The Assembly for Reconciliation and National Unity as a necessity and the possibilities of its manipulation The existence of the Albanian nation, although today a reality in a world fragmented into several states and many diasporas on the one hand, and the spirit of peaceful settlement of national conflicts that characterizes the current political era on the other, increases the necessity and creates conditions for Albanian developments of interest and for action toward its unification in one state. With this, such efforts are not only not made anachronistic, as some would have us believe, but on the contrary they are companions of modern political progress. Since this spirit has generally become global today, the elites themselves have set it in motion in Europe (the Germans, etc.), and also in Asia (the Koreans, etc.); not only among backward peoples, but above all among the developed ones (the Germans) the degree of organization for national unification, therefore, also reveals how developed we are in terms of national consciousness and how much we are at the level of modern political currents. Such an entrance, so difficult yet necessary, seems as though national politics were not considered anachronistic and naive by some Albanians, supposedly for politically incapable people cleansed of inhumanity, as if it were not seen to the point where even in the press it is declared that “Europe today does not deal with border issues and thus raises them however others may wish, is not supported,” as if there were not more than enough signs showing that within our nation there is a political current which not only does not want national unity but is also active and is in fact against it. The idea that Yugoslavia will rule us now dominates Ju- HYSAMEDIN FERA (Continues on page 2)

A PROVOKED STRIKE... Around thirty workers from the marble mine in Muhur went on a hunger strike on 27.4.1992 in protest against the arbitrariness of the enterprise director, Skënder Leka, who is alleged to have dismissed them, as well as against the provocative indifference of the trio of local authorities, from the court and the prosecutor’s office all the way to the Executive Committee, who have shown themselves powerless, leaving this strike to unfold as it wishes and to echo throughout the whole area. As we later learned from the hunger strikers, violence was also used against them, their way to the office was blocked, and they were even driven out of the meeting where the council’s decisions were being discussed. The enterprise’s officials. In none of these cases did the police deem it reasonable to carry out their duty, while on the day the strike began they tried to remove the strikers by force from the hall. In any case, now that the court, the prosecutor’s office, the Executive Committee and the Ministry of Construction are investigating, the strike continues and children wait for bread from their parents. K. Korçe, “REPUBLIKA”

The USA increases aid for Albania The United States has planned another aid package for Albania, worth 35 million dollars. In addition, there is discussion about helping Albania obtain most-favored-nation status in trade.

Former President Alia found the time It is known that the former president’s time is over. But apparently he was in Shkodër, in the interview that Mr. Alia gave to the newspaper Ora of PS, and among other things it is striking that, speaking about the power of dictator Enver Hoxha, he said: “I do not want to be influenced in my assessment of his figure.” Then the question naturally arises: why were you so quick when you called him the architect of Albania? Every personality has its dates of birth and death. Then why were you so quick to make him an immortal lord? Why were you so quick to bring out from history the masterpiece: “Our Enver”? In truth, this people works for the day, the week, the month, the year ahead. 30, 205 Alia, however hard he may try, himself points to the doubles. What is surprising is that he did not give the interview to ZP, the one in which you wrote the liturgy you made a man so that he might seem moral. But you found the right person, its editor-in-chief, Mr. Fredryk Reshpja, who for so long suffered together with Spak Ojala, and we know how much he has read; the works of Enver Hoxha are well known to you. Now you know very well how much Mr. Ora has read—don’t go to the market!

