The leaders of the Socialist Party told President Berisha on 30 December last year that the sentencing of Fatos Nano would create uncontrollable situations. Two conclusions can be drawn from such a statement: the Socialist Party is presenting the case and declaring him innocent, and it is openly threatening to plunge the country into anarchy if the Court makes a decision contrary to this prejudgment. Mr. Berisha saw no reason to be intimidated by such unprecedented arrogance in the face of the sentence and maintained his dignity. His statement that the situation is, and will remain, under control was commented on by a newspaper as a display of dictatorial leadership. Surely, to be a democrat, he was not supposed to say that the situation was out of control and about to explode? Regarding the Nano case, the Republican Party has said from the outset that no one can be prejudged through rallies and that, as a democratic state, we must always adhere to the inviolable constitutional principle that an accused person is considered innocent until the Court has delivered its judgment. In a free country, public opinion may accuse any individual, but no one except a judge has the right to send someone to prison through rallies and haste, much less to determine the sentence; no one except a judge has the right to acquit the accused of the prosecutor’s charges. Albania will never become a state governed by the rule of law and a democratic order unless justice is placed on this track. In accordance with these principles, which are scrupulously respected in every free country, we do not take it upon ourselves to call Nano guilty or innocent before the judge reads the verdict. We know only one thing: millions of dollars were misused in Italy’s humanitarian aid, and this is being investigated in both countries. This was an abuse involving the bread rations of hungry children, which arouses deep feelings in every citizen. But even in such a case, only the judges will say whether there was abuse and who should be punished. Throughout this period, the Socialist Party has complained of violations of legal procedures. It has the right to denounce any action it considers a violation of human rights. But it was absurd to seek citizens’ signatures to free the accused Nano before the case had gone to trial. It was anarchic and undemocratic to summon citizens to rallies and demonstrations for his release, taking the matter out of the hands of the only institution entitled to make such a decision: the Court. It was undemocratic for a speaker at a DP rally to declare that Nano would be in prison and even to specify the sentence. All this is a remnant of the past and must disappear from civic life in Albania once and for all. We are now faced with another extreme act that crosses every legal boundary and the limits of democratic freedoms. Socialist Party leaders go to the President and demand Nano’s release, and if the President does not do this, the alternative is an uncontrolled situation. What is most surprising is that this is happening just before Parliament closes, when the Socialist leaders are at the helm. Such an action does not conform to legal logic, because the President cannot be vested with the right to imprison or release a citizen without a court proceeding. Knowing this, it is entirely unjustified to tell the President that there will be hell to pay if he does not comply. Regarding this crude and irresponsible threat, one is led to suspect that the Socialist Party leadership must have some sort of plan. But they can hardly believe that the Albanian people will take to the streets and engage in “uncontrollable” actions if the court finds Nano guilty and sentences him in accordance with the law. So what is this threat based on? One’s suspicions go further, towards some instigation from abroad, from forces seeking to destabilize Albania and believing that the Socialist Party can serve this purpose, consciously or otherwise. In any case, we believe it is unwise to let threatening phrases fly about. The Albanian people have had enough of such games, and the public will not be swayed by the cheap and unfounded strategies of any party. The people have many problems of their own, whose solution requires wisdom, order and open dialogue, not conflicts over things that do not exist. If anyone seeks to make threats, democracy must resolutely defend the law. Executive Board of the Republican Party

In politics there is a rule that politicians must not break: care in the words they use. People often use words to express their ideas and communicate. For example, during totalitarianism, we constantly saw the word “suicide” in the press, newspapers, novels and so on. I am convinced that, nevertheless, anyone who used it, if they stopped to consider its meaning, would immediately shudder at it. Self-denial is the most disturbing thing for a human being. And yet the communist press took pride in this word, and people wrote and read it without thinking about it as they should. The same thing happens with the word “revan,” in today’s use of it anywhere and everywhere… It makes you laugh…

Interview with the Chairman of the Assembly of the Democratic Alliance Party, Mr. SPARTAK NGJELA Interview with the Chairman of the Assembly of the Democratic Alliance Party Mr. SPARTAK NGJELA

German MP, Shvarc: In an interview given in recent days to German television and published in the 4 January issue of the newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine,” Stefan Shvarc, a member of the German parliament, condemned the West’s tolerant stance toward Millosheviç’s policy and called on the German government to name those responsible for the crisis in the Balkans. The German government, Shvarc emphasized, should join the United States of America and exert pressure on the English government, which seeks the creation of a “Greater Serbia.” ATSH

