YLLI RAKIPI In the Tirana Court building there is a small office, almost like a basement, called the land registry office. Two women move about inside the office, often bumping into each other because the space is so small. Outside, dozens of people wait in vain, simply because they have got used to it, because they know it is almost impossible to get anything done. “Only ten people a day. If your name is on yesterday’s list, wait! The others are wasting their time,” one woman shouts, and then the other does too. The two women handle some registers yellowed with age. In these registers, as in the 1800s, all the property of the people waiting outside has been registered. From time to time, from the constant turning of the pages, the poor women are left holding the rotting pages of the registers. Imagine for a moment if just one name were torn off. That would mean that one of the people waiting outside would no longer have the right to the property. After that, the person deprived of the property would run around trying to find it by other means. Perhaps getting into conflict with other people, perhaps fighting and killing one another in the streets... And all this because of the indifference of minor officials, bureaucratic officials who have begun to stop recognizing people, to stop seeing their troubles, worries and pain. Minor officials are directly connected to the people. If they do not see and do not work, the state does not function. Thus, minor officials can bring honor to the state, but they can also bring it shame. Let us look specifically at the case mentioned above. What does the Tirana land registry need in order to function as such? The answer is very simple: a space two or three times larger, two more employees and a computer. It would be ridiculous to ask whether these few conditions could be provided. Above all, this concerns two or three women. Let us remember that the minor officials of Tirana Municipality have hundreds of offices like this. Countless phantom parties and associations, nobody knows how or why they were created, administer buildings and offices that make anyone who passes by envious. If the minor officials of Tirana Municipality wanted to, they could work wonders. It is hard to say how they have filled Tirana with kiosks. Sometimes you can find three of them in just 50 square metres. This means that the kiosk operators have found the officials’ weakness. The minor officials have got the hang of certain parts of the job. For example, they know how to allocate surplus housing; they also know how to allocate plots of land... So minor officials know how to do many things. Many others pretend not to see. One of these is that basement land registry office, and the endless line of people. “Every day, only ten people,” the woman whose turn it is to shout mechanically yells, and the many people leave, rather bewildered, as if they had been made fools of by the minor officials. Minor officials who can bring honor to the state, but can also bring it shame...

An agreement on military cooperation between Albania and Austria was signed in Tirana. “Today’s agreement,” declared Zhulali, the Minister of Defense who signed on behalf of the Albanian side, “will serve the further reform of our Army.” Dr. Fasslabend, the Austrian Minister of Defense, described the agreement as one of the most important steps.

The Tirana Court, during the hearing held on Tuesday and presided over by Agim Bendo, returned the investigative file for further investigation before the court gives its ruling. The court’s decision requires the prosecution to make every effort to have other people testify in the Nano case, such as Arben Alia, the son of former President Alia, the administrator of Levante Co, Giuseppe Perniola, and the former Italian ambassador in Tirana, Torquado Cardilli, and also to seek the assistance of the Italian state’s legal bodies. The decision also called for Ramiz Alia, Adil Çarçani and Shefqet Kani, former deputy prime minister and the Nano government, to be summoned as witnesses. Thus, there is a strong possibility that the charges of abuse of office and falsification will be joined by a charge of corruption, but Nano has also been accused in the press.

The Delvinë District Police Commissariat detained Meto Ahmeti and Kanan Ahmeti, father and son, after they had secretly cultivated the Cannabis Sativa plant in the village of Finiq, from which drugs are produced. The police commissariat announced that, following a swift operation, 22 kg of this plant were seized from the perpetrators as they were preparing to transport it. In connection with this case, the district prosecutor’s office ordered their arrest.

