Berisha: Heed the international community regarding the return The chairman of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, visits arrivals from Kosovo in Librazhd and Peqin and takes part in meetings of the DP branches in these districts ON PAGE 2

By Sani NEZA The ultimatums that Albanian state officials have issued to some of the KLA units stationed in Albania are part of Tirana’s strategy to divide Kosovo’s military and political forces. For the first time yesterday, several senior Albanian officials brought to light the obstacles and other difficulties faced by the freedom fighters in their struggle to liberate Kosovo, their deep resentment toward them, and the isolation and blockade measures that, according to reports, they have tried for some time to impose on the most specialised units of the Kosovo Liberation Army. According to the official Tirana press and media close to senior government circles, the KLA units regarded as FARK have committed many serious violations in the country, while they may also serve as a source of destabilisation in Albania. If Kosovo had several rival KLA units, with different views and ambitions within the military hierarchy, that is entirely Tirana’s doing: it invested in dividing it into factions, codifying it into Thaci’s KLA and Bukoshi’s FARK. This division has had consequences for the war in Kosovo. Had the Kosovo Liberation Army not faced such obstacles—described in Tirana as ideological, and in Kosovo as more truthful—its success would have been more evident, even though none of its factions lacked courage, bravery or sacrifice. The accusations levelled at Bukoshi are in fact connected neither with the units considered to be under his influence in Albania nor with any concern they might cause official Tirana. Whatever Bukoshi may have done, the country has gangs that do not need to destabilise it, since the country is essentially already in such a situation. The concern of Tirana and others is connected with the unobstructed path they are seeking to create for the Kosovo government they have formed in their offices, and which they have armoured with a shameful resolution in the People’s Assembly. By attacking Bukoshi, they attack Kosovo’s legitimate institutions, which they are so keen to have approved through institutional channels rather than proclaimed in meadows or at working lunches and dinners in villas in the Bllok district. With denunciations published in the Albanian left-wing press, some KLA fighters were also harassed, and some are still in Tirana’s Prison 313, while hundreds of them were turned back at the port of Durrës and were not allowed to go to the front. At the port, former Defence Minister Ahmet Krasniqi was also executed, and the Albanian state has still given no explanation. The attacks on the Kosovo government and part of the KLA remind us of the attacks made by the President of Kosovo and the People’s Assembly against Rugova in the first days of April—an attack that culminated in the parliamentary resolution denying Kosovo’s independence. If today, according to official sources in Tirana, several service points belonging to Bukoshi’s forces are present in Albania and have been made public, and are to be closed urgently, then how many such points are there, and should they all be closed urgently? One of these points—though support had not been requested for them—may be armed with Albanian-made automatic rifles, and they have not been recruited. According to the logic of Albanian government officials, they are supposed to protect Miladinov from Majko, or Brokaj from them, and protect Medelanin from Majko and others like him. Thus we have been surrounded in the war from Kosovo to Italy. The attack by Albanian government officials, the president and other state bodies against the freedom fighters is also an attack on those who are fighting for Kosovo, for all Albanians and in their name; their units and formations bear the names of figures such as Sali Çeku, Agim Rama and others. This is a second killing of Sali Ademi, or the martyr, of Fehmi Lladrovci and of countless others across Kosovo. Therefore, yesterday they condemned all those who proclaimed and linked the issue of the KLA’s disarmament to the state in Kosovo, the 6.8 agreement, the UN resolution on Kosovo, the agreement...

Conspirators meet in Montenegro against Milosevic. The American enters the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia clandestinely Clinton’s envoy meets Serbian opposition leaders. The objective: to bring down the dictator ON PAGE 7

The State Audit identifies millions of lekë lost at customs in ’99 ON PAGE 5

Today marks two years since the massacre in which 7 people lost their lives, including 4 police officers. No investigation by the prosecution The tragedy of Ura Vajgurore marks the beginning of organised Albanian banditry. Two of those who led the armed uprising are now members of parliament in the fortress parliament, while other national leaders of a stronghold include the prefecture secretary; another is chairman of the State Audit ON PAGE 4

By Astrit PATOZI Now that NATO is gradually completing Kosovo’s liberation from Serbian troops and Albanians have begun to reappear, the “heroes of the cellars” are showing up again. Velon Surroi, one of the “independent” signatories of the Rambouillet agreement, has come to life in Prishtina, declaring his “heroic resistance” during more than two months of bombing in Serbia. Sought out by people in his circle in Tirana, the core of the daily newspaper published in Kosovo and in the West, he has emerged alive before the Albanians and is using the media to announce his new address, even though Prishtina is under the full control of NATO troops. ON PAGE 3

Fatos Klosi orders the police to attack Kosovo’s Ministry of Defence ON PAGE 2

The Memaliaj mine closes; residents are left without bread While the miners are struggling even to get a bite to eat, more than 8,000 residents have no jobs, more than 1,300 families live on social assistance, and 1,080 families are destitute, the government is closing the mine too, finally turning Memaliaj into a social desert ON PAGE 2

DP deputy chairman Genc Pollo calls on the freedom fighters to show restraint ON PAGE 3

Today, 279 days since the killing of the December Leader Every day that passes since the killing of Azem Hajdari, the symbol of democracy and pluralism, proves the incapacity of Fatos Nano’s government and their involvement in this event affecting the entire Albanian world. The government of the former communists leaves free and at large the criminals who took his life, while its investigation has raised Albanian hopes that this grave event will be solved; those involved have names and are different people. To have a place in its case, but not to accept it from those in power, the witnesses who remember Azem Hajdari cannot be isolated, as has been done around the facts. The government must either capture the criminals and bring them to criminal justice, or use everyone. The whole world should know that those caught must leave for good, and the identity of the person who carried out Azem Hajdari’s murder must be made public.

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