6 trucks behind the car of the senior official and the police ON PAGE 2

On Friday, a major rally in the center of Tirana On Friday, March 12, it will be six months since the criminal murder of Azem Hajdari! The tribune of nationalism, the symbol of pluralism, the hero of democracy, Azem Hajdari, lives on in the mind and heart of every Albanian. For six months, the government has continued to protect Azem’s murderers! On Friday, March 12, 1999, at 5:00 p.m., Albanians from all over Albania will gather in “Skënderbej” Square to honor the memory of the immortal hero Azem Hajdari, holding flowers and candles in their hands. The rally is being held with police permission. Everyone to the square for Azem! Azem is alive! Azem is among us!

New facts about the Berat massacre. Shocking statement by Jonada Dervishi’s mother The police began firing bursts at the very moment the criminals had thrown their weapons onto the ground, and one of them was holding the 7-month-old child in his arms ON PAGE 4

Hana withdraws all the criminal charges and accuses the gang boss only of illegal possession of a firearm Undeclared amnesty for the March gangs Astrit PATOZI Yesterday, the prosecutor’s office announced the imminent release of the Vlora gang boss, Zani Çaus hi, confirming suspicions that the proceedings against the gang—most notorious for its cruelty during the 1997 unrest—were a farce. Prosecutor Hana announced that the charges had been reduced from murder, robbery, and the formation of armed gangs to illegal possession of a firearm alone, against the man who had become a symbol of crime in Albania two years earlier, when the country was swept up in armed rebellion. Yesterday’s submission to the Tirana Court once again exposed the scandalous position of the Albanian state and justice system, while also serving as an ominous sign of the impossibility of restoring order in the country. If until now there was anyone who doubted Zani’s ties, and those of other bandits, to senior government officials in power, I do not believe there is any Albanian left who still believes in the integrity of those named as friends of the Vlora gang boss, including parliamentary speaker Gjinushi and former Finance Minister Malaj. On the other hand, Zani’s release sounds like an undeclared amnesty for all those who fell, robbed, and burned in 1997 to help the Socialists rise to power. To reach this conclusion, the name of the prosecutor handling the case and the marathon length of his proceedings in the Tirana Court do not matter much. The representative of the Albanian state, who announced the withdrawal of the charges, made it clear yesterday that what has been said up to now—that Zani Çushi’s detention, arrest, and trial were part of a kind of policy to leave the hands of officials who had colluded with him free of bloodstains—is entirely true. The announcement of Zani’s release comes at a time when the Albanian prime minister has issued a loud call to condemn criminals without trial. Everyone who heard Majko’s improvised speech in Berat now has reason not to believe him, indeed to scorn him as a bad joke, in a situation where the tide of crime is at its peak, higher than at any time since the former communists came to power. What harsh action against criminals can be expected now, when the leader of many gangs that waged war against the state and the citizens of this country in the spring of 1997 is declared innocent? Where are those government officials, prosecutors, or pro-government media figures who rose up a few days ago demanding the lynching of a judge who acquitted a person accused of being an accomplice of Altin Dardha? If a judge may be politically motivated in his decision when the prosecution presents insufficient evidence in a case, whoever the defendant may be, what can be said of a prosecutor’s office that is the first to withdraw the charges against a man who publicly boasted of his crimes for nearly a year? No one can swallow the familiar excuse about a lack of evidence and witnesses, when it is well known that among Vlora’s roughly 100,000 residents there is hardly anyone still alive who did not come face to face with the horrors of Zani Çushi in the spring of 1997. Likewise, the fact that prosecution witnesses do not come to court, or, in the best-case scenario, testify in favor of the accused—as also happened at Zani Çushi’s trial—is far more compromising for today’s state than the normal conduct of the proceedings would have been. The farcical scenes, when witnesses who had lost relatives or parents came face to face with their aggressor, will be remembered for a long time not merely as a disgrace to justice, but as one of the darkest stains on the power that emerged from the June 29 elections. What faith can Albanian citizens have in justice when Zani Çushi is declared innocent while Halit Shamata, Safet Zhullaj, Blerin Cela, Sokol Mulusmani, Bujar Rama, and Kreshnik Lusha again face charges of “crimes against humanity”? When the leader of an opposition party and a former police commissioner who saved Tirana in March ’97 have been held in prison for six months and called “armed insurgents,” while the man who terrorized Vlora and all of southern Albania during that period is apparently about to be declared an “Honorary Citizen.” This is the clearest message to Albanians, and it also sheds light on the true reasons for the failure to sign the pact to restore order, which the Democratic Party has been offering for a long time. Those who have made a pact with criminals cannot reach an agreement with those who want to put an end to them.

