- Around 180 former Professional Union properties have been transferred into the ownership of the trade unions - The «Il Skurtji» printing house, valued at around 750 million lekë, was rented to a company for 600 dollars - Among the handful of people left at the printing house are relatives of the leaders of the independent trade union As is well known, the democratic government, amid all the chaos and clan warfare, has launched an assault to privatize and appropriate what remains of the national wealth. The leaders of the trade unions, which were the main force behind bringing the current government to power, have not been left out of this battle. Although these unions have no connection with the past and were registered after 1990, they have appropriated 180 properties from the former Professional Unions: workers’ and pioneers’ holiday camps, villas, cultural palaces, gaming halls; on the coast, in tourist areas, in city centers, with values reaching billions. After the dissolution of the Professional Unions, they also inherited around 220,000 dollars in cash in bank accounts. By Presidential Decree No. 204, dated 5.6.1992, the property of the former professional unions was transferred into the ownership of the trade unions. Following this document, by an agreement dated 10.10.1992, the unions determined how the proceeds would be divided among them, and later divided the properties in kind. Thus, trade-union leaders of every kind, who are unable to organize to stop prices multiplying, taxes rising, and people being thrown out onto the street because of rent, either sell the properties or have their companies sell them. The properties were given to the union leaders to administer, not to possess. But apparently they are taking their cue from the state, which does the same thing, selling off the entire national wealth at bargain-basement prices, without any law. It can be said that, compared with what government officials do, trade-union leaders engage in less profitable dealings. This may be true, but sometimes the pupil surpasses the master, especially when the ground is favorable. For example, the three-story building of the «Sindika-ta» printing enterprise, the former «Il Skurtji» printing house, was leased to an Italian company for photocopiers for 600 dollars a month! Less than the rent for a house in Tirana. To adapt it, the company demolished the partition walls and turned this new building into a ruin. Now that the contract with that company has been terminated, the value of the printing house, estimated at around 750 million lekë, has certainly fallen considerably, because the machines, although modern «off-set» equipment, may be considered worn out, while the building has been damaged. The same thing happened with the warehouses. Their inventory amounted to millions, but they were written off in the records at a later date. The old workers from the printing house were put on assistance, and several new people were hired. Among them is the wife of Valer Xheka, chairman of the Independent Trade Union of Albania, as head of administration, although the management staff consists of just three people. The café in the «Ali Kelmen-di» Palace of Culture is once again run by the chairman’s sister-in-law, Valer Xheka’s. The premises beneath the palace, taken over for a disco by a private company, have been linked to his father-in-law. A relative of his had taken the Palace of Culture in Ksamil. It was taken away from him through the courts, but it turned out that he had sold it to a company for a difference of 160,000 dollars over what he had paid the union for it. Who would the money be shared with! The chairman of the Independent Trade Union, Mr. Valer Xheka, may declare that he has no company anywhere. But on the ownership document, which is the principal document, alongside the seal is his signature, together with his personal details: son of so-and-so, born and residing at... He is responsible for everything that happens to these properties, which were given to be administered, not possessed. Let the trade unionists continue with their hunger strikes; the pashas are getting fat. They divided the country into ten such organizations so they would never have any strength. Now they can do whatever they want with them. There is an opinion that the union leaders are not interested in selling the premises and properties because they would have no means of support; almost nobody pays membership dues. But the truth is that these leaders hardly value the unions, or their independence. For example, Mr. Valer Xheka has not signed a payroll for a long time, claiming that he is a lawyer and starts work from there. Even if his way of doing things is better than that of others, what does he get from this profession? What cases has he handled? There may be some we don’t know about, but he has not become a lawyer for the interests of the trade unionists; on the contrary, he has achieved the opposite. The state wants the unions as window dressing. With these properties, it may be rewarding the union leaders for the service they rendered it. Now it may be allowing them to commit violations and leaving them to it. The state has its share and does not get involved. There are funds and spheres of influence. The famous state inspectorate, which does not have time to follow orders from above—even if it wanted to—has no authority to inspect organizations and associations. Perhaps it is the state itself that tells them, in each case: Keep quiet, or I’ll open a case against you. Thus, the former properties of the Professional Unions are off the books, as if this people had never existed. The pashas deserve every bit of it. SEJDO HARIZI ...of the unions. Following this document, through the be divided among them and subsequently how the properties would be divided in kind. Thus, union leaders of every kind, who find it impossible to mobilize people to stop prices from multiplying, taxes from rising, workers and employees from being thrown out onto the street, enterprises from being plundered, and so on, find it easy to put their common seals and signatures to the division of property and its placement in the interests of “the unions”... Those responsible say these properties belong to their members, but in reality they give ... million lek. Their value has certainly fallen considerably, because although the machines are “offset” and modern, they can be considered worn out, while the building is damaged. The same thing was done with the warehouses. Their inventory amounted to millions, but in the documents they were written off at the old, unliberalized prices. Obviously, payment with the client was arranged so that both parties would profit. Even today, in the division of property among the unions, the value of the printing house has not been listed. This was not an oversight, nor a failure to know the decision, but a free hand to act... ...The crowd has dispersed; million lek, building is damaged. Let the unionists continue their hunger strikes; the pashas are getting fat. This is only one of the ways, and we are not even talking about the others: trips, passports, aid from abroad. You can never become rich with a shovel, through sweat; you can become rich only if you know how to seize an opportunity. These pashas used the union as a pre...

