STATEMENT BY MR. SABRI GODO AT YESTERDAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE The moment we are living through is decisive for the country’s fate. Every party, association and individual must feel responsible for what they do and speak clearly. With this in mind, I will set out here some considerations of the Republican Party. The country has reached the depths of poverty, while anarchy and open banditry are on the rise. Everyone knows that we were brought to this state by the communist dictatorship, which continues to hold on to power under the guise of renewal. But this country, laid low, has every possibility of rising again, and that will begin with the new elections. In our circumstances, these elections are not a matter of political parties changing places in power. The question here is whether communism will remain in power or democracy will be established. The electoral struggle will be fierce, not so much on the surface as in people’s hearts. The Republican Party has always sought an alliance of opposition parties, which would be the axis of political developments and have an impact abroad as well. We are intensifying these efforts to form a coalition for the elections. Our view was that the three opposition parties should all run together against communism. I do not want to take up your time with election propaganda. If you wish, you can take a copy of the new statute and program, which set out our republican ideas for today and the days to come. But I will express my views on several troubling issues as the elections approach. 1) The elections must be free, fair and peaceful. The people are gritting their teeth and enduring the harshest privations in order to hold these elections. But already there are signs of political terror being used, with blackmail and physical violence. This is being instigated by those accustomed to unlimited power and afraid of democracy. The first step of democracy, however, will be to establish the rule of law, under which justice will be applied equally to everyone. Poisoned minds understand this difficulty and see destabilization as their way to salvation. The government must act energetically and without delay to prevent such turmoil. 2) Destructive forces have also targeted the economy and the high-voltage power lines. These acts are being carried out by organized groups of professionals. Three lines have been damaged. If this spreads further, a general shutdown will occur, halting even the supply of bread and water. This is an extremely dangerous course, one that could easily plunge the country into complete anarchy. 3) Formally, the army is fragmented, but the junior officers and middle- and senior-ranking personnel see themselves as being inside ‘red walls’, because the top command is still made up almost entirely of the old nomenklatura. What are civilians doing in the army today, those sent there as political commissars in 1974, or those who became officers after three-month courses? Evasion of military service, the looting of weapons depots and other events that are eroding the army must be stopped, beginning with the rapid renewal of its personnel. 4) Parliament failed to pass a disarmament law, for reasons that are unclear. Not only are weapons not being collected, they are increasing in number, coming from abroad and being stolen from within the country. We must enter the elections as if entering a temple of peace and freedom, not with weapons concealed. The weapons must be collected immediately if we do not want disturbances that cannot be undone to occur before and during the elections. The government must pay greater attention to the issues we have raised, guaranteeing that the elections are peaceful and free. Any neglect will place a heavy responsibility on it before the country. At the same time, the Republican Party calls on the people to avoid any provocation and to oppose The Republican Party has parties should run with joint candidates in at least half the constituencies, so that the opposition could win two-thirds of the seats in parliament. With such an agreement, democracy would advance with complete confidence, while also laying the foundations for genuine cooperation in governing the country in the future. But it seems the agreement will be limited to only a few constituencies. This is still a good thing, because the absence of any agreement would put the opposition parties at odds with the interests and wishes of the people, giving the social-communists cause to rejoice, when this is no time to give them such pleasure. Perhaps, as the days pass, the alliance can be extended to more constituencies. Let us move toward this quickly and courageously. We cannot shirk the great duty of uniting the forces of democracy. We believe that even in constituencies where competition is open, the three main opposition parties and the other parties of the anti-communist and democratic spectrum should not waste their energy trying to gain ground at one another’s expense. The Republican Party will present its candidates honorably in every constituency. Our party is spread throughout the country, with 36 branches and two thousand sections. Our membership is morally upright and aware, and we approach the elections with confidence. Through its program and policies, the PR has rendered considerable service to democracy. The people know this, even though we have been quiet in our words. It is a characteristic of our party never to