ARBEN POPOCI With the destruction of communism and the holding of free elections in all the states of the East, power was mainly taken by right-wing parties. Even where power was taken by parties of the center or some party with a left-wing orientation, the main opposition parties are right-wing and far-right parties. Examples can be found from Russia in the East all the way to Croatia and Slovenia in the West. In Albania, victory went to a party that can be called centrist, one which during the election campaign also presented some left-wing slogans to suit the electorate, which was quite leftist. Does the fact that the strongest opposition party is left-wing mean that Albania fits the pattern of the other post-communist states? The reasons are that in all these states communism was seen to have weakened, whereas in Albania those politicians remained very strong. All the states in question had carried out a degree of liberalization in good time, which had not been done in Albania. Influence from abroad could not be exerted, because neighboring states were ‘well-intentioned’ and did not kill our border guards or demand rights for minorities, because they wanted Albania just as it was. That right-wing politics is the best politics for the transition period is confirmed by history and by the example of states currently going through this period, as well as by our own country’s experience during this short time. Right-wing politics is greatly misunderstood here and is often associated with fascism, etc. Right-wing politics is conservatism, whereas fascism was a revolutionary movement with social premises; its only difference from communism was that it affirmed rather than denied the national identity (as for crimes, they were equally guilty). First, all those states that have had right-wing parties are viewed sympathetically by democratic states. Not because they have anything against parties with a left-wing orientation, but because they view any leftism in post-communist states with suspicion, as a remnant of communism. The best example is Croatia, where an ultra-right-wing party is in power and, thanks to Western support, is fighting Serbia, which is objectively stronger than it. To build a stable state, right-wing politics is needed to strengthen the state apparatus, which was undermined during communism, when the party came first and the state merely did its work. In poor states like Albania, parties that have been somewhat more socially oriented usually do well. But those parties usually do nothing except make the people even poorer (for example, the communists). A poor state cannot help anyone, including the poor. Those parties that say they will build Swedish-style socialism should go to Sweden and ask how much and how hard people had to work to build that ‘socialism’. The state becomes wealthy through wealth, and the state must return to that, since it is strengthened by it and only destroys wealth through social problems (unemployment, etc.), by employing people and paying taxes. Guaranteeing property and capital is the basis of this process. The left-wing laws we have here today have so blocked the initiative of thousands of people that the state, despite its good intentions, is unable to help them. Some things, based on old models, are done through initiative, and others show that a second law, however old, is more effective than a social law on land ownership. Some say that the latter do not think about poverty. The leftists may think about it, but they cannot help the poor, not with this level of poverty. Right-wing politics consists of favoring the wealthy, who in turn bring the poor along with them. In the situation Albania is currently going through, the leftist spirit is greatly damaging it. People take to the streets to ask for bread, and these opposition parties are happy to do so, but it does not occur to any opposition party to organize a protest for the young people Serbia is killing at the border; as for those beyond the border, it is too much to speak of. After 50 years of unitarism, we need a little right-wing politics, which can freely be called “TRANSITION.”

Albania enforces sanctions and loses 400 million dollars “Albania is one of the frontline countries, irrespective of the UN, in rigorously enforcing the sanctions, and it was believed that the Albanian Government would continue to do so.” These were the words of the general coordinator of the EC and CSCE, Ambassador Antonio Napolitano, at the Meeting of the heads of missions providing assistance with the implementation of UN sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro, held in Tirana in recent days. Albania’s economic losses from implementing the embargo amount to 400 million dollars. Asked about compensation for the material damage suffered by countries enforcing the embargo, Mr. Napolitano explained that Article 50 of the Charter of the United Nations, which provides for such compensation, could be applied to a number of countries that had rigorously enforced the embargo against Serbia and Montenegro.

Kastriot Islami, a member of parliament in the last two legislatures (in the first, under President Ramiz Alia, he was also head of the MPs), was accused by several newspapers and some other people of calling on citizens to attend an illegal rally in “Skënderbej” Square. Islami nervously rejected these accusations in the press for two days in a row, while that evening Television broadcast his recorded, historic appeal: “Antifascist people of Tirana, I call on you to come to the square.” After this, Islami—the doctor serving in politics, the MP—was no longer heard from. There is no confirmation as to whether Islami will be prosecuted under the law.

According to two people who exchange currency in the square in front of the National Bank, seven people who had been regulars there for two years have been absent for the past three days. One of the sources, who did not agree to be identified because they still do not have a license for currency-exchange services, linked this fact to the arrest of Fatos Nano. “I don’t know whether they had licenses or not,” he commented, “but I’m sure they were playing with someone else’s money…”

G. O. and I. K. were sentenced by the Tirana Court to three and four years’ imprisonment for the theft of 758 international passports from the Tirana Passport Branch. The passports were stolen in March. Meanwhile, visa forgers are also in the Police’s sights. For days, the Tirana Police have been conducting a large-scale operation against this phenomenon, the first phase of which culminated in 22 people being taken to the Police station. This trade is highly profitable for those who practice it and offers a certain degree of convenience to those seeking to leave in order to work in other countries.

