Yesterday, an interpellation with Prime Minister Meksi over the police siege of the Court of Cassation Chronicle While a day earlier it had been stated that Prime Minister Meksi would not come to Parliament to give explanations about the police attack on the Court of Cassation requested by the opposition (because, supposedly, the government was busy with the flood problems), yesterday morning came the news that Mr. Meksi had changed his mind, so he was supposedly ready for the question session. The real reasons for this sudden turn are not known, but in Parliament it was said that perhaps it was some phone call from Mr. Arbnori from Strasbourg, or that Meksi’s government may be "without commands" in the work of eliminating the damage caused by the flood. Meksi appeared before the deputies to answer the questions posed by the parliamentary groups of the PS and PSD. But judging by the way the Prime Minister replied, it would have been better for his image not to have appeared at all, even without reason. The explanations Meksi gave (the opinion was also made known through Television) were first of all an insult to his own person, and then also to Parliament and the Albanian public. "The Court of Cassation has never been surrounded by police," the Prime Minister declared without answering (!). Regarding what happened at the Court of Cassation and what will be remembered as the greatest disgrace of the period of government under Meksi, the Prime Minister pretended not to know, repeating the same tune he has played before many times. It is understood that he "shot down" the other questions one by one in five minutes as well. For this gentleman, who is at the head of the PD, nothing has happened, nothing, nothing, nothing (!) The sensitization of public opinion about this event by opposition media after Albania’s admission to the Council of Europe, the reactions at home and abroad to the violation committed against the highest judicial body, are for Meksi nothing but manufactured puppetry, deliberate politicization. "For me everything is clear," the Prime Minister said, "this is a kind of irregular play and it is harmful to democracy." That everything is clear to the Prime Minister is easily understood by the public, but what surprises it is the fact that the Prime Minister considers the violation committed against the Court of Cassation a "game" harmful to democracy, solely in order to keep in prison the leader of the largest opposition party, Fatos Nano. His arguments (continued on page 2)

The PSD parliamentary group turns to the Constitutional Court to annul Article 3 of the law "On Genocide" - Following the approval by the People’s Assembly of the law “On genocide and crimes against humanity committed in Albania during the communist rule for political, ideological and religious motives” on 22.09.1995 and after this law was decreed by the President of the Republic, the PSD parliamentary group, at one of its meetings, decided to turn to the Constitutional Court for the declaration of unconstitutionality of Article 3 of this law as well as its repeal, the party’s spokesperson announced. The PSD parliamentary group considers this article unconstitutional because, according to it, this article “takes away the right to be elected” from a number of persons, the party’s spokesperson reports.

- Speech by socialist parliamentary group chairman Namik Dokle Meksi’s attempts to become Alexander Three weeks ago we summoned Prime Minister Meksi before Parliament to give explanations about the serious act against the Court of Cassation, which on November 6 found itself surrounded by police. Our questions sought to clarify: - Who ordered the police forces to surround the Court of Cassation and some of them to forcibly enter its premises as well? - Is the Minister of Public Order aware of this event; if not, who directed the operation? - What is the role of SHIK in this event and by whom was it ordered? - Why was this police operation carried out only 6 days before the announced plenary session of the Court of Cassation on the “Nano Case”? - If this action was undertaken because of the suspension of court decisions, what actions have been taken against the ministries and other state bodies that bear responsibility for 60 percent of the suspended decisions? - If the ban on entry for employees of the Court of Cassation was imposed because one judge has a capital conviction, why is the same not done for the President of the Constitutional Court, who has likewise acted in the same way? Regardless of the labels attached to this request, regardless of the efforts to hide or distort the truth already known in Albania and abroad, a genuine and civic-minded discussion of this problem in Parliament would at least partly save the honor of the three powers in an effort to build something good. Of course, if such a will exists. But Meksi’s failure to come to Parliament up to today and the other actions of the government with the help of the presidential police, led by R.Gj., nakedly reveal the entire scenario drafted in the dark corners of Berisha’s power (continued on page 2)

Written by the German researcher Hans Pëtër Rullman Serbia had fewer than 900,000 inhabitants, whereas Albania had 1.6 million. In the middle of the last century there were more Albanians than Greeks, and twice as many Albanians as Serbs. But the Albanians were systematically exterminated by the Serbs. Page 12

Written by the German newspaper "Badishe Cajtung" With freedom came economic ruin as well. When, 5 years ago, Albania was freed from communist dictatorship, from one day to the next the economy, which in any case was already rotten, collapsed completely. Since then, factories and granaries have been continuously destroyed, canals have been filled in again, and the rigs that once extracted oil now stand mostly silent... "Hundreds of thousands of the 3.5 million Albanians are trying to find their fate in foreign countries, many of them heading for neighboring Greece. Engineers and doctors are picking watermelons in the fields of Greek villages... Page 3