Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA), 97-09-22

Albanian Telegraphic Agency Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA) Home Page at <http://www.telpress.it/ata>

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

CONTENTS

[01] WORLD BANK TO START PACKAGE OF ASSISTANCE FOR ALBANIA AFTER OCTOBER CONFERENCE - Nano-Wolfenson

[02] THE GOOD FOR ALBANIA MUST BE THE GOOD FOR ALL ALBANIANS - Fino

[03] NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT TO BE HELD IN TIRANE

[04] ALBANIANS OF KOSOVE HAVE REFUSED TO TAKE PART IN SERBIAN ELECTIONS

[05] ORGANIZERS OF ILLEGAL GATHERINGS MUST OBSERVE LAW - Interior Ministry report

[06] NEW FERRY ON SARANDE-CORFU LINE

[07] DOLLAR HITS LOW AGAINST ALBANIAN CURRENCY

[08] WORLD BANK RELEASES $120 MILLION FOR ALBANIA

[09] COMPETITIONS FOR ADMISSIONS TO UNIVERSITIES START

[10] SOME 126 ALBANIAN EMIGRANTS RETURN FROM ITALY TODAY

[11] NATIONAL COMMISSION ON DISARMAMENT SET UP

[12] MINISTER OPPOSES REGISTERING OR BUYING OF LOOTED WEAPONS BY STATE

[13] ALBANIAN YOUNG MAN MARRIES A GERMAN WOMAN

[14] CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT REVEALS DATA ON LOOTED WEAPONS

[15] ALBANIAN GOVERNMENT AIMS AT IMPROVING LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS' OBSERVANCE

[16] DP PARLIAMENTARY GROUP NOT TO TAKE PART IN PARLIAMENT SESSIONS - DP National Council

[17] SOCIALIST PARTY CONSIDERS UNCONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATS' DEMAND FOR RESIGNATION OF THE GOVERNMENT

[18] VAT hike approved, debates continue

[19] BULLETS AT GRAMSH POLICE COMMISSARIAT, SPECIAL FORCES DETAIN THE CULPRITS

[20] SMUGGLERS OF TIMBER CAUGHT

[21] VEFA, $ 300 mln in debts

[01] WORLD BANK TO START PACKAGE OF ASSISTANCE FOR ALBANIA AFTER OCTOBER CONFERENCE - Nano-Wolfenson

"The Albanian Government is seriously committed to the realisation of the economic reforms and the restoration of public order soon," said Nano during the meeting, stressing the fight against corruption and the transparency for the pyramid investment schemes. He also explained the artificial obstacles created during the process of reforms by the political right wing forces which want to prevent the quick normality to the country.

The President of the World Bank voiced the readiness of the WB and other institutions related to it, for Albania.

"It is your last chance, therefore we wish that the October conference be over successfully," stressed Mr Wolfenson. He voiced the desire to visit Albania after some months. ake/kled/xh/sh/

[02] THE GOOD FOR ALBANIA MUST BE THE GOOD FOR ALL ALBANIANS - Fino

A politically and economically strong Albania would help more efficiently to the solution of the rights of the Albanians wherever they are, said Deputy PM Fino.

The representatives of the DP of Albanians in Macedonia voiced some opinions regarding the ways and roads towards the consolidation of the cooperation between the Albanian parties in Macedonia and the Albanian Government, with the objective of solving as correctly as possible the Albanian question conformed to the international standards and the people's rights and freedoms. ake/kled/xh/sh/

[03] NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT TO BE HELD IN TIRANE

The conference will be addressed by high officials as the Interior Minister, Neritan Ceka, the Defence Minister, Sabit Brokaj, Mayor of Tirane, Albert Brojka and various specialists of police.

Last Saturday, Mr Ceka declared in Elbasan that 100 thousand weapons, or one sixth of the total number of armaments in the hands of the population, has been accumulated.

During March-April, in the period of the chaos and anarchy prevailing in Albania, the civilian population was armed with all kinds of weapons as a result of the storming of some army depots.

For the realisation of the disarmament of the population, local and foreign specialists have presented a number of theses such as the voluntary handing in of the weapons (process which is going on for some days now in the majority of the districts,) registration and accumulation of the surrendered weapons by police or the buying of the armament from population by the Albanian Government.

