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

The philosophy of the times: The lawful is robbed, the unlawful is protected. P. 2

The February 1991 military coup in the final stage of investigation The events at the former Shkolla e Bashkuar in February 1991 are heading toward full clarification. The two prosecutor’s offices have shed light on all three categories of figures involved. First, those against whom the charge of military coup weighs have been summoned to set out the entire subject of the case. Apart from former minister Kico Mustaqi, who is not in Albania but is first on the list of those sought, as personage number one, former Army Chief of Staff Kristaq Komi, former commander of Shkolla e Bashkuar Arseni Stoka, former school director Niko Buxheli, former chairman of the National Salvation Committee, which was created at the former Shkolla e Bashkuar during the days of the military coup just after 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 that had by then been created, were able to avoid it, have traveled to the Prosecutor’s Office. The second group traveling to the Prosecutor’s Office, but in the role of eyewitnesses, are the relatives who have houses opposite Shkolla e Bashkuar and saw and learned what happened over the 3 days and 3 nights of the military coup. They are even eyewitnesses to the killing of soldier Ylli Vëndresha and driver Petrit Sela by the bullets of the coup plotters. Likewise, their houses and the façades of the buildings opposite them are the witnesses to how, for three straight days, bullets coming from the school grounds spread terror and fire over the area outside the school. The third group consists of the victims’ relatives, 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 undoubtedly remains Ramiz Alia and the top staff of the former Ministry of Defense, who after the bust was toppled allowed the events at the former Shkolla e Bashkuar 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 bust had been toppled, 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

Spokesman The socialists celebrated 29 November with their hands raised and their foreheads held high. Fatos Nano sent his customary greetings from Bënca. The manipulation that “PD” has done to Liberation Day has been terrible. Today the socialists will vote unanimously against, as they once did, the law on vetting the backgrounds of officials. Why shouldn’t criminals and spies take part in political and social life? After all, who has ever been harmed by spies. The Helsinki Charter clearly says that even the criminal is a human being. This is something we keep saying again and again. A person’s head is not like a chicken’s head that is put on the chopping block.

Trading in children's lives is the ugliest phenomenon Once again, the Albanian public is forced to learn from the foreign press and media about what is happening within its own society, without yet having come to terms with the idea that the wounds that may afflict this country and the society living here can also be spoken of in Albanian. This is not simply a matter of the inability of state public information bodies to learn what is happening among us, nor can it be merely a statistical incompetence on the part of the relevant ministries in identifying, even approximately, the crime that may ultimately end up somewhere beyond the sea or beyond Albania's other state borders, while beginning and feeding itself right here, inside the country. This refers to a figure reported in recent days by RAI broadcasts: that so far there have been 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 being persuaded to sell flesh, has been met with the continued silence of the other information channel—the state press and media. Even in those few cases where information has come from the above-mentioned sources, the indifference and lack of concern, the failure to raise public awareness about the danger carried by this medieval phenomenon, and the dry reports, often not particularly alarming, especially when accompanied by evasive handling, create the impression that they have been muted out of shame before public opinion, according to the principle of “just to wash one’s mouth.” One cannot speculate about an organized involvement of agencies 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 too still seems afflicted by the delirium of grandeur and, in step with itself, is trying to follow the shameful path of covering up wounds and the Don Quixotism of the power that brought paradise. The transparency so often demanded for public information is not merely a tool for satisfying the curiosity of public opinion and the newspaper’s readers. Its existence would create genuine awareness in this public without corrupting it into the shame of indifference, while also preventing its unnecessary extremism, which often springs from self-doubt. This last point is especially imposed by the absence of a clear and complete legal framework, influenced by pseudodemocratic tendencies and a false humanism that is helping with crimes against children, poor parents, and outraged spouses. Only strict legal oversight, the enforcement of harsh laws, traditional controls and the Albanian customary moral code, as well as international laws and practices, regarding the phenomenon of brisjesmit, along with punishment for 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 this supported by a healthy social opinion mutually in harmony with the laws of the world, will be able to minimize this ugly phenomenon which, besides everything else, 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 socialists' politics is heading toward complete degeneration The confirmation of alternatives and their announcement at the proper electoral moment, although used to the fullest by most political forces, is in the arsenal of their experience a familiar tactic, and a justifiable one as well. The classic skepticism of electoral blocs toward political forces in judging the aims a party inspires in its struggle to seize power, or what old politics itself is saying. That is why the classic forms of (self-)deception with slogans such as “We do not fight for power,” etc., are not only out of fashion, but also absurd, having in some cases turned into a boomerang effect. It is therefore natural for any practical party or grouping to state openly its goal of holding or taking power (of course, when it truly feels it has the means to do so), while at least managing to convince voters that, beyond the narrow interests of a group of people, it will also serve the interests of those who expect something—or, in their naivety, “everything”—from its political program. Besides, this is not only an ordinary electoral tactic, but also a minimal expression of respect for the political, economic and cultural level of those whose votes one seeks to obtain. In this context, the statement by lawyer Sanxhakt seems very cynical and offensive; after the political interpretation of the Nano case, he openly declares the aim of the socialists’ electoral struggle by saying: “This is why the elections must be won.” This is an insult not only to all those who expect the sanctioning and proper consolidation of the apolitical character of the Albanian judiciary, whose hopes have been shaken not a little and more than once by statements from socialist leaders about those who would release and then send them back to prison (turning back and extending their long hands over the judiciary), but above all to the “loyal” socialist electorate. The lack of alternatives and the grasping nature of people accustomed to the idea that they were born for power, from whom “they dared” to take this power, has degenerated the politics of 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, the approval is expected of the law on vetting the backgrounds of state officials. The parliamentary session is expected to be broadcast live on radio and television. From the majority group of the Democratic Party, 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 for holding on to power. The law limits participation in political life and service in state posts for persons tainted by a communist past and aims to cleanse Albania’s political and social life