On Saturday, at the headquarters of the Albanian Republican Party, the Party chairman, Mr. Sabri Godo, received the chairman of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Mr. Ibrahim Rugova. During the long and fraternal conversation, issues concerning the situation in Albania and, in particular, the situation created in Yugoslavia, with repercussions throughout the Balkan peninsula, were discussed. The question of recognition of Kosovo as a Republic and of the right to self-determination of Albanians in their lands in Macedonia, Montenegro and southeastern Serbia was discussed at length and in all its aspects, in a spirit of complete understanding. Mr. Sabri Godo informed Mr. Ibrahim Rugova about the activities being carried out by the Albanian Republican Party in its unconditional support for the cause of our Kosovar Albanian brothers. These activities were highly praised by Mr. Rugova. Both sides believe that, at this time of rapidly unfolding events and great dangers for the Albanian nation and peace in the Balkans, democratic political parties must maintain close ties and act together for the great national cause. * * * On Sunday, the chairman of the Albanian Republican Party, Mr. Sabri Godo, met with the chairman of the Party for Democratic Prosperity, Mr. Nevzat Halili, and held a warm and fraternal conversation with him. At the meeting, the current situation was discussed, and it was agreed that in the future it would be essential to move toward joint action and positions on the Albanian cause. Mr. Sabri Godo assured him that the Republican Party would strongly support the national cause and the interests of the Albanian people with all its means. * * * Mr. Sabri Godo received Mr. K. Ross Entëni, director of the Office of Resource Development, and Miss Kristin Rutenha[t?], an employee of the U.S. Department of State, members of the government delegation sent by Mr. Xhejms Bejker, Secretary of State, to learn about the situation and Albania’s urgent needs in both villages and cities, and also to hold discussions with political parties. Mr. Sabri Godo presented them with the PRSH program and an overview of Albania’s situation and needs. The conversation took place in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Also present were members of the Steering Committee, Çerçiz Mingomata, head of the section for relations with the outside world, and Petro Dhimitri, editor-in-chief of the newspaper «Republika».

A meeting with Mr. Ekrem Bardhi, an Albanian community figure in America, was held at the Party’s headquarters, the Republican Party headquarters. A meeting with Mr. Ekrem Bardhi, an Albanian community figure in America, was held at the Republican Party headquarters. His wife, Mrs. Lumturie Bardhi, was also with him. The chairman of the PRSH, ... was received.

The twentieth century is drawing to a close. The world is performing wonders, while the problem of bread still hangs over the Albanian farmer’s head like a hammer that dazes his mind and crushes his heart. There are nights when there is not a morsel of bread on farmers’ tables. Imagine yourselves on these July days, when the heat makes your head throb, transporting sheaves of wheat from one hillside to another across hills and mountains; imagine yourselves hoeing and irrigating all day with your feet in the water, while hunger gnaws at your stomach. You return at noon or in the evening, but at home sometimes you find bread and sometimes you do not. You sigh and curse. Somehow you manage on your own, but when your child fixes their eyes on you and tugs at your hand—«Daddy, I want bread»—you are overcome with horror. What can you do for the child, what can you say to someone who has not yet understood this world? You can no longer even go to the shop to get 1 kg of pasta or rice to get through a meal, however poorly, just to quiet your hunger. What can you do with 2 kg of rationed rice and pasta a month? A disgrace. Famine has struck many villages in Dibra for more than a week at this end of the century. The district authorities, it seems, are sitting with their arms folded. Are you not even able to provide bread for the exhausted farmer? How can you just stand by, officials?! A week without bread! Even in wartime people have not gone longer without bread. Why are you not addressing these great hardships? Why did the executive committee ask the cooperative economists for the monthly grain accounts—and even ask to borrow them? Was it to take action, or merely to record the situation? The specter of bread shortages is spreading its wings over other districts of the country as well: Dragostunjë in Librazhd, villages in Skrapar. There in Skrapar, people walk as much as 40 km a day to buy bread in Çorovodë, where they may not find any. But even where there is bread in the shop, many farmers do not have the money to buy it. To get by in this plight, they are ruining themselves further: they are selling their livestock, even in other districts. The same picture is found in the other districts, with the exception of ...? [unclear text] In Elbasan, Sali Mullah and other villagers we met the day before yesterday told us they had no bread. They get bread sometimes in Tirana and sometimes in Elbasan. People from other villages walk for several hours to Kërrabë. “How can this be, why is it like this?!” we ask them. “They sent us flour to bake here. But it is bitter and moldy. Believe me, even the cow won’t eat it. This has been going on for two months.” One of the cooperative members tells us to try a piece of bread made with that flour. The bread, hard as a brick, has a suffocating smell. The same situation exists in other villages in Elbasan, such as Balëz, Gregan, Çep, Gradishtë, Trojas, etc. Why were the farmers given flour instead of bread?

