(Continued from the previous issue) Now let us come to what happened after 31 March. In April, the PPSH gave the country Ramiz Alia as president. (Continued from the previous issue) Now let us come to what happened after 31 March. In April, the PPSH gave the country Ramiz Alia as president. This is a citizen who has been subjected to a thorough analysis by the press and public opinion throughout the nation. Now all that remains for us to say is that he played both sides, between democracy and monism. And in the end he remained a symbol of communism. Democratic Albania cannot understand him; we cannot awaken and make it an eagle when the country’s foremost leader cannot think and laugh democratically. For 40 years in a row, Ramiz Alia stood alongside Enver Hoxha, and before his corpse he swore to continue the same course. Given this, neither he nor any one of us, if we are objective, could offer moral direction by appearing before the people in the language of democracy. Thus, he is morally isolated from his people and, as such, has ceased to be president. We feel this more and more every day. In light of this, we have every right to think that people, to put it briefly, are destroying things; and although we have a communist president, they do not go to work and emigrate as refugees because we have a communist president, etc., etc. From a figure who ought to have served as a point of reference for the nation, he has turned into a figure of disappointment, provoking a total paralysis of all the country’s resurgent energy. The opinion circulates that Ramiz Alia is a good and tender-hearted man. We want to believe this. But we are haunted by the shadows of dozens of burnings, when over the past five years people were killed and dragged, bound with barbed wire, through the border villages, simply because they wanted to live and find work, after having spent years here living in the trap of their parents’ poverty. “He knew nothing,” say his supporters. But how did the Party know the fate of a child who had accidentally fallen into a well? And why did our president not find two hours to offer condolences to the mother of Arben Broci and his comrades? To be fair, I cannot accuse him of having taken part, since I have no legally verified evidence, but psychologically he is compromised, since he did not find the strength to go to Shkodra, his own city. He knew everything and knows everything; that is not what matters. What matters is that the tender heart he may once have had, beating with human feeling, has stopped within him. In time, he acquired the coldness of the Enverian political calculators, which is close to the psychology of crime, since he accepts it, even if he does not express it. But does Ramiz Alia have any merits? First of all, as a character, he should be respected. He has taken every step after carefully calculating what was best for communism and for his comrades-in-arms, none of whom has yet had even a thorn in their side. His stance has emboldened conservative forces and created the false impression that democracy here cannot develop without a communist guardian. Meanwhile, he has calmed the “aggressive” forces of democracy through exoduses. In the political field, according to foreigners, he stands out as a skilled diplomat and the architect of democracy in Albania. French diplomacy in particular bestowed these epithets on him while he was in Paris. We must testify to their sincerity, taking into account this country’s traditionally friendly policy towards Yugoslavia. The PS is also part of this story, exaggerating some polite compliments made by various diplomats visiting Albania. To the former we say: do not rush; you know very well who the architect of democracy here is—the one the communist roller has crushed in prisons and internment camps. And to our socialists we reply with the popular saying: “Boil, pot, boil, for I can hear what’s inside the well.” We believe that is enough for you to understand. At the national level, Ramiz Alia has one merit (but not a small one): he allowed the Albanian plane left by Enver Hoxha to make it through the 31 March period old and without fuel, without crashing. But on 15 April he should have been removed. Despite the struggle waged by the PD in parliament, he became president with the PP’s support. So remove him, gentlemen socialists, if you really have distanced yourselves from the PP, because the people do not want to see communist hierarchs at the helm. But not only do you have no intention of removing him; on the contrary, lately you have begun zealously defending him. We are not at all naive. We understand that this man’s words reach deep into the country’s political life, including the opposition. He has imposed his will everywhere. Without removing Ramiz Alia, the communist social chemistry in Albania cannot be uprooted. Now let us go further and tell you that we are without them—the social communists. The scorched-earth strategy. — In April, the PP, with Nano’s government, made two decisions that plunged the Albanian countryside into spontaneous privatization, and we still do not know where it will end (we are already tasting the bitter pear; the stem is still to come). And it took a pickaxe to the miserable stability we had inherited in agriculture. To this day, no one from the PP has spoken up; on the contrary, with your positions you continue to deepen the “scorched-earth strategy.” The city’s poverty was joined by an impoverished and bewildered peasantry. Now the country is limping badly on both legs. You accuse the opposition of not understanding dialogue, of not wanting cooperation, of lacking culture, and so on. Oh God, how quickly you forget things. Was it not the opposition, at the PD’s initiative, that reached out to the PP in June, when it was on the verge of capitulation, threatened by the general strike and the independent unions, and Albania was in a state of crisis? (Well, if you have no memory of your childhood, you had only just been born then.) We extended a hand to prevent bloodshed in Albania, to improve Albania’s image before the democratic world, to obtain aid, to ease the situation, and to give you space and time to reflect and prove with facts who you are. But with your talk of a government of stability and “rural wisdom,” you began pretending to leave the stage, with Mr. Bufi at the head, the PP’s high-school graduate, who always leaves the impression that he is unfamiliar with the people’s troubles, an observer and an indifferent bystander. HYŚEN ÇOBANI (Continued on page 2)

