An agreement with the Vlora gang leader who is waiting for the day of release from prison At the meeting, the fate of the master of crime who terrorized all districts during the 1997 unrest was also decided

The Albanian Foreign Minister remains silent in response to the anti-Albanian statements of his Greek counterpart The Greek Foreign Minister said yesterday that the actions of Kosovo at the border will be punished, repeating Milošević’s well-known position ON PAGE 8

As a condition set to pull his party out of the “currency union”

Since the title of our article dated 4 March, “Enough with the state of the gangs of Arben Malaj and Kastriot Islami!”, has been misunderstood not only by those concerned, but also by readers of “Rilindja Demokratike”, we are obliged to make this clarification: In the article we wrote that the organizers of private economic activity taking place in Albania under the shadow of the left-wing state are mainly suspicious individuals, or people with criminal pasts. Zani Caushi and Gjimushi are typical examples of this category. This does not mean, as some readers understood it, that we called Arben Malaj and Kastriot Islami, together with Zani and Gjimushi, criminals. No comment or clarification is needed to understand that Zani and Gjimushi are people with a high degree of social danger. Their criminal deeds are now public. For these deeds they have been arrested, imprisoned and sentenced by the justice authorities. And not for their activities in the field of private enterprise. It is clearly understood that it is not enterprise, but organized crime, the sphere in which they have “excelled” and become known to the public. In the article we wrote that “the left-wing state is increasingly being supported by these people”, and not that “the Albanian government is being supported by Zani and Gjimushi”. The difference is clear. The government is one of the least important segments of today’s Albanian state, naturally when it comes to its decomposition. The government represents only one segment of the state, the one that emerges from the popular vote, while the state is a much more complex organism, embodying tradition, culture, and all kinds of administrative, military, law-enforcement, cultural, financial, banking institutions, etc., not to mention the extreme private ties between power and the world of crime, reaching even the level of the justice institutions. Two of the most negative phenomena of the Albanian state today are the tendencies to decriminalize figures such as Zani Caushi and Gjimushi, or at least institutional indifference toward them. Both of these phenomena are as serious as the attempt to restrict or destroy private enterprise. Because private enterprise, especially in a country like Albania that is emerging from communism, is a sector of vital importance for economic development, and any attempt to damage it, even when done by people linked to crime, harms the interests of economic freedom and democratic progress. The Albanian state today is no longer simply the state of Arbën Malaj and Kastriot Islami. The Albanian state is also the state of people like Zani, Gjimushi, Agim Tirana, etc. Indeed, the balance has tilted far too much toward the latter. Zani and Gjimushi, precisely because of the weight they have gained in the last two years as “entrepreneurs”, and even as “patriots”, make one believe the claims that they have become so powerful as to influence the appointment of ministers, directors, police chiefs, investigators, prosecutors and judges. This is the most important and most frightening aspect of the “state of Zani”, of the mafia-type state, where enterprise, state administration and justice intertwine with the world of crime. Our purpose with this comment published today is to once again define the main idea of our article dated 4 March. That article was not about particular individuals, but about the government as a part of the Albanian state. Together with the government in this state are also Gjimushi, Zani, Agim Tirana, etc. Because if these people had no ties to the government, and not only to the government but to the entire Albanian state, then how could their rise in power and prosperity be explained, at a time when in Albania criminals are not punished but instead are included and promoted in the state administration and its leadership? B.N.

The Tirana Municipality names the slot after the monument of Skanderbeg ON PAGE 3

Today, 181 days since the murder of the leader of December ON PAGE 3

Those who did not accept the “Hajdari” file will be dismissed ON PAGE 4

In Skanderbeg Square for Azem Hajdari Everyone to the rally! Azem is among us! TIRANA

They managed to seize only 10 million spent after the blitz inspection ON PAGE 5

Can a health system be called functional when its daily bread is misery? ON PAGE 5

In the vote of the Albanians neither the UK, nor NATO, nor Kosovo are lied about, but the failure of Rambouillet, which did not promise the achievement of “Greater Albania and Tirana”... ON PAGE 7

The PPD chairman declares in the Political Council that the prime minister should pull back from the center ON PAGE 2

Conflict in the PS over governance Nano accuses Majko The debate at the group meeting became public after Pilo was dismissed from the Vlora prefecture. Recently the Prime Minister dismissed the head of the Vlora police station from the General Directorate of Police, the chief of the Vlora commissariat, sesh[?]in of Jo Kosta, while the withdrawal... ON PAGE 3

The “December ’90” Group briefly announces that the protocol decorators for the expression of 12[?], 1999, at the Tirana Prefecture. The 12:00 meeting of the “Azem Hajdari” conference with all structures and the process before the main leaders is being held. In Skanderbeg Square a large rally will be held with speakers from all over Albania and from abroad in defense of Azem, always at peace. The hours of Albania and the center are invited. For all of Albania to always remain at peace. ON PAGE 2