On 24 July, ZP reprinted in full the article “The Truth About the Republican Party,” published by Bashkimi the previous day. In practice, these outlets have only followed the speeches of Enver Hoxha and Ramiz Alia. Bashkimi and Zëri i Popullit waited six months before raising an issue of this kind. If anyone says that the article has only now fallen into their hands, and that they have only now made this discovery, we say that its authors have had it since January and could have found it very easily by calling one of those offices where articles are prepared, or even lower down, in the cells where slanders and blackmail of every kind are concocted as an integral part of the Labour Party’s campaign to break the “enemy.” It seems that the strategists of the Socialist Party are beginning their election campaign. One can imagine what the campaign will be like once it gets fully under way. It began by “striking” at the Republican Party, while the others will have to wait their turn, according to the promise made by ZP. This “strike” against the Republican Party, calculated to shake its foundations, is a gesture bordering on the sinister. The sensational headline “The Truth About the Republican Party,” in the summer politics of an honest journalist, should have referred to the life and activities of this Party, not to some banal incident involving its early members. We avoided banalities and initially thought we would not respond at all to the article in Bashkimi. But now, with its republication in ZP—a very rare occurrence in our journalism—the scheme has become clear. Zëri i Popullit hurried to amplify Bashkimi, so that as much noise as possible would be made and any possible rebuttal neutralized. It is true that Gafur Muço and several others submitted a petition to the Ministry of Justice, requesting permission to establish the Republican Party. The Ministry, strangely enough, immediately gave its approval. This was the time when the Labour Party and its state apparatus were determined to create an image of pluralism in Albania. It was the time when open revolts in Kuçovë, Kavajë and Shkodër had gravely shaken Enverist rule, while the student movement and the creation of the Democratic Party were dealing that rule decisive blows. The new parties were to serve as “shock absorbers,” and this had to be done as quickly as possible. To play this role, the new parties had to be led, directly or indirectly, by agents of the Sigurimi. To gain credibility with the public, these parties also had to attract some public figures into their ranks. This was the clear strategy, though badly disguised by the former Labour Party, headed by Ramiz Alia, and his faithful pupil, Sofokli Lazri. Personally, to tell the whole truth, when Gafur Muço approached me, I thought it was an opportunity for me, too, to contribute to a political party which, according to Gafur’s words, was intended to be a profoundly opposition party. I spoke with Petro Marko and Sabri Godo, and we agreed that this Republican Party, around which people who still remained within themselves a ridiculous fire [??] would gather, would be an additional force, in alliance with the Democratic Party, to defeat the Labour Party. From the very first days, Gafur Muço’s desire to take the leading role in the future Republican Party became apparent. Later, differences arose that led us to part ways. They took part in none of the meetings of the Initiating Commission established afterward, nor in any other gathering or activity. But this is not about Gafur Muço and Shpëtim Spahiu. What are Bashkimi and Zëri i Popullit, these organs of the Labour Party, seeking now, after six months? Any means will do when one feels an urgent need to invent some slander and launch a campaign. History drives one to absurdities. After their first attempts failed, Sofokli Lazri and his comrades may have thought up a new scenario. Gentlemen of the newspaper Bashkimi! Recently, we have come to respect you because of the many impartial articles you publish. You replied to us that you were compelled to publish the article in question because of the enormous pressure being put on you. By whom? As friends, we suggest that you do not bow to pressure, because it can lead you far. Gentlemen of Zëri i Popullit! If republication is not enough for you, you can also print the article as a leaflet for wider distribution. But that will only allow you to hide your own heads. You inflate small and insignificant matters, kindling a ridiculous fire within yourselves. By lying and slandering for 46 years in a row about everything and against everyone, you have forfeited the right to be believed. Now you are polishing your tools. You inaugurated the column “Chaos in the Political Stadium.” A rather hasty title. But since you have opened the column, you will try to keep it going, too. Good luck to you. The election campaign has begun. Gentlemen leading the Socialist Party! Returning to what you wanted to do at the beginning of pluralism, you resemble a person returning to the scene of the crime. You have all the techniques at your disposal, not only to twist the truth as needed, but also to cover up the traces of killings carried out in broad daylight, as in Kavajë, Tirana, Shkodër and along the entire border. You present yourselves as “renewed.” There has been no renewal in you, nor will there be. The task of democracy remains the same: to bring your power down completely, and the Republican Party will do its duty in this. Now you have ordered your scribblers to launch a campaign against the genuine opposition parties and to divide the opposition. You have brought the country to real physical hunger, and you have troubles within your own ranks as well. You want to divert the people’s attention from yourselves by putting stories on the market. Two hands for one head. We understand this very well. We think the other opposition parties understand it just as well. The Republican Party is a determined opponent of the Labour Party (Socialist Party). VANGJUSH GAMBETA … Albanian people in Albania … intervened … issues … these … “Then are you the President of Albania or a puppet?” It is true, or may be true, that this or that president of any country may not be implicated in such events; but no people would forgive him if he contented himself with that and came away blameless, when it is his duty to act against those responsible for these extraordinary crimes. Then you can say as often as you like, “I have nothing to do with this…”—but people are alive. At the meeting you held at the Ministry of Internal Affairs after the monument to Enver Hoxha was toppled, you said that the order I gave to fire had not been carried out. And it is a fact that Hekuran Isai, the man who should have carried out that order as Minister of Internal Affairs, was dismissed. The people also know Mr Hekuran’s statement, in which he wrote that you gave the order to shoot. Or do you also regard these orders as … for the cleanup, … Then perhaps it would be better to remain as we were under the bad dictatorship, but calm and secure. The police were disarmed while the laws were in place; nothing is moving yet, despite the new laws having been made. But how will they be enforced when the organization and mentality are old? How can we enjoy the fruits of democracy when the President declares, “I have nothing to do with those events” (that may indeed be so), yet is in a compromised and condemnable position? More or less, he said that out of respect. But he showed a withdrawal, a passivity in you that went so far that the Socialist deputies did not even deign to stand for a minute of silence—a minute for the four martyr-victims of that Shkodër, cradle of Albanians, which does not deserve to be stained with blood after … [??]. In such cases, passivity or personal incapacity can easily be taken as participation in those mistakes we never want repeated, because they were part of a shameful scenario, planned or spontaneous, by individuals who, as their final resort against the process of democracy, used terror to sow insecurity and fear, so that people would grow disillusioned with democracy, since it cannot give them security in which to live. stained with blood after … [??]. On all these matters, the interviewer should have taken a more open and direct position, because these are facts, because the people know and discuss them, because democracy has opened our eyes and demands that every official—and especially the President—be as clean and approachable as possible, so as to enjoy unquestioned authority. I do not know: do you think you enjoy such authority, Mr President, after all these events that have enveloped your person? Or, despite what you declared—that you have never struggled for a career—are you sorry to leave your lifelong leadership post? This insistence seems to me to be more than a desire for a career. PETRO DHIMITRI … would have been an additional force, allied has begun. Gentlemen leading the Socialist Party!

