Throughout yesterday morning, representatives of the hunger strikers in Kukës gathered to elect a delegation that would come to Tirana to discuss their demands with Prime Minister Meksi. According to the latest information received by the editorial office, the meeting will take place today. The strike in Kukës could be called off at any moment, but it could also continue for longer. It could be called off because both sides are ready to sit down at the negotiating table. That would be the fairest, best solution. The Migjenian poverty of the area cannot be swept away in the blink of an eye. And this needs to be made clear to people. Nevertheless, that does not mean today’s authorities are without responsibility. The problem must not be allowed to grow. Let the events in Kukës serve as a wake-up call for government officials. This strike may continue further. It may continue because there are people interested in keeping it going. These people are watching for it to continue. They are those who have left power, and who these days appear in Kukës sometimes wearing their party frock coat, sometimes their parliamentary mantle, and most often “to give them encouragement.” Today, representatives of the strikers are expected to meet Prime Minister Meksi in Tirana. We hope the outcome of the meeting will coincide with the end of the prolonged strike.

President Berisha’s three-day visit to Romania The final day of President Berisha’s visit to Romania began with a visit to the Church of the Albanians in Bucharest, a name connected with the activities of Romania’s Albanian community at that church. With a change to the announced program, the President received Romanian state television journalists and several journalists from various newspapers in the morning. At a meeting lasting about an hour, President Berisha received Mr. Emil Kostadinesku, President of the Romanian Democratic Convention, a representative of a political alliance representing the opposition in Romania’s political life. At midday, talks between the two delegations were held at Cotroceni Palace, followed by the signing of the Treaty of Understanding, Cooperation and Good Neighbourliness between the Republic of Albania and Romania. Almost all of yesterday’s Romanian newspapers, as well as television stations, covered President Berisha’s visit to Romania through news reports, interviews and press statements. Most of the articles highlighted the rapid pace of reforms in Albania, Albanian policy toward the Balkan crisis, and bilateral relations between Albania and Romania. At the separate meeting with the political opposition leader, Mr. Emil Kostadinesku, President of the Democratic Convention, which includes four opposition parties represented in Parliament, President Berisha began by expressing his respect for the martyrs of TIMOSHOARA and emphasizing that the fall of Çaushesku’s regime had been a signal that invigorated the democratic spirit in Albania. The discussion then focused on the problems and achievements of reforms in Albania and Romania. At midday, at Cotroceni Palace, the two delegations concluded the official talks of this visit. During the talks, both sides recognized the importance of developing bilateral relations and strengthening their legal and institutional foundations. In this context, they discussed eliminating double taxation and encouraging investment, as well as technical and scientific cooperation. They also discussed the situation in the Balkans, where the Albanian side made its position clear on respecting the democratic space of Albanians wherever they are, and on this being an essential condition for peace in the Balkans. Mero BAZE

Zagreb – The United Nations say that Bosnian Serbs are violating the terms of the agreement on the “UN safe area” for the Muslim enclave of Gorazhdë and warn them not to test the resolve of the UN and NATO. A UN spokesperson said that the Serbs are blocking the UN logistics convoy on its way to Gorazhdë and preventing the evacuation of the sick from the city. They have also failed to withdraw their soldiers and a quantity of weapons from the city’s surroundings, as required. The UN Secretary-General’s special envoy, Yasushi Akashi, sent a letter to the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karaxhiç, asking him to make efforts “to avoid a worsening” of conditions in the exclusive zone, Makjell Willians, Akashi’s spokesperson, announced. (Reuters)

Warsaw – Poland is ready to send some of its soldiers in support of the American forces deployed in Macedonia. This was stated yesterday by Polish Defence Minister Pioter Kolodziej, who announced that his country is able to make a concrete contribution to the peacekeeping military missions of the Western European Union and NATO. The Warsaw newspaper “Gazeta Veloborça” points out that the problem lies with the money, which international organizations reimburse to participating countries after considerable delays. Minister Kolodziejçik, meanwhile, expressed his conviction that the Polish government “will find the necessary 18 billion zlot or secure low-interest loans” to send to Macedonia 180 soldiers already trained and prepared to serve in UNPROFOR units.

