For two years it had been operating the Greece–Montenegro route and unloading cargo on the Albanian coast, from Vlora to Shëngjin PAGE 7

New facts about Krabë. Testimony — Here’s why we stopped taking inventories of the treasure in March ’97 Rezart Veseli testifies, the man who inventoried the treasure in the Krabë tunnel from 1993 to 1997 • The great robbery: members of the treasure verification commission state: In March 1997, Bishqemi informed us of Shamata’s order to halt the inventory at the “Lumi” facility. Since March ’97, the four of us, as a commission, have not carried out a single inventory of the treasure THE TESTIMONY The facility was usually inventoried when there was a change in the commission’s members. The commission consisted of four people and was headed by chairman Bishqemi. HOW THE INVENTORY WAS DONE After speaking with the Minister of the Interior, Bishqemi would present us with the order to conduct an inspection, and the inspection team would set out to carry out all the procedures. On no occasion, under any circumstances, did the verification commission inspect inside the facility without chairman Bishqemi being present. We had no right to contact any representative at ministerial level, except for chairman Bishqemi. Once the verification was completed, the paperwork recording the number of valuables was filled out. This documentation bore the signatures of all four commission members. WHY WAS THE INVENTORY STOPPED? We did not continue carrying out the inventory because the order to conduct it was blocked. It was Bishqemi who informed us of the order to halt the continuation of this inventory, which we had been carrying out regularly since 1993. According to him, the order had been issued by the minister. WHAT HAPPENED IN MARCH? Everything happened a month later, in March, a period we did not cover with inspections because, as I mentioned above, the order to inspect this facility was blocked. Therefore, we did not see the facility in its destroyed state. In the photo: Halit Shamata, former Interior Minister in the Meksi government in February–March ’97, and fellow townsman of Colonel Arian Bishqemi (from Kavaja)

Read an interview with Rezart Veseli, former member of the Krabë Treasury Inventory Commission PAGE 2 The leadership discusses PS governance in the districts In Tirana, the contest for chair is set: Ulqini, Reçi, Danaj PAGE 5

The fourth Albania–EU meeting concludes PAGE 3

Meidani awaits the right’s amendments PAGE 4

A few days ago, one of the country’s leading newspapers published a story saying that some residents of Tirana had given the Prefect of Tirana a new lease on life because he had insisted that construction of an apartment block be suspended; it had been suffocating the residents living nearby. Apartment blocks and businesses like these, almost all with construction permits, are going up in every corner of Tirana. You find them in hospital courtyards, schoolyards, on sidewalks, a couple of handspans from the neighboring home, in gardens... all you need is to own a plot of land and you can build whatever you want! This wholesale granting of permits by the KRTs has brought a construction frenzy to Tirana and all our cities, like the one behind the Shallvare apartment blocks, where today not even a fire engine or a funeral car can get through, even edge-on. (Continued on page 4)

District conferences held in Tirana, Kolonjë, Sarandë PAGE 5