Mr Ceka declared in Elbasan that "Prime Minister Nano has proposed that salaries for police, which are directly faced with crime, will soon increase by 50-100 per cent." ake/kled/xh/sh/

[04] ALBANIANS OF KOSOVE HAVE REFUSED TO TAKE PART IN SERBIAN ELECTIONS

At a time when over 90 per cent of the eligible voters took part in the referendum and in the independent elections of Kosova, in today's elections less that 10 per cent of the Kosova electorate has taken part.

The regime of violence could not make Albanians take part in the Serbian elections despite the distribution of appeals, the threats, pressures and terror.

In these elections too, the Serbian opposition parties refused a government coalition for falsification of the election lists and votes in the name of the Albanians, because the latter do not appear in the poll. Such falsifications have always been realised in the previous elections in Kosova. kled/xh/sh/

[05] ORGANIZERS OF ILLEGAL GATHERINGS MUST OBSERVE LAW - Interior Ministry report

Despite the notification by the Tirane Police Department for the observation of the law, "protests continue to be held without permission, causing troubles for the traffic and citizens in the rush hours. Being spontaneous and without the sufficient protection by police, these gatherings endanger the participants themselves," says the report of the Interior Ministry. ake/kled/xh/sh/

[06] NEW FERRY ON SARANDE-CORFU LINE

The "VALLETA" ferry, with a Greek owner and which can carry 200 passengers, will travel daily from Sarande to Corfu, covering the distance in one hour and 20 minutes.

During the March-August period, when Sarande was swept by riots and lack of order, the "Kaliopi" ferry, travelling under the Albanian flag, was the only one to connect the two countries' coasts. a.ke/pas/lm

[07] DOLLAR HITS LOW AGAINST ALBANIAN CURRENCY

The Italian lira has increased by 1 lek, as against Friday when 1000 cost 82 leks, whereas the mark has slightly increased.

This fluctuation is directly linked with the morning quotas on the foreign currency markets.

Currency exchange rate against the Lek Sept. 22, 1997

The Savings Bank

Currency              Sell            Buy
US$1.00               145             149
German Mark           81.5            84.2
Italian Lire (1000)   83              86
Drachmas              50              53.3

FREE MARKET

CURRENCY              Sell            Buy
US$1.00               146.5           147.5
German Mark           84.5            87
Italian Lire          86.5            88.5
Drachmas              52              55

[08] WORLD BANK RELEASES $120 MILLION FOR ALBANIA

An Albanian delegation headed by the Prime minister Fatos Nano attended the meeting.

Measures adopted by the Albanian government to stabilise economy, raise VAT to 20 percent, make customs house efficient and increase income in the state budget, were, according to the World Bank experts for Albania, major factors which gave the green light for the release of the frozen funds.

"Fulfilment of conditions for the economic reform will be decisive for the World Bank to approve another aid program worth $60 to 80 million for 1998-1999 period," a World Bank expert for Albania said in the Hong Kong meeting. kei/ak/k

[09] COMPETITIONS FOR ADMISSIONS TO UNIVERSITIES START

The head of Higher Education department at the Ministry of Education, Gjergj File, told ATA today that some 6000 new students or 30 per cent of the number of pupils graduating for the middle and secondary schools this year, will be admitted to university as apposed to 5200 admitted last year.

Around 12 000 candidates have been enrolled in the competitions starting today.

The most preferred faculties continue to be those of economy and business and then law and medicine.

As regards the hitherto practices of new admissions to higher schools, Prime Minister Fatos Nano, at a government meeting on Thursday, presented a report, according to which former PM Aleksander Meksi (who had exclusive powers for granting scholarships) and the respective state structures have largely abused powers in this direction.

The cabinet decided to abrogate these powers envisaged in the existing decision, a thing which creates wider possibilities to the rectorates in granting scholarships to students, based on their knowledge. pas/kei/lm/k

[10] SOME 126 ALBANIAN EMIGRANTS RETURN FROM ITALY TODAY

Over the last two days the number of Albanian illegal emigrants repatriated from the neighboring states, Italy and Greece, has reached 233.

Among the returned, only 12 have been deported from Greece on the "Aulona" ferry, which arrived from the Patras port on Sunday evening.

According to several of the returned, they have been caught in streets or train stations in various cities of Italy and after being grouped, they have been sent to Albania from the ports of Brindisi, Bari, Ancona and Trieste.