REPLY President or Puppet?! We awaited with interest Mr Ramiz Alia’s television interview with journalist Hysni Lita. We were pleased that he was speaking about the land law, because the improvement of life and conditions in the countryside is linked to the improvement of all Albania. First, because most of the population lives there and, above all, because it is the granary that fills every townspeople’s kitchen cupboard. And we would have had no objection if the conversation had remained focused on this major issue. Even so, Mr President once again presented the first option as whether or not to retain the agricultural cooperative—of course, that depends on the farmers—even though the Socialist deputies in Parliament themselves have said that the collectivization system failed shamefully. But the enterprising journalist—or perhaps this was the plan for this television interview, for which he deserves praise (for the first time, a leader of such high rank has appeared in this capacity)—also turned the conversation to the criticism of Mr Ramiz Alia in the press. We thought that the President would not pass over this very serious issue so easily and superficially. More or less, he said that in no way and under no circumstances had he had anything to do with any of the painful events (such as killings at the border and in the cities, and the Shkodër massacre). Immediately after this statement, the thought came to me: “Then are you the Presi-

…ident, if you had nothing to do with these events?! How can a president remain indifferent to what is happening at the border and, even after learning of it, fail to intervene to stop that criminal massacre from continuing as long as it did? Why does he not dare to hold those responsible for the Shkodër massacre, the city where he was born, accountable—from the former head of the relevant department right up to the former prime minister—if he says he had nothing to do with that event? And is it not his duty to do so as President? And since the people have entrusted him with this sacred office, should not Mr Ramiz Alia, as President, be the first and foremost to take up the cause of identifying the killers and those who ordered the killings, rather than telephoning to have only one or two policemen arrested, if the testimony of the former Head of the General Investigation Department is true? If you had truly been free of any involvement, you would have walked among the people of Shkodër; by now the guilty parties would have stood before the dock, and the people would have showered you with love and respect. But they saw in you a retreat, a passivity even deign to stand and observe Shkodër, the cradle of Albanian culture…

