— Let us make all Albanians owners. — There is no force more destructive than the truth that is left unsaid. Our society over these 46 years solved, but also created and accumulated, at the same time, a multitude of social and economic problems, as a consequence of taboos and political expediencies, in the name of ideals that time did not justify. “The Party above all” gagged an entire people and greatly impoverished national thought. “Politics first” left deep traces on the economy. As a result of its political expediencies, even today we have economic ruins from the period of good relations with Yugoslavia, the USSR and China. Xenophobia toward Europe and especially toward our neighbors deprived us of a new perception of moving with the times and made us measure ourselves only against our own shadow and, moreover, refer for a long time to the year 1938. The complete isolation of domestic and foreign opinion placed Albanian intellectual thought in an entirely inferior position to European thought. Coercive measures and violence against nonconformist intellectuals meant that the poorly formed element prevailed and defeated the capable one. Nepotism and the instrumentalization of the class struggle, turning it from a historical phenomenon into a tool serving personal interests, made it possible to form broad castes around the upper bureaucracy and created favorable ground for unlawful privileges and gains. The distribution of moral and material values according to these criteria, and class genocide, gave rise to immeasurable opposing forces that imposed on the bureaucracy a suicidal way out—the construction of an excessively centralized economy, tending toward senseless autarky, which deprived the people, in the middle of Europe, even of the most basic benefits of humanity’s achievements, enjoyed today even by the world’s most backward peoples. In the last decade, it moved only backward, until today it has reached a dead end, and everyone can clearly see that it is on the verge of total bankruptcy, putting everything at risk in both the material and moral spheres. And finally, to prevent the birth of capitalism and keep Albania faithful to socialism, the population in the countryside was completely proletarianized through collectivization into small livestock groups (since this had long been completed in the cities), all the while claiming that the people had been consulted. Individual freedom of initiative was stifled to the point of asphyxiation. Albania was gradually paralyzed by indifference, the only protest that expressed dissatisfaction and could save people from punishment under the laws of the state and party bureaucracy, but which had only a twofold effect. It turned into a monster, a sphinx of socialism which, in comparison with economic structures, destroyed the mental and spiritual world and, above all, people’s love of work. Today this situation has taken on the shape of national suicide, causing severe and deep wounds with external and internal hemorrhaging, such as uncontrolled emigration, unemployment, and dissatisfaction with everything that has been done and everything that might be done in the future. This situation calls on us to preserve our blood; we need it now more than ever, so as not to descend into national anemia, although for 50 years we have been taught that nothing can be won without blood. In this situation there is only one way, only one therapy: First, let us not hesitate, but immediately fill Albania with honest owners. (Continued on page 3) which deprived the people

“A case worthy of Sherlock Holmes”—that is what I might have titled this painful report, to give the reader the necessary picture of a miserable truth. And it began on Friday evening. An extraordinarily large crowd of people was heading up from Hotel “Iliria.” Who could they be?! We were immediately told. “They’re ferry passengers,” someone said. “Those who want to go to Italy with a passport.” We had heard this enormous rumor, but had taken it more as a joke. Who on earth started it? What mind? (Could it have been the same minds behind 27 July or the news about the opening of the border?!). Even Sherlock Holmes, the king of detectives, would have had difficulty finding out exactly, in order to identify the individual spreading the dreadful rumor... In any case, it is the duty of the competent authorities to find those responsible and immediately report them to the judicial authorities and the people. In such an electrified state of mind, we tried to convince the people who had arrived that evening that the news was nothing but an outright lie. But they would not listen. And the next day? You know. Waterloo, Austerlitz or Trafalgar and Beirut?! No one was allowed into the port outside the rules. And when that happened, when the ferry left three hours before its usual time, Waterloo—or Beirut, call it what you will—began. Broken windows, clashes, destruction... When we recall today those scenes, shown in detail on television and especially in the newspaper “Rilindja Demokratike,” and so as not to repeat them, the most natural and logical question comes to mind: “COULD THE RIOT HAVE BEEN AVOIDED?” Yes, it should have been, and it could have been. From the 20⁰⁰ Friday news, the only thing that should have remained in people’s minds was the announcement by the spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Isuf Baça, that nothing had changed in the procedures for leaving the country at the foreign embassies. “Oh God! Are we still going on with these sophistries?! I’m telling you there’s a wolf, and you ask me for its tracks!” In the final news bulletin, RTSH corrected something, modifying the announcement and speaking more plainly. But it was late, far too late. Everything, at least psychologically, was over. Most of those who had made up their minds to (Continued on page 4)

