From the Socialist Party’s perspective, did Greece contribute to the proclamation of INDEPENDENCE? According to the Socialist Party, is SKËNDERBEU’s son named Jani? For the chauvinist Sebastiano, SKËNDERBEU is Greek and his name is Jorgos

Parliament was to discuss “Human Rights and Freedoms.” The first thing that came to mind was the fact that, for the first time, deputy Gramoz Ruçi would take part in a “sensitive” debate in the Parliament chamber. I thought he might have found out too late and gone to Tepelenë, or somewhere farther away, to his parents’ home. Someone more respectable could have been in the chamber, for example Dokle, Vukaj, Angjeli, or someone else. I learned that Gramoz Ruçi was in Tirana. Then I thought he would not come to Parliament; he would go somewhere on the outskirts, away from the block, and have a drink with his friends. I learned that Gramoz Ruçi had entered the Parliament building. Then I thought he would surely hide in some corner of the café. I learned that Gramoz Ruçi had entered the Parliament chamber. Then I thought he would lower his head and pretend to be ill. Or, when someone mentioned his name, he would act as if he had not heard, and the comrade next to him would say, “He isn’t here.” But… I heard his name (I even recorded that moment); I heard that he spoke in place of his comrade, who could easily have justified his absence; I even heard his voice. He spoke about HUMAN RIGHTS. The First Secretary of the Party of Labour, the conductor of the dictatorship in Tepelenë, the mysterious man at the dawn of democracy in Albania, summoned from Tepelenë to Tirana to call for civil war, the Minister of the Interior and head of Albania’s Sigurimi during the dictatorship’s agony, the man associated with the death of the four martyrs of democracy in Shkodër, spoke about HUMAN RIGHTS. And he defended journalists. Nikoll Lesi and Frank Gjur. He also defended Hamdi Jupe’s lost honour over the search that was carried out at the Presidency, where, in these circumstances, Gramoz Ruçi cannot go through the bars. Gramoz Ruçi spoke. I could not believe it. Not because Gramoz Ruçi defended my two colleagues in front of me. I do not envy him for that. Nor do I envy his tone, since we are both from Tepelenë. I envy him for the courage he showed in speaking. Regardless of what he said. It does not matter whether his defence did my colleagues Lesi and Çupi “good” or “bad”; it does not matter whether someone might make other insinuations about them. I cannot believe what I heard. The little cassette that recorded this strange event seems to me like a technical trick. Gramoz Ruçi cannot have been in Parliament that day; he cannot have spoken; he cannot have been in Tirana, in Albania. Otherwise, that law makes no sense. It is truly “unfounded” if Gramoz Ruçi has the courage to speak about HUMAN RIGHTS. I learned that Gramoz Ruçi defended my two journalist colleagues. I am ready to die alongside them, if there is a person in Albania who has put people at greater risk than Gramoz Ruçi. Once through his laws. Now through his silence. MERO BAZE Chairman of the Association of Journalists of Albania

5 March 1993. Air disaster in Skopje. The “Palair-Makedonia” airline plane exploded in the air after taking off from the runway and travelling a little more than 300 m. 81 people lost their lives. Mostly Albanians. 66 victims were identified. The efforts to identify the others, says the account of this disaster, were followed with grief by the mass media of Europe and the world. Only 18 and five remain unidentified. While other planes waited in line to bring people along the roads of Europe and the world, those passing through it—this deathly disaster—are becoming like the others. “Fate decreed that they should die”: this is what was said in Skopje. The fate of Albanians. Tragedy, flooding and ...? Impossible? Otherwise, the rain? A handful of Albanian lives came to a halt in the cold expanse of 5 March 1993. Tragically, death stopped them. They were almost at their destination. Someone had a little more than 300 m to go. They boarded and travelled those 300 m too (these 300 m are on the road that is the fate of the Albanians). … Not enough. Entirely insufficient for the six … passengers (45 years old) to reach (safety) for 10 people) in Switzerland. (The … had been), she was to meet her wife, she was to change …), 300 m. Just as little for the 6–7-year-olds Fatian, Fatmir and Fkirel Ahmeti, along with their parents. Never before ... Only 300 m of road. Not enough for life. Otherwise, enough—quite enough—for death. The report is cold and bitter. 81 people lost their lives. Mostly Albanians from Struga, Tetova, Gostivari, Skopje, Kumanova, Presheva, Gjakova, Prizren, Gjilan, Ferizaj, etc. 66 victims were identified. The report was not something that was given to Albanians every day in modern times, mixed up with other people. To stop the deaths of Albanians, the fate of the Albanians must be stopped. The Albanian towns of Strugë, Kërçovë, Gostivar, Tetovë, all the way to Skopje and Kumanova, are almost covered in snow. … Silence, perhaps the last snow of this winter. But the cold weighs more heavily on the shoulders of the Albanians. Day by day it is longer, harsher, more brutal. As it has been since December 1913. The iron border drags on. Otherwise. It is fatally determined by the fate of the Albanians. Europe offers the Albanians this “fate” through the drawing of borders, while the two states once again, each in its own way, offer the fatal stopping of Albanians, fratricide among them. Enver Hoxha’s Albania (and after the war Europe left behind with its ...), on this side of the border, prefers stopping and isolation, while the former multinational state, Yugoslavia, opens all roads to Albanians. Besides the campaigns of mass expulsion of Albanians from their lands, that state inspired and enabled another kind of departure. … Execution for Albanians. They take to the roads of the world. What belongs to the fate of the past, and what belongs to the present? Something has changed, certainly. The wall separating the Albanians here from those across the border has fallen. Now they go back and forth too. “For almost 50 years, Albanians had hardly seen other Albanians despite being just two steps away: that has changed.” Yes. And this life can be said to include Skopje television broadcasting in Albanian for an hour. Just one hour. A little more than radio. That strategy of the former state has been halted. Continued on page 2