TRITAN SHEHU: «I am surprised that so far no official from our country has taken the trouble to contact him and ask him for explanations regarding the gold affair» RD, 15 March 1992 Foreign aviation also went into action during the March 22 campaign. The professional pilot, «heroic» Vietnam fighter, Scottish-American-Swiss-cosmic Xhon Megou, parachuted the «yellow hammer» onto state television. He declared that he had seen with his own eyes how, during October–November 1990, planes were loaded with Albanian gold and sent abroad. It was a matter of gold, lots of gold, billions of dollars’ worth. It was no coincidence that the DP propaganda of the time said Albania needed billions of dollars. There they were. Only Xhon Megou knew where those billions had been hidden. As he himself declared, he would speak «when the right time came». That was all he said, and he left. One would think there could be no more important time to reveal where the gold was than when Megou’s friends’ party was about to take office. In an article in RD entitled «Should we find the gold, or Xhon Megou?» dated 15 March 1992, Megou’s great friend Tritan Shehu wrote: him for explanations regarding the gold affair». It has been 1035 days since March 22, when the DP came to power. During this time Tritan Shehu became and ceased to be a minister. He is currently the No. 2 person in the Democratic Party, a member of parliament, a senior official, a person of great importance in today’s state. During this time he has remained faithful to his friendship with Xhon Megou. This was also evident in their fiery reception when he arrived at Rinas. Surely the senior officials of the DP state, Tritan Shehu’s friends, beginning with the president, have taken the trouble to ask him for explanations about the gold affair. Even if they had not wanted to meet him, how could Tritan have let them be, with his well-known insistence? But even if today’s Albanian leaders have not yet discussed the gold affair with Megou, he must certainly have revealed the secret to Tritan: nevertheless, what has been clear so far, after 1035 days, is that not only have no planes carrying gold arrived, not even a single sack has entered Albania. So where is Albania’s gold, so much talked about as having been taken out of Albania? Either Xhon Megou lied in (Continued on page 2)

The Milot Commune Council confronted with concrete evidence of corruption There are 600,000 liters of kerosene allocated for 1994 to meet the needs of the population of the Commune of Milot, but which in fact have ended up in the annals of government corruption. While discussing this issue with concern, the councillors, as the secretary of this com-

There are 600,000 liters of kerosene allocated for 1994 to meet the needs of the population of the Commune of Milot, but which in fact have ended up in the annals of government corruption. annals of government corruption. The commune council chairman himself, GJok Gjoka, is implicated in this corruption, having unlawfully issued specific people with authorizations. Confronted with this problem, a meeting of the Milot Commune Council was held in recent days, at which the commune chairman himself appeared to report on the matter. The councillors, discussing the issue with concern, brought to light the truth about the «game» played with the quantity of kerosene, as the commune secretary, Mr. Selman Hasani, told us. Specifically: with authorizations from the commune chairman, people such as M. Alia, a driver at the district court of ... (Continued on page 2)