150 decisions issued. 4,000 applications expected to be reviewed There are only two weeks left before the deadline for submitting documentation for the return of properties and plots of land in the city expires. Under the approved law, November 15 is the final day, while the commissions established at the municipalities cannot cope with the influx of applications. In Tirana alone, 850 decisions are expected to be reviewed. So far, the commission has issued only 150 decisions. The number of applications is expected to reach 4,000. According to property owners, the main difficulty lies in preparing the technical documentation and in the land registries. Ten days ago, in a letter sent to the President, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice and the Chairman of the Court of Cassation, Rrapo Danushi, the leader of the “Property with Justice” association, called for “the Land Registry to continue issuing owners’ certificates of ownership,” because “the ownership certificate is the basic document without which no action can be taken.” Despite the experience they have gained, the commissions for the return of property cannot cope with the volume of work. More staff are needed, something that cannot be done on their own initiative. The authority to make the necessary decisions belongs to the Central Commission for the Return of Property, which has not yet been established. Law No. 7698, “On the Return and Compensation of Property to Citizens,” was passed by Parliament on April 15 of this year. The Council of Ministers’ orders on the establishment of local commissions in the districts stated that this “must be completed by June 30.” “Republika” correspondent In Tuesday’s television magazine programme, it was reported, through a statement by MP Alimhillli, that the Albanian Parliament had made several amendments to the land law, granting the local authorities full powers to use force in cases where the law in force is not implemented. MP Alimhillli said that “this was achieved by consensus among all the political parties represented in Parliament.” We wish to inform the public that the Republican MP Celiku, expressing the PR’s position, voted against this law.

Speaking of backstage dealings... Zhorzh Simonon, when he wrote,

They are seeking improvements to the regulations and their liberalization. On some points they are right. The Ministry of Education should be closer to them, because the truth is that their concerns have to do with student life. But the students are also asking for something else, something strange. Something almost against their own interests. In the new regulations there is a clause stating that attending lectures is compulsory. Some students do not like this obligation. Those who drafted these regulations had many problems facing Albanian education in mind when drawing up this clause. The essential point is that they wanted to preserve the school; preserving it requires a great deal of work. First, students have to attend lectures. Tëxel? pohojua? mungojnë And this is the irrefutable argument for attending lectures, even if attendance is compulsory. They do not like this obligation, but there is another alternative: they can simply not go to school. Asking not to attend lectures is just like asking for a correspondence school. Albanian students really do need to enter a new kind of school, but that does not mean they should rush toward indiscriminate liberalization. Albanian education has its own particular characteristics. Here, the prevailing attitude is still that one should obtain a piece of paper from school rather than actually attend school. To overcome this attitude, students must first do the work themselves, and that cannot be done without attending lectures. Our school has many shortcomings. In its second phase it was simply politicized. Moving toward a new school requires work and dedication. The students themselves must do this. Ultimately, no one is inviting them to take the school forward.

Greek mass media have stepped up their slander against the Albanian police, providing false information about incidents, especially in the southern regions. Thus, in recent days Greek television has continued broadcasting reports that a 70-year-old woman died in her home at dawn on October 22, supposedly as a result of police action. It is regrettable that Greek mass media are exploiting even such serious tragedies to deceive ordinary people and make their lies seem credible. Regarding this incident, the Ministry of Public Order clarifies that the 70-year-old woman died as a result of a sudden, prolonged illness, and not because of the police at all. It is true that on October 21 police forces went to assist the land-allocation commission in the village of Kronë, after some of its residents objected to the allocation of land in accordance with the law. But they continued to object even after the law-enforcement forces arrived there. In these circumstances, the police intervened and dispersed those violating the law, detaining four of them. This incident between the police and some residents of the village took place at around 12 noon. At dawn the following day, the elderly woman died of a myocardial infarction. And Greek mass media and their representatives in Delvinë are blaming the police for her natural death. We emphasize that, moreover, the elderly woman had not been at the place where her fellow villagers had gathered. Such false, highly deliberate and malicious reports do not in the least prevent the police from rigorously enforcing the laws of the Albanian state.

Following the Democratic Businessmen’s Associations, new economic groups have been formed or are being formed in many more parts of the country. Following the Democratic Businessmen’s Associations (BBD), new economic groups have been formed or are being formed in many more parts of the country. The Associations of Persecuted Businessmen (BBP): Rebeka Pollozhani, director of Economic Advancement at the Committee of the Politically Persecuted, said that these groups have now taken full shape in the districts of Tirana, Shkodër, Kavajë, Lezhë, Durrës, Elbasan, etc., and that the committee will ensure all the links between owners who have been persecuted and the state apparatus, and will help them obtain licenses. The committee’s strategy is privatization and the acquisition by these new groups, mainly, of construction properties, so that the very acute housing problem can be resolved by the persecuted themselves. Another area of work for the Committee of the Politically Persecuted is organizing similar groups in the agricultural sector as well. The first example of this kind is the Association of Persecuted Farmers, who have been granted use of land on the property of the former Gradishtë internment center, Sektor. The Directorate of Economic Advancement has drawn on American experience to develop the so-called pilot program, which will serve as a guide for these new groups and influence their access to long-term, interest-free loans.

