We must no longer wander. From this century, the concrete and inalienable party for us Albanians has remained independence. In the other span of time, none of the major problems placed before the Albanian world was resolved, immediately after independence was achieved as a union of all-national territories: raising the economic and cultural levels to standards acceptable to Europe, etc. For nearly a century we have been trying to find a suitable state system. Other peoples have needed no less time. France spent the nineteenth century on this problem. We are 100 years behind. History, it seems, does not forgive. It demands its tribute. Choosing the communist system in 1944, after the Zogist monarchy, was a fatality, given that in Europe we are the only country to have entered this course (through a “professor” who came from France) without the presence of the Red Army. Perhaps it was a paradox, perhaps a historical lesson, a social vaccination that we paid dearly for, in order to uproot every illusion about communism. All the political forces that today, in their conscience, defend monarchy or Eastern communism are regressive forces that cause equal harm to this country, regardless of the labels they bear. Enough wavering. The democratic-republican-pluralist system is the only hopeful alternative imposed on us by European history at this end of the century. It is a national sin for anyone to seek to further exhaust this people, battered along the roads of history, by turning it backwards. Monarchist and communist parties should be banned by law, as should Nazi, racist, etc. parties. This demand is legitimate for us and is not a democratic restriction. Our people have paid for this democracy with their nails, through centuries of preparation. They are burdened not only by the bitter and painful wounds of monist shackles, about which newspapers have published and continue to publish abundant factual material, but also by many social ills that have distorted the spiritual character of our people, turning vices into individual virtues: servility, conformism, profiting from other people’s work for personal gain through temporary alliances, contempt for hardworking and honest people, etc. A powerful opposition front must be created against these. This struggle will make the people believe that democracy has arrived. The PS is the party that speaks most about work today. It is true that ZP publishes photographs and reports about it, but they have always smelled musty. They describe some example that has survived from old economic forms, or foreign arrangements that have common features with them, those kinds of work that died here 20–30 years ago and that do not recognize the pyramid of democratic values in this field. Nor should the tendency to appear “objective” toward the opposition be ignored: one or two positive aspects of it are described as an opponent of the PS, and then, quickly and without analysis, the discussion moves to the negative aspects of reality, for which it is blamed. Lately the PS has changed its tactics. Every day it increasingly directs its fire at opposition representatives. Deliberately and maliciously, it equates the opposition with particular individuals. We stress, Mr. Socialists, that they are not the opposition itself. The opposition is that entire part of the people that supports and carries out the policy of democratizing the country; the parties and the people who lead them have their place, but even they do not constitute the whole. The opposition’s achievements are so great that no party’s shoulders can bear them. People, and especially ordinary people, must understand that one does not throw away a bucket of milk because of a single hair. We may distinguish an occasional lapse by a prominent opposition figure, which the PS seizes on to pour out its resentment, but it should not become a reason to sling mud without limit at the achievements of democracy, for which you swear before every saint that you are working. You accuse us of failing to keep our word, lacking culture, engaging in harsh dialogue, and many other shortcomings to which our people are sensitive. But you are trying in vain. They know how to separate the chaff from the wheat. We say that the time has come to take a cool-headed balance sheet and, on that basis, see what has been done and what must be done to calm the national conscience somewhat—it is extremely troubled—and to put everyone in their proper place. Today, it is truly only the opposition that is working. Today, only the opposition is calm and in its proper place. The psychology of the times wants and accepts it. Through it, the people enter into conversation, share their troubles, and await the formula for salvation. This is therefore an interesting bond, not one of sentimental love, and as such it has a future. The opposition’s main achievements in the democratization of our country are of historic proportions. For now, they chiefly affect the social sphere, where the PP jealously maintained its monopoly, and their value is incalculable, since they release energy … (Continued on page 2) sin for anyone who seeks This demand is legitimate for us and democracy in quotation marks, with centuries of backwardness. And deserts have