The municipality of Ulcinj, whose population is 80% Albanian, has been targeted by the Serbian military commands in Belgrade. According to a report published the day before yesterday by the newspaper “Rilindja,” Gjiri i Valdanosit, known throughout the Adriatic for its beauty and abundant natural resources, is to be turned into a military base. At a recent press conference, the commander of the Serbo-Montenegrin naval forces, Dojçilo Isakoviç, spoke, according to the pro-government Montenegrin newspaper “Pobjeda,” about the construction of a naval military base in Valdanos Bay, near Ulcinj, which will cover an area of 340 hectares. Reacting to Belgrade’s military plans, Miograd Murzan, secretary of the Liberal Alliance Party of Montenegro, stressed that in the former Yugoslavia Montenegro had one tenth of the coastline, whereas 70–80% of the naval force’s capacity is now located in this area. This concentration of naval forces on the Montenegrin coast threatens to turn the republic into a military base, Burzan said, adding that projects of this kind, also planned for localities in Ulcinj and Shkodër, aim to turn Montenegro into a militarized camp. ATSH

— Reflections on great families and the return of property — We still refuse to accept that the world is a kind of game that repeats itself endlessly. It is a game in which we are all both actors and one another’s spectators. Even during the war, quite a few of the country’s estates were nationalized. Thus their owners became the first communist agas. But the agas, after all, did not sit easily with communism, and for this a “price” had to be paid. Naturally, the Communists had to be paid! One way of paying that price was with lives: some of the agas who embraced the cause as national liberationists were killed, with or without trial, while the rest traded their status as agas for positions of power! Such were some of the former owners who belonged to the PPSH. The M’tytiu family, H. Lleshi, etc., gave their estates, their great tracts of land, their çiliva to the people’s power, and through this exchange gained power itself. Nevertheless, communism was a chain process: just as the communist agas gave up their property, all the other agas had to do the same, even the small landowners, the peasants, who could barely make a living from their land and the two olive trees they owned. Nevertheless, their land, their forest, their olive tree, their ox—these were what gave the owner a sense of dignity. Nevertheless, the Lleshis had also handed over their property “voluntarily,” and everyone gave theirs away. Thus all Albania voted 100% for socialist collectivization and later became an enemy of private property, which at every hour and every minute was the accursed capitalism! “If M’tytiu, who had so much property, handed his over; if Myftiu says communism is good for the poor man and the aga, why should you others doubt it?” Everything became the property of the people’s power, the power of the workers and peasants! Meanwhile, the Myftiuses and Lleshises had taken power into their hands. Power was land, olive groves, forests, pastures, the sea, the aga, and the people’s power, too! Why should the Myftiuses or Lleshises have worried about the division of Kanina, Lunxhoja or Dibra, when all Albania was now their estate? Meanwhile, the small landowners, who made up the people, were troubled by the “gift” of their property to their own power! At the same time, the counterparts of the Myftiuses and Lleshises, from Albania’s great families and households—the ones that formed the roots of the great “NATION” of giving—became owners of death, cemeteries, prisons and communist internment camps. The Myftiuses and Lleshises and the other communist agas are said now to regret giving their property to the state of socialist democracy! They are even ready to declare their support for capitalist democracy, hoping that the property they actually gave to the other democracy, the socialist one, will be returned to them! So they are ready to be used as “democratic agas” too, to say again: “We have other properties and estates, and we will reclaim them under the Restitution Law, passed by the pluralist Parliament! It is an injustice to regard as owners all those who work the land! The land law is not communist; it is a democratic law! Yes, this is how we think, we who have been sent…” Faruk Myrtaj

This is about Romania, not Albania! According to a publication by the Romanian Kalin Neasku, ATSH reports that four years after the Romanian revolution against their dictatorship, Romanian hopes of learning the identities of the dangerous informers of their Securitate, who made Romanians’ lives unbearable, are becoming reality. The Romanian Parliament itself adopted a resolution a few days ago stating that “it is unacceptable for people who worked as informers to be appointed, elected, or retained in institutions of national or local government and administration.” The document is aimed especially at those who informed on people because of their anti-communist political beliefs and activities. The Romanian Parliament is expected to consider this bill urgently and successfully, in time for 1994. The Christian Democrat senator Ticu Dumitresku, who proposed this resolution, spent 10 years in Romanian communist prisons (Romanian, not Albanian). He has received a [??] “the informers [??]”; first, the traditions must be established. This is a legal act and rea[r]? The exact number of Securitate informers (Romanian), which was dissolved in December 1989 and replaced by the Romanian Intelligence Service, has never been made public. “A great deal of time will pass before [??] after this law is adopted,” Dumitresku assures us, also stressing that Romania will not take the steps Germany has taken to open the files. Dimitresku does not accept the creation of special courts for the [??] of opposition figures on these lists. According to him, as ATSH reports, after the files are opened, former informers will be able to explain themselves to voters, but will have to relinquish their positions if they cannot provide convincing justifications. President (of Romania) Iliesku expressed support for opening the files of suspected Securitate informers through the Romanian Parliament, ATSH reports. “They pose a danger to society because they can be manipulated and may become targets of blackmail by those who know their past,” Dumitresku declares. F. M.