…in a position to change the situation? Then why is he President? Men who are wise, brave and authoritative are appointed to this post; otherwise, anyone could be appointed and … everyone could do as they pleased. And can you brush aside so easily, with a few words, that body of press articles which has directly called for your resignation, Mr President? You “forgot” altogether your responsibility for the collective thefts committed by your Politburo colleagues. Could it be that not only the opposition press, which according to the communists does not tell the truth, but also the relevant commission that inspected the Ministry of Health lied when it wrote that, during 1986–1990, Mr Ramiz Alia’s family spent 145,000 dollars on medical treatment abroad? Even if you had spent only 50,000 dollars beyond the legal limits (not the rules that you yourself draw up for your clan and yourself as the Political Bureau), that would be enough to warrant your resignation—let alone when we are talking about a greater sum and so many other questions surrounding the failure of Albania’s economic and political leadership over the past five years. I cannot forget the Profumo scandal in England in 1965–1975. The entire cabinet fell—and there was a government crisis—solely because it was discovered that this minister had a secret relationship with one woman while he was married to another. Here it was fully established that with whom…

Every day our party grows stronger, playing an important role in the political life of the country. Today we have 33 branches in the country’s 28 main cities, as well as in five smaller cities. We are part of the government of stability and of local government bodies. Republican Party cadres have been appointed to leadership positions. The Republican Party is one of the three leading parties in the country’s political, economic and social life. As you know, not even a month has passed since the First Conference of the Republican Party, attended by 206 delegates from all the branches. The conference reviewed the work and activities of the Republican Party since its creation through the initiating committees. It elected the governing committee. It emphasized the initiators’ sound, calm and measured policy, and their firm resolve to fight communist ideas and to remove from power by every means the parties and all the instruments of Enver and Ramiz, as well as all their Labour Party (Socialist Party) collaborators. Bearing this activity in mind, the Labour Party attacked the Republican Party, thus also beginning the election campaign. Bashkimi and Zëri i Popullit are twin children of Mother Labour Party. Although she tries to disguise them with layers of “democracy” so they will not look alike, she fails and does not achieve her aim, because her children expose her and show the public that they should not be trusted: they are wolves that have changed their coats, but not their habits. Republican brothers, we are determined to follow our path. Attacks are natural; they do not divide us, but only unite us. GOVERNING COMMITTEE

At the invitation of the Albanian-American Civic League, whose chairman is the esteemed Senator Joe Dioguardi, Mr Sabri Godo, chairman of the Albanian Republican Party, departed for the United States of America. Mr Sabri Godo will hold meetings with prominent political figures and senior officials of the American government. At Rinas Airport, the chairman of the Albanian Republican Party, Mr Sabri Godo, was seen off by the party’s deputy chairman, Mr Vangjush Gambeta, and the head of the Foreign Affairs sector, Mr Çerçiz Mingomata. Correspondent of Republika

A few nights ago, we were returning from a service at around 3:20 in the morning. After passing Fushë-Krujë by about 2 kilometers, the bright lights of a large vehicle that had stopped blinded us. A little farther on, the road was blocked by a large tree trunk. With difficulty, we passed between the trunk and the truck. As soon as we had passed the truck on the driver’s side, I heard four loud impacts from stones. Terrified, we set off. If the organized attack had been carried out with precision, we could have been hit in the head. Who threw stones at us, and why? Is that all it takes to kill someone, just because that is what someone expressed? So many questions, so many unanswered answers. One thing is clear. They wanted to kill us. It seems luck helped us. Is there a state and order in this country? Are there law-enforcement officers? These days, hundreds of citizens ask themselves such questions. It is difficult to find a nation without a qualified police force that is also in control of the situation. But here, along with the necessary changes taking place in our state and the dismantling of mental or operational systems, the function of the police has begun to fade. Why should this happen? On the one hand, this indispensable institution is directed by bureaucrats and Enverists, by monists who seek to create confusion and insecurity for specific purposes. On the other hand, honest, capable people work in the police—democrats in spirit and mind, or people seeking to correct their earlier viewpoints and judgments. I have never agreed with the view that every officer or police officer of this… ÇERÇIZ MINGOMATA (Continued on page 2)

WORK IS CONTINUING THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY TO SIGN THE PRSH PETITION, “KOSOVA A REPUBLIC WITH EQUAL RIGHTS TO ALL THE STATES OF YUGOSLAVIA.” IN TIRANA, ABOUT 12,000 CITIZENS, SUPPORTERS AND MEMBERS OF THE PR HAVE SIGNED IT SO FAR. IN DURRËS THE NUMBER HAS REACHED ABOUT 7,000 PEOPLE, AND THE SAME NUMBER IN VLORË; IN BERAT, ABOUT 3,500 PEOPLE, WHILE IN PESHKOPI ABOUT 6,000 SIGNATURES HAVE BEEN COLLECTED. THE PETITION IS ALSO CONTINUING TO BE SIGNED IN OTHER CITIES. WE ONCE AGAIN INVITE ALL POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE PEOPLE TO SIGN THIS PETITION, THUS UNANIMOUSLY EXPRESSING OUR POSITION IN SUPPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOSOVA. PRSH

ugja e qremi-ben, Ar-vis-bur-kutuan në je-bhkatër, pla-shtre-për anën në fat-iqind?