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Albanian Times, April 6, 1996
From: Albanian Times <AlbaTimes@aol.com>
CONTENTS
[1] Albanian Democrats Elect Party Chairman
[2] Berisha Announces Division of Election Zones
[3] French CEO-s in Tirana
[4] Albania is "Mad Cow" Safe, Officials Say
[5] Serreqi, Granic Discuss Kosova, Economic Ties
[6] Serb to Serve Jail Term for Murder of Albanian
[1] Albanian Democrats Elect Party Chairman
TIRANA, April 5, Albanian Democratic Party has elected its secretary general
Tritan Shehu as the Party's new chairman. Shehu, a medical doctor, who has
served as health minister in the Meksi government, was elected by a national
convention of the Party that opened Thursday in Tirana. The newly elected
chairman was competing against another candidate, party's political
secretary, Ferdinand Xhaferri. The Democratic Party had remained without a
chairman since the ousting of its former head Eduard Selami more than a year
ago. The convention ended Friday pledging victory in forthcoming elections.
It promised strong economic growth, high speed privatisation and NATO
membership by the year 2000. The opposition socialists held their own
convention earlier this month calling on the opposition forces to achieve
more than 50 percent of the vote in the elections. (Albanian Times)
[2] Berisha Announces Division of Election Zones
TIRANA, April 5 - President Sali Berisha has officially announced the
administrative division of electoral zones ahead of the general elections.
The country will have 115 constituencies from 100 in the last ballot. Each
constituency will be made of about 20,000 voters. In the new division, a
series of factors were considered, including the geographic and traditional
homogenity of different areas, to guarantee free and fair elections, an
official announcement said. President Berisha will open consultations with
the political parties to decide on the date of the elections, which are
widely expected to be held in early summer. (Albanian Times)
[3] French CEO-s in Tirana
TIRANA, April 5 - A high level French delegation has pledged increased
economic cooperation with Albania, Radio Tirana said. In a meeting with
President Berisha, Pierre Lelouche, special envoy of the French President,
said Mr. Jacques Chirac is committed in giving Albania priority support to
implement French projects in that country, an announcement of the Presidency
in Tirana said. The delegation is made of high powered company executives
with main interests in construction and tourist business. The projects
dicussed comprised a tourist village in Himara, water supply systems for
Tirana and Durres and the construction of an airport in Saranda. (Albanian
Times)
[4] Albania is "Mad Cow" Safe, Officials Say
TIRANA, April 6 - Albanian specialists have ruled out any possibility for
infected beef from Britain and other E-U countries to be imported to
Albania. The country has established four major veterinary checks for
imported meats before they enter Albania, experts at the Ministry of
Agriculture and Food in Tirana said. They also rule out the possibility that
officials accept infected meat imports in exchange for bribes. Last month,
Albania moved to ban British beef because of fears about ``mad cow'' disease
by closing its borders to beef imports from the entire continent. Ministry
officials also said the ban of British beef from other countries may benefit
the Albanian meat dealers by increasing their chances to sell abroad.
(Albanian Times)
[5] Serreqi, Granic Discuss Kosova, Economic Ties
ZAGREB, April 3 - In talks with his Croatian counterpart on Wednesday in
Zagreb, Albanian foreign minister Alfred Serreqi called for pressuring
Serbian President into talks on Kosova. "We think the moment is right for
the Serb government and President Sllobodan Milosevic to be pressured into
talks to find a solution acceptable to both sides," Serreqi said. He
stressed that the issue of Kosovo could not be looked at only as a problem
of human rights. "Noone knows what kind of autonomy would be acceptable, but
this undefined autonomy is absolutely unacceptable," Serreqi said. The issue
of Kosovo's status should be resolved within the framework of respect of
territorial integrity of all states in the region and respect of human
rights and rights of all minorities," Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic
said. Granic also said Croatia does not want to take part in any Balkan
associations, nor will it participate in the work of Balkan conferences. It
wants exclusively direct relations with the European Union, he stressed.
Both ministers described the political relations between the two countries
as good. Efforts will be put into promoting economic relations, especially
through a joint commission soon to convene. (Albanian Times, Hina, Radio
Tirana)
[6] Serb to Serve Jail Term for Murder of Albanian
PRISHTINA, April 3 - A district court in Prishtina, on Wednesday sentenced
Serbian policeman Boban Krstic to four years and six months in prison for
killing six-year-old Albanian boy Fidan Brestovci and seriously wounding his
mother, Makfira, on July 27, 1994. This was the first time that a Serbian
police officer had been sentenced to a prison term for crimes over the
majority ethnic Albanian population of Kosova. The dead boy's parents and
their lawyers anounced they would file a complaint because they thought the
sentence too lenient. The Pristina-based "Bujku" said on Wendesday that
after the murder, officer Krstic had been promoted to the post of a deputy
commander of the police station in Kacanik. (Albanian Times, Hina)
The material was reprinted with permission of AlbAmerica Trade & Consulting
International. For more information on ATCI and the Albanian Times, please
write to AlbaTimes@aol.com
Copyright (c) ATCI, 1996
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