Cunning Greek hands steal the CSCE offices The report by the CSCE observer, Dr. A. Zheplinski, who monitored the trial of five Albanian citizens of Greek ethnicity, is stolen and, after being falsified, circulated as the CSCE’s final report. “That material is not true, because the final report is in my office.” For the first time in the history of the CSCE’s activities, one of its special reports has been stolen. “Something truly bad has happened. I, too, was told from Vienna that material by our representative (CSCE) concerning the Tirana trial had been circulated. I don’t know either where this material came from. in my office.” These are the words of Mr. Palishevski, deputy director of the ODIHR Office. It is almost impossible, unheard of. Someone has stolen the diskette containing the report prepared by the CSCE representative from the offices of the Polish Helsinki Committee. Another report has been falsified, according to which the trial of five Albanian citizens of Greek ethnicity is being conducted outside legal procedures. Thieving hands have prepared a new report to serve the worn-out Greek accusations. According to Mr. Palishevski, the genuine report will be sent to Vienna on Monday, after the ODIHR director, Mr. Glover, returns from his visits. Meanwhile, the stolen and falsified copy of the CSCE observer’s report has been distributed. One such copy has also been presented to the Tirana authorities. activities, one of its special reports has been stolen, precisely at a moment when the crisis between Albania and Greece is deepening. Greece displays its vulgarity in the most primitive way. The CSCE representative, Dr. A. Zheplinski, gave several press interviews in which he stressed and confirmed the normal course of a judicial trial in Tirana, which Athens prejudges and politicizes as a politically rigged trial, with the aim of using it to preserve the status quo of tension in the southern Balkans. Greece has declared its efforts, through diplomacy and the media, to portray the trial of the five in a dark light—and look, a trial not only against the minority, (continued on page 2) The CSCE observer, Dr. Zheplinski, following the court hearings. PHOTO: P. Omeri

- Violence against Albanian workers and refugees in Greece continues. - Around 40,000 employed Albanians are forcibly expelled. - Greece again violates Albania’s airspace. - The number of Albanian victims and people injured by the Greek police and army is rising. - The Albanian government fully meets the contemporary standard of the Copenhagen Document for the education of minorities. - Athens, which does not recognize the existence of minorities, attacks the Albanian law on the education of minorities. PHOTO: P. Omeri Page 2

KRISTAQ TRAJA: Which article of the Main Constitutional Provisions states that Parliament is obliged to approve the establishment of the Constituent Assembly by a supermajority of two-thirds? Whoever shows me that article will make me resign the very next day. As a co-author of the draft Constitution, I consider this draft Constitution good and acceptable from the specialists’ point of view. Page 2

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, 2 September 1994 The latest escalation between Albania and Greece has reached proportions that will give fresh impetus to the existing crisis in the Balkans. We are following this escalation with concern. The region is an ethnic, religious and cultural mosaic, and it draws its historical richness from this diversity. Respect for this distinctive feature by all the countries of the region is the only way to ensure peace, stability and tranquility. At this time, when the Balkans need calm and stability more than ever, we believe that, alongside respect for and care for human and minority rights, fulfilling the principal international responsibilities—such as respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-interference in internal affairs, and seeking solutions to problems through peaceful means—will serve to preserve peace in the region and will benefit all the countries concerned. We therefore hope that Albania’s measured stance in resolving problems through dialogue will find a response. As a country in the region, Turkey’s most sincere wish is for peace, stability and cooperation to be established in the Balkans. Turkey is ready to continue making its contribution toward this goal.