Now, after the end of the Cold War, NATO—from a military alliance created to protect Western countries from the Soviet Union and communism in general, which had been highly expansionist after the end of the Second World War—is now moving toward transforming itself into an institution intended to protect the European continent from wars and other tensions of every kind, by building a collective defence system that will also include the former communist countries of Eastern Europe. The “Partnership for Peace” initiative proposed by the USA and supported by all European countries serves this aim, and our country is now joining it as well. At a recent meeting, the European Union, which unlike NATO is exclusively European, decided to bring some Eastern European countries closer to NATO structures. According to EU leaders, the main criterion for this rapprochement is the danger that some countries may face from Russia, which “is capable of any surprise.” Thus, the list of countries to be brought closer to NATO structures will include Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and the three Baltic republics. As can be seen, six of the above countries were former members of the Warsaw Pact, while the three Baltic countries were republics of the former Soviet Union. Thus, in the event of a particular situation arising, they would be the first “prey” Russia would target as former areas of its influence. The above countries will have the right to take part in one of NATO’s sessions, and will participate in some joint exercises, but naturally will not enjoy the rights held by the partners of the North Atlantic Alliance. Naturally, when one does not see Albania on the above list of countries, one feels regret: why was our country not also admitted to NATO’s “waiting room”? It would be absurd, I think, given the political situation, or perhaps a malicious intention, to claim every time Albania is not admitted to a European institution, such as the Council of Europe, that Albanian policy is to blame. If we return to the list of countries that gained the right to move closer to NATO structures, we find that it includes none of the states that emerged from the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. This fact shows that countries caught up in the conflict that erupted in the former Yugoslavia would be an unpleasant “burden” for NATO. But in this respect, the issue is not simply that NATO’s move toward the countries of the East has not included Slovenia, a country that was indeed part of the former Yugoslav Federation but is the Eastern country closest to the West, both in its economic structure and in its links in other fields. Moreover, Slovenia is not exposed to the risk of war in the same way as Albania and the other countries associated with the former Yugoslavia, and it has no ethnic problems with the other parts of the former Yugoslavia. Perhaps the issue of disputed territories between it and Italy may have had an influence in this “regard.” As for Albania, although it was not part of the former Yugoslavia, it nevertheless risks being drawn into the conflict, perhaps more than any former Yugoslav republic, if it spreads south, to Kosovo and Macedonia, where, as is known, a very large number of Albanians live. Albania would certainly not stand idly by in the face of a threat to the Albanian nation in these areas. As is now known, a solution to the Kosovo problem is expected to be on the agenda of world and European politics. At this moment, Albania’s rapprochement with NATO structures is not considered reasonable by their leaders, since it would place NATO on Albania’s side regarding the resolution of the Albanian problem in Kosovo and, especially, in the event of an armed conflict. Finally, the “laboratories” of European politics have not yet found a formula that will ensure the normal functioning of what was called Yugoslavia and of other areas closely linked to it, which naturally include Albania as well. In this way, NATO is not encouraged to take steps that are very likely to need correcting in the future. GAVROSH LEVONJA

… for a genuine and dignified presentation in Europe… In the first programme RAI UNO broadcast about the mass emigration of Albanians to Italy, one of the women taking part in the studio discussion did not describe their arrival as particularly glorious. “They are people with a little more than a secondary-school education,” she said, “people who have come here in search of a better life. And someone seeking a better life for themselves cannot wish the opposite for someone else.” For the first time, Albanians found themselves in Europe’s view. For the first time, Europe was forced to get to know Albanians. As they were, not as their former state’s propaganda portrayed them. As they were, not according to what some of them had heard, as if in dreams: a place somewhere in Kosovo, in the former Yugoslavia, an Albania that not a few confused sometimes with Armenia and sometimes with Afghanistan. The “shining beacon” on the shores of the Adriatic had not managed to shed light even in its own country. Albanians could not even know themselves. At least, they could not judge how Europe saw them, much less the rest of the world. The introduction did not take place under favourable circumstances; the country could no longer stay as it had been. Almost everything was lacking, from the means to live to freedom. Emerging from these deprivations, Albanians did not find Europe easy—not even Greece, where most of them flocked. What Albanians knew was more or less this: a higher standard of living than in Albania and, after that, freedoms—broad and more complete. Other peoples of the Third World who also left their countries, almost for the same reasons, knew these things too. But Albanians undoubtedly had many advantages. They had always considered themselves, above all, inhabitants of the West, even though they had almost always been under the dominion of Eastern empires. Their spiritual constitution had always remained different, Western. They knew that they belonged to the West and had hoped for it since the Ottoman invasion; they had forged alliances with the nobles of the West and, almost without interruption, at every level of schooling they had studied, for example, the verses Byron had written about them. Through these accounts, in which they were described as brave and honest, noble and proud, they entered late-20th-century Europe, not at all inferior. But, sadly, extremely poor. Too poor to be as dignified as they were in Byron’s poems. Was Europe really so ready and prepared to receive these late-arriving emigrants, emerging from the harshest Eastern communism in search of a life that was, in any case, better? Did it consistently show a positive willingness to respect these people forced to leave their country, who were poorer than the rest of the continent but no less proud than the inhabitants of the metropolises themselves? Emerging from a climate in which freedom had been respected less than almost anything else, Albanians, it must be admitted, did not fit the climate they encountered in their clashes. Most of our emigrants in Europe, including, naturally, neighbouring Greece, found hospitality. After all, peoples have never been lacking in human kindness. When Albania needed it, Greece, for example, was there and provided it. Regardless of politics. Yet it is politicians who, as we know, seek to keep neighbouring peoples apart. But it is in the nature of Albanians to do what they ought to do in their relations with other peoples, first and foremost with their neighbours. Without overlooking the fact that Albanians living in Albania and Greece are undoubtedly of economic interest to the Greeks themselves, it must also be accepted—and they too should accept—that hospitality must be appreciated. Our emigrants show nobility, and this is made possible by the Greek reality, which must be taken as it is. Even isolated cases of theft and violence, of crime committed by an individual—something that, for the reasons mentioned above, has also happened among similar people in Albania—do not help present Albanians truthfully in Europe. A misdeed that might readily be tolerated in one’s own home cannot be passed over so easily when it happens in someone else’s. In Europe, one goes to earn a living for oneself—yes, but one must certainly not go there to lose one’s good name. Our emigrants in Europe, and therefore in Greece too, have a kind of responsibility that cannot be merely a moral obligation. It is also a contribution to others. Naturally, Albanians today must not be allowed to abandon or excuse the nobility and other virtues that Byron described two centuries ago, or those our nation has displayed throughout its existence as part of the Balkans and Europe. Long years of dictatorship and poverty have taken their toll, but it would be good to acknowledge that their nobility and humanity are still there. At the very least, an effort must be made to recall the part that long and unparalleled communism tried to destroy. All the more so because our people are not responsible for what happened in Albania over 50 years. “When I saw the Albanians arriving on those boats, it seemed to me that they were coming not from another life, but from another time. You ask me whether I thought well or badly of them, and I insist on not answering that question. I only want to say that these people must be helped”: on this occasion, the guru of the renowned Italian scientist Dino Buzati expressed himself in these words. For everyone, this is an opportunity to show their humanity: for those for whom this help is vital and who seek it, but also for those whom circumstances now place in a position to give tangible expression to this feeling. We Albanians must meet our obligations. Even if these are imposed upon us.