Over the first three weeks of September the number of the illegal Albanians returned from the Italian police authorities to the Durres port exceeds 2000. kei/lm/k

[11] NATIONAL COMMISSION ON DISARMAMENT SET UP

Setting up a disarmament commission was on the focus of a draft resolution outlined and approved by the conference organised by the Interior and Defence Ministries which is submitted to the government as one of the concrete steps to carry out the disarmament.

Interior minister Neritan Ceka stressed the need for a wider cooperation of different state structures, political parties and NGO-s to fulfil this process.

"The arming of population resulted from the political destabilisation and loss of the state authority," Ceka said adding that apart from looting the weapons were distributed according to some lists to the so-called recruits based on party criteria (weapons, which were already surrendered).

"Only National Information Service (SHIK) has been armed six time more than it needed," Perikli Teta, Secretary of State for Defence at the Defence Ministry said.

This commission will include Secretaries of State at the Interior and Defence Ministries, heads of the Order and SHIK commissions and that of Defence, director of the Directorate for the Local government, some majors and prefects in various districts.

One sixth of the total number of armaments or 100 thousand weapons which had been in the hands of the population were collected by the police since the beginning of the disarmament operation, after the establishment of the new government.

After the collapse of pyramid investment schemes in Albania, during March-April, with many Albanians lost their savings, revolted crowds looted the army depot.

The uncontrolled use of weapons or using them to take revenge have claimed the lives of many people including children. kei/ak/

[12] MINISTER OPPOSES REGISTERING OR BUYING OF LOOTED WEAPONS BY STATE

"Weapons belong to the state and they have been looted and should be returned to the state," Ceka said adding that "the thesis of registration cannot function legally and technically."

Referring to the buying of weapons by the government, he said "we cannot buy our weapons."

"We should give priority to voluntary handing over of weapons, what can be realised through a mobilisation of local government. Process of handing over should not be seen as violence, they should be handed over for the sake of the nation's interests," Ceka said.

He said that if the voluntary handing over does not work, the order forces will operate based on the law.

After the collapse of the pyramid investment schemes in Albania, at the beginning of the year, with many Albanians lost their savings, revolted crowds raided the military depots and looted weapons.

The uncontrolled use of weapons and using them to take revenge claimed the lives of many people including children. kei/ak/Z/

[13] ALBANIAN YOUNG MAN MARRIES A GERMAN WOMAN

"An Albanian young man born in 1969 recently married a German woman born in 1940," Rudina Brori, the chief of the civil state office at the Tirana Town Hall, said.

Some 1570 marriages are recorded in Tirana this year, 310 of which with foreign citizens. 340 marriages with foreign citizens were recorded last year. jz/ak/Z/

[14] CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT REVEALS DATA ON LOOTED WEAPONS

Some 652 thousand weapons of different calibres, 1,56 billion rounds of ammunition, 3,5 million hand grenades, 3 600 tons of explosive devices and one million mines have been looted from these depots.

Some 1,311 killings, 1,185 of which deliberately and 126 accidentally, including 75 children, have happened during March 1 and September 20. 52 policemen have been killed on duty.

During the same period, 1,450 persons were wounded, 324 of whom accidentally, and 23 percent of the total were children.

Referring to the collection of weapons, he said that 518 heavy machine-guns, 282 anti-tank grenades, 116 guns and mortars, 219 anti-aircraft machine-guns, 732 anti-tank and anti-infantry mines, 2162 automatic rifles, 20,689 rifles, 1,266 light machine-guns, 7,786 assault grenades, 6060 defensive grenades, 8 million infantry rounds of ammunition, 78 guns, 1070 mortar missiles were collected during August 1 to September 20.

The conference said that deadline for the weapons to be handed over should be considered.

The final deadline for weapons distributed by lists was the beginning of this month while for heavy one within the same month. jz/ak/Z/

[15] ALBANIAN GOVERNMENT AIMS AT IMPROVING LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS' OBSERVANCE

"We are interested that Albania, being a member of the European Council and signing the Convent on Preventing Torture and Inhuman Treatment, have a closer cooperation with our committee," the head of the CE delegation said to Lakrori.

