INTEGRATION / COOPERATION WITH THE USA Ambassador Limpreht at the parliamentary committees on Army Reform in Albania

Trade Economy, export agreements • The export sector has contributed its share to overall economic growth • In 1999, national output per capita reached USD 1,200, up from USD 816 in 1996 • The fight against the budget deficit is linked to increasing production for the domestic market and for export PAGE 6

The Prime Minister yesterday at the Tirana Police Directorate: Crime must be hit hard in the capital • Yesterday afternoon and into the late evening, within a few hours the police “combed” the capital • Checkpoints were set up on roads leading into Tirana; checks were carried out on all main roads and in problem areas, looking for wanted persons, weapons, and stolen vehicles or vehicles with irregular legal documents • Initial results: More than 35 people were taken to police stations, and dozens of vehicles were impounded PAGE 4

“Made in Albania” grows in foreign markets • Export earnings in 1999 were better than in any of the past ten years. The value of exports reached USD 270 million, of which USD 230 million, or 92% of our exports, went to Western countries PAGE 7

We need judgments, opinions, ideas that will help us win the local elections • Let us bring the campaign down to the local level • In several major municipalities, the PD has been in charge for 8 years and still has minimal results • That is why the PD is avoiding the local character of these elections If you carefully analyze the propaganda campaign that the PD has launched through rallies and the print and electronic media, it is trying to avoid the local character of these elections by attacking the PS and the governing majority in general. The PD’s propaganda does this for the simple reason that it itself controls the vast majority of local government, and its results are disappointing. In some of the major municipalities, the PD has been in charge for 8 years and still has minimal results. That is why the PD’s propaganda avoids concrete campaigning based on municipalities or districts and attacks only our government in general. But Albanian citizens know these local-government results well, and it is also the priority task of our propaganda, the party structures in the districts, and our candidates to point them out concretely, municipality by municipality or commune by commune. Under these circumstances, bringing the campaign down to the local level and focusing on the candidate for mayor or commune head would greatly diminish the effects of the PD’s propaganda. YESTERDAY: MEETING OF THE PS-SH PRESIDENCY — PAGES 2–3 In the photo: Fatos Nano, chairman of the Socialist Party

ISSUE OF THE DAY The Meta Cabinet continues to show that it has not come to govern the country with the motto “let things slide and keep them sliding” and that, unlike the PD government, it has never turned a blind eye to legal violations, since illegal favors are out of the question. After many facts, which all Albanians now know, the Meta Cabinet offered further examples of refusing to compromise and of rejecting dark events, expressing its determination to pursue the facts to the end. In this spirit, yesterday the High Council of Justice was asked to lift the immunity of the Chief Judge of the Tirana Court of First Instance so that the prosecution could investigate fully serious events with which his name is also connected, while Minister Muçi requested criminal proceedings against two companies accused of falsifying documents in connection with a tender. These two clear facts herald an ongoing fight against crime as a whole and also demonstrate that Meta is not joking when he warns the companies awarded contracts for sections of the country’s main roads, or when he demands honest work from the administration. If we compare the Meta Cabinet with the Meksi Cabinet, we will see fundamental differences. Under the PD, prosecutors became “protectors” and judges built magnificent villas in the middle of Tirana simply because they blindly obeyed the sick dictator; today, all that is asked of the justice system is honesty, and it is judged by that standard. Meta is demonstrating that he has carefully and seriously analyzed the PD’s failure and understood that what “cost that party its head” was precisely the justice system, which, after unjustly giving the patient several Socialist “heads,” began to remain silent, as if justice for the people were being traded in a bustling bazaar. Today we can say that we are entering the new millennium on the right foot. It is now a fact that pressure by the party in power on the organs of justice, public order, customs, etc. is at a minimal level, and that the era of tenders won by phantom companies—which disappear like salt in water as soon as they receive the money—is coming to an end. This is a new philosophy of governance, far removed from clans and Masonic lodges, which makes people equal before the law, the Fatherland, and God. The opposition is wrong to mock today’s government with the banal humor of people who have been out of active life for decades. It should encourage this governing mentality, so that when it comes to power one day it can find something useful, built on solid foundations, rather than starting its governance at a level below zero, as it was left by the previous government. If the PD had left the PS even some level of functioning government, today we would be doing other things: we would not be dismissing corrupt judges, but building court buildings; we would not be suspending contracts with thieving and fraudulent companies, but signing contracts to open new road sections; we would not be demolishing kiosks, but using loans to help launch new businesses; we would not be attending police officers’ funerals, but working on the training and professionalization of the police... And that is without even mentioning the schools, which, had they been built to the standards of government bodies by the PD, would no longer be a problem today, and all education funds could go to staff, textbooks, and teachers... It is true that the roads are full of potholes, electricity is lacking, and deception exists, but let us not forget how the Socialists took power: they inherited a hole bigger than that of Haxhi Sejdisë and are fighting to fill the hole dug by the PD. And precisely these gravediggers, who turned Albania into one great grave, now come out into the streets to mock the Meta Cabinet. Perhaps they are angry that Meta is getting things done, because they have no other trade.

Privatization of production enterprises continues Minister Muçi signed the orders yesterday to begin the tendering procedure PAGE 8

“The Mirror” • This is Berisha’s electoral joke about the free zones “The Mirror” This is Berisha’s electoral joke about the free zones Shkodra, Vlora, Elbasani and Durrësi put their free zones on the market PAGE 16

In the Legal Affairs Committee PAGE 3

PD proposals, anti-OSCE PAGE 3

• KLD removes Tirana Chief Judge Pajtim Hoxha ............... 5 • Police find and seize a pirate distillery in Durrës ............... 5 • “Gaxhai,” the defense requests the judge’s recusal when ... the judicial investigation has concluded ............... 10