I will briefly outline the Republican Party’s assessments of some current developments in economic reform and democracy. The government’s enthusiastic insistence on portraying the country’s situation as good, and as having the fastest growth in Europe, gives little reason to hope that measures will be taken to emerge from the crisis in any real sense. The country is sustained mainly by emigration, foreign loans and aid. If we want to look the truth in the eye, we must say that for three years we have been selling our labor in neighboring countries under conditions humiliating to individuals and to the nation. From there, 700 million dollars a year comes to us, only to return there to buy consumer goods that could generally be produced at home. As for the loans, however favorable they may be, they remain debts—a yoke around the neck of the next generation. Given such a reality, it would be self-deception to believe that we have found the right path to development, and especially the road to Europe. The Republican Party believes that a stable economy can be created only on the basis of the growth of a class of Albanian entrepreneurs who will get national production on its feet. Otherwise, we will be left watching cafés and little shops flourish until they reach saturation, since they cannot expand any further. Another danger is that foreign investors will gradually spread, taking control of our capital with much fanfare and turning Albania into a good place to sell goods and find cheap labor, while Albania itself (continued on page 2) ... and work of a legal and ARTISTIC nature... ... also ARTISTIC... ... i ... e ... ... the center of ... prisoners, while reading and ... whispering, because you have no shame, Neshat. In that ... ... Fatos Lubonja confronts you and turns red. But you ... the “hostile ideas” of Fatos Lubonja. In the face of the scale ... ... chance to defend him. Read it... YLLI RAKIPI

I’m looking at this photograph, Neshat! It’s Fatos Lubonja with his daughter... You remember, I suppose, 20 years ago, when you carried out the act of the ideo-artistic examination of his notes, his dreams, his youth. You were a generation... You read this act before the court (you read it as an expert), and the 20-year-old dissident, Fatos Lubonja, was sentenced (along with an additional prison sentence) to 17 years’ deprivation of liberty. That day he was sent off to the galleys of Spaç, leaving behind his wife and two little daughters, both together only 15 months old. Meanwhile, at the end of that same day, you, Neshat, went home, perhaps cuddled your children, and surely put down on paper a few lines of some artistic novel for INTERNAL USE (those works that only you knew and wrote), then slept peacefully, very peacefully. The next day you got up (calmly, of course) and went to work: for new expert assessments, new novels for INTERNAL USE, for editing the files of Mehmet Shehu, Kadri Hazbiu and company, giving them a legal and ARTISTIC color... Those were difficult times, Neshat. Burdensome times. Because... Shehu’s bones had to be burned with acid, but the senior leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also had to be criticized for uncovering the class struggle; then there were the expert assessments... those REALLY GAVE YOU PLEASURE, BUT ALSO WORE YOU OUT. They wore you out so much that they sent you to recuperate in imperial Vienna. That’s how it was, Comrade Neshat, that’s how it was... Meanwhile, the “enemy” Fatos Lubonja wandered through the galleys, went on hunger strikes, and his two little daughters grew and grew, with their father alive and yet without a father. Seventeen years passed like this, and while Fatos Lubonja and thousands of others were rejoicing over a glimmer of light, a bright dream, you, Neshat, were preparing new knives... These are your big knives, Neshat. The new knives of your new clique, for and ARTISTIC color... Now you have become a dissident. The dissident who misses none of the meetings in defense of human rights. From time to time Fatos Lubonja comes face to face with you and turns red. But it makes no impression on you, because you have no shame, Neshat. What was happening back then? Do you understand, Neshat? They were afraid of your new knives... In any case, they emerged from your hell. Forty-year-old Fatos Lubonja found his daughters at the age they had been when he went to prison. Hundreds of thousands of others never found them at all. And you... always with your knives, Neshat... always with your knives, Neshat... always with your knives, Neshat... always with your knives, Neshat... always with your knives, Neshat...