Zhorzh Simonon, when he wrote, typed directly on a typewriter. The monotonous sound of the keys gave him the image of a guard’s footsteps in prison, and this stimulated his imagination. Today, Fatos Nano, in prison, also finds inspiration in writing by hand. He talks about the backstage dealings of those now in power, those who took power from Nano in free elections and who will likewise relinquish it if, in 1996, the majority of Albanians are not satisfied with them. But Nano initially forgets the backstage dealings in which 8 million dollars were squandered. He forgets the backstage dealings of the 10th Congress of the PPSH—when, as he himself says, the latter was breathing its last—when the Slavic prostitute PP turned overnight into the European PS. Ultimately, Nano does not remember the backstage dealings that made him chairman. Nano says nothing about the backstage dealings that have forced him to be an ally of Enver Hoxha and never to speak out against him. On the contrary, he (it is not) known what backstage dealings made him recall in Switzerland the words about his “father.” These are the backstage dealings that cost and continue to cost Albania, Mr. Nano, not the wrongdoing Berisha supposedly committed by bringing down the government of stability. Why don’t you say what this government cost Albania? If it served the interests of a handful of people, that is another matter, one that perhaps truly does credit you as a government official. Indeed, careers in politics, as in business, may take different paths, but honesty is what determines them, even if not always in the same way. You are “clever,” Mr. Nano. But “clever” people are either understood by everyone, or understood by no one. You have chosen the latter. So that even when you write calmly, away from daily troubles and noise, you complicate things and, as always, say nothing. GJERGJ J. PILIKA

On Monday, the capital’s madwoman N., dressed entirely in black, was seen at 7:00 in the morning moving around the massive Radio-Television of Albania building. The many curious onlookers approached her to tease her, but she remained silent and enigmatic. At 9:00 she left, only to return at 12:00, holding aloft a placard that read: “I want to conduct a political interview with the journalist Artan Telepena.” “But why with Artan?” one of the curious onlookers asked her. “Because the others asked me only about politics,” the madwoman explained. “Today the thinking people have their day to be depoliticized, and I have no intention of talking about politics.” After these words, many curious onlookers gathered around her, including those who had assembled for visas in front of the Italian embassy. Suddenly the madwoman forgot what she had said moments earlier and said: “I have just come out of comrade Fatos’s cell, and I want to inform you that he is in very good health. He has gained 18 kg, and I am sure no one would recognize him if they saw him. This is perhaps the most unusual case in the world, where prison serves as a fattening ward for a politician. What is strange is that only comrade Pali has wasted away and can barely stand. I want to explain to you that comrade Fatos’s face and comrade Pali’s madness are connected to an important cause that, for now, should not be taken into account. I inform you that comrade Fatos has finished writing two more letters, longer than the one he sent to Preçi. In these letters he hints at some powerful backstage dealings that would astonish even the dead. The letters will be delivered by hand, one to comrade Xhelil and the other to a person who is not particularly well known to the public.” The visit of the AD delegation was very well received, not only by the European Community but also by Islamic countries. It is thought that some international institutions will be dissolved and their work assigned to factions that will emerge from the AD party. The great November holidays are approaching, and a large march is expected by former communists who are struggling to make ends meet. Namik Dokle and Sokol Lazi will lead the march. It is said that the Ministry of the Politically Persecuted will be privatized by the Socialist Party. These days they say they will seek political asylum at another embassy, along with an important party figure who has sold over 1,000 visas; the Greek press in Albania will become insignificant. The Balkan-Greek Journalists’ Confederation will be headquartered in Tirana. KRONIKANI

On Monday, October 25, at 17:00, the Sixth Republican active meeting was held at the Tirana branch. For the election of Tirana’s delegates to the Congress of the Republican F.R., which will be held on November 12 in the city of Elbasan, 50 members of the Tirana branch were elected to the Republican F.R. More than 60 members and supporters of the Republican Party took part in this meeting. The meeting was opened by lavdije Vrezi, secretary of the Republican F.R. at the Tirana branch. Eni Ciko, chairwoman of the Republican F.R. at the Tirana branch, spoke about the activities of this branch, from which 50 delegates to the Congress were elected.