M. Zego also spoke in Parliament. The deputy. Not the former senior Party of Labour of Albania official. Deputy Zego spoke about human rights, about human freedom. And I remembered that not long ago Zego himself wrote a long article, “Fajik Konica – prince of Albanian letters.” But when did M. Zego discover Fajik Konica? While he was at the head of the murderers’ party in Durrës, until recently, in 1990, he had apparently not discovered that Fajik Konica was the prince of Albanian letters; he had apparently not discovered that this prince, at no more than 21 years of age, wrote: “May it become possible for a person to believe whatever his heart desires, to say whatever his heart desires, to write whatever his heart desires, to do whatever his heart desires, except for things that are against another person’s freedom.” Prince Konica had discovered human freedom and proclaimed it publicly when he was only 21; the “prince” of the Party of Labour, until 1990, proclaimed himself against another person’s freedom. From what planet has FEHMI ABDIU descended into Parliament? Indeed, from what planet has Fehmi Abdiu descended, saying, because he did not want the bill on fundamental human rights to be approved, that human rights are being violated more now than they were under the dictatorship? You could not have been in Albania. You could not have been a lawyer, opened files, or listened to people talk about … and propaganda. There is no possibility. There has never been any Fehmi Abdiu in Albania. Fehmi Abdiu has descended from some planet straight into Parliament. He needs help. Help him. Show him a prisoner’s file, or a photograph of Qafë Bari prison, Spaç, or the others. Help him not to think of Kokalari... Help him.

“My home has been violated,” the madwoman N. screamed, while the chief magistrate stood a little way opposite the public toilets, “so I will not vote ‘for’ the human rights law. Parliament cannot do without my vote. Because I am in Parliament. I have taken off the prison guard’s and judge’s insignia and put on a deputy’s suit. I have washed the hands with which I signed the construction of prisons, the execution and internment of people, and now I have the right to vote. … But I have no reason to complain to Aranit Çela, who signed the Helsinki Charter on behalf of Albania, or to Ramiz Alia... Gramoz Ruçi will be appointed chairman of the Albanian Helsinki Committee. Human freedom will be protected after this. … I will announce a new investigation: Who threw the bomb at the Soviet embassy? The witness at the trials, Fatos Nano, will be the judge. Do you want the file number of the State Security informer—candidate for deputy for the Democratic Party in the first elections, the one whom “Zëri i Popullit” spared and did not denounce? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…” The madwoman N. was suddenly seized by a fit. The people gathered there then watched her scream loudly as she tried to jump down the public toilets’ steps three at a time: “Mouse! Mouse! Mouse!” A few moments later she was seen running toward Parliament, shrieking like a madwoman: “Mouse! Mouse! Mouse! And so on, in Parliament… in Parliament! Who said the minister of the council borrowed 40 thousand dollars from the foreign investors? What did you say? Why did you double the amount? What is happening in Russia? Is democracy being violated or is dictatorship being established? We shall see. Ueli Llaka will leave for Russia. He will leave the strikes in Albania and go to help the Albanians. “Remove from circulation the literature about Greece’s national hero, Skënderbeu.” Signed: Fatos Nano, Sharra, Television. Round seal: “The Party of National Unity and Idajat Reqiri’s role in Albanianism.” Zylfytar Ramzi from Gramoz Ruçi, why? “When will Ismail Kadare return to Albania?”