— The Hoxha family did not undergo medical examinations before going abroad for treatment, but R. Alia and A. Çarçani took up their case and issued the orders — — A study of healthcare expenditures for 1980–1985 has disappeared without a trace. The Hoxha family’s bills have also been removed on orders With the advent of democracy, much was written and proclaimed about not being ungrateful and denying the good things of the past in certain fields. One of those fields that was loudly trumpeted, especially during the election campaign, was healthcare: “free medical treatment,” “the health of the people at the center of the Party’s care,” “our people, our most precious capital,” and so on and so forth. I was ready to take my hat off in the face of these claims, but as soon as I put my hands to my head, certain facts came to mind: the lack of ambulances for emergencies, for which the Political Bureau had ordered that vehicles belonging to enterprises be put on emergency duty one day a month. In other words, there was a shortage of medical transport. There were widespread shortages in hospitals; pharmacy shelves were bare of medicines. Shortages. Shortages everywhere. As I write about the shortages, I am reminded of a proverb: “What you lack, you can be sure someone else has in abundance.” Simple arithmetic. So the excesses ought to have been the people’s “servants.” But how much? The account books would tell you, but some dark forces do not look kindly on those books either. They remove them from the archives and archive them... in the fire. According to the account books that have been found, the Party’s top leadership spent 500 thousand dollars on their treatment during 1981–1985. May God grant you long life, and let each day be a thousand. But the poor ordinary person, merely out of curiosity, feels the need to ask: Tell me, how did they spend it, what illnesses did they suffer from? The first question is rather complicated and needs several good lines of explanation, while the second has a short answer. Mainly neuropsychiatric illnesses (God preserve our sanity!), but thank goodness my body is in good shape. But... Were all these expenditures based on legal acts? I came across several documents, orders and decisions of the Political Bureau and the government. There were no shortage of rules and regulations. First came a Political Bureau decision (“The Party in command”) sometime around 1972. Another followed in 1976, and then Decision No. 25, issued in 1981, whose clause 8 says: “The Ministry of Health, in consultation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, approves the dispatch abroad of persons who need treatment...” On this basis, on 1.12.1982, the Ministry of Health drafted a regulation setting out the criteria... In 1983 there was also Council of Ministers Decision No. 60, which was amended by Council of Ministers Decision No. 254 of 1986; it legalized the free distribution of medicines unknown even to doctors (purchased abroad with state funds) to members of the Political Bureau, members and candidates of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour, members of the government, members of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, LUTFI DERVISHI FATMIR MEMA (Continued on page 3)

At the Republican Party headquarters, a meeting was held with Mr. Ekrem Bardhi, an Albanian figure in America. His wife, Mrs. Lumturi Bardhi, was with him. He was received by the chairman of the PRSH, Mr. Sabri Godo, the deputy chairman, Mr. Zef Bushati, and Messrs. Qerçiz Mingumata, head of the foreign affairs section, and Nafiz Bezhani, head of the Party’s legal office. During the warm and fraternal conversation, they discussed the serious economic situation our country is going through and the unusual situation that has developed in our villages. The need for the urgently required food aid that Europe should send was emphasized, as was the need for raw materials to set the paralyzed industry in motion. They also discussed the support the Republican Party gives to the national stability government. Joint actions and positions by all political parties on the national question were also discussed. At the end, Mr. Bardhi was asked to encourage Albanians in America to invest in Albania. Mr. Ekrem said he was fully convinced that privatization and foreign investment are fundamental conditions for Albania’s development. Another positive factor, according to him, was the opening of an American bank in Albania. «Republika» correspondent

— THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS — MINISTRY OF PUBLIC ORDER For more than a month, a great alarm and extraordinary concern have prevailed at Tirana’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital. This concerns not only the safety and lives of our employees, but also the risk to the lives of mothers and newborn babies. It all began over a month ago, when, in the middle of the night, a group of drug addicts stormed the New Maternity Hospital with weapons in their hands, forcibly demanding pethidine (a sedative drug for patients). The scene was horrifying. The medical staff were backed against the wall, sick women were hiding under the beds, and the armed “heroes” were smashing safes and drawers. Since that night, these scenes have often been repeated and have also moved to the Maternity Hospital near the Railway Station, reaching their peak at midnight on July 10, when a revolver was fired. Can you refuse to comply with threats made at gunpoint? This is how the pethidine is being used up every night. Midwives and nurses refuse to work the night shift. Newborn babies are left without proper care. (Continued on page 4)

— A GREAT NATIONAL CAMPAIGN OF THE ALBANIAN REPUBLICAN PARTY — The branches of the Republican Party have begun a national campaign in all districts of our country for the Albanian state, all international organizations and the countries of the world to recognize Kosovo as a Republic. The Albanian Republican Party appeals: MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, SIGN THE PETITION BY WHICH YOU UNANIMOUSLY SUPPORT THE REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO PROCLAIMED BY THE KAÇANIK ASSEMBLY ON SEPTEMBER 7, 1990, AND RECOGNITION OF THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION OF ALBANIANS WHO LIVE IN THEIR LANDS IN MACEDONIA, MONTENEGRO AND SOUTHEASTERN SERBIA. GO TO ANY REPUBLICAN PARTY OFFICE, WHERE YOU WILL FIND THE PETITION POSTED, AS WELL AS THE REGISTER IN WHICH YOU CAN ADD YOUR SIGNATURE. YOUR SIGNATURES FOR THE REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO ARE THE FIRST AND MOST URGENT HELP FOR OUR BROTHERS WHO LIVE UNDER THE GRAVE THREAT OF SERBIAN GENOCIDE. ALBANIAN REPUBLICAN PARTY

— INTERVIEW WITH J. JEREM WILLIAMS, VICE PRESIDENT OF SPECIAL OPERATIONS AT “OCCIDENTAL INTERNATIONAL EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION COMPANY,” GIVEN TO OUR JOURNALIST, GURI DHIMO. — Mr. Williams, is this your first time visiting Albania? — I first came in October of last year, immediately after meeting your President, Mr. Ramiz Alia, in New York. As you know, our chairman, Mr. Hammer, promised cooperation. We said we would come here, of course, after they explained the purpose and duties of our company. We are a company specializing in the exploration, drilling, and processing of oil and gas. In this field, we are one of the largest companies in the United States of America. — How did the talks go when you came here? — We signed the contract for the offshore exploration area, in Block No. 3, which stretches south of Durrës and as far as the district of Fier. — What do you think of the area made available to you? — It is understood that we do not know much about that area, because no geophysical or seismic studies have been carried out there. However, we looked at and obtained data on studies conducted in the areas inland in your country. Therefore, our outlook is optimistic, and we say that we will succeed in oil exploration. — What is your optimism based on, given that the studies have not been completed? — So far, we have been guided by geological concepts. We can compare Albania with other corresponding areas of the world that have offshore oil and gas. We are satisfied with this analytical comparison. Now we are eager to begin the actual work. Thus, the second phase of our work will begin, consisting of seismic surveys followed by drilling. — Will your company carry out the seismic surveys? — No. A geophysical company will come for this purpose to survey the coast. It will enable us to examine the subsurface profiles in the area where we will conduct geological exploration; geophysicists will study them and make their interpretations. Then we will prepare maps of the subsurface configuration down to a depth of 6 km. When the interpretation of the profiles is complete, we will know the area and the place where we will search for oil or gas. Then we will decide where to drill the first well. We may drill either with a rig or from a drilling ship. — How has your cooperation with Albanian specialists gone? — So far, this cooperation has gone well. We are exchanging views and literature on the technology, which is new to you. — And relations with our state? — I believe we will sign the contract tomorrow. — Are you talking about a little oil or gas, or about large quantities? — We are thinking in terms of large quantities, but we are still at the first step. I believe that in the coming months we will begin drilling. Of course, beginning in summer is coincidental, because our equipment is such that it allows you to work all year round, even in a sea like the North Sea, let alone the Adriatic, which is calmer. So this stage of the process will come in summer. — Where have you conducted exploration and had success? — I took part in initial exploration in Alaska; then our colleagues continued, and we achieved success. I was also in Libya, where we had great success. (Continued on page 2)