By Ridvan BODE The lack of governance of the country is the most distinctive feature of the all-encompassing crisis, which is becoming increasingly destructive. In the face of rising crime, as mafia clans consolidate their positions day by day, as part of the state administration sinks deeper into corruption every day, demoralizing the rest of it, while the current government is accused, both from within and abroad, of having ties to mafia groups and the country is becoming economically isolated every day for this reason, the governing left-wing coalition party, first and foremost the PS, is demonstrating a total lack of political will to govern the country and begin stopping the destructive crisis that has been consuming it for two years. The government, the destructive crisis that it has been perpetuating for two years. Recent developments in the PS’s highest forums once again confirmed that the clan-based nature of the country’s governance and the fierce struggle to control specific posts in the public administration reflect the clan groupings within the PS, which are determined at all costs to preserve privileged positions in order to secure illegal profits. Portraying this clan warfare as an expression of internal party democracy is intended not only to excuse to the public what is happening within the largest party in the governing coalition, but also to present the rapid changes in government and its administration—most of which have been driven by nepotistic interests and dominated by a thirst for illegal gain—as efforts to improve or correct their governing platform. Following the latest developments at the Socialists’ KPD, the motives behind this clan warfare have been definitively clarified, and it is now clear to everyone that developments within this political force are the major factor in Albania’s crisis, and that its internal crisis is inseparably linked to the crisis in governance. The groupings within the PS are now doing nothing but calculating the scale of one another’s failures, the size of the smuggling operations, and the number of people killed and scandals committed under their respective governments. Albanians wait in vain to be governed by them. Leaving the country in crisis and without governance, according to what the highest Socialist leaders have said, is also rooted in the lack of a governing alternative on the part of today’s Albanian left. Former chairman Nano reminded the PS’s highest leadership forum once again that the alternative that brought the Socialists to power was the “Nano alternative,” based on deceptive promises, and that the clans that came after his departure had driven their own alternative into crisis. In fact, the issue raised is not only the crisis of the Socialists’ alternative, but also the moral legitimacy of today’s government, which, according to Nano, is seated in the chairs that he himself left empty, or that they took by force from him; he thereby touched, to some extent, on the bitter truth of why Majko and his cabinet cannot govern the country. The crisis of governing figures, following declarations of successive failures, is another argument explaining why the country is not being governed. Recent developments in the Socialist camp openly showed efforts to recycle proven failures. The admission that no Socialist contender for government remains untested—that not only have thousands of members of the clan gone through this test of governing, but it is now being tried again, and the result is the same, failure—is another truth that makes one think that the failure of the left-wing coalition’s government also stems from the entirely unconvincing way in which the left-wing coalition was formed and came to power. The lack of governance, the loss of political will to govern in accordance with an alternative, and recent developments in the largest governing party make it imperative to prepare and implement a new political solution for the country. Although the Democratic Party considers the awareness of the clans that support the PS today to be a somewhat positive development in Albanian politics, it expresses concern over the country’s drift into a state without governance and its deepening. Taking on the political responsibilities that fall to it, redefining this responsibility in the circumstances that have arisen, and drawing up a political platform and appropriate action by the DP and the Albanian opposition as a whole to give the country a new governing alternative are an urgent necessity. Everyone must finally accept that only a normal and credible electoral process can provide credible governance, and that this process alone can bring about a normal process of order and reform, a stable majority, and vital oppositions.

Former parliamentary speaker speaks about the clash between clans in the PS Those who cursed private property have now become millionaires ON PAGE 3

Albanians must keep their promise so as not to lose Western support ON PAGE 3

Last night, meeting of the DP leadership We Must Stop the Crisis from Deepening At the center of the meeting were the Hajdari case and problems with the party’s organization Last night, the leadership of the Democratic Party met and reviewed the past year’s progress on its most fundamental processes, the investigation into Azem Hajdari’s murder, and discussed the positions that the opposition’s major political force should adopt amid the deepening crisis in Albania. The members of the leadership discussed the Hajdari case, emphasizing that since the meeting between DP chairman Sali Berisha and Prime Minister Majko, the government has taken no steps toward fulfilling its promises. It was said at the meeting that, contrary to what had been believed at the end of last year, the government is creating obstacles to solving the murder of the symbol of democracy—obstacles that begin with the government’s indifference toward the prosecution and end with the dismissal of the laws proposed by the opposition. Considering this a key issue for the existence of the Democratic Party, its leadership discussed increasing pressure to compel the government to keep its promise and free the country from the tension caused by the failure to identify those who killed Azem Hajdari. The leadership was also briefed on the measures and ceremonies the DP will hold to commemorate the six-month anniversary of the murder of the December Leader, on March 12, 1999. Those present at the meeting included DP chairman Sali Berisha and March 12, 1999. The meeting also discussed problems with improving the structures of the Democratic Party, and it was agreed to move from sections to an Organization Department, in order to adapt to the new conditions the country is undergoing. The leadership had invited the chairmen of the DP branches in Vlora, Korça, Fier, and Berat, since recently work in these cities has been carried out under the slogan “one polling station, one section of the Democratic Party.” The work to organize the party in these districts was assessed at the meeting, and tasks were set for all DP branches. One of the important issues discussed at yesterday’s leadership meeting was also adapting the Democratic Party’s positions to the deepening crisis in the country, caused by the failure of the left-wing governing coalition to govern, and its alternatives for bringing Albania out of the crisis.

The former minister’s mysteries in the US are revealed ON PAGE 7

Today, 179 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 wealthy despot in the crime that shook the entire Albanian world. The government of the former communists, which leaves free and undisturbed the criminals who took the life of the December Leader, shows Albanians that they have been and remain on the side of the murderers, who have names and surnames but are untouched by those in power. Democrats and all Albanians who loved and honored Azem Hajdari can in no way tolerate this fact. The government must either apprehend the criminals and bring them to justice, or publicly declare that it itself committed the murder of Azem Hajdari.”

Those who cursed private property have now become millionaires, and the one who has the millions also wants political power Nano’s and the one who has the millions also wants political power ON PAGE 3