Reports claiming that the Serbian authorities have formed negotiating groups on the Kosovo issue are refuted. Belgrade, “Borba”, has recently devoted considerable coverage to the Kosovo issue. After Douglas Hogg’s visit to Prishtina, articles about Kosovo in the newspaper intensified even further. The newspaper “Borba” also wrote about speculation that the Serbian authorities had supposedly formed a negotiating group on the Kosovo issue. In this context, it cites speculation by the magazine “Koha” and the response of the Democratic Party of Serbia, whose leader, Vojislav Koshtunica, has no contacts with the Serbian government except in parliament. It also denies that there have been political contacts with representatives of the Kosovo Albanians.

It happens like this too…! There are two truths First: Agron Islami is a cousin of Kastriot Islami. Agroni is a neurologist, very well known for his abilities. Kastriot Islami is both a mathematician and a member of parliament for the Socialist Party. (As far as I recall, he was the one who warned that skulls would be cracked (ur) on Tuesday to seize power!). Second: Kastrioti had the opportunity to pursue higher studies in Paris and also to create a position for himself under pluralism. He is now in a senior position in Germany. His cousin, Agron Islami, spent many years (interned) as a doctor in Gramsh. He recently returned to Tirana, thanks to pluralism, and now they have put him on assistance! The reason? He is a cousin of Kastriot Islami! Wasn’t he his cousin yesterday too?!

“I too share the opinion of Zeri i Popullit,” said the madwoman N. Fatos Nano is an intellectual. He was not sentenced as a politician, but as an intellectual. The Bible, which he reads 24 hours a day, says so too. “Zëri i Popullit” calls on Mandela to imprison Del Kerkun. Otherwise, the peace prize will be awarded to Ramiz Alia, as a white president who saved Albania from racial discrimination. Namik Dokle set off for Spain to present the Socialist Party’s views on the Democrats in the 21st century. It is said that Dokle took the other Namik’s hat with him, to be as protective as possible. It is even said that, to be as democratic as possible, the Socialist Party sent Dokle to announce that it was not serious about its demand for early elections. “We are not fighting for power; we seek the ecology of power,” he will say in Valencia. In his absence, Nano’s successor will be appointed in Tirana. The Socialist Party, once it takes power again, will question the ‘Drin e Partisë’ hydroelectric plant and return the land to the peasants, because the party’s day has dried up; but there is disagreement over this with the War Veterans’ Committee. Compromises involving decorations and medals will be sought over the matter. “Koha Jonë” predicts that the Democratic Party will enter a coalition with the Socialist Party to prevent Hidhjet Bejgjit and the other Namik from coming to power. After taxing the winners of last year’s Literary Awards, the Ministry of Culture will also impose taxes on those who are treated by these winners, until they go into debt because of the awards they dared to accept. That way, next year nobody will agree to win. “The chairman of the Greek ‘New Democracy’ has been my tax inspector,” said the madwoman N. Didn’t you notice that neither TV nor anyone else reported his arrival? At one of his meetings, held behind closed doors, there was not a single journalist, not even a single Albanian. He himself did not speak. He will speak in Athens. Since there is a risk that, after Italy, Albania too will be right-wing, Luan Hajdar — the adored agent Vikamen — is to create the Left Front. The first meeting will be held at the Party House, which will take its property back. THE CHRONICLER

The newspaper Borba publishes several articles about Kosovo Reports claiming that the Serbian authorities have formed negotiating groups on the Kosovo issue are refuted. The Serbian newspaper from Belgrade, “Borba”, cites speculation by the magazine “Koha” and its refutation by the Democratic Party of Serbia, whose leader is Vojisllav Koshtuni- ca, regarding the Serbian government, except in

A NA MJATON SOT FISNIKËRIA QË GJETI BAJRONI?