Four killed and five wounded in an assassination attempt BARBARIC VENDETTA IN TROPOJË 500 meters of mined road, remote-controlled explosion. Two killed inside the city. Late in the evening, anti-crime specialists and special forces arrive KILLED: Feriz Kërnaja Halil Haklajt Bislim Hyka Isuf Bashkurti WOUNDED: Fatmir Haklaj Fatmir Murdaku as well as at least 3 ordinary travelers PAGE 10 Geniuses of organized organized crime The prosecutors are waiting for the evidence

. PAGE 3. Berisha is preparing the purge lists for the Congress

ZËRI NEWS. The State High Control Commission bubble bursts PAGE 8

PAGE 8

A blow against organized organized crime. Majko: Bandits must pay in the face of bullets. The government is working on a higher monetary valuation for the police

“Into whose hands have we fallen?”—a few days ago, in an editorial in the newspaper, referring to the prosecutors, we asked precisely this question. Yesterday, when a Birbil whistled in the newspaper that conducts the fine art of trafficking, today for tomorrow’s Albania, the “trafficking of influence,” circulating “goods” after securing lucrative appointments at Albania’s gateways, on land and at sea, he became convinced that prosecutors were spinning us around in the palms of their hands—prosecutors who have in their heads the minds of Hoxha’s “local removal committee chairmen” and have put on, also in their heads, the underwear of “Sali Berisha’s prosecutors.” In line, asking who is next, are the people—without dividing them into “ordinary people,” politicians, or state officials—whose dignity, legally protected by the Constitution, lies beneath the feet of any prosecutor who considers himself capable of raising his leg to kick. The cases keep recurring and have now become a phenomenon. In this context, the problem is no longer prosecutor Birbil Mete and his jibes about his bravery in fighting corruption. Rather, it is the work motto these prosecutors have been chanting for months on the steps of the General Prosecutor’s Office: “we don’t ask about anyone.” Naturally, they do not even bother to say this about ordinary people. They grab them by the ear and throw them inside, whether they are innocent or criminals; from that moment on, they are treated as their clients, with years in prison ahead of them. But for a long time now, this motto has stopped at politics, institutions, and those in power. In other words, a host of components that make up the state are under accusation, amid a flood of words but without credible evidence. They are being attacked, yet the silence serves the supposed good cause of fighting corruption; clean hands are not tying anyone’s tongues when it comes to some VIP, including a “Socialist politician” who apparently features on the General Prosecutor’s Office’s lists. In this context, it is worth repeating that the state is not being cleaned of mud; it is now being pelted with mud by the Prosecution as well. It looks more like a war game between the Government and the Prosecution, with the former increasingly complaining about the release of criminals whom one of its own branches, the Ministry of Public Order, puts in handcuffs. And to silence this accusation by the Government—which was much harsher in the statement by the Friends of Albania—the Prosecution is choosing its words to take aim at politics, those in power, and the Government. Naturally, without considering at all that, after maligning one group of politicians, it is doing the same to the other group, creating the impression that in this country there are only thieves involved in politics and running the mafia. Since yesterday I was one of those targeted by prosecutor Birbil Mete, as a “collaborator and ally of organized crime and corruption,” I have the courage to wait, with the greatest calm, for this prosecutor to come and put handcuffs on my hands, just as he should on the hands of all the politicians he continues to malign. Let him do this to set a good example for all Albanian citizens, showing that in this corrupt country one can find a home in prison. If prosecutor Birbil does not do this, then I will be the one to legally demand that handcuffs be put on him. Not for insulting and slandering me, but for abuse of office and for killing the hopes of all Albanians for a new political class—uncompromised, honest, and willing to fight crime.

. The Committee of LANÇ Veterans, in cooperation with the FRESSH leadership and the local authorities of the Skrapar district, is organizing an event commemorating the 55th anniversary of the Congress of the Albanian Anti-Fascist Youth Union, on Sunday, 8.8.'99, at 10:00, in the field of Lirëzë in Helmës, with the participation of all veterans and delegates to this congress, families of martyrs, and school youth from across the country. For Tirana, buses leave from SHQUP at 8:00 on Saturday, 7 August.