If one asks how many people have joined the Republican Party, it is difficult to give an exact answer. Four days ago, the Berat branch counted 80 members. Two days ago, there were 170. We do not know how many there are today. The same thing is happening in Fier, Durrës, Shkodër... In the last 24 hours, branches and sections have been established in Himarë, Shijak, the Mat Coast, and Gurrëbardhë of Burrel. Initiating groups of intellectuals, oil workers, and villagers are taking the initiative, on the basis of the program and the statute, to establish sections and branches in various regions of the country. And they are seeking contact with the center; they want instructions. As I write these lines, a notice arrived at the printing office reporting that initiating groups have been established in Vlorë, Tepelenë, and Sarandë; Pogradec will hold its district conference on Monday. Every morning now, numerous letters arrive from individuals asking to join the Republican Party. The hesitation is coming to an end—the people are casting their vote for our party. On the road to democracy, the people have begun to form the opinion that this party is needed by the country, that this party makes proposals which accord with the people’s thinking and with the needs of the time. That is why this surge is taking place, and it will grow. This is not our euphoria. We feel it every day and every hour. We will strive to remain, to the very end, an honest and just party that places above all else the interests of the nation, unity, and democracy. The Republican Party is growing, and its echo is being heard abroad as well.

During the preparations for the election campaign for the People’s Assembly and the Tirana Assembly, the Republican Party (PR) has worked to expand its organization at various production centers in the city and the countryside. Its sections have already been established at the Industrial Construction Enterprise, the Electromedical Plant, the University of Tirana, the Higher Agricultural Institute, the Autotractor Combine, the Tirana Circus, etc. Its activities have also extended to several rural areas, such as Krrabë, the «Gjergj Dimitrov» State Farm, the Zall Bastar and Zall Dajt areas, the Ndroq area, etc. The Tirana branch is working to quickly establish sections at the Valias mine, the Dinamo Plant, the shoe factory, and several scientific and cultural institutions in the capital. Correspondent of «Republika»

1. The eighty-two-year-old mother, a military vehicle, which was shot at from a partisan ambush. 1. The eighty-two-year-old mother The village’s micro-dictator, with a «Lin Biao»-style goatee, found a victim in Mother Male, an eighty-two-year-old woman. For, bloated and fattened by illegal means, why should he not also covet Mother Male’s 100-dollar cheque, which her son, an emigrant in the USA, had sent her? Mother Malja did not give him the cheque. She told him: «This is what they will bury me with». The micro-dictator said: «You’ll be buried like a dog, I’m telling you!» The report was sent off after being embroidered according to the micro-dictator’s craft: «The villager Llambro, son of the peasant woman Male, is anti-government, anti-party, and speaks against us from the United States. We have learned that he made the following statement: “I have deposited the money I possess in the bank to build a hospital in my village, but only after the dictatorial regime has been overthrown.”» Very soon, the order came from the city: the internment of Mother Male, aged eighty-two. Endure, mountain, let us endure. 2. The micro-dictator. A spring of black water: the deeds of the micro-dictator. The village’s aga, with all the traits—and worse. A thief, a sycophant, a liar, immoral. No scruples whatsoever. A «communist». Two words about his true biography, certainly disguised. (The village, which knows his true face, his bare biography, is astonished: Are all communists like him, then? God save us!) The eighty-two-year-old mother, a military vehicle, which was shot at from a partisan ambush. A partisan bullet struck her in the thigh. In the biography, the bullet was called German, and for this he even received a decoration. These things and others, later and continually, secured for him the post he held in the village, which he kept to the end. He left no method or means unused to preserve the patronage of those «above». He would slip and take from those below, then, by slipping, pay those above as well. If we reason fairly, accurately, and objectively, I say that the great harm he did to the village in every respect was nothing compared with the colossal damage he did to the image of honest communists. To the villagers, he was the Party of Labour. 3. Mother Male’s funeral Down the road descending from Llogoraja, an old, open truck of the kind used to transport cement carried an improvised coffin made of old planks. The truck stopped in the village’s little square. A wail was heard: they had brought Mother Male back dead from internment. Something astonishing happened. The news spread with extraordinary speed, from door to door and brigade to brigade. The whole village rose to its feet. The men left their work and, frowning, rolled cigarettes, gazing beyond the horizon. The black-scarved women streamed like a silent river toward the square. A muffled lament in verse. The women themselves lifted the coffin onto their shoulders, passing it from one to another, and carried it to the burial place. This was their answer to the one who, for forty years, had crushed their bodies and souls, mercilessly drained their blood and sweat, killed their sons’ dreams, humiliated them, tormented them, and exploited them as much as he could. The people are great, wise, broad-minded, and brave. The great people of a small village taught the dictatorship a lesson. Endure, mountain, let us endure. 4. The micro-dictator’s funeral It is known, beyond any doubt, that everyone will die one day. And so it happened: one day the micro-dictator died too. The news was spread using the means available to the authorities in the village. The result: life went on that day at its usual pace, as on any ordinary day. The boys on the rocks above the stream were singing. The men drank raki and talked. Work in the brigade continued without interruption. The blue sea, a silent witness, sang with its waves against the white shores. The micro-dictator was buried only by his family members. Ask yourself: How is it possible that the villagers, who never in such cases violate their strong traditions of solidarity and respect for the dead, did so this time, in complete unity of thought?! Endure, mountain, let us endure. PETRO MARKO …[?] with brigades. Other villages rose to their feet. The men left their work and rolled dried tobacco, gazing out toward the horizon. The women in black headscarves poured like a silent river toward the square. A recitation in verse, muffled. it from shoulder to shoulder, and the long line