their riches — Categorical judgments are unforgivable mistakes. Every struggle with the past has its dangers, because it is difficult to remain within the bounds of reason, and denial comes more easily than affirmation. In light of these considerations, just as Zog’s regime had positive aspects, so did the postwar period. In an absolute sense we have made achievements; in relative terms, compared with the world, we have remained where we were. In the national balance sheet, the latter weighs more than the former, but that does not take away the practical value embodied in the former. We must distinguish communist administration from the people’s work: what is compatible with the future from what denies it. The tendency to despise everything and cut every bridge is Punist; it has nothing to do with democracy, which knows how to respect and weigh even the most elementary aspects of work. Let us treat with respect everything born of the people’s labor, because only then will we see the great possibilities of recovery that it conceals. In Albania, over 90% of the population can read and write, 100% have electric lighting and enjoy European comforts; there are specialists and skilled workers in every field, from tractor production to metallurgy, from genetics to archaeology. We can move at a gallop toward Europe on this foundation, if we know how to put everyone in their proper place and light the lamp of self-interest, drawing energy from the source of personal, family, and national needs. There is a great deal of work to be done in Albania today. More work than in any other period of national history. The country must not only be freed from the Enverist complex, but also healed. It …

— INTERVIEW WITH FORMER MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS EMPLOYEE KUDRET ÇOLLAKU, GIVEN TO JOURNALIST VASIL DEDE. — — There has been a lot of discussion recently about the Ministry of Internal Affairs. You worked there for almost twenty years. Could you offer a general observation or a fact of interest? — However much I say about the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I cannot claim to say a great deal. Its activity involved an entire ministry, in which many sectors and many problems were intertwined. I worked in this ministry as an engineer (from the middle of 1963 to the end of 1982), when I was placed in the reserve. On the other hand, it is regrettable that former cadres with long service, or those still working there, almost never speak out, directly or indirectly. The Security Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ principal weapon, was “the Party’s lever.” To politicize it further, it was conceived and used as its “eye” and “ear.” But politicization of the State Security Service was not merely a matter of propaganda; it was also accompanied by rules issued by the Party’s highest bodies. The work platform, the basic document for all its activity, had been issued by the Political Bureau and not as a law, which should have been approved by the People’s Assembly. Thus, in this particular case, we are dealing with a party platform which, for the people and those who enforced it, was even more condemnable than the law itself. — More specifically? — I can testify to an incident from real life. The first duty laid down in the platform was: safeguarding the life and health of the Party and state leadership. My colleague R. S., who held an important position in the internal affairs branch of a district, was relieved of his duty, demoted to party candidate status, and sent to work at the Construction Enterprise because the former Political Bureau member Haxhi Lleshi, who had gone on official business to that district, found a mosquito in his plate of food. Furthermore, the politicization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ bodies and units as a whole, and of the State Security Service in particular, was amplified by the legislation in force, since these bodies were tasked with uncovering and suppressing the activities of people accused of political crimes (agitation and propaganda, flight, etc.). The articles of the Code of Criminal Procedure dealing with these crimes were so extensive that, if one looks at the issue transparently, human rights were denied. — Did you ever have doubts at any point during the arrest process or the trials of individuals or groups? — At certain moments I had doubts, which at the time I called mistaken policies. Today I call them deliberate, with specific aims. I can mention an incident in 1975, when the trial of the so-called “coup group,” headed by Beqir Balluku, was held. As I was going to the ministry cafeteria, I invited a colleague of mine from the intervening department for a coffee. He seemed a little tense and was hurrying: Despite my insistence, he refused and finally told me he was going to prison, where … …if examined at all, the bodies as well, which had been particular case, we are dealing with a party platform that did not represent the interests of the entire people. In practice, meanwhile, the idea was created that… …etc.), which were treated so extensively in the articles of the Code of Criminal Procedure were denied. Meanwhile, the platform had forbidden the State Security Service from extending its activity into the highest spheres of the Party and the state. Thus, on the basis of this guidance and these duties, it became a repressive organ… …with Beqir Balluku at its head. a colleague of mine from the intervention me he was going to the prison, where Beqir Balluku’s trial was to take place. This surprised me. I said to him: (Continued on page 3)