Negotiating the Albanian debt—a cover for Arsidi’s money laundering?! – Again and again, even after 7 hearings: Where is the money? – Bifoli yesterday for the fourth time, because before the start of yesterday’s hearing ... Since the end of last year, the case against five senior officials of Albanian finance and the state, accused of embezzling 1.6 million dollars, has been underway. Hours were spent yesterday listening to and questioning witnesses, and yet, among the multitude of questions and just as many answers, one is missing: Where is the money? This is because the trial is avoiding the central issue, which concerns the state treasury and about which the fact is established: «It was stolen in the most convenient way and without violence, involving a considerable sum for poor Albanians.» The prosecution, acting as the state’s advocate, has legitimized—if it is true—and must ultimately bring and prove the charge, which, naturally, if substantiated, should lead to the recovery of the stolen money. But although the indictment says that Saliu and Tartari each have 140,000 dollars in accounts in Luxembourg, and that Hoti received 1.3 million dollars in two installments, not one witness has appeared during any of the seven days of this trial to prove these facts. There are only witnesses testifying to peripheral facts that ...; witnesses brought into the courtroom for political attacks; witnesses who remember nothing. So far they have presented nothing before the court that creates the image of «...». Various commentators continued. ... which is deliberate, since nobody wants the truth to emerge, with other handcuffs in the background as well as the forced abandonment of positions of power. The gangs have acted and continue to act, to the extent that even the «heart of the scandal», the Frenchman Arsidi, extends his revenge to mid-level figures: Hoti, Saliu, Tartari, Xhyheri. Meanwhile, striking photographs—referring only to two dates after the date up to which the prosecution here has examined matters, 6 July 1992—are being shown in the newspapers, indicating where the people were. In any case, in this context, after the court granted the lawyers two hours, having prevented them from meeting their clients for three days, Robert Çeku, former finance minister; Adrian Fullani, deputy governor and director of the Department of Foreign Relations; Xhaneta Tole and Lillana Nanaj were heard by the court. The former finance minister in the Technical Government headed by Mr. Ahmeti, appearing as one of its witnesses in connection with the case, said: «I did not hear in the Technical Government that any negotiator for the debt would be appointed, much less Arsidi; the matter was not even referred to me as finance minister.» While he knew about Giuliano Amato’s appointment as negotiator, deputy administrator Çeku knew of no other negotiators in the Meksi Government. More knowledgeable about the matter, and with a better memory than his counterpart, today the governor of the Albanian Bank, Mr. Lunik, Adrian Fullani, testified yesterday about how he and Hoti, Xhyheri and Lunik were informed of the payment made by BTSH in favor of Nikola Arsidi at the time when that Bank was seeking reimbursement of the interest from the Bank of Albania. Speaking about this, he said that the foreign-currency Commercial Bank handled all our payments through its central clearing system. According to him, the Commercial Bank was the first bank to separate from the State Bank and was the only channel through which dollars could be brought in and sent out after the State Bank had been blocked by debts. The former deputy governor said that he knew nothing about Arsidi until he was informed in Washington. But Mr. Fullani testified that Giuliano Amato and Benlamino Andreata had been selected and sponsored by the European Bank as negotiators of the Albanian debt. According to him, in August 1992 Piter Herd had been appointed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as negotiator of the Albanian debt, with a fee set at 10 percent per dollar for each transaction to unblock the debt. As for Mr. Carteron, Fullani said that «Carteron», on his own initiative, had approached several banks, acting... (Continued on page 3)

«Achievements» and scandals... The further consolidation of army reform and its development prospects for 1995 were the main issues at the press conference given yesterday morning by Defense Minister Safet Zhulali in one of the halls of the Army Cultural Center. At the beginning, for about 45 minutes, he read a ten-page prepared document, in which, while trying to highlight the best achievements of the reform carried out in the army over the past three years, he gave the press conference the character of a dictatorial meeting. He read the material about the outside world; this has been the main feature of our work, he said, adding that relations with ... had been a priority ... relations have been ... the USA and NATO countries, ... Then, apparently to convince those present of his arithmetic skills, he had calculated all the meetings held, saying that there had been around 150 such meetings with foreign specialists, and claiming that 145 people had come to us from the USA and that around 500 had visited foreign countries, he said. On this issue, these meetings also emphasized the assistance provided by the group of American specialists assigned to the Ministry of Defense, describing American experience as unmatched and as a model for organizing the army. He then focused on the need for civilian control of the army and on the efforts being made toward what he called «de-bunkerization». (Continued on page 2)

SOLUTIONS WITHIN THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK - The local government commission met - Yesterday, under the chairmanship of Comrade Luan Hajdaraga, Deputy Chairman of the General Steering Committee, a meeting of the local government commission was held. Given the commission’s importance, this is the first meeting among all the commissions operating under the leadership of the SP. “If, in this round of voting, the people said ‘No’ to the referendum,” Luan Hajdaraga said in his address, “this was achieved as a result of the major contribution made by local government bodies at village, commune, municipality and district level, where the SP holds the majority. This experience and contribution must be taken further to resolve the many problems and hardships people face, as well as the political situations the country is going through. Local government, at every level, must maintain ongoing communication with the party structures, offering suggestions for overcoming the impasse in its activity (caused by the DP) and making maximum use of all legal avenues. From the consultations we have held,” he continued, “there is an urgent need for concrete proposals so that we can improve the leadership of local government, drawing on the experience we have—which, it must be said, is not lacking. Let us compare this experience with what our practice to date tells us. In this context, let us offer ideas to encourage investment, making them specific to each area and district so that they can be as effective as possible in resolving the hardships and problems people face. Luan Hajdaraga suggested that all these and other issues that arise be reflected in the commission’s key working documents, such as the commission’s platform, its objectives for 1995, as well as the agenda (Continued on page 2)

Closed since the end of July 1994, the «albanian airlines» airline company became a bone of contention, with many claimants seeking to get their share. The company was established in 1992 and managed to make a name for itself and win a clientele in a short time, but it did not last two years. Yesterday, 20 January, the Assembly of partners of the «albanian airlines» airline company decided to declare «Aviation World Mak b.v.» the winner of the tender; from now on, it will be the owner of «Albanian airlines». Correspondent 1, «Zëri i Popullit».