Prime Minister Bashkim Fino meets with the main political parties At Tuesday’s roundtable, other important issues were also discussed, including improving the electoral law, administering the voting results, international monitoring, organizing the election campaign, and its propaganda. Although a meeting of a forward-looking nature. The drafting of the election law should proceed in parallel

The Socialists in Parliament May 28 Socialist MPs taking the oath (Photo: A. Babani) To all those who want cooperation, we offer understanding Page 2

As the Government is expected to complete its measures concerning the bandit-like act in Bushat, where an armed gang prevented Bashkim Fino, prime minister of the Government of National Reconciliation, from going to Shkodër, an announcement is published stating that the Minister of the Interior has dismissed the chief of the Shkodër police station “for failure to perform his duties.” Without wishing to dwell on comments about the Interior Minister’s order in question, we ask: is this the responsibility that this ministry recognizes in connection with what happened in Bushat, Shkodër? Why, the chief of a district police station is the first person who should answer for it—especially when he publicly declared that the Deputy Minister of the Interior (that is, Agim Shehu) had told him that “the prime minister has taken the measures himself,” and when he also publicly said that he knew some of the bandits and would bring them to justice!... It is up to the leaders of the Ministry of the Interior to determine, in this case, the degree of responsibility borne by the Shkodër police station, but this in no way means that everything ends there and that we should “come on, let’s reconcile.” The Deputy Minister of the Interior is not being accused for the first time. Indeed, complaints have been filed against him not only by the media but also by various citizens (there are several such complaints at the Tirana Prosecutor’s Office), and someone is trying to evade them. Why? Has the Deputy Minister’s responsibility been investigated at the Ministry of the Interior? What about the commander of the Republican Guard? And what are the conclusions? What is the prosecutor’s office doing? Have investigations begun or not, or are they still waiting because Berisha has not spoken yet? The chief of the Shkodër police station publicly declared that he knew some of the armed bandits. Have they been arrested, and what has been done to identify them? So far, nothing has been said, while the Government has not completed its review either. What is holding things up, why all this delay, when the incident is perfectly clear? The bandit-like act in Bushat was no accident, but a premeditated political act, deliberately organized by the traditional supporters of criminals and armed bandits in order to sabotage the Government of National Reconciliation. If the chief of the Shkodër police station had not stated that he knew the criminals, perhaps he would not have been dismissed from

The number of DP MPs who have put their signatures to distance themselves from the current leadership and to free Parliament, the party’s National Council, and all DP structures from Berisha’s tutelage has reached 40. “I would like to pause for a moment on the issue of the ‘former’ ones,” says D. Shehi, one of the leaders of this group of MPs, responding to the leadership’s accusations. “In politics, ‘former’ people have no value; they are a remnant of the past. In these former members I see people with the courage to take an act of dissent by signing against the leadership and Berisha, and speaking in their own voices.” Meanwhile, the signing of the memorandum continues without interruption, drawing in large numbers of DP parliamentarians. Among other things, it insistently calls for blocking the unlawful activities of the leadership and Berisha, in order to save whatever can be saved of the DP. Shehi remains consistent in his statements against the president’s interference in the party’s affairs. Meanwhile, this group views the future with relative optimism, even though Berisha continues to interfere in the life of the parties, still unable to assume his role as a symbol of national unity and guarantor of peace and security in the country.