Drawing: a passport with figures and a landscape; the word “PASSPORT” is written on the passport. Like Rehova

—a socialist’s account— As soon as I heard about the arrest of the chairman of the Socialist Party, I said to myself: lucky him! He has made it into history! Why shouldn’t I make it into history too? Because if they arrested me as well, they could put me in the same cell as Fatos, and there we’d make a formidable duo that nobody could separate. By reading “Zëri i Popullit” and taking part in a few rallies and meetings, I learned that the best way to get sent to prison for “politics” is to insult the President of the Republic. So I rode my bicycle to the front of the Presidency and started hurling all sorts of vile insults at him, in front of the guards and some people whom I thought would testify against me. But both the guards and the witnesses, even the “witnesses,” seemed to have gone deaf that day: not only did they not lay a finger on me, but one of the poor fellows waiting there held out a ten-lek note and told me to go and have something cold to drink. After that I sat down in the garden and wondered why they hadn’t arrested me immediately. Was it perhaps because I was an insignificant person and not the chairman of a political party? Finally, I decided I was quite right to think that way, because they hadn’t arrested Fatos for no reason either, but because he was the chairman of a political party. I went back to some friends and they told me it wasn’t very difficult to create a party. But, since it was summer, it wasn’t all that easy to collect three hundred signatures in the heat. Most of the people I asked said they were already committed to signing; I got burned by this giant, and the madman N. of Tirana suddenly appeared in the capital’s streets carrying a bust of Enver Hoxha in his hands. to signing, so … I did a simple calculation and realized it would be better for me to take over an existing party than to create a new one myself. So, after asking around, I found the first chairman, who had spent all his party’s funds. He said he would treat me if I took over the party he had founded a year earlier; I would only have to agree to pay all the party’s debts. (continued on page 3)

In the village of Qeparo in Vlora, there was an ancient bell, which is thought to have contained gold. The bell was taken to Greece for “repairs,” and another bell was returned in its place. It was sent to Greece from Macedonia, in the presence of Archbishop Janullatos. The bell is still there, but it has a different sound.

Pashko, an economist and politician, was provoked on Saturday by the self-proclaimed independent newspaper “Koha jonë.” In that day’s issue, the newspaper published Pashko the politician’s discussion in full, precisely when Pashko, at least according to various analysts, now occupies the comfortable position of an economist. According to very reliable sources, Dr. Pashko has responded to the unauthorized publication of a discussion he gave a year ago. The Editor