Freedom of the press does not come automatically with the establishment of a democratic system in a society. The establishment of democracy together with political pluralism brings pluralism of viewpoints, which is a communicated freedom, but not full freedom of the press. In countries such as Albania, where the press organs are press outlets, depend on political parties and are directed and … … free if it falls into conflict with the party platform. Regardless of the fact that it belongs not to just one party but to many parties, it is still a commanded press. Even when the means of mass communication are in the hands of the state and are subsidized and directed by it, they cannot be completely free, although this right may be guaranteed by law. The appointment of people, the payment of salaries, and financial support inevitably bring about the subordination of the press to those who lead it. This phenomenon does not occur in the more developed Western democracies. In most European countries, the press is independent; therefore, it is a free press. It is not … … state-owned. The means of mass communication are generally in the hands of private companies, which, in order to survive, compete with one another to serve the public better with abundant and truthful information. Political bias, even if promoted by politicians or subsidized by the state, does not gain popularity and is defeated by competition. The independent press is the one that best serves the truth. A journalist faces no obstacle to expressing his or her views freely. But for the press to be independent of the state, political parties, or associations, it must be independent … (ALQI KRISTO) (Continued on page 2)

— Sixteen-year-old Kastrijot Çela from Bradashesh went to the city of Elbasan to buy bread, but they would not give him any… He went to Cërrik, but on the way he fell from the cart and died. He died while rushing to find his daily bread… That day in Bradashesh, the hunger mourning joined the mourning for the dead. Today Bradashesh is an almost dead village. This death began in the year when, on its land, the Metallurgical Combine was built on hundreds of hectares. Before the combine was built, the village had 260 hectares of first-class arable land, but the combine seized what it could and left the people of Bradashesh with nothing. The 30 hectares left to the village are poor land, sloping and waterlogged, contaminated by the combine’s waste. Crops that were once cultivated are no longer grown. “When construction of the combine began, we told the first secretary, Jashar Menzezhit, to employ us there,” says Xhemal Skënderi, former chairman of the village council. “But Jashari, as if out of spite, grouped us with other villages poorer than ours and ordered us to open up new land in the hills and mountains, to make it as fertile as the plains… Later we appealed to Pirro, Pali, Xhemali… but they brought workers from Dibra, Korça, and Saranda and did not accept us. The red pashas sent us to work the fields on the lands of other villages…” Living conditions for the villagers of Bradashesh are now extremely difficult. Instead of air, their lungs inhale all kinds of poisonous substances. It can quite literally be said that here is… YLLI RAKIPI (Continued on page 2)

Mehmet Myftiu was a man of broad culture. He had completed his studies abroad. Although he was the Mufti of Berat, he was always on the move for the cause of Albania. You could find him in Kosovo, beside Abdyl Frashëri at the League of Prizren; you could find him with Ismail Qemali when he raised the flag in Vlora; you could find him in the mountains of Skrapar and Përmet, rousing the people to rise up. This was Mehmet Myftiu, known throughout Albania, whom Berat remembers as one of its most respected sons. In 1978, on the occasion of the centenary of the Albanian League of Prizren, the Berat Historical Museum proposed that the patriot Mehmet Myftiu be decorated. The proposal was approved by Decree No. 5746 of the People’s Assembly, with the citation: “He fought in the ranks of the Albanian League of Prizren of 1878–1889 for the defense of the integrity of Albanian lands and for national liberation.” But the PP leaders in the district could not accept this, and therefore harshly criticized the museum directorate for making the proposal without informing them beforehand. They ordered that the decoration not be displayed in the museum. It was not to be handed over to the Myftiu family, because they were classified as declassed, but was to be kept in a safe. This decoration was hidden for 13 years in a row as a result of party negligence in Berat, to cast mud on the Myftiu family and continue the persecution campaign that had begun as far back as 1946. On this day, this decoration, taken from me by the PR branch of Berat, will be ceremonially handed over to the Myftiu family. REFAT LAVANDJAJA