Yesterday, Mother Teresa arrived in our country, together with four sisters, who will open the Institute of Charity in Tirana. At Rinas Airport, they were welcomed by Jorgo Melica, chairman of the Albanian Committee for Cultural and Friendly Relations with the Outside World; Katerina Tablleo, director of the «Mother and Child» Directorate at the Ministry of Health; and Slavica Martini, Secretary-General of the Albanian Red Cross Society. (ATSH)

At the invitation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, yesterday Guido de Marko, President of the 45th Session of the United Nations, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Malta, arrived in our country for an official and friendly visit. Foreign Minister Muhamet Kapllani, Minister of Education Kastriot Islami, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc., were at Rinas Airport to welcome him. Heads of the diplomatic missions accredited in Tirana were also present. (ATSH)

The Institute of Energy, as its very name indicates, should be engaged in studies and design. Nevertheless, other maintenance and propaganda departments, which carry out work for the General Directorate of Energy and the Ministry, have also been attached to this institute. On the one hand, these departments ease the staffing structures of these two ministries, on which we depend; and, as I will explain below, establishing as many departments as possible would make it easier to employ as many surplus workers as possible. It is clear that attracting as many staff members as possible with the position of department head would also have a «positive» effect in this regard. Although no problem had arisen in the design department for power lines and substations, once the Institute of Energy was established this department was split in two. L.H. «had the good fortune» to be appointed head of a department as well. In cases when the specialists who are employed … …at the Institute are unable to carry out a study or a project, capable staff can be seconded from another workplace. Here, this secondment system has been seriously abused, because ordinary workers have been brought here to make themselves comfortable, even from fields that have nothing at all to do with our work. People have been put to work and paid out of funds allocated for other work. Thus, it has been done (Continued on page 3) …if an Institute cannot carry out a study or a project, capable staff from another workplace may be assigned to it. Here, this practice of assigning staff here to sit comfortably, even people from fields wholly unsuited to from funds allocated for other work. In other words, things have been done (Continued on page 3)

