The capital’s police let criminals go free and terrorize residents ON PAGE 4

The tax authorities are unable to meet the seven-month target ON PAGE 5

The government risks losing investments from the EC and the World Bank ON PAGE 5

The previous day, the mayor of Pukë, Halit Furriku, was shot in his office and local police let the assailant go free Large numbers of police officers assault the home of MP Myslim Murrizi. Lushnjë police terrorize the family of the DP MP Myslim Murrizi ON PAGE 3

The killing of innocent citizens, a police success “ZP” expresses the authorities’ mindset on restoring order in Albania The fight against crime should not kill criminals and wound innocent people, as yesterday’s ZP front page leaves one feeling. The news about the killing of two bandits, released from prison only a few metres from the capital’s police station, is not even newsworthy from a professional standpoint unless it at least states that a person who was earning his living by roasting corn was also barbarously killed. The police must officially apologize for this grave killing of innocent people, and it is hard to believe that sacrificing the innocent will find allies to make such a thing happen. The government newspaper warns of violence and vigilantism, welcomes this street violence and the syndrome of taking the law into one’s own hands. “Two in the grave,” the newspaper writes on its front page, and in a more tolerable manner also reports that four innocent people were saved. The authorities know what the innocent have done to be included in the calculations of the explosions, just as they know whether one of those killed was staying in a house of his own. What can be read there is the intimidation that ZP then takes a stand on in this newspaper: that the innocent are saved if they are only wounded, and that innocent people can also be wounded. This kind of accounting in human lives explains the authorities’ total lack of humanity, as well as the loss of a civic and legal climate among those in power. Yesterday, one of the leaders of the Socialist Party accepted the DP’s order pact and called for opposition cooperation in implementing the Stability Pact. The opposition, which came to Albania as a civic value, finds it very difficult to remain in the same trench as those people who maintain their cynical composure even in the face of the killing of a 52-year-old man roasting corn, or the wounding of four women and girls who were out for a walk. The authorities’ response to this event, beyond condemning it in general, shows the government’s deeply troubled mindset, as it eagerly seeks to tout its success in the fight against crime. The DP is determined to fight crime, not to seek conditions and room for gangs to shoot other people while turning a blind eye to the human slaughter taking place in the streets and squares of our cities.

Celebration in Prishtina. 10,000 people at the opening of the University. Berisha welcomes the return

“Love” returns between the two enemies. The Secretary for Foreign Relations breaks with the ruling clan I do not consider Nano old. The Socialist Party’s Secretary for Foreign Relations, Arta Dade, told journalists yesterday that she is among those Socialists who do not consider Fatos Nano old. Dade said that new politicians should not be judged by their age, but by the vision they have for the future. “Sometimes age and ideas may not correspond,” Secretary Dade said, defending the view that the former chairman of the Socialist Party is not old, despite the fact that his opponents in government and in the party attack him with these arguments. ON PAGE 3

EDS takes part in the EDS annual meeting in Malta ON PAGE 7

The DP’s organizational secretary explains the preparatory phase for the National Convention ON PAGE 2

Arnaud van Burkhart, analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says on CNN: Thaçi and his people have been implicated in murders, kidnappings and drug trafficking Thaçi and his close circle are accused of murdering the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Kosovo, Ahmet Krasniqi, massacring the Kosovo journalist Ali Ukaj, and executing at least five or six chiefs and commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army ON PAGE 3

Today marks 325 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 complicity of Fatos Nano’s government and his incompetence in the crime that weighed heavily on the entire Albanian world. The government of the former communists, which leaves free and unpunished the criminals who took the life of the December Leader, shows Albanians that they have been and remain on the side of the killers, whose identities are known but who are untouched by those in power. Democrats and all Albanians who loved and supported Azem Hajdari can in no way tolerate this fact. The government must either finally bring the criminals to justice, or publicly declare that it itself committed Azem Hajdari’s murder.

Reportage. And I have seen Kosovo with my own eyes The Serb welcomed us at the door, smiling and laughing, greeting us like a waiter. Fredi told him that I was from Albania. For a moment, [two words unclear]. He spoke to me in Albanian, in very pure Albanian. I would never have believed that he was a Serb . By Fatos VLADI ON PAGE 6

Lessons and duties of the Democratic Party from being in opposition The Democratic Party has been in opposition for two years. Albania’s 1997 revolution, when the opposition of that time caused the collapse of the state, and with the elections of 29 June came to power by force and violence. By Lesh KOLA ON PAGE 7