The series of settling scores begins 16 bullets and few people at the funeral. The city is calm under police protection 16 bullets and few people at the funeral. The city is calm under police protection VLORË—At around 6:30 in the morning on Thursday, Lefter Çaushi, 35, the brother of Zani Çaushi, was found shot dead. His body was found at Pylli i Sodës, on the left side of the road leading to the New Port, 500 meters before the Port turnoff and 200 meters inside the forest.

abc If the only priority, if the only condition, if the only barrier beyond which Albanians have for so long seen and longed for the future but have not been able to reach it, is law and order, then, in that old building in the center of power here in Vlorë... In all those police stations in port cities, in border towns. Now is the best time for everything to change, after a clear analysis has been made of everything that has happened in these first six months of the year. Now is the best time to bring in new people, who have the exper...

The hostage-taker’s identity remains a mystery PAGES 6–7

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abc If the only priority, the only condition, the only barrier beyond which Albanians have long looked toward and longed for a future they cannot reach, is law and order, then everything in that old building—old as the dictatorship plus Sali Berisha—must be overturned. Everything must change. First and last, the people. Because a circle has been woven: it begins with those who still recall the glory days of catching thieves of Chinese bicycles, and ends with others who have reduced being a police officer to exploiting the penalties in the Law and converting them into money. Piles of money. However dedicated, serious, and self-sacrificing a minister may be when taking charge of this building, the circle immediately opens and closes around him, preventing him from changing the rules, practices, and procedures for appointments and dismissals established by that very circle. Everything that requires determination is drowned out by these people working on the building’s three floors, from whom Albanians expect security and law and order. The scorpion has reached the point where patience runs out. Therefore, the first minister must break and shatter this circle of people, which starts at the Ministry and extends all around it, wherever influence can be exerted. He must do this if he wants to show that he has come to get real work done. If so far everything at the Ministry of Public Order has boiled down to appointments and removals, this must no longer be allowed to happen: these legal acts must not affect only a narrow circle of people who merely circulate through Albania’s police stations without adding anything to the level of citizens’ security. This happens because there is no appointments council and no appointments regulation clearly specifying that, in every case, there must be concrete reasons for dismissal from a post, appointment to a post, and evaluation of work. And because none of this exists, people are appointed who ultimately turn out like the former Saranda police commissioner, Agron Rroka, accused of involvement in extensive smuggling activity. The worst thing is that everything keeps repeating itself precisely because no analysis is made of the causes that bring police stations to this state, and precisely because the Law is not applied to send all these commissioners to prison. There are many of them, and they have piled up in all those police stations in port cities and that happened in the time to bring in new people whose profession is fighting crime, who have been outside the dirty cycle of appointments and removals driven by self-serving interests, and who will declare and have their assets verified. Everyone in those departments, starting with the minister, must understand clearly that they will be judged on the basis of their work results and the transparency of appointments and dismissals, free from interference by people making recommendations—whether from within the majority, interest groups, or the clan. It is quite clear that the 12 people appointed as police directors in the prefectures must be chosen to establish law and order. And the minister must find people to establish law and order. And the minister must choose people who will inspire confidence that the police will confront crime forcefully. These are the people who will strengthen the police’s resolve, not extinguish it. If this happens, no one will be able to say anymore that law and order cannot be established in this country. Because even without this, just 50 kilometers from Tirana there is an example: police commissioner Edmond Kose-ri. He was in Tepelenë and took it in hand, and they removed him because he stopped some trucks that were entering the sphere of powerful interests. He was in Lushnjë and took it in hand, putting an end, for a while, to the serious incidents there. He has been in Elbasan for a year, and by taking charge of the police with a submachine gun in his hand, he himself at the front has managed, in the most professional way possible, to put all the criminals in the prefecture behind bars. The message from him is perfectly clear, even in a circle without customs. The message everyone should take away is that there are no Berisha’s criminals or socialist criminals, but criminals who oppose the state. They must all be struck down, regardless of whom they accompanied during election campaigns, whom they ate with, or whom they are drinking with. The people who are chosen must think exactly this way, once and for all erasing from their minds the notion that they will not confront crime and will instead retreat into the massive gains made by abusing the Law. Every crime, even an official one, has its punishment.

mark End of August, a new mark PAGE 4 ZËRI LAJME The dollar should be at the 147 lekë mark

Cenaj’s lists are also published PAGE 8

The land law is not unconstitutional PAGE 2

They are approved and do not recognize the state PAGE 14

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