Deadly diseases, liberated after a long time, as if eradicated from Europe, have appeared in Sarajevo because of the... siege. This is among the latest news from the siege of Sarajevo. What is happening in Sarajevo now, it is said, happened in Europe during the First World War and especially during the Second World War, when such deadly diseases wreaked havoc... After this news was broadcast, among many other disturbing items, what may be expected to happen is the reappearance of Europe’s humanitarianism: some equipment, medicines, and perhaps other things will be requested for Sarajevo; prayers will be offered for God and medicines to save it from Europe’s deadly diseases. But this will not save Sarajevo, not to mention that it strengthens its siege. The strategy for besieging the city must be worked out in a more civilized way. But to do that, first the strategy of the siege must be unfolded. The news about the deadly diseases in the besieged city (beware! These are Europe’s deadly diseases), besides being consumed and swallowed by public opinion, this quite ordinary news has also remained in the European diplomatic circles, and not only the European ones. They are now trying to hide it from their image. The news again says that diseases, liberated after a long time and eradicated in Europe, have been left behind by Europe during this period; Europe has let these diseases in, to be swallowed up in a machine kept running and produced by Europe’s own shameful part, while Europe, sick itself, has been behaving in a divided way. What diplomatic missions and the frequent interventions of mediators in Sarajevo have tried to hide is suddenly brought out by this grim news. Europe calls Sarajevo a civilized city, where even the small Jewish community has lived for 400 years in complete harmony with the other communities, while Europe itself—Europe’s shameful part—less than half a century ago prepared the tragic Holocaust for the Jews. For over 50 years modern Europe has not mentioned the Jews, but honors them; and it has very little knowledge that the small Jewish community that lived in harmony in civilized Sarajevo (even when uncivilized Europe persecuted and exterminated them as if they were not human beings) is now in Sarajevo because of the... siege, and is responding. Why does Europe call Sarajevo non-European? To make a wall of it? To tighten its siege? The worn-out portraits of diplomats who complain about Sarajevo as if it were in newly discovered places and “consoling” it, do not explain at all that here, unfortunately for Sarajevo, there is a reality different from the one in Europe, where deadly diseases “exist” and with which Europe is infected over there... It is bitter to discover! It is nothing new to state that Europe, and not Europe alone, is keeping Sarajevo under siege. Meanwhile, the Western allies, led by the USA, have continued “preparations for possible air strikes against the Bosnian Serbs” and “NATO says a decision will be made if necessary.” These statements come from NATO diplomatic sources and other sources. So it is clear: a possible air strike is not necessary. Everyone understands that it is not Sarajevo’s food reserves, nor UNPROFOR’s bombs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, that are preventing an attack on the Bosnian Serbs in besieged Sarajevo. First of all, it must be understood that “possible strikes” or “when necessary” does not mean destroying the siege of Sarajevo. The statement by the Bosnian leader, Izebegoviq, that “they will not accept any overall peace agreement” for as long as the siege of Sarajevo continues, a public statement to the newspapers and, at the same time, just as public for diplomats, does not await the West’s alleged “eventual” intervention. The siege of Sarajevo must therefore be lifted. The most important thing is much more than the language of that (surely) Izebegoviq, when he says that (Yeltsin, or so he says) is satisfied with the progress of the Geneva talks? A “prospect” of “reviewing the question of lifting sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro.” It is easy to observe that Yeltsin is far advanced in strategic diplomatic language, insofar as he even anticipates (?) the possibility of lifting sanctions, when what can now be said with certainty is that even if Sarajevo is placed under UN control for a two-year period, that will not save Sarajevo. It will not destroy its tragic siege, nor only its siege. Mediator Owen, “tired after a year of hell” in Sarajevo, etc., wants the agreement to be concluded urgently. And the diplomat sent on this mission (Clinton), after failure, is not the only one among diplomats to have something in the “new” plan. Everyone wants to hope for Sarajevo: England, which offers the most promising ultimatums to the siege of Sarajevo; Austria, which will also take in 35 wounded; Ireland, which will receive 10 of Sarajevo’s...; Austria, France, Germany, and why not the USA, to provide houses where the victims of the siege of Sarajevo will be received? Everyone is trying to escape Sarajevo without saving Sarajevo...