On 17 October, Mr Sabri Godo, chairman of the PRSH, and Mr Zef Bushati, deputy chairman of the PRSH, welcomed Mr Xhek Bigner, director of the Republican Institute in the USA, to the Party headquarters. He was accompanied by Miss Meri Ketrin, an employee of the Institute. After the customary greetings, Mr Godo briefed Mr Bigner on the PRSH programme and the Party’s current activities to further consolidate itself, as well as the role it plays in the country’s political life. Then, presenting the facts, Mr Godo stressed to the American official the difficulties facing democracy in our country, which will never be complete unless the obstacles placed in its way at every turn are uprooted. Among these, he mentioned to the esteemed guest the existence of the notorious Sigurimi weapon, and the monopolization of official propaganda, which still continues to be an instrument of the socialist authorities. Those currently leading the country, starting at the very top of the pyramid, insist that there be no discussion under any circumstances of issues requiring an immediate solution and persistently demanded by the people. “It is a game that does not work,” Mr Godo said. On the one hand, the opposition holds peaceful rallies, while the communists do whatever they want. It is these communists, with the President at their head, who refuse to relinquish their positions. Speaking further about the problem of business, Mr Godo emphasized to Mr Bigner that today’s business positions in our country are being taken over by those who held power only months ago. In this situation, our primary duty as an opposition party is to work with the other opposition parties to create a solid alliance and fight to the end. Such a situation calls for concrete action. For his part, Mr Bigner said that it was important to fight now by every means to strengthen democracy, and that it was particularly necessary to intensify this struggle right now, following the defeat of the Bulgarian communists in the recent elections. Having a few anti-communist members of government does not mean that we have a democratic government. In my view, this government continues to be led by former communists. During these days, he went on, I saw at close hand how the opposition here works and what its strategy is, and I believe you will make progress in establishing true democracy soon, despite the great difficulties you face in terms of means and other resources, as well as the obstacles others are putting in your way. Mr Bigner then expressed particular interest in the programme the PR is presenting in the countryside, the Party’s strategy for the upcoming elections, the current economic and social situation in the country, and so on. Correspondent of “Republika”

On 15 October, the chairman of the PRSH, Mr Sabri Godo, met with members of the Governing Council of the PR branch in the Mat district and took part in a meeting of the council. The meeting was opened by the chairman of the PR branch, Mr Ibrahim Islami, who gave an overview of the work carried out and touched on the major economic and social problems that concern the people of this region today. If there is a voice that today supports the Mat peasant on the problems arising from the law on land, an unbiased voice, it is the voice of the Republicans. Mr Sabri Godo also spoke at the meeting. Among other things, he said that more than ever we must do everything in our power to carry forward the work already begun, all the way to the definitive uprooting of communism. Mr Godo also addressed the current problems troubling the peasant today, clearly stating the PR’s position in favour of immediate improvement of the law on land, etc. That same day, Mr Godo held an expanded meeting at the cinema-theatre in the town of Burrel with PR members and supporters from the town and surrounding villages. Taking the floor, Mr Godo said that you must all be convinced that there will never be true democracy as long as