Kings die, but peoples go on living. Dictators die, but peoples survive. A king, Louis XVI of France, had said after ruling as a tyrant, “apres moi le déluge.” But the French people survived, and a “deluge” swept away all the tyrants. When we get information through radio, television and the press about the mass escape of East Germans through foreign embassies or across the border, even losing their lives, until at last they brought down the symbolic wall of shame that divided the two Germanies, this did not surprise us, because after half a century of oppression and pressure they burst forth, heedless even of their lives, seeking refuge and rights, examples and wealth in West Germany and everywhere else. This phenomenon seems foreign to us. But when, from July 1990 until now, an unstoppable and tragic exodus began in our self-isolated Albania—a self-isolation called “savage capitalist-revisionist reform”—then I believe the reason for this phenomenon, for this very phenomenon of escape, its very form, is ... In the city of L., an old woman from my village died. According to custom, she was taken to the village to be buried. There was not a single young person to dig the grave. They had all taken the road of emigration. The tragedy of my country with this dramatic exodus is the tragedy of all Eastern Europe. I had the chance to see with my own eyes, in a European capital where I went for treatment, scenes of thousands upon thousands of people in sorrow. Young men and women, Russians, Poles, Romanians, sat in rows on the sidewalks with signs on their chests: “I am Russian, help me!”, “I am Romanian, help me!”, “I am Polish and my children have no bread!...” We have no exact statistics, but the fact is that Greece alone has almost 100000 Russian refugees, 50000 Poles and thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians. This distress of the young people must be analyzed with great humanity. Youth is the future of life; youth is the force that moves life forward; the Homeland needs the young; youth is pure blood. The young fought for liberation, the young rebuilt the country, and today the fate of the Homeland must be entrusted to the young. I hope their dreams will not continue to be killed, dreams which, as I see it, they will realize at any cost. PETRO MARKO

Illustration: Fatos Maliqi Justly, and justly alone. What is his, let it remain his, and what belongs to others, let it belong to others! And on this point he always reminds us: “Above all, beware of history’s curse, and do not forget it when you pass your judgment.” But how did pseudo-history speak, and how should history speak about him? It is well known that pseudo-history worships politicization, political expediency and the din of half-truths. On its scales it always weighs a limping devil, with one squinting eye and a whip in his hand. Therefore, on these scales the many-sided figure of Hasan Prishtina could hardly have been weighed otherwise. That is why exploiting and besmirching him was necessary for the re-murder of this great hero. And re-murder is even darker than murder itself. When a poet is killed, for example, his life is cut short and ended, but not his work: he lives on through his books. But when the books are killed too, what do you call that re-murder? And Hasan Prishtina was re-murdered for years by this pseudo-history. Until 1962 he had been declared a traitor. He was named as such in all history textbooks. He was even portrayed that way in a play by Xhenet Broja. In later years something seemed to change, something seemed to be done: his remains were also brought from Thessaloniki, and at last a piece of land was found in Kukës for them to rest. Speeches declared that we had repaid a debt to history. It was said in a half-voice, but it was said. It was said like a badly staged farce. The black shadows of the pseudo-historians still scratched away. Nevertheless, in the people’s hearts there unfolded joy even for what little had been done. In the people’s heart he had never been buried; he had never been killed. He might have been sentenced to death six times, but death could not claim this son of his people. He might finally have been shot by three rifles belonging to the kings of the Balkans, but death could not claim him. He might have been sold out and cursed by pseudo-history, but in the people’s heart he held the place he deserved. “Without this Hasan Prishtina, I would not have given up my land,” the highlanders of the Gjakova Highlands would continue to say by the blazing winter fire. For he had signed his declaration “until death” in these words: “Neither the gold of the world’s treasury nor the hatred of all my enemies can make me yield in my patriotic convictions.” Therefore, in the people’s heart and in the testimony of history—which has as its sacred deity only its own true image—he unfolds before us as a giant of rare stature, as the leading protagonist of the most dramatic acts in our history. The illumination of his role is also the very illumination of our struggle for legitimate human rights through national unity, the struggle for independence, progress, dignity and democracy. (Continued on page 4)

Photo: Armand Babani

On 9 February 1991, at the initiative of the Democratic Party, talks were held between representatives of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, with the following agenda: 1. Exchange of views on the electoral law 2. Exchange of views on the depoliticization of the state apparatus Representing the DP at the meeting were Eduard Selami, Preç Zogaj, Gene Ruli. Representing the RP were Vingjush Gambeta, Hysen Çobani, Agim Zeka. The talks were conducted in a spirit of dialogue and sincere understanding on the issues discussed. At the end, the parties agreed that: — Given the conditions and tradition of pluralism and opposition, which are very new in Albania, it is more appropriate to apply the proportional electoral system in the 31 March elections for deputies to the People’s Assembly. — To ensure truly free and pluralist elections, it is essential that, by 15 March 1991, the Army, the Internal Affairs organs, the Justice organs, and the apparatuses of the Executive Committees of the People’s Councils in the districts be depoliticized. Recognizing the importance and usefulness of the meeting, both parties decided to keep the democratic dialogue open on every issue going forward. Tirana, 9.2.1991