News German federal prosecutors have requested proceedings against senior East German officials responsible for killings at the border, first seeking a sentence for former Defense Minister Heinz Kesler, 70, of at least ten years in prison for [unclear]. Sentences were also sought (10 years) for former Deputy Defense Minister Strelac, as well as eight years for a regional party secretary. According to the Attorney General, no justification can lessen the culpability of the above-mentioned individuals. Their claim that they placed the defense of the state border above human life is unfounded and inhuman, and violates international law.

Gramoz Ruci, former Minister of the Interior during the period when many Albanians were massacred along the Albanian border, now serving as Secretary General of the Socialist Party (the Party of Labour), is very likely to become the new chairman of the Socialist Party, replacing Fatos Nano. While some Socialist Party leaders have publicly declared that Nano will lead the party from prison as well, other, unreliable sources inform us that one of the most likely candidates for the post of PS chairman is precisely former Interior Minister Ruci, following the fading of the other candidacy represented by Kastrjot Islami. In any case, both belong to the “hard-line” wing of the PS, but the latter, as has been pointed out, has more or less lost his chances of entering the race for the chairmanship because of statements that were not very well thought out. THE EDITOR

S.O.S. The forests continue to burn This year, 186 forest fires have been recorded, or 1,280 hectares swept by fire and 3,570 hectares completely burned. The damage amounts to 3,857,290 lekë. “If we were to add the ecological damage, the effects of the destruction. We are talking about 100-year-old forests,” says Astrit Fejzo, a specialist at the General Directorate of Forest Services in Tirana. The areas most damaged by forest fires are Mati, Puka, Lezha, Gramshi, Berati. But for several days smoke has continued to whiten Mount Dajti as well. Fires are everywhere. Moreover, they seem far too powerful for people to confront, leaving them with nothing to do but analyze the causes. “High temperatures and drought are the causes of these fires,” says Kujtim Asimi, also a specialist at the General Directorate. But there are also human factors. The tendency to expand pastureland, Asimi continues, means many fires are deliberately started. “So the forest, which belongs to everyone, after it burns (after part of it burns, and because of this [unclear] what remains), becomes pastureland”—perhaps the property of a few people who graze their livestock there. Accounts made up... without an innkeeper, one might say. And what does the innkeeper—the state—do? There are altogether 1,200 forest police officers, without weapons and without uniforms, who are supposed to protect the forests. But can a forest be protected without weapons? Can someone be called a forest policeman without a uniform? Who is responsible for sorting out this problem? “The government, who else?” says Kujtim Asimi. “The government has one tendency; a law has been passed. And this is only to protect forests from misuse. Because when a fire breaks out, another issue begins. The fire has to be put out. And the specialist insists: ‘A fire cannot be extinguished with pickaxes and shovels alone.’” GJERGJ PLIKA