In the center of the Mat Coast, with a view to discussing the program and draft statute of this party, the PRSH held a meeting with cooperative members, young people, and intellectuals in the hall of the former famous church of Shënkoll, in the Lezhë district. In the center of the Mat Coast, with a view to discussing the program and draft statute of this party, the PRSH held a meeting with cooperative members, young people, and intellectuals in the hall of the former famous church of Shënkoll, in the Lezhë district, on the occasion of the establishment of the party’s branch in this area. This branch, the first PR branch in the countryside, came into being on the initiative of a group of intellectuals and cooperative members, sons and daughters of the working people of this distinguished area of our country. Pal Pali, an agronomist and teacher and member of the initiating committee for the establishment of the PR branch in the Lezhë district, spoke to those present about the program and draft statute of the party. Cooperative members and young people also spoke at the meeting. Agim Zeka, a PRSH, conveyed greetings to the participants. He also answered various questions. At the end of the meeting, Fedor Kallaxhiu, a PRSH, announced Agim Zeka as the Republican Party’s candidate for deputy in the Mat Coast electoral district. Those present welcomed the announced candidacy. Correspondent of «Republika» Photo: Armand Babani

With the rapid development of democratic processes in our country, this problem is now being raised for a definitive solution, if we want to have a state governed by law, functioning fully and genuinely. I have not belonged to any party, and do not belong to one now, but I “earn my bread” in one of these justice bodies. Who, better than us, who work in them, can contribute to accelerating and resolving this problem of whether or not these bodies should be depoliticized? But the issue in these bodies remains unresolved. We go in and out of offices, exchange views and discuss the worries on our minds, always concerning other people, as if there were no need for us to democratize ourselves and the bodies where we work. In my opinion, this lethargic sleep has overcome us because we continue to feed on the monopolitical valium. New parties are calling for the depoliticization of the justice bodies and beyond, whereas if this demand came from the party in power, work would begin urgently and be completed within set deadlines. I took the initiative to write about this problem because I also feel it is necessary for spiritual liberation from that timidity and silence, for emerging from that inward-looking isolation and passive stance, far from the struggle for new paths into which our entire society has embarked. I intervened not to justify myself, but because these bodies are visibly distancing themselves from taking part in this nationwide development, something we could hardly have imagined before. Others are speaking—indeed, speaking a great deal—for us, while we, “the people who do the work,” remain silent. Why is this happening? Many subjective factors could be cited to justify this state of affairs, but the essential factor is the monopoly. In the justice bodies, the politics and ideology of a single party have, for nearly half a century, become the “master key” for leading and resolving every problem, and whoever struck at it hit its “Achilles’ heel.” One-party politicization has penetrated so deeply into the content, form and practice of these bodies that any delay in depoliticizing them would hinder the progress of democratic processes and, why not, even damage them. After many opinions and repeated requests, conveyed through various means and forms of public information, the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, at its meeting of 8 February 1991, deferred the depoliticization of these bodies and related matters to the discussion phase following the 31 March elections for deputies to the People’s Assembly. Should we perhaps also wait for the conclusions of the 10th Congress of the PPSH or for the founding national conferences of the other parties? Under that decision, the government is to deal with this problem and has been assigned the task of preparing a study based on broad discussions. I think, however, that this is not the government’s responsibility, but solely that of the Party of Labour. Only it has its organizational tentacles in these state bodies, and no other party does; therefore, the decision belongs to it. It is striking that although this problem began as an idea, became a demand of the times, and was insistently called for to be resolved without bureaucratic delays, it has not been addressed with arguments “for” or “against.” I will try to fill this gap and shortcoming without taking it upon myself, as the saying goes, to “dot the i’s.” First, the subordination of the justice bodies is not merely an organizational link within the state; above all, as it has been in the past, it remains a political dependency. Article 3 of the Constitution in force, as well as Chapter V thereof, make this clear. Let us explain further, starting with ourselves and then with our sister bodies. The Prosecutor’s Office … whose duty is to oversee the precise implementation of the laws; the court … which administers justice … in the name of the people; and the investigative service … the body that conducts investigations into criminal offenses—all take their cue from the People’s Assembly, or, more precisely, from its Presidium. Unlike