REPORTAGE Now, (after the road was destroyed), to travel from Elbasan to Gramsh, you have to spend more than three hours on a rugged mountainous terrain, along a difficult road with countless bends. During the rainy season, landslides and extensive erosion make travel by car almost impossible. We head for Gramsh through the frightening landscape. The general sadness is felt in the ... [?] Here the situation is entirely different. The “new road” reveals to every passer-by one of the ugliest crimes of the dictatorship: misery. In other parts of Albania, misery cannot be exposed so nakedly as in the mountains of Gramsh. “A curse from God fell upon us the day Enver Hoxha set foot in this area,” says a villager who has come out to the road to wait for a car. During the war, the people’s commanders went to hide in this area. They annexed Albania’s demands for power, while he carried out purges and invented the legend of the encirclement of the General Staff. Some time later, after Albania was liberated, a group of villagers from Holta went to Tirana to meet the commander. Here is how Enver describes that meeting in his book “Among Ordinary People”: “‘And you too, Enver, why have you come? We have come from Holta, famished and exhausted, and we want to go to Sukth, because we can no longer live in Holta,’ we told the land. I thought for a while (it is Enver who is thinking!) and said to them: ‘Look, comrades, is there any chance I could come to Holta too, and we could work there together, open up new land, cultivate it, and make Holta beautiful and happy...’” Then you will see how, like a dream, it will come alive for us in these clouds... A word from Mr Enver, and the suffering people of Holta were set to work. And they were finally imprisoned amid desolation. Year after year they multiplied (Enver advised them to have many more children too), and now they are stuck for a long time, because there is little land and there are many of them. And Albania cannot make it to Europe with all this misery on its back. The day the villagers who were sent back to the mountains begin to descend to places where they can live, Albania too will set out for Europe. “What can you expect from a government that even lies to us about drinking water?” says one of our fellow travellers. The Party of Labour recited the story of bringing drinking water at thousands of podiums, programmes, conferences and symposiums, and kept it under consideration for two years. But the water never reached these parts. The first thing that catches your eye as soon as you enter Gramsh is the unemployed. Even in this small town, the unemployed have become an everyday phenomenon—the men’s misery, as someone in the press has called them; they stare with tired, indifferent eyes, as if they were 70 years old. Their only consolation has become the phrase: “That’s how all Albania is now.” Yes, that is how all Albania is. But can we console ourselves by setting pain against pain, misfortune against misfortune? Perhaps we can, but for how long? What is the real number of unemployed people in Gramsh? “So far we have registered only 490 in the town, and 85 at the agricultural enterprise. Registration is continuing,” says the head of the employment office at the pluralist Executive Committee of Gramsh. Registration is continuing. But surely the actual number in Gramsh is not small. Here no trader, not even a match seller, can establish the true number, because some have left and continue to leave in that “invisible” exodus accompanying people in these years of freedom. In the accounts of the townspeople, the shops contain only a few goods that no one comes near. They are products YLLI RAKIPI (Continued on page 2)

The Albanian Republican Party declares that it strongly supports the political will of the Albanian people to resolve the Albanian question in Kosovo and, beyond that, in Macedonia, Montenegro and Southeastern Serbia. The Albanian Republicans, having taken note of the declaration by the 11 Albanian political parties that are members of the Coordinating Council of Albanian Political Parties in Yugoslavia, fully support it and stand in solidarity with all the points addressed in the declaration. We are convinced that this national unity of the Albanian political parties in Yugoslavia is supported by our entire people and will also receive support and solidarity from all democratic and progressive forces in the world. The peaceful and democratic path to resolving all issues on the basis of peoples’ right to self-determination, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE and the Paris Conference, clearly demonstrates the wisdom and maturity of the political parties and their democratic, peace-loving leaders. The territories of the Albanian people were carved up by force, disregarding the ethnic principle in determining state borders and disregarding the will of our entire people. There will also be support and solidarity from all democratic and progressive forces in the world. The peaceful and democratic path to resolving all issues on the basis of peoples’ right to self-determination, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE and the Paris Conference, clearly demonstrates the wisdom and maturity of the political parties and their democratic, peace-loving leaders. The territories of the Albanian people were carved up by force, without regard for the ethnic principle in determining state borders, without regard for the will of the Albanian people, and without democracy. Today the Republicans trust the democratic forces of the world to ensure that this problem is resolved without the use of violence. The stance of the Albanian political parties in Yugoslavia once again affirms their determination to show world public opinion that they do not accept the existing situation of Albanians in Yugoslavia. The Albanian Republican Party declares with conviction and determination that Albanians in Yugoslavia are a real force that no one can ignore.

We are not referring here to the financial aid from the opposition MPs, for which we expressed our fraternal gratitude. We are referring to the bill from the Democratic Front, which has decided through this measure to distribute, albeit tactically as a sign of solidarity, thousands upon thousands of lek to us, to heal us with money—money that their masters had stolen from the people during this half-century of oppression. In this way, it seems to have become customary for people to be rewarded, especially in the recent period under (?), the expression “former political prisoners” of the Albanian Communist Party of Miladin Popović and its volunteers, who for 40 years have been placed in the service of the Anti-Fascist War of the Albanian people. We are ready to reach out to all those who share in our past suffering, but we will never reach out to those whose hands are stained with our innocent blood. They will never forgive us for the martyrdom of this nation; neither will the generations that have passed or those yet to come, nor our sons and daughters. If someone wishes to apologize to us for the past, if they want to embrace us as a brother repentant for the wrongs he has done, we are ready to accept such a gesture in the name of the Fatherland; but first he must overcome his past, let himself be cleansed by sincere tears, and acknowledge the evil on his conscience. Even if Mr. (?) of the association and the others give us [the aid], we will not...