Exclusive interview with the widow of dictator Hoxha, given to our editor in Tirana prison Well dressed... in a room with [unclear] in Tirana prison, the 73-year-old widow of dictator Hoxha feels just as firmly communist as she did in her youth. At a second hearing, she says she wants to join the other women in the re-education camp. Regarding the accusation of economic abuse, she declares that not a single lek entered her pocket. Having recently been left without newspapers or any other information, she agrees to give this interview. —You led the politics of the Albanian state for 50 years. Would you admit that you and your husband were wrong? —Why? We lived a life of deprivation as never before [unclear]? Throughout this life we dedicated ourselves to the homeland. What could I have changed? —How do you feel now in your cell? —I can imagine it myself. I come from a humble family. I am used to deprivation. I lived here even during the hard years of [unclear], and now I am 73 years old. —How do you find democracy in Albania? —Albania does not have true democracy. It is true that there is a free press now, but many deviations have occurred in the fields of public order, exchanges of the Mussolini type. This worries me greatly. As for political activity, I am not with any political party. —Former President Alia is accused of excessive abuses. Do you think he did so? —Certainly not. —How do you explain your conviction? —I knew R. Alia as an honest man. I do not want to say anything because I have my own opinions. I do not know what he has done now, but in the past he was an honest man. —What do you think of PS leader Fatos Nano? —He was a young man employed at my Institute (the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies). An intelligent and hardworking man. —Do you consider Ismail Kadare a traitor? —No! In his interviews and books he has written things about me and my husband that are more monstrous. Kadare was a friend of ours. He came to our home. Nevertheless, as a writer, he remains a good writer. —What do you think of President Berisha? —I have never met him, not even by chance. How does he lead? Certainly not well! In appearance Albania has changed; the old symbols are gone, but the economy... —Albania was a closed country. Was that right? —Isolation had many reasons, [unclear] and Albania’s sovereignty. —What do you consider the successes of your work? —The emancipation of young people and women in particular, and providing education to the whole population. —Was the banning of religion a mistake? —Yes, but this was not an initiative from above, nor an order from Enver Hoxha. Enver gave a direct order for everything to be done and valued as valuable. This was an initiative of the youth, influenced by the Chinese Cultural Revolution. What could we do? —Why was political persecution so widespread in Albania? —Every state has persecuted people who conspired against its power. Persecution here was harsher than it seems. Nevertheless, not everyone declared to be persecuted has actually been persecuted. But collaborators with fascism, for example, are persecuted in every country, aren’t they? —Do you yourself believe in God? —I am an atheist, but I believe in those who fight and are sincere. Photograph of a woman sitting outside, wearing simple clothes.

JANJ DURI [The article is printed in narrow columns; some parts of the print are very small and unclear in the image.] These people, come on, they start calling themselves ‘intellectuals’—have they started writing articles? People like these, we don’t even approach them in the same way as the others, and they continue with the stale justification of the [unclear] after the writing, but admin and the others. With their rusty bells or horns, they make things easier as soon as they appear to be [unclear], as soon as one of these ‘doctors’ knocks at the [unclear] to understand some old language. Then the “intellectuals” squeeze themselves further into their [unclear] and begin to foam at the mouth, [unclear] as if they had a vote on something, a punishment like that. Unable to do anything of value, the “intellectual” puffs out his chest, full of invisible medals, and supposedly points to the visible merits he should be praised for, the [unclear] he created somewhere, knowing full well that achievements are forgotten in time, but the name remains. And a name is a big thing, a name, for the person who makes you stand to attention, has 16 delegations’ attention, even when you say [unclear]. The “intellectuals” are frightened by such things; openly, [unclear] comes from where it is tied, and for... Then he begins to take on the whole public and the [unclear]; everyone seems a traitor, ungrateful. He reaches the conclusion that there is some great [unclear] they do not deserve to be given anything, as if “that one with the stone...” In short, he imagines that some conspiracy has been organized against him, as if he were different, as if everyone had secretly agreed to suppress him, even to [unclear] him as soon as the opportunity arose. The “intellectual” is seized by anxiety, exactly like a hen waiting to be slaughtered after it has not laid eggs. And this paranoia frightens and sterilizes him even more. Throughout his intellectual life, he tried to find the formula for success and, just like Mendeleev, it finally came to him on a beautiful sunny day in the form of an equation: (G+S)=Success, where G = lying, S = servility, i = intrigue. Although these [unclear] were [unclear], these “intellectuals” know only how not to change their [unclear] and their satisfaction. However things change, is it any less impossible for a priest to become a [unclear] or for a [unclear] to become a priest than for a person to remain what he was? It is generally... ...Credibility in the eyes of the public is the real cause of the “intellectual” crisis. With their heads full of values, they slide into the waters beneath their feet. One of the gravest things is that one no longer believes (out of fear, not because of any aggressive play); we call this being like snakes. Since these “intellectuals” have spent their lives without ever criticizing any government, after making sure in advance that everyone is doing it and that nothing will happen to them, they start insulting even those who sow the seeds of discontent everywhere, with a saying meant to [unclear] in advance. Let us try, world, just to get them to do once again what they did before, to become once again faithful assistants of the right-wing party against [unclear], a craft they have long had the chance to learn very well, so that good and evil are defined by the title of a tyrant. A hidden curse has caused them constantly to do the opposite of what they should have done: affirm when they should have denied, and deny when they should have affirmed. They have learned to grovel before someone, to lean on someone in order to advance their careers, and now they lament... In place of demagoguery, they speak of dialogue; out of fear they stammer about tolerance, but by dialogue they mean that only their own voice should be heard, while by tolerance they mean blindness. If they had any real courage, they would immediately close the [unclear] to make room for naturally intellectual young people from [unclear], and, seeing them, would say, forgive me, this liquid flowing here is too diluted; it is no good. Because they alone are the ones who “evaluate.” Somewhat disheartened by Stalinism, they bring out from their subconscious the roots, just enough to accept dictatorship, but not in the name of democracy, which they did not dare even to imagine, but in the name of Leninism. [Unclear] they were and remain extremely backward and [unclear]. Because demagoguery did not increase their [unclear], but took away even what they had. These glorifiers of the most anti-people system, of the most absurd rule, these liars about faith and religion, these apologists for the unscrupulous expropriation of property, these hymn-singers of fratricide, these falsifiers of... (continued on page 3)

