Tirana: Smuggling under the guise of humanitarian aid ON PAGE 9

The court is deliberately dragging out the case assembled by the special prosecutors ON PAGE 4

Political revenge by Vlora law-enforcement officers ON PAGE 4

By Mero BAZE The Albanian government launched a new effort to provide a formal solution to the political and institutional rapprochement of Kosovo. For the first time, the new effort begins with a clear platform: rejecting the political movement of Kosovo Albanians over these ten years and imposing the political group at the head of the Kosovo Liberation Army as the group that dictates Kosovo’s political life. The Albanian government and its “radical group” in Kosovo have definitively abandoned the term “Republic of Kosovo” in the name of creating a “new reality” in Kosovo, while all the institutions that perform the functions of the Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo, the President of the Republic of Kosovo, etc., are no longer recognized by it. According to the scheme and idea of the Tirana government, all of these are to be replaced by a sort of “committee”—one of those invented whenever revolutionary means are sought to seize power—while, in a vague manner, all power in Kosovo is now to be held by just one person, appointed in Tirana and by Tirana, in order to preserve Tirana’s official position as a player through the Kosovo issue. The new scheme is trying to disguise itself as what may now be called the “Rambouillet disagreement,” while the formula on which the agreement was built was crudely copied from the slogan of the Albanian Socialists, specifically Fatos Nano in April 1997, when, to justify the revolution, he invented the slogan, “we fight for a state, not for power.” The (dis)agreement of Rambouillet All the speculation begins with the historic name of the small French town, which, in an effort to resolve the Balkan war, is now being linked and entangled with the Albanian mess. The argument that everything is being “done on the basis of the Rambouillet agreement” is the most speculative pretext being used to legitimize the political banditry of official Tirana, and to create a political force in Kosovo that supports it, by violent and coercive methods. The international Rambouillet agreement—which some foreign agents repeatedly pretend to confuse with an Albanian-style deal made an hour before... which some foreign agencies repeatedly pretended to confuse with an Albanian deal to be struck an hour before it was signed—not only makes no provision for a “provisional Albanian government,” but clearly states that, nine months after implementation of the agreement begins, new elections will be held in Kosovo and legitimate political forces will be determined. Until Rambouillet, the names being mentioned today on Tirana’s political stage as interlocutors for Kosovo were unknown, and they became known by refusing, to the very end, to sign the agreement on offer. Everything happened as if by magic on the last day of the first round of talks, when Paskal Milo persuaded the “radicals” in five minutes to accept the agreement, promising them that he would persuade Rugova and others to form a joint government. Thus, the whole point of what is called the “Albanian Rambouillet agreement” is that the UÇK’s political leaders went to Rambouillet to obtain political power in Kosovo, while the rest of the delegation went to reach an agreement with the international community to resolve the Kosovo crisis. As soon as they received formal and verbal promises that they would have a role in Kosovo, they returned as “big shots” and refused to sign the agreement for three weeks, allowing Millosheviç, responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people in Kosovo, to prepare for ethnic cleansing there. The Albanian Rambouillet agreement is simply a round of talks about a new government in Kosovo. It is worth as much as any political agreement, but it is not a point of reference for the legitimacy of Kosovo’s government. To confuse Albanians, the name “Rambouillet” is being used as a smokescreen, but what is actually being discussed is an invention of official Tirana and its longstanding promise to Kosovo’s “radicals” that they would use the international process for an agreement on Kosovo as a way to set conditions and gain legitimacy as its leaders. In essence, it would be better called the “Tirana agreement against Rambouillet,” since it sought, in a sense, to get ahead of the electoral process in Kosovo by creating a government that would have unilateral control over Albanian votes. All the other speculation about the Albanian Rambouillet agreement is simply speculation, and nothing can be based on it. (Continued on page 5)

The U.S. Secretary of State encourages the creation of a National Security Council, with the participation of all political and military forces in Kosovo ON PAGE 5

Dibër gives a magnificent welcome to the opposition leader and other Democratic Party officials Meetings in Peshkopi, Bulqizë, Burrel, Lixhat, Komsi, Maqellarë, Melan, etc. Berisha offers condolences to the families of UÇK martyrs who have taken refuge in Dibër. Mit-

By Astrit PATOZI Official Tirana yesterday publicly declared, through the Director General of ATSH, its secret thoughts about what is happening in Kosovo—thoughts it dares not announce publicly because they are in total conflict with NATO’s plans and objectives in the Balkan conflict. Albania’s highest-ranking government press official, Klosi, appointed by presidential decree on the Prime Minister’s proposal, spoke yesterday against NATO’s bombing of Serbia and accused all Kosovo political and military forces of something no one had ever done when they rose up against the Yugoslav state. “Serbs,” closely associated with President Millosheviç, the senior government press official in Tirana goes much further than Moscow’s official demands regarding what is happening in Yugoslavia; perhaps he is also far more advanced in his “ideas” than 80 percent of Serbs, who, exhausted by two months of bombing, have placed all their hopes for their country’s dire situation in Millosheviç’s policy. The synthesis of the enlightened ideas of the official of Mjedani and Majko is the fact that he blames the Albanian state first and foremost for the war in Kosovo, and, according to him, by boycotting the central Yugoslav institutions and killing Serbian soldiers, they struck at the foundations of Millosheviç’s state, while NATO has been bombing Serbia for two months. If the author of these “extravagant” writings were regarded as an expert by the institutions invoked by their newspaper, it would hardly be worth anyone’s while to concern themselves with what he said in the magazine “Spektër”. No one in Albania, let alone outside it, would care what a man had to say whose sole contribution, according to journalists, is a vast arsenal of verses about the former president and politics in Albanian history, as was the case with Norway. In an editorial published by the New York newspaper, which is part of that country’s institutions, it was stated, at least formally, that RTSH has become a public broadcaster; this means that what the ATSH director says is presented as the words of a prime minister and president. It is quite possible that opposition to NATO’s bombing of Serbia and this kind of conduct by Kosovo have struck at Millosheviç’s Serbian state; this may be an undiplomatic translation of the Albanian president’s text about multiethnic democracy on the Balkan peninsula. Official Tirana, following the head of the government press office... About a year ago, the Albanian president invited the heads of Tirana’s press organizations to a meeting and asked them to be more careful in covering events related to the Kosovo crisis, because, he said, any excess of information could be used by Serbian propaganda. (Continued on page 5)

PD Vice-Chairman Genc Pollo comments on Mr. Thaçi’s latest positions Pollo: “Thaçi’s language was confrontational, which in no way serves the spirit of cooperation between Kosovo’s political and military forces, initiated by President Rugova” ON PAGE 3

The Nano faction provokes the prospect of bringing forward the PS Congress The radical change in the composition of the party leadership could bring about a situation that makes it necessary to convene the Congress of the Socialist Party ON PAGE 3

The US Department of State begins the process of disclosure We—as a people, as a nation, as a world—cannot allow these outrageous violations of human rights to continue as they have begun. This is why NATO continues to fight in defense of the victims of ethnic cleansing by Belgrade ON PAGES 6–7

Today, 252 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 shook the entire Albanian world. The government and the former communists leave the criminals who took the life of the December Leader free and untroubled, showing 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 arrest the criminals and bring them to justice, or publicly declare that it itself committed the murder of Azem Hajdari.

The Elbasan Municipality sounds the alarm over the risk of epidemics in the camps ON PAGE 9

If you would like to contribute money for the exhausted children of Kosovo, you can send your contribution to account number 34220/00/0376 at “Dardania Bank,” in the name of the association: “The Children of Kosovo, Our Children.”