ON SERIOUS CRIMES/ The accused of killing 4 policemen mocks the Prosecutor: Tomorrow you’ll sell tomatoes The full letter of Dritan Dajti: Who erased my phone records “The director of Organized Crime declared that I was under surveillance, where are the phone calls?” According to the WikiLeaks cable, the US suspects the Deputy General Director Agron Kuliçaj The news Yesterday Dritan Dajti, one of the most mythologized figures of Albanian crime, at the court hearing being held against him, insisted on the disclosure of the wiretaps that were made on his phone. From those phone calls, according to him, the real role of the police leaders in the event could be uncovered, in which 4 police officers were killed and Albania would be shaken. TIRANA POLI HOXHA The forty-year-old man, accused by the prosecutor’s office as the perpetrator of a fivefold massacre on 7 August 2009 in the city of Durrës, has not only denied the killing of the four policemen, but has also stated that the police, in cooperation with the prosecutor’s office, erased the wiretaps made on him, thus making insinuations that the evidence proving that he had ties and protection from high-ranking police officials and politicians was also destroyed along with them. In fact, the prosecutor and the police have not presented the wiretaps and phone records of Dritan Dajti, even though the head of Special Operations at the time, Arjan Muça, admitted before the court that his phone had been under surveillance before the event. In addition to the reports in the media, before and after Dajti’s arrest, that he had close ties with police chiefs and various politicians, a cable from the US Embassy in Tirana, published by the WikiLeaks site, also states that the deputy director general of the state police, Agron Kuliçaj, had contacts with Dritan Dajti and informed him of the operations being prepared for his arrest. The trial against Dritan Dajti, his brother-in-law Erges Xhoxhaj and the former Durrës police officer Marglen Muca began on 28 May of this year, almost two years after the event... continued on page 2

New Year’s Surprise Page 11 The village with smoke and roast meat fails BY ESMERALDA KETA

Editorial BY AFRIM KRASNIQI* For the generation that lived “out loud” In Albanian eyes and minds today, at a distance of 20 years from December 1990, it has deepened greatly, taking on the features of a museum value. Those who, in December 1990, ventured into life for the first time are today voters in elections and are at university graduation age. Those who, in December 1990, were in the “Studenti” district in search of a youthful illusion are today parents at the age when they should be reading fairy tales to their children or taking care of their schooling. Those who, in December 90, joined the students in heart or physically, are today mostly counting the months or years left until retirement. Those who were on the opposite side, in the salons of power and the offices of the organs of violence, are far from the debates of the day, retired or departed from this world. December 90 is not a myth; only myths are not judged. We are dealing with a special political event 20 years later, neither the student who symbolized the student movement nor the political leader of the regime that the students overthrew is alive anymore. Generations have changed, people have changed, times and the rhythm of urban life have changed, and along with them society’s behavior toward the events of December 1990 has also changed. Some defend those days with nostalgia, some feel disappointment at how things turned out, some label the student generation, and others mock them and their memories, comparing them with the grotesque 50-year system of partisan memories. Like everything good in this country, the image of December also faced the great difficulties of the transition, which, mistakenly, often made people victims of misinformation and emotional judgments linked to their current social status or to the new expectation not properly fulfilled by the democratic system. December 90 is not a myth; only myths are not judged... continued on page 4

DECEMBER 8 DAY Mikhail Gorbachev’s 1986 cable for communist governments ARBEN RROZHANI In Albania and in the other former communist countries, in the last two decades everything has been done according to the orientations made by the former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, in Katowice, Poland in 1986, according to whom the converted democratic communists will once again have power... continued on page 5

Page 8 Artists’ Union: TOB concert for doctors, the director should respond Pages 12-13

Page 14 The military man cancels surgeries The hospital has no heating Page 10

Rebuttal between Wolfart and Rama Page 3

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