A big sack full of who-knows-what rags lies forgotten between the two customs posts, the Albanian one and the Greek one. The flags of the two states stand swallowed up by the customs buildings. A light breeze blows, and in the meadow the flags change places. But apparently the wind is quite powerless. To move this sack, one would surely need the refugee’s powerful shoulders, arms that he has all too free. “Hey, another bus has arrived!” shouted the service policemen, who were watching through binoculars. Those words interrupted my meditation on the middle, the wind, the flags and the two customs posts facing each other like two fortresses. I remembered my duty. I took the microphone in my hand and turned toward the group of weak, bare and hungry refugees. “Hey, boys,” they called; he turned his head. He paid no attention to anything. They were looking at the microphone, and their ears heard: “They deceived us. They insulted us. They shoved us. They arrested us. They took us away from our bread. They took our money. They kept us in prison. They...” Raising a cloud of dust. The sack stayed there, weighing on nobody’s mind, its sad existence forgotten. I felt like opening its wide mouth. I came right up to it and stopped, frightened. Its convention with the political map of Europe had by now become a reality. To move that SACK from there, SACK from there, raising a cloud of dust. The geography of the continent. - “Hey, another bus!” the same voice called again. From Greek soil, a cloud of dust approaches our land. The refugees are in that cloud. One of them comes up to the television camera. “Please forgive me, it’s been a long time since I saw my mother. I miss her. I want to make ... in Greece. When they caught him, he had been very gloomy. In a foreign land you can’t find yourself!” I laugh at the sack. I laugh, and then I take it seriously. That sack is not there for nothing. At the very least, it is there to stretch someone’s imagination. Moreover, it is a convention. Mark it on the map and teach it to the children at school! The day goes by, the wind blows, refugees return, the customs shifts change. Only the big sack does not change places. That means it has now become an object, and not at all a forgotten piece of baggage, as I first thought. How long has it been standing there? Who put it there? Why? All these questions lined up without receiving any answer, because the next bus, with a group of refugees on board, arrived again and I went out onto the road. “They beat us. They insulted us. They humiliated us. They caught us while we were sleeping. money. They kept us in prison. They...” Only the sack does not move. From our customs post, the voice of a radio carries news through the air and seems to be smiling. Only the sack in a smile. With the voice, the woman—was she perhaps the ...? The woman in a smile. Only the sack does not move. PHOTO: A. HABANI

The Yugoslav Embassy in Tirana conditions the issuing of visas on a reward or... Page 4 Democracy and the opposition Page 3 The holy alliance Atbinë–Belgrade Page 3 50 years fighting poverty Page 4

- Greece is not seeking any change to the borders, - said the ... of the capital, who spoke in the name of the capital. How long will this continue... Nobody knows except that sack standing between the two customs posts, which are not by chance like two fortresses. It is no coincidence that, on the political map of Europe, that sack is equivalent to a city. Equivalent to a state... Inside that sack are the oral explanations for all the secessions. There are old and new merits. Inside that sack is diplomacy. There are gratitude and ingratitude. Peace and war. Everything good and bad, truth and discord, seethes inside it. It is a convention both ... and ... . You cannot find clothes in that sack with which men, children and women dress. No, in there is Europe’s costume. It is the new fashion. Yes, the newest, the end-of-the-century fashion. And for as long as we have to carry such a sack on our backs, we will continue to hear that refrain: “Hey, another bus has arrived. And in life...” ... a child cried... Nearby was also the grave of Napolon Zerva, and Frroku placed a rose with fresh flowers there. When they returned to Vorio Epir, Frroku climbed aboard in great sorrow. I didn’t know how to console him... “Leave me alone,” he kept telling me all the way. What were they ...? We’ll never become human beings. Frroku is sensitive. But more than that, he is compassionate. If only you knew Frroku’s compassion. At midday on Saturday I was thinking of N, all dressed up and coiffed like a modern politician, going around Tirana making a spectacle. This is a coup d’état. If it were a constitutional coup. Everything that happens in Albania is a coup. Even the constitution is in a coup. The truth has its ... . It is a coupist constitution, it is a coup d’état. And if I say it, all the modern politicians have said it—the cosmopolitan politicians, the perverse cosmopolitans. Long live the cosmopolitanism of modern Albanians. Americans are cosmopolitan too. Albania needs cosmopolitans more than America does. THE CHRONICLER