A group of experts from the committee will come soon in Albania to consider the situation on the ground. ake/jz/ak/Z

[16] DP PARLIAMENTARY GROUP NOT TO TAKE PART IN PARLIAMENT SESSIONS - DP National Council

The democrats demanded the resignation of Government Nano, the discharge of the Parliament Speaker Skender Gjinushi and his deputy Namik Dokle, the discharge of SHIK chairman, Fatos Klosi, as a condition for their participation in the Parliament sessions.

In today's meeting, the democrats considered the government and the present leadership of the Parliament as "organizers of the attempted assassination of DP deputy Azem Hajdari."

DP leader Sali Berisha said that the protests until the above demands are met will continue not spontaneously as so far but they will be organized.

Berisha said that the requests of his party are "intolerable" but he added that "DP is open to dialogue." He said that Prime Minister Fatos Nano should resign and then the coalition would talk with the new government.

The DP leader stopped at length on criticisms towards some of his party members. ake/jz/xh/Z/

[17] SOCIALIST PARTY CONSIDERS UNCONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATS' DEMAND FOR RESIGNATION OF THE GOVERNMENT

"SP has denounced and categorically condemned in the Parliament the wounding for canon revenge motives of the democrat deputy Azem Hajdari by socialist deputy Gafurr Mazreku some days ago," says the declaration of the socialist presidency. It described the crime as ordinary and not at all political and demanded that the event be not institutionalized as a political case.

SP categorically denounces every attempt of DP to use the incident for unconstitutional and illegal demands, said the declaration.

"SP condemns the spirit of political tension which Berisha and his clan want to sow," ends the declaration.

Right after the wounding of Hajdari, the Democratic Party demanded the resignation of the Government Nano, the discharge of the parliamentary leadership, etc. ake/jz/xh/Z/

[18] VAT hike approved, debates continue

According to Carlos Elbirt, director of the World Bank for Albania, VAT increase "is an indispensable sacrifice, that will cause difficulties in its first phase of implementation, but will pave the way for positive transformation, expected to occur on the Albanian economy during the upcoming month."

Jemin Gjana, Democratic Party deputy, says "VAT is a progressive measure, but the approved augmentation is high and will become an obstacle to Albanian economy."

But according to Gramoz Pashko, an economist, the implementation of VAT growth is indispensable and the only way to come out of the crisis and make Albanians realise that for the state to built the market economy, it should possess money to carry out its policies towards market economy. According to Pashko, the businessmen have to become conscious to pay off the VAT, because the Government doesn't have the means to be tough on fighting the fiscal evasion. Its means are limited.

As the October 1st is approaching, when the VAT will be implemented speculative measures are noticed in the market.

Goods with high demands are limited or sold with high prices, though there are plenty of them stored, since the time customs didn't function, so traders haven't pay a dime as tax.

So goods widely demanded like tobacco and beverages are bought in great quantities.

But in Tirana tax department, specialists say that these speculative measures won't last long, the competition will have the last saying on the prices.

[19] BULLETS AT GRAMSH POLICE COMMISSARIAT, SPECIAL FORCES DETAIN THE CULPRITS

When police forces asked them to surrender they responded with bullets fired at the windows of the commissariat building, and in the office of its chief, Luan Mema.

The special forces of Elbasan city, in cooperation with the police of Gramsh, caught 3 of the four culprits in a flat without any resistance. They also found there 2 machine guns, 2 offensive grenades and 4 antitank grenades. ake/jz/xh/Z/

[20] SMUGGLERS OF TIMBER CAUGHT

Since March unrest in Albania, the forests in the district of Korce have been considerably damaged. About 1. 126 pine and fir trees have been cut so far only in the park of Bosdovec (one of the most important of the district.) ake/jz/xh/Z/

[21] VEFA, $ 300 mln in debts

VEFA Holding, owns its creditors $300 million, told a press conference, company's president Vehbi Alimuca, Monday.

VEFA is one of biggest loan-taking companies in Albania. According to some unpublished official investigations, on February this year, VEFA owned 86 thousand Albanians some $422 million. This company for years has borrowed money, promising an interest as high as eight percent monthly. Today for the first time, Alimuca accepted publicly that his company is in debt to creditors million of USD. A few days ago he told a daily newspaper in Tirana that VEFA Holding property is worth $ 4 billion, while the debt is only $40 million. (more)

Albanian Telegraphic Agency Directory - Previous Article - Next Article