Who is mocking the enforcement of the law The encouragement of silent exoduses...? So long as it is not free, it has been imprisoned. From the old pier; from Skela and up to its exit there are coils of barbed wire. Soldiers with heavy weapons and by whom? In the month of March last year many people left. The best ones, the young; those with homes; workers without a place of work. If we join the reflective concern at the outset, it is regrettable that now a new kind is being manipulated that comes close to the dirty trimmer!! Legally, only fishing vessels carrying cargo or fish are entitled to go to Italy, and exceptions are made for them according to regular contracts with the Italian side. For anyone else to depart (except fishermen) is forbidden. Those with regular documents must leave only from Durrës. Meanwhile they carry out actions under other names and thefts, while shameless speculation with the sea seeks to gain material capital. We, in order not to tire you further with the blame of the public exodus, agree. Moreover, ghosts with feelings? Do they drink? Do they guide the workers in the fishing enterprises? Since many workers have left for many places, now the two of them have replaced them themselves. The shortage could be made up with other fishermen who are paid 800 percent, by those who have spent their whole lives under orders from the sea. Young ranking officials keep coming with the name of the law unenforced to meet their comrades, while a parent is burning with longing and can hardly hear his son’s voice, only rarely on the phone. The chaos was exploited and encouraged by the workers of the Pluralist Executive Committee. The vast majority of them have gotten themselves “Ujkëndi” without merit and foreign travel. Examples to mention are those of yesterday and of the enslaved and other everyday ones. Taking advantage of the difficulties of the transition we are going through, two or three foreigners began boarding ships at first and then, allegedly informed by the difficulties of Leges, Brindisi and Otranto, they landed on the Italian coast, those wrecked ones who made the departure, paid in advance and left for 10,000 new lek. With this intentionally objectively (?) immature work, in the anti-mir toll program 18 ar delightful and doorless? The news spread, and ship people ran after Alia. The offer of the brain and body; the price of- BESNIK VULA (Continues on page 2)

THIS 5 MAY THE MARTYRS WILL BE FREE We war veterans, on this coming 5 May, which for the first time will be celebrated as a free day in Albania, bow with respect before the martyrs, before those who fell for the true freedom of the Albanian people. Our people have honored, and will always honor, their ideal and their work. The former communist regime, with all the pompous façade of tributes to them, did not follow their ideals: some of those who heroically fell for Albania’s liberation were not even given the title of martyr by the communist regime, the red dictatorship. Many martyr families, for various reasons and because of the absurdities of the communist regime, were imprisoned, interned, and persecuted. Today we veterans and true democrats feel liberated in every respect. We are happy because, after so many years of communist bondage, the honor of the martyrs has finally taken wing. We war veterans will keep the testament of martyrs such as Qemal Stafa, Shyqyri Ishmi, Himit Shqau, and thousands of others as our most precious treasure. This 5 May the martyrs too will be freer. From the Association of Independent Democratic Veterans of the Albanian People’s War

“The Economist” published in one of its March issues: The past of Eastern Europe The labyrinths of justice - “The Economist” published in one of its March issues: - What should be done with those who served communism in Eastern Europe? This is not a simple problem for new democracies. Issues of law, morality, and political and economic interests are intertwined there. - In a session of the Czech parliament that lasted three days in a row, the deputies, by an absolute majority, declared their own servant “guilty” of collaboration with a foreign enemy and an attempt to flee. A proposal for a referendum failed. The deputies, exhausted by then, voted for the death penalty. Two attempts to suspend this lynching on 21 January 1793, citizen Louis Capet — Louis XVI — went to the guillotine. With the exception of the king of Romania, the anti-communist revolutions of Eastern Europe were not bloody. The death penalty, for political purposes, was abolished in this region. Nevertheless, leaving aside the methods of punishment, the problem of political justice is as difficult for Eastern Europe as it was for a divided parliament in Paris 200 years ago. For post-communist societies, the proper way to settle accounts with those who ruled them under communism is of vital importance, both for the health of the newborn democracy and for the speed of economic reform. Every governing order must make a strong decision about the fate of the old one. Should it draw a line under the past, even if that means disregarding the incompatibility with the level of the old bureaucrats in the country? Yes, think some of the loudest opponents of communism, including President Václav Havel in Czechoslovakia and President Lech Wałęsa in Poland. Hungarian President Árpád Göncz is in favor of tolerance. The German head of state, Richard von Weizsäcker, as a young judge had defended his father, a former high-ranking official in Hitler’s Foreign Ministry, in one of the Nuremberg trials. Now he speaks out against witch hunts and personality assassinations. These feelings do not satisfy everyone. Others believe that a new society must be built and cleansed. Democracy, many right-wing parliamentarians in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland believe, requires “de-Bolshevisation.” They see the many signs of public apathy or disappointment and blame, more than anything else, the failure to punish and uproot the communists. Freedom and the blood of tyrants As an alternative between broad amnesty and a purge, some brutal examples can be used as a good compromise. “The free pen must from time to time be frightened by the blood of patriots and tyrants,” said Thomas Jefferson, the third president of America and its ambassador in Paris. But written justice has its traps. The lesson given may be clear enough. Nicolae Ceaușescu, the dictator of Romania, and his wife were shot after an unauthorized kangaroo trial, which convinced many Romanians that the communists were still in power. Soon after came a showy exposure of four of his henchmen, with shaved heads and the prisoners’ oily body odor. That was not enough to change the Romanians’ minds. The unpunished, accused of genocide, were immediately declared guilty and imprisoned. Although they were in fact real, they were widely regarded as victims. Courts can be unjust. Examples may have been gilded as crimes at the time they were committed. Nevertheless, trials of former regimes can make the law look anything but fair. The trial of Todor Zhivkov, former head of Bulgaria, for embezzlement and abuse of office has been interrupted so many times for health reasons that it seems it will never end. The Germans say they want to try Erich Honecker, the former dictator of Germa- (Continues on page 4)