Tirana, 20.09.1974 I, Neshat Tozaj, assigned by the Investigation Branch of the Tirana Directorate of Internal Affairs, by decision of investigator Koço Josifi, to carry out the ideo-artistic examination of the literary notes found in the possession of the defendant Fatos Todi Lubonja, which were written in notebooks. Before the examination, the questions are: This hostile content in form and through artistic figures, in the literary materials and notes of Fatos Lubonja. Identification of the materials I. Fatos Lubonja’s literary notes are written in pen in a notebook with a black cover and a black metal clip. The paper is squared, and writing appears on only one side of the (continued on page 3)

4 years ago... A full four years ago, nearly 5,000 Albanians of all different ages, defying the harsh laws of the communist regime, entered the grounds of several foreign embassies in Tirana. Just as throughout Eastern Europe, the communist regime in Albania, too, had no way to escape. The pro-democracy movements of 1990 in Kavajë, Shkodër and Tirana showed that its end was not far off. But this agony and inevitable end would have lasted longer had July 2 not happened. The regime could not conceal the 5,000 people who had taken refuge in the foreign embassies in Tirana; instead, illuminated by the powerful spotlights of international public opinion, they bore witness with incontrovertible proof to the system’s true nature. Turning themselves into 5,000 daggers, they dealt a fatal blow to the communist dinosaur that had suffocated us all for 50 years. Communism was in the final throes of its agony, and those who remained most silent understood this better than anyone. The rally in central Tirana to condemn the 5,000 “Traitors” cannot easily be forgotten, nor can the thunder of Xhelil Gjoni’s voice and those of the others who, despite seeing the end clearly, continued to speak in symbols about the system’s experience. A full four years have passed since that day, but the embassy events remain fresh and important to remember, because they marked the beginning of the end of the dictatorial regime and the beginning of the Albanian people’s true liberation. (B.B.C) Photo: Armando BabanI Astonishment and fear on the face of the last communist former president after the sentence of nine years’ imprisonment. Four years ago, in July ’90, he still believed that Albania was neither revisionist nor capitalist. Even now, he does not believe that it is democratic.

Is there corruption in the Ministry of Education... Two or three months ago, a tender was held for the preparation of the building where the University of Vlora will be housed. The relevant announcements were also made in the press and on TV, and the conditions for competitors to enter the contest were made known. The committee established at the Ministry of Education was chaired by the director of its economics department, Mr. Ilir Kokomiri. Our interest led us to go and meet Mr. Kokomiri shortly after the first phase of the tender had taken place. As far as it appeared, the bids had been submitted and opened according to all the rules, in front of all the participants. From a small number of participants, the three strongest competing companies had qualified for the final phase. In their presence, it had been announced that the sole winner would be declared within a week. Everyone was in a hurry, since the work had to begin as soon as possible. By September, the former building of the Vlora Party Committee was supposed to have taken on the shape and details of the future university. The week had passed when we went to Mr. Kokomiri’s office

Prishtinë, July 1 / ATSH / - In Kosovo, events were held to mark July 2, the day the constitutional declaration of Kosovo’s Independence was proclaimed. The central event marking July 2 was held today in Prishtinë, at a solemn meeting attended by the chairmen of the branches of the Democratic League of Kosovo. At this solemn gathering, the President of the Republic of Kosovo, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, spoke. He said that the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1990, made possible the adoption of the Constitution on September 7 of that same year, the holding of the referendum on Kosovo’s independence, and presidential and parliamentary elections. President Rugova expressed [text unclear] regarding the delegation of the Kosovo Assembly, which adopted the July 2 Declaration ... ... the Kosovo Assembly ...

Prishtinë, July 1 - Kosovo continues to be at the center of the attention of the International Community, and in this context there are also the increasingly frequent visits to Kosovo by diplomats from around the world, said the President of the Republic of Kosovo, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, at today’s press conference. Prishtinë, July 1 - Kosovo continues to be at the center of the attention of the International Community, and in this context there are also the increasingly frequent visits to Kosovo by diplomats from around the world, said at today’s press conference. Kosovo is an international problem and must be resolved with the help of international actors, he stressed, responding to a question from journalists. Speaking about the meetings he recently held with Western and Russian diplomats in Prishtinë, President Rugova said: «With all these delegations, we spoke mostly about resolving the Kosovo issue, and there is a very great deal of understanding on this matter. The possibilities for dialogue and draft agreements were also topics of discussion ...» At today’s press conference, President Rugova ... for ... present ...