Happy New Year 1994. — It rang several times in a row, the thoughtful N, on Monday morning in “Skënderbej” Square. Then she climbed onto the edge of the pavement and, as often happens in most cases, delivered this speech: “Dear residents of the capital and visitors from the other highland regions! At last, of my own free will, I have decided that this year I will no longer be independent. After all, what did I gain from my independence? You remember the time when our race was independent. I will join the Women’s parties. This is the most serious and complete party in Albania. It is true that men have climbed to its top, but politicians make it a woman. In the next elections our party will come to power. So far, they have come to power in Greece and Serbia. You know that until today I have not killed any of the independent ones, and I have carried on. I have only broken people’s mirrors with my horn. As for women’s affairs. Since then I have understood that every victory can be achieved only with women. As soon as we take power, we will establish party branches in the districts. Then we will begin building the first democratic state governed by law in Albania. Dear people! During the Christmas holidays I went to write a heartfelt piece about Fatos Nano’s life in Tirana prison. The Tirana Municipality has decided not to give social assistance to ten people from Enver Hoxha’s family, while in revenge they have decided to make a [??] with the sea around them. They say they will also take part in the auction to be held for the villas in the Block. Do you know who will be named Albania’s political beauty queen for 1993? There will also be candidates from the diaspora. The main judge will also be from the Municipality, alias Idriz Beqa. The invitation will be announced at the end of the week. The Chronicler

In this issue: Who can enter Europe Nexhmedin Spahiu p. 4

Anthony Levis p. 4

Mexhit Kokalari p. 3

Gjergj Fishta p. 3

I dedicate the prologue of this first article of the year to Bosnia, because as the years change, no one ever turned back time to see what Bosnia has been like for 22 months now: endlessly, day and night, every hour and every moment. As the years change, no one imagined how an entire family—one father, two children, a grandmother and a boy—could all disappear in a single moment, from a single blast. In a single moment, a toddler left orphaned, without a mother, was also killed, just as the old year had departed amid massacres and macabre indifference and the New Year had just descended from the heavens. And I am convinced that that family of six also hoped and prayed fervently that this newly arrived year would bring them something other than evil. When, how, and why did the war in Bosnia begin? Which Great Power, or which Great Powers, was behind it? Paris, London, Moscow? Or others? Was it one of them, or all of them together?! All this hatred accumulated against innocent people, against angelic children; all this murderous cynicism, all this inhuman spirit devoid of justice? Owen and Schottenberg do not seem at all troubled that their souls will go to hell, and so, with their dry, “peaceful” indifference, they hurry to send the whole world to hell, because vice begets vice and evil begets evil. For example, a year ago no one in the world knew where Zhirnovski’s shadow fell; it took barely a month for him to become a phenomenon. What about tomorrow, what about a year from now? These few lines, written as this New Year has just begun—a year that may it be white for everyone—I dedicate to Bosnia, which, if not for one thing, could have been my Kosovo, my Albania, with all the consequences that would follow. And as I walk along this boulevard, decorated with all the hope for the prosperity the New Year will bring, among these beautiful establishments bearing such famous names as Hollywood, New York, Las Vegas, Paris, Vienna, Geneva, Dolce Vita, which constantly remind you of a modern civilization and repeat that Albania too will soon become like this; and as I walk among these charming little girls who will soon become mothers and give birth to even more wonderful children; walking thus, superstitiously, among these good omens, I pray to God to remove from the Albanian people their hatred and resentment toward one another. Because when I read these newspapers, as if they were Serbian, though written by Albanians as if they were Serbs, sorrow gives way to anger, much more intense than it should be. As if 50 years of insults, offenses, killings, torture and religious persecution had not been enough for Albanians; as if half a century of fratricide and denial of kinship were not enough, they are so eager to provoke—and are provoking—new denials and chaos, as if Kosovo were not enough. I pray to God, and ask all Albanians to pray to God, that Albania may become free. ELIDA BUÇPAPAJ

Yesterday, at the headquarters of the newspaper “RD,” the printing press “Demokracia” was formally donated by the International Medias Fond to the Albanian foundation comprising the newspapers: Alternativa SD, Republika, Bashkimi, Sindikalisti, Drita, Zëri i Rinisë and RD. On this occasion, the chief editors of the seven newspapers concerned and representatives of IMF signed the deed of donation and other legal documents accompanying the donation. At the donation ceremony, the representatives of the seven newspapers thanked IMF for this extremely valuable gift to the free, democratic and pluralist Albanian press, delivered a year earlier than stipulated in the agreement between the parties. Under the relevant deed of donation from the US Government, IMF financed the construction of this printing press, including all its equipment, annexes and necessary facilities, as well as the land and the building on it, for the Albanian foundation called “Albanian Publishing Agency ‘Drita’.” The printing press, organized under the laws of the Republic of Albania, now becomes its full owner. The value of this gift is more than one million US dollars. “Republika” correspondent