11.253 billion lek have been looted from the state reserves

The black file on corruption: Here is what happens in customs warehouses to goods seized from smuggling on page 10

Backroom deals give birth to “Meta”

Çeço and Fino complete the smuggling gang. Gjinushi privatizes the Ministry of Transport Meidani signs off on Nano, Gjinushi and Ceka’s appetite for power Çeço and Fino complete the smuggling gang. Gjinushi privatizes the Ministry of Transport on page 3

An appeal to the “Friends of Albania”

EDITORIAL By Astrit PATOZI A routine report by the State Audit Office on last year’s budget, which neither claimed nor managed to take on the task of fully exposing state corruption, proved to us that in this country anything can be looted in the name of political power and no one will so much as get a thorn in their foot; indeed, people can be promoted in direct proportion to their thefts. This report alone, superficial as it is, would be enough to put more than half the ministers and a pack of major and minor thieves under their protection behind bars, if there were a state and even a modicum of justice in Albania. on page 5

Italy blocks Albanian arms trafficking

The SHIK continues its much-discussed smuggling Fatos Klosi has not given up the black-market trade on page 7

Today, a major rally in Durrës

Everyone out to protest for new elections Citizens of Durrës! “Union for Democracy” invites you today, October 30, at 12:00, to the square in front of the “Aleksandër Moisiu” Palace of Culture for a protest rally demanding new elections. New elections are the only hope for you, the 600,000 unemployed, whose numbers grow every day as the Albanian economy continues to collapse.

Nano wanted Lushaj dead

PD denounces the arrest of the witness to Hajdari’s murder Former MP Arbnori denounces the corrupt rulers in Parliament Meidani and Gjinushi are supplied with smuggled goods on page 2

The government protects Azem Hajdari’s killers

Today, 411 days since the murder of the December Leader Every day that passes since the murder of Azem Hajdari, a symbol of democracy and pluralism, proves the involvement of Fatos Nano’s government and his successor in the crime that shook and struck the Albanian state. The governments of the former communists, who left the murder unresolved and supported it, have made it clear that they will not bring the killers of the December Leader to justice; they show Albanians that the killers have names and are known, but remain untouched by those in power. Democrats and all Albanians who loved and honored Azem Hajdari cannot tolerate this vengeance under any circumstances. The government must either open the case and bring every criminal to justice, or publicly declare that it itself carried out the murder of Azem Hajdari.

Year IX of publication No. (2377) SATURDAY 30 OCTOBER 1999 Price: 20 lek (250 drachmas) EDITORIAL OFFICE ADDRESS: 10 “Xhorxhi Martini” St. - Tel: 323 - 55 / Tel & Fax: 303-29 / (Marketing) 323 - 57 E-mail: gazetard@albanaonline.net and rildem@icc.al.eu.org Account No.: 5092/116 - BKT No.1, Tirana Editor-in-chief: Astrit PATOZI Deputy editors-in-chief: Sami NEZA, Shemsi PEPOSHI

Elections will save Albania

on page 4