Around the mid-1970s to 1980s, Alberto Moravia, by then elderly, set off for Kilimanjaro to make a series of programs for RAI UNO. One of the largest game parks there had impressed him, and he presented it for a few moments on television with a microphone. “Animals free, people in cages” was in the anteroom [sic]; he described people surrounded by animals and panthers and lined up somewhere by the cars, something that the great writer had provoked himself to do. The journey was prompted by the fact that in civilized society people are usually free and animals are kept in cages. However, this paradoxical inscription warns us that we are no longer in a civilized emergency; we are in the old city, and perhaps that is why they understand it. These things, in a logical way, can be said to reflect a relationship between prisoners and the persecuted. In socialist society, just as in the Soviet Union, the persecutor was free, while innocent prisoners were in prison. In their only Albanian prison… [The text is corrupt in the source.] …the cages should be broken open, which is the essence of a democratic society. It cannot be a democratic society, a humane society, where people are shut in cages and animals are allowed to roam free. Thanks to the victory of March 22, which was in reality a victory for democracy, the first phase of this struggle was accomplished. The persecuted came out of the lofty prisons where they had been locked up; people became free. But it is precisely here that we find the paradox of the paradox of democracy today. Where are the persecutors? They are not only free, but also “happier” and more prosperous than they were when they were persecutors. They go to Switzerland and America, have shops and cars, and power, things they would never have been able to secure otherwise. Some of them were caught by the democratic revolution wearing suits, while the MPRB government was still “in office.” Paradoxically, the Party of the Safari could have saved the same people with this slogan: “Animals free and people at liberty.” In other words, the cages should be broken open, animals should be free, and people should be at liberty. At the same time, the predatory animal in our society cannot enjoy freedom, because our society is only in one of the most difficult phases of transition. True freedom and democracy consist in the space individuals have between one another, in the space that exists between the state and the individual. In all truly democratic societies, even though these spaces are not quantitatively equal, whoever violates another’s freedom and restricts that space is punished. This applies to the terrorist, the common criminal, the thief, the forger, and so on. In our society, where terrorism was built into the system and was even state-sponsored and legal, the number of people who would be convicted of genocide and other crimes involving loss of life would be very large. We cannot exactly boast, as a leader of the PD in Çarshovë of Përmet did, that there are persecutors among us roaming the streets of Tirana (indeed, I would add, the streets of 16 America). Of course, this expresses a reality, but it is nothing to boast about. It shows that we have not yet institutionalized democracy, that we have not yet reached such a degree of human justice that criminals are put in cages. This is not a call for “radicalism” or revanchism, but a demand for revenge. It is the hallmark of a democratic society to punish the guilty. Where are those who, in the name of communism, impoverished, killed, and imprisoned people, and reduced Albania to a leftover, beautiful country? Where are those who travel around Albania, a beautiful and free country, and its beauty? Following the principle of a civilized society that locks predatory animals in cages so that people can be free, and of a peaceful nature in which people are forced to shut themselves away to avoid falling prey to predators, we think this situation is temporary. Necessarily, the logic of events itself, not our subjective desire, will lead to one of two outcomes: either the criminals will remain free and the day will come again when people are shut in cages, or the prisons will fill up and people will walk free. The recent events of the “lawful rallies” of Enverist nostalgics, as well as popular demonstrations against calls to overthrow the democratic government and President Berisha, clearly show this transitional psychology. It was not so much the merits of the PD and the democratic government themselves as the people’s hatred of communism and of this criminal guard that inspired the popular demonstrations against the Enverist guard. This easily proves that if the PD tried to organize such spontaneous demonstrations, it could not do so. People are tired of politics. Some, because of the government’s and the PD’s mistakes, and others, because of the influence of left-wing propaganda, “criticize the government,” but are also deceived into defending it. It is clear that in Albania we are dealing not simply with the government and parties, but with forces that seek a return to the past and forces that seek progress. The problems characterizing this transitional phase are numerous and cannot be solved immediately. But there are some small, subjective steps we can take, drawing also on the experience of other Eastern countries, in order to avert a clash between these two forces. This phase of transition calls for legality and constitutional provisions… Continued: Around the end of the week, the madwoman N. of Tirana suddenly appeared on the capital’s streets with a bust of Enver Hoxha in her hands. The curious onlookers who gathered, as soon as they spotted little Enver in the madwoman’s hands, insisted that the bust was a new version of all the previous busts, but made with a completely new technique that brought it closer to the original. As she walked around with this bust, she shouted: “The arrest of Hidajet Beqiri, the trial of Idajet Beqiri, is a fact of arrest and develops national unity and national unification. You don’t believe it. You are right. I wasn’t the first to say this. Bardhyl Fasko said it, but he too heard it from someone else. The Doctor said it before, and Zeneli said it too, and Musa’Uqini… now I want to ask you, who is mad: me or these gentlemen, from Bardhyl Fasko to the Doctor? What! Do you think a fool cannot be mad? If you want, I’ll write my memoirs. Why shouldn’t I…? My imam has started. Did you see the book ‘Indi Ale anca’? Inside there was also a pamphlet about the realities and importance of homosexuality.” A giant has been discovered! A giant has been discovered! Beware, because Mr. Gensher also suffered at the hands of this giant. The person in question is Shaban Sinani. Territorial detachments continue to gather in Shkrapar. A lightning attack against American imperialism is being prepared, and leaflets continue to be distributed in the town. Four members of the guerrilla units will assassinate Ambassador Rajerson. I want to join the OMONIA association, but they won’t let me. I’ve even changed my name, but apparently they didn’t change it properly. I called on the Albanians of Korçë and Ekskebë not to accept the aid arriving from Europe until Fatos Nano had been moved. Until Fatos is moved, many militant women won’t sleep at night either. A great gloom has descended on us. It has taken over the tavern, and Shushica too. Who will solve this? Doctors Alfredo Paloka and Maqo Lakron have [corrupt text: “shpyr dhii, thera, balena”], or some handicap. Not even the newspaper “Zëri i Popullit” solved the enigma. According to the claim before Parliament, the confiscated national/bourgeois furniture is to be returned. The pardoned bourgeois will get the furniture from the doctors of the few [corrupt text].” THE CHRONICLER

During the last two days doctors of the few [corrupt text].” THE CHRONICLER

“Why should negotiations be held with the Serbs or a partial withdrawal accepted, when so far they have achieved everything by force?” Ejup Ganić Vice President of Bosnia and Herzegovina “The Balkans is small and there is no room for large states.” Zhelju Zhelev President of Bulgaria