The events at the former United School in February 1991 are moving toward full clarification. The two prosecutor's offices have identified all three categories of figures. First, the persons over whom the charge of military coup rests have been summoned in order to set out the full substance of the event. Apart from former minister Kico Mustaqi, who is not in Albania but is first on the list of those sought as person number one, former Army Chief of Staff Kristaq Komi, former commander of the United School Arseni Stoka, former school director Niko Buxheli, former chairman of the National Salvation Committee, which was created at the former United School during the days of the military coup just as the dictator's bust was toppled in the center of Tirana, Agim Barkatari, and several other figures who organized this coup with the intervention of the two opposition parties created by that time, made it possible to avert it. The second group traveling to the Prosecutor's Office, but in the role of eyewitnesses, are the family members who have houses opposite the United School and saw and learned what happened during the 3 days and 3 nights of the military coup. They are also eyewitnesses to the killing of soldier Ylli Vëndresha and driver Petrit Sela by the coup plotters' bullets. Their houses and the façades of the buildings opposite them are also witnesses, where for 3 consecutive days the bullets coming from the school grounds spread terror and fire over the area outside the school. The third group are the relatives of the victims, especially the wife of P.S., mother of 3 children, and the relatives of the slain soldier. Prosecutor Ilir Cadri, who is leading the investigation, continues to build the full picture of the military coup, in which the main figure remains without doubt Ramiz Alia and the high command of the former Ministry of Defense, which after the bust was toppled allowed the events at the former United School known as the military coup, where a notorious “salvation” committee wanted to take the dictator's bust and place it in the center of Tirana, where his own bust had been knocked down, but the people of Tirana kept the coup plotters surrounded for 3 days as they wanted to march toward Tirana even though they had weapons at their disposal. B. Përmeti

Once again, the Albanian public is forced to learn from the press and foreign media what is happening within its own society, still unable to come to terms with the idea that the wounds that afflict this country and the society living here can also be spoken of in Albanian. It is not simply the inability of the state public information bodies to learn what is happening among us, just as it cannot be merely a statistical incompetence of the relevant ministries in identifying, even in approximate figures, the crime that perhaps ends somewhere beyond the sea or beyond other state borders of Albania, while its projects begin here, inside the country. The point is the figure reported in recent days by RAI broadcasts: so far, around 250 cases of children being sold in Italy. The repeated emphasis on this problem, not only in the Italian press but also in the Albanian non-governmental press, bringing to light examples and figures, as if some parents were going to have themselves believed to be taken out as meat, has been met by the continued silence of the other information source—the state press and media. Even in those few cases where the information has come from the aforementioned sources, the indifference and lack of concern, the failure to raise public awareness about the danger posed by this medieval phenomenon, and the dry, often not very alarming reports, especially when accompanied by obstructive measures, create the impression that they have been hushed up out of embarrassment before public opinion, according to the principle of “just to wash our mouths.” One cannot allege an organized involvement of state bodies or powerful names, but the concealment of this phenomenon or the attempt to minimize the fact of its spread makes one believe that today’s power continues to be affected by the disease of megalomania and, along with it, seeks to walk the shameful path of covering up wounds and the Don Quixotism of the power that brought paradise. The transparency so much demanded for public information is not simply a means of satisfying the curiosity of public opinion and newspaper readers. Its existence would create real awareness among that opinion without corrupting it into the shame of indifference, while also not allowing its unnecessary extremism, which often springs from self-doubt. The latter is especially imposed by the absence of a vague and incomplete legislation, influenced by pseudo-democratic tendencies and a false humanism that is helping crime against their children and against poor parents and outraged spouses. Only strict legal control, the enforcement of harsh laws, traditional checks and the Albanian customary moral code, as well as international laws and practices, regarding the phenomenon of child abuse, together with the punishment of anyone who does not understand that children and their lives, the right to live and to be free as human beings, are not the property of one person or another, even if that person is a parent, and all of this supported by a healthy social opinion mutually at peace with the laws of the world, will be able to minimize this ugly phenomenon, which among other things is also creating an uglier image of a nation that does not want its own children, perhaps one of the few epithets we do not deserve. GENCI ÇOBANI

The confirmation of alternatives and their announcement at the opportune electoral moment, although used to the maximum by most political forces, is, in the arsenal of their experience, a well-known and equally justifiable tactic. The classic skepticism of electoral groups toward political forces, in assessing the goals that inspire a party in its struggle to seize power or, as the old saying goes, politics itself. Therefore, the classic forms of (self-)deception with slogans such as: “We are not fighting for power,” etc., are not only out of fashion, but also tasteless, having in some cases even turned into a “boomerang” effect. Therefore it is natural for any party or practical grouping to state openly its own goal of holding or taking power (of course, when it truly feels it has the legs for such a thing), while at least managing to convince voters that, beyond the narrow interests of a group of people, it will also fulfill the interests of those who expect something (out of naivety, even “everything”) from its political program. In addition, this is not only a common electoral tactic, but also a minimal expression of respect for the political, economic and cultural level of those from whom you seek to take votes. In this framework, the statement of lawyer Sanxhakt sounds very cynical and offensive; after the political interpretation of the Nano case, he openly reveals the goal of the socialists' electoral struggle by saying: “This is why the elections must be won.” This is not only an insult to all those who expect the establishment and adequate consolidation of the apolitical character of the Albanian judicial power, whose hopes have been shaken more than once by statements of socialist leaders about those who will release and then throw them back into prison (with their long hands reaching out extensively over the judiciary), but above all to the socialist “loyal” electorate. The lack of alternatives and the greedy nature of people accustomed to the idea that they were born for power, against whom “they dared” to take that power away, has degenerated the politics of the Albanian socialists to such an extent that even elections must be won solely for that purpose. G. C

Today in Parliament Future officials in the sieve of the law Today in Parliament, approval is expected of the law on verifying the background of state officials. The parliamentary session is expected to be broadcast live on radio and television. From the Democratic Party majority group, no votes against this law are expected, while the Socialist opposition is expected to react. In the newspaper “ZP” yesterday it was written that this law is apartheid in order to keep power. The law limits participation in political life and service in state posts for persons criminalized by their communist past and aims to cleanse Albania's political and social life

A trial against one man, a system, or an era? P. 9

The legal man is robbed, the illegal man is protected P.2

The socialists celebrated 29 November with their hands up and their foreheads full. Fatos Nano from Bënca has sent a greeting on the occasion. The manipulation that the “DP” has done to Liberation Day has been terrible. Today the socialists will vote unanimously against, just as they once did, for the law on the verification of officials' backgrounds. Why shouldn't criminals and spies take part in political and social life? After all, who has ever seen anything bad from spies. The Helsinki Charter clearly says that even a criminal is a human being. Here, whenever we try to stress it, the head of a human being is not like a chicken's head, which is placed on a chopping block.