“Open, Sesame. Sesame, open! I’ve found the key,” the madwoman N. shouted in front of the State Control Service building, waving the book ‘1001 Nights’ in one hand. “They’ve arrested Ali Baba! They’ve arrested Ali Baba!” Ali Baba with 13 thieves. They caught Alia, they caught 6 thieves too, but they’ll catch them all. They’ll catch all 13 thieves. Sesame, open! Where are they in the geogra... how do you know the caves? Why don’t you tell me, PS, are you keeping it secret? Do we have the key to finding the gold? Ali Baba showed it. Open, Sesame! The madwoman opened the book 1001 Nights, which she was holding, and read: “Hajdin Sejdia is fake. He doesn’t exist. Hajdin of Baghdad exists... None of us exists. Sheherezada exists, the beauty of Baghdad whom the Caliph’s magician, out of jealousy, turned into an old woman...” On Wednesday the madwoman N. really was outside the ICP office with one of those lamps people had passed through [unclear] last winter and with a sack thrown over her shoulders; “Give me a carpet. The flying carpet. I want to set off on a journey.” There are caves not only in Albania but in Switzerland too. Sulo Graci gave me Aladdin’s lamp; with it I searched all the caves in Albania, but found nothing. The cave beneath Enver Hoxha’s house had been emptied. Ali Baba and the 13 thieves emptied it. I’ll search the caves in Switzerland. Democracy is giving us nothing. I ask for nothing. Only human rights. Not even that? You give me nothing. Who cut Fatos Nano’s hair without following the barbers’ regulations?! Who?! The regulations say the head must first be wet, then shaved. We shaved him without wetting it. This is not a game, nor is it in the interests of the most privileged sections of society. It is not a game! Fatos [unclear] us all, but in the end he wetted us. And with fruit juice, without [unclear]. But I’ll tell you a secret: Fatos has outsmarted you. He is reading Zëri i Popullit again... through a secret tunnel, which they will never discover. THE CHRONICLER

In the next issue you will read: by BARDHYL MATRA XHIU

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