Recently, and certainly spurred on by the petition of the Right League against the draft law on the sale and purchase of land, attitudes toward property and its owners have increasingly begun to be invoked as a point of reference for defining the wings of political thought and the parties that represent them, as left or right. Indeed, not infrequently some political forces dare to dress themselves in the moderate epithet “balanced centre,” solely because they present the balance so greatly desired in these moments of confusion on the political stage as an arithmetic average of percentages and figures. Regardless of the fact that, at first glance, such a tendency gives the impression that there is something true in it, it is a misguided orientation that pseudo-analysts and short-sighted politicians are giving Albanian public opinion and beyond, further confusing an already confused Albanian electorate, which is hardly small to begin with. The mistake lies first and foremost in the fact that we base our labels on a nonexistent Albanian pluralist tradition, even pushing the model as far as imitating or citing traditional Western democracies, as though the soup of this country were simmering in the same pot as their dishes. I do not know whether those who like such confusion are simply setting out… Continued on p. 3

“We will have a different Albania in the year 2000,” President Berisha said at the expanded meeting of the DP, held two days ago. Thus, Mr President made it clearer than ever that there is no turning back: the DP intends to remain in power at least until the end of the century. It is right for every individual or political group to express a desire and strive to achieve an objective, since political struggle is waged for this purpose; otherwise, there would be no reason for political pluralism to exist. But in this regard, we think it appropriate to recall the famous saying that “a whole sea separates wishes from reality.” Regardless of what the DP leaders wish, it seems to us that the chances of the DP staying in power for another term are extremely limited, if not impossible. Today its leaders put their party programme front and centre, and are quick to say, “we will pursue or implement this programme, because the people gave us their vote for it on 22 March.” To begin with, such reasoning lacks realism, not to say that it is a kind of sophistry by which they seek to justify some of their failures to deliver, especially their failure to honour what they call the “contract” with… Continued on p. 4

Chameria: These days, talks were held between the Greek and Albanian subcommissions, during which, among other things, the property of the Cham population occupied an important place. As is known, at the end of the war the Cham population was subjected to an unprecedented ethnic cleansing by the Greek government, and was forced to come to Albania en masse. In addition, through a law that is inconceivable today, the Greek government unjustly confiscated all the property of the Chams in Greece. Continued on p. 5

Listen carefully, because I will repeat this only once! The PS will enter the Islamic Conference as an associate member. It will be accepted with equal rights only on condition that it accepts Markbin uncensored. Pink is not the brightest colour that can shine in the East, but in the West they don’t like it. The South is for the pink colour, the one from the Mediterranean. On 29 May we will be accepted into an organization with as many fundamentalists as the East itself. The organization that will accept us on this date has caused us many problems. The Islamic Conference did not ask about constitutions. It did not demand that we put Sharia into effect. Why is the Council of Europe asking us for a constitution according to its criteria? Where is democracy in that? The communists accepted democracy out of necessity, analysts say. But according to some other analysts, they say they could no longer do without Coca-Cola. It is not so easy to be a communist. Being persecuted was easy too, since you had no choice. Privatization Bonds have been discounted by 90%. They are the only commodity whose price has fallen, apart from the circulation papers, which were persecuted more than the persecuted themselves. The government thinks of the poor… Illustration: “Të ani” [?]

Albania’s chargé d’affaires in Belgrade denied reports in the Serbian media that Albania had signed the request addressed to Butros Gali to lift sanctions against Yugoslavia, Radio BBC in Albanian reported in a dispatch from Belgrade. According to the BBC, pro-government Serbian media and some others in Greece reported that, at a meeting of representatives of the Balkan and Black Sea states, Albania too had signed the request addressed to Butros Gali to lift sanctions against Yugoslavia. Albania’s chargé d’affaires at the embassy in Belgrade, the radio reported, conveyed the position of Albania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on the matter, in which these reports were denied. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania,” the ministry’s statement says, “has declared that the Albanian government opposed this initiative, considering the sanctions highly necessary in order to pressure those responsible for the aggression to accept the solutions offered by the International Community, to hasten the resolution of the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, then to prevent its expansion into the southern Balkans, and to compel the finding of an acceptable solution to the Kosovo problem as well.”

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