On the occasion of July 2, the fourth anniversary of the proclamation of the Constitutional Declaration of the Republic of Kosovo, the Representation of the Republic of Kosovo in Tirana opened an exhibition by the artist Muharrem MJEKU, entitled «Black and White for Kosovo», at the National Gallery of Arts in the capital. «Black and White for Kosovo» The photographer began working in this field in 1984. That same year, he began publishing in Kosovo’s newspapers and magazines. After the Albanian-language newspapers in Kosovo were forcibly shut down, he worked as a freelance photographer. This is Muharrem Mjeku’s second exhibition, featuring works from the period 1988–1991.

Astonishment and fear on the face of the last communist former president after the sentence of nine years’ imprisonment. Four years ago, in July ’90, he still believed that Albania was neither revisionist nor capitalist. Even now, he does not believe that it is democratic. Photo: Armando BabanI

PR—not even now does it call twenty-three “three” and the twenty-third “three” Page 2 USA ’94 Page 4 Prospects for European integration Page 3 The vassal politics of a dissolute conscience Page 4

Is there corruption in the Ministry of Education... When the winner is declared to be the one who 4 years ago... The beginning of the end of the regime Is there corruption in the Ministry of Education... When the winner is declared to be the one who

To the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Mr. Meksi To the Minister of Agriculture, Hasan Halili To the Mayor of Durrës We, the 71 heads of households of the village of Shkallnuer in the Durrës district, wish to inform you that the vineyards and olive groves of the former Spitalle farm, which previously belonged to our village, are being razed to the ground and turned into wasteland. We demand the return of the properties we inherited from our fathers. But if this Government, to which we gave our votes, does not recognize this right—which we will never give up—then at least the Spitalle land should be given to us within our property boundaries. But instead of doing this, we are being given land for livestock, which nobody needs, and it is apparently intended that more will be brought in from outside. We do not understand this madness and will oppose it by every means permitted by democracy. We ask you to come here and see for yourselves what is happening. We have been waiting for half an hour for the [unclear], and we are also burdened by the trouble that has befallen us. The signatures of the 71 heads of households follow

From now on, June 27 will be marked on the calendar as “The Day of the Genocide of the Albanians of Çamëria by Greek Chauvinism.” Parliament approved a motion declaring this date a national day. The proposal, made by a group of members of parliament from different political parties, was approved unanimously by all deputies. At the same session, the draft law “On Certain Amendments to the Law ‘On Forests and the Forestry Service Police’” was also approved.

The madwoman N, and also the capital’s soft knives, on Thursday at midday, as soon as she left the round table on the topic “Lustration and the opening of files,” made two or three rounds along the former Stalin Boulevard. “The files must not be opened,” she muttered to herself. “They haven’t been artistically edited yet. How can they be opened like that, raw? Where are the artistic editors of the files? Where is...?” After this, eight crazy words went off, only to appear the next morning in the early hours at the big market of Fusha e Zezë. She took a large bag from her shoulder, opened it, and, moving among the many buyers and sellers, said: “Buy knives! Old knives and new knives! Old knives, 100 lekë apiece. New knives too, at unbelievable prices. The old knives were very good. Strong; the knives for domestic use were especially good, but there were soft knives too. According to the largest independent newspaper in Albania, crime is increasing day by day. Suicide in particular has increased. What is this government doing? If Enver Hoxha were alive, he would have sentenced all the criminals. He would have killed the suicides himself! Who is that great publicist with one foot in Montenegro and the other in Greece? On Saturday, at 10:00, the capital’s madwoman N mistakenly opened [something] in the State Security Files Archive and began mixing up the files, changing their places in the index cards. After two hours of searching, she tried again to put them back in their previous positions. Then this work wearied her and, muttering something about one of them, she went outside shouting: “I’ll burn them! I’ll burn them!” Where is Gramoz Ruçi? Why hasn’t he submitted a request for information? Why hasn’t he listened to the file? THE CHRONICLER