON PAGE 4