promise what it cannot achieve and to keep our feet on the ground in the struggle to remove Secondly, the initiative to convene the Assembly should be taken by those who have the right to forgive and ask forgiveness. In other words, the Initiative Committee, which until now has been somewhat without an identity, should be reconstituted. With these and several other observations, the Republican Party would wholeheartedly support holding an assembly to unify our national efforts. We will explain to voters that voting for the PR means casting your vote for true democracy. We are opposed to a parliament with one majority party and only one party in opposition. In our circumstances, when the structures of democracy have not yet been established, this is not only harmful but also dangerous. Therefore, we consider it our duty to enter parliament, while also looking favorably on the entry of other parties that support democracy and the eradication of communism. We will explain to people that not going to vote is the same as voting against democracy; it is the same as accepting the indefinite continuation of the situation we are living in. We declare that we will defend law and order, provide every assistance for free elections, and unconditionally respect the people’s will in these elections. (According to ATSH) Yesterday morning, the chairman of the Albanian Republican Party, Sabi Godo, held a press conference at the Palace of Congresses in Tirana on the occasion of the launch of the election campaign. Present below were journalists from various press organizations, the Albanian Telegraphic Agency, RTSH, and foreign journalists and correspondents currently in our country. Also attending were heads and officials of diplomatic missions accredited to the Republic of Albania. At the outset, the chairman of the Republican Party, Mr. Sabri Godo, read the party’s statement. Sabri Godo then answered journalists’ questions, stressing that under the electoral law every party would get what was due to it, what its electorate wanted. The coalition brings together the democratic forces, and the opposition bloc will bring down the communist wall. Our view is that local elections should be held as soon as possible, because central government cannot be satisfied without the grassroots, etc.

Everyone remembers that frenzied campaign of slander, which sank to the lowest levels of journalistic ethics on the eve of last year’s 31 March elections. It was started by “Zëri i Popullit”, or ZP for short, using thuggish language to attack various representatives of the Democratic Party, the PRSH, and any democratic journalist who dared to speak the bitter truths openly. The opposition press responded to this onslaught because it was forced to defend itself, and tensions became dangerously inflamed during that week before the elections. It was an unprecedented period in the history of the Albanian press. Shame on ZP’s scribblers, whose names are not even worth mentioning because of their lack of basic human decency. But it was a great shame for the Party of Labour, since the newspaper was its central organ. We cannot say that this campaign of degrading slander had no effect on people who did not want to believe in the collapse and degradation of the party they had trusted for half a century. We are not referring only to the party’s illiterate members, but also to people who honestly worked to carry out the duties of their party. We said then that what happened last year would not be repeated this year because the PPSH no longer existed. All the more so because President Ramiz Alia, speaking on television, called for a calm, honest campaign, without excesses, when... Barely two or three days after that appeal, ZP exposes the PS’s ‘renewal’! How, indeed, can democracy be built in a party that has used every kind of method, as we see from beginning to end: the blockmen, as they are called by their nicknames, are trying to sidestep their own end. After the elections, the party that had dragged the press into that mire began, again on orders, to calm the situation and even to call that unfair campaign of the time a mistake. So, the wolf had merely put on a lamb’s skin. These were the PPSH’s tactics, and at its 10th Congress it could not even preserve its own name. And, like a fairy tale about a king, the Socialist Party was created, supposedly a renewed party from the very day of its baptism. It even undertook to defend European socialist ideals. How much it has renewed itself is something all Albanians know better than anyone, including those who may have followed only the sessions of the People’s Assembly. Yet now, when the deputies have dispersed and can no longer broadcast their ideas and insults through parliament, ZP has been ordered to launch an attack. These are unscrupulous slanders against opposition figures and against journalists from RD and “Republika”. Apparently, it is the same order, from the same hand, as last year. The writing style is the same, because the scribblers are the same too. There is only one small exception ... television, called for a calm, honest campaign without excesses...? ZP, the central organ of the PS, which claims to have renewed itself, began its attack on the genuine opposition parties and democratic newspapers. It was also quite unbelievable. Why, you may ask? Because last year’s attacks and insults were carried out by the PPSH, on the orders of its former leaders. PETRO DHIMITRI ... opposition to anyone who challenges the PS’s policies with reasoned arguments and without personal insults. Perhaps they are trying to inflame the situation and worsen matters to the point of confrontation—something that must never happen. Do not forget, Mr. Nano and Xhixha and your associates: you bear great responsibility before the people and history for any action that gets out of control, to which your fury could lead. How can it be explained that the PS distorts even the words of Prof. Doctor Rexhep Qose, when television also broadcasts his response? One might perhaps not believe the responses of some foreign ambassador, but what are we to say about Professor Doctor Rexhep Qose? Naturally, when a party turns into a den for fabricating lies, its newspaper will follow the same tune. And the signal was given in a way that was not at all European, much less European socialist. This shows that, like their predecessors, the party’s current leaders are instigators of parallel history and the authors of excesses. And there have been plenty of them. It is all done so that the people will be frightened and, if possible, idealize the dictatorship, when there was no shortage of calm in the streets. But who is disrupting the peace? It is that same hand which is now egging the press on to conduct a campaign of vile insults that not only bring no national reconciliation, but also demean and incite us as a race and as a nation. And what value do the universities we have—and which the PPSH has propagandized—have

THE 22ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PRISHTINA IS CELEBRATED The 22nd anniversary of the founding of the University of Prishtina was solemnly celebrated in Prishtina. On this occasion, a solemn meeting of the University Assembly was held, at which the welcoming address was delivered by the rector of the University, Prof. Dr. Ejup Statovci. A short artistic program was also presented as part of the anniversary. Over the past 22 years, more than 60,000 students have graduated from the University of Prishtina, around 40,000 of them Albanians. Today, this institution does not allow Albanian students and teachers to conduct classes in the Albanian language. Alongside the faculties and higher schools, the public and university libraries and the student center have also been placed under violent measures. A total of 827 Albanian teachers have been forcibly expelled from the faculties, higher schools and other institutions operating within the University, most of them holding senior academic and professional titles. The Serbian regime controls the faculties and schools with police. No Albanian students have been placed in the student dormitories, and alongside the small number of Serbian students, Serbian refugees who fled Croatia have been sheltered there. The Serbian regime is threatening Albanian teachers at this University that it will evict them all from their homes. Despite such a situat... (Continued on page 2)

Today President Ramiz Alia dissolved the People’s Assembly and announced that the elections would be held on 22 March. As our correspondent ELEZ BIBERAJ explains in the following report, the forthcoming elections will be decisive for Albania. The elections to the People’s Assembly will take place in a tense political climate, and foreign observers are expressing doubts about whether they will be free and fair. They point out that the current circumstances in Albania may prevent a free, fair and honest electoral campaign. The communists, who still hold power, have allowed law and order to break down. Thus, anarchy is said to prevail in some parts of the country. Democratic opposition officials have accused President Alia and the communists of deliberately allowing the situation to deteriorate, so that democracy can be blamed for all these problems. As has happened in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet republics, in some places a degree of nostalgia for the dictator Enver Hoxha can be observed among part of the Albanian population, according to the local press. Communist information organs have contributed to the creation of such a mood by blaming the democratic opposition for the escalation of the social crisis and the rise in crime. (Continued on page 4) Foreign observers have stated that, in general, the electoral law is in keeping with European and international standards. However, the elections will depend on how this law is implemented. It remains to be seen whether the opposition parties’ campaign will be financed on an equal basis with that of the communists. Will the communists be allowed to use the vast resources at their disposal to influence the election results? The equal right of all parties to publicize their electoral programs through the media, particularly RTSH, will have a major and direct impact on the election results. For more than a month, no central newspaper was published, reportedly because of a paper shortage. When the opposition parties secured a quantity of paper from international charitable organizations, the communist daily «Zëri i Popullit» also began publication. But no explanation was given as to how the paper had been obtained. The Democrats say that sufficient paper was available, but that the communists are manipulating the issue. Suspending publication of opposition newspapers during the election campaign would paralyze the opposition, which would be unable to publicize its program...

LEKA ... Urgjitmit ...