- What socialism left us as its legacy regarding bread. - What “Bread Panic” is and which factors create and deepen it. - The ways to achieve a lasting solution for supplying the people with bread. For those who know, for those who do not know, and for those who do not want to know BREAD - What socialism left us as its legacy regarding bread. - What “Bread Panic” is and which factors create and deepen it. - The ways to achieve a lasting solution for supplying the people with bread. I am sure that the only phenomenon that has not been absent from any town in Albania since socialism is the “struggle for bread.” The tragicomedy of this slogan, of this economic system which we Albanians have now unanimously decided to boycott, can be explained by the simple fact that, despite the importance given in words to this issue, the truth is that those who have worked in bread and flour production have spent their whole lives working in an alarming labor regime, that is, all their lives in three shifts and without rest. And why does this happen? The extreme centralization of bread production in very large factories (or in a single factory in each district) has created an unacceptable arrangement both for guaranteeing bread and for meeting consumer demand for bread. Thus, in the event of a mechanical or electrical fault in this single large factory, all bread production in that factory is suspended. The factors that create bread panic are subjective (Example II, Y. Bufi) or objective (repeated defects in production or trade), aggravated by the further or gradual emptying of bread reserves. The alarmed consumer the next day does not buy as much bread as he needs for one day, but buys enough for two or even a week. However, the maximum capacity of all bread factories under our conditions cannot cope with such a sudden increase in the supply of bread in that district. Thus, even though in recent times “Bread Panic” has begun, factories suspected of the ease of monopolizing such a bread-production line may often cease to function; why is foreign capital or foreign investment not entering this field, at least privately? The answer lies in the extremely low price of our bread compared with bread everywhere in the world (in relation to the dollar). Any private investor who would buy flour at the international import price would not be interested in investing in bread, because not only would they fail to recover the investment, they would also incur losses. That is why state intervention is absolutely necessary in one of two ways: either by investing in the construction of these bread factories, or by subsidizing private producers so that they can invest in this field to a degree where investing money in bread brings them as much profit as investing money in other fields. Up to now the previous governments (of Stability and Technique) have only talked or have taken orders for contracts or loans with extremely long terms when it comes to such a critical issue. The departure of ships. The fact that the technical possibilities for the rapid construction of many small bread factories throughout Albania have existed should encourage the first Democratic Government to take concrete measures to build these factories, being certain that the dollars spent on bread will repay themselves far more than the dollars spent in other spheres of life. GENC TITO DIRECTOR OF TRADE ENTERPRISE DUKR