Only those who do not know the warning can kill the criminal Public Order Minister Spartak Poçi warned the directors of his ministry’s departments yesterday that if they did not do their jobs, they would be dismissed. This was the second time Poçi had spoken so harshly; he had done so previously only when he was introduced. Until yesterday, I thought that, in the work of any state official—and even more so in the field of public order—there could be no second chance. Even if that official is a police officer. Because their work is directly connected with, and concerns, every citizen’s freedom, personal safety and property. It has been almost a month since the new minister took over at the Ministry of Public Order, and that has been enough time for every department director, every commissioner, to show what they are made of, their abilities and their work. If during this time each of them has failed to do what the law or the citizen demands in establishing public order, then yesterday should not have been a second chance for them. For the umpteenth time in the space of a few weeks, we have written that the Tirana police are not only ineffective, but disorganized, if not completely disbanded. What an ordinary citizen and a police expert alike can see brings to mind the simple fact that in the late hours of the night, from central Tirana toward the outskirts, you cannot even gather 30 police officers on duty. We say “on duty” because, in operations to crack down on crime—which starts enjoying itself at night—you cannot find a single police officer. So why should the Tirana Police Director be warned again? And when we say him, the same thing should happen with all those police directors in whose prefectures serious incidents continue unabated and go unpunished. The police force includes special units assembled in “Unit 88” and other forces gathered in units with three-digit numbers. At least in recent weeks, no one has heard of these forces carrying out any operation against crime in the capital, where they are based. The same goes for the forces known as the “anti-drug units.” They should have done so at least when Public Order Minister Poçi, in his review at the Tirana Police Directorate, spoke about how the threads of crime were being bought in the capital. So why should the director of these forces receive a second warning? Especially when the “special units” spend their days “sampistin” in bingo halls or in various Tirana jewelry shops. People want order; indeed, now they demand it at any price. Their desire to live in peace has reached maximalist demands for the police to use weapons against bandits—to kill them. In their view, the only alternative for establishing order is now this method of elimination. But for this to happen, it takes people whose commitment is not drowned out by the lure of money. In other words, people who do not think twice about carrying out an order when it comes to confronting crime and protecting the lives and property of citizens—Albanian and foreign, who come and invest their money in this country. Tuesday 13 July 1999 No. 162 (16964) Newspaper of the Socialist Party of Albania Price: 30 lekë For Greece: 3000dpx PAGE 1

Timi held the baby, they act as guides and property of citizens. Albanians and foreigners who come and invest their money in this country.

• A fictitious “robbery” was incited, and then villagers were photographed as a primitive mob • Belgian army: beware of “our crusaders”; they are suspicious people From the “ZP” correspondent in Durrës DURRËS—A sinister plan by sections of foreign NGOs to destabilize Albania? The Prefect of Durrës-Krujë, Marin Cukalla, told “ZP” yesterday that six days ago, alongside the events in Shkodër and Vlorë, a mass looting was incited at the camp for Kosovars, administered by the Belgian Red Cross (CROIX Rouge de Belgique). According to the regional “criminologist,” after the Kosovo war refugees left the camp in Katund i Ri (Durrës district), employees of the Belgian Red Cross had told villagers to come and take food and other gifts, creating confusion and a commotion. “The benefactors photographed the Albanians as if they were primitive mobs. It was the prefecture and police hierarchy that prevented a catastrophe. Prefect Cukalla said that the command of the Belgian army contingent had warned that their fellow workers from the Red Cross were suspicious people, some of them bad. The motives for this act have still not been clarified: Is it an attempt to destabilize Albania on behalf of anti-Albanian circles, or simply an attempt to cover up traces of some misappropriation of donations from Belgium? Meanwhile, as has been reported, the State Sanitary Inspector of Durrës seized and then, grosopur, 20 tonnes of substandard beans (mouldy and insect-infested) that had arrived from Belgium for the Belgian Red Cross at the Katund i Ri camp, 8 km north of Durrës. More details in “Durrës ditar”.

Ministry of Public Works and Transport: 3.5 billion lekë; Ministry of Education and Science: 3.1 billion lekë; Ministry of Public Order: 1.1 billion lekë; Ministry of Local Government: 2.9 billion lekë; Ministry of Health: 2.3 billion lekë; Ministry of Public Economy and Privatization: 1 billion lekë PAGE 2

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Moderators: “He will either admit that the decision to boycott was wrong, or endlessly savor the decision to enter Parliament” PAGE 3

ABC Last week was marked by several government steps that were received with interest by public opinion because they affect the interests of many, many people. Prime Minister Majko began the week by signing the draft law on compensation for those who lost their homes in pyramid schemes, while the government also paved the way for pensions for discharged military personnel, who from now on will be called “in reserve.” During the past week, 700 million lekë were also unfrozen, a sum that benefits one-third of the clean families, and which had been frozen back in 1996. We are not stating anything unknown when we emphasize that, as a people and as a state, we have plenty of problems. But we have highlighted these three points to say that this country and this people are governed, and that someone is taking an interest in the work, which is naturally concerned with addressing as many people’s problems as possible. This someone is not an abstraction, but the government throughout its entire hierarchy. When we mentioned Majko, who signed these draft laws in his capacity as prime minister, we wanted to emphasize, in more popular language, that millions of lekë passed from the government’s pocket into citizens’ pockets. So Majko did not perform a charitable gesture; he simply did his job. But, on the other hand, it must be said that this was made possible by better performance in the main macroeconomic indicators, which shows that governance has been efficient. Why are we highlighting this issue? Because in many circles, and especially in the press, there is a deep current of disinformation and sensationalism that breeds disappointment and loss of confidence among the people. Many people fan the dark sides of our reality, and when we say this, we do not have in mind a figure like Vili Minarolli, whose only job is to insult the government—so much so that they seem to curse themselves for having been born in this country and are therefore ready to turn into Eskimos. This attitude can only be described as frivolous. It is nothing other than an adaptation to the conditions of the times of the old anti-Albanian thesis that “we Albanians do not know how to govern ourselves.” And under what circumstances is this thesis being maintained with such extraordinary persistence? At a time when the current government is the Albanian government that has enjoyed the broadest international support in the history of our state. It is a fact: Albania has never had more friends. It is a fact: major projects for Albania in the 2000s are getting underway in Brussels and Washington, Rome and Athens, Bonn, Paris and London. In this “Albanian laboratory,” where many challenges collide, there is also corruption, a lack of order and other serious shortcomings. But this has not prevented all our major friends from standing by us. Was the agreement with New World Telecom worth just 300 million dollars? Are the projects for corridors 8 and 10 insignificant? Is the agreement with the American corporation Evergreen, and so on, negligible? This is progress along the right path.