From Mr. Godo’s speech at the rally in the municipality of Shënkoll, Lezhë These days Parliament once again confiscated 200,000 hectares of land and put it up for sale. This power performs wonders. It declares itself owner and sells and buys as if the land were an inherited asset of the Speaker of Parliament and the Government. Yet these are elected or appointed officials with fixed salaries, and in a legal state they have no right whatsoever to lay hands on the citizen’s property. At most, they may sell and buy only the land they inherit from their fathers, if they have inherited any such thing. The bad thing is that at the root, in the law on land distribution per capita, no matter how many improvements are made to it, the communist law will still remain, and from it disputes and obstacles will always arise. Time is proving beyond any doubt that the complicated problems of land can be solved correctly only with the Republican draft law, whose essence has three points: each person should return to his own land; anyone who has built a house on someone else’s land should have the house recognized along with 300 m2 of land, and the owners should be compensated elsewhere; large landowners should be limited to 60 hectares. Every Albanian would accept this draft law as fair and reasonable, yet our Parliament did not even agree to consider it, thus committing another violation of the Constitution. But we have the firm conviction that the day of this law will come, since the right to private property reigns as the supreme law in every democratic state. We are within six months of the elections, which are of special importance for the country’s future. If you listen to the party spokespeople, they all will win and no one will lose. They are entitled to say that, as everyone starts out aiming to win. But a serious politician knows whether he has the strength for it. These days one of the deputy chairmen of the PS declared that they would win more than half of the votes. The other deputy chairman said they would win two-thirds. This reminds one of those two hungry mountaineers stranded in the snow. One drew a circle in the snow with a stick and said: “If only we had a loaf of bread like that.” The other said: “Couldn’t you make it a little bigger?” If I make it even bigger, the first replied, you’ll still have a dung patty to eat. The socialists cannot win in Albania, because that would be a catastrophe for the Nation. Meanwhile let them make circles in the snow. The guarantee of their defeat must be the Right Wing Alliance. But in these elections the monopoly of the two parties must also be broken, which is in no way suited to our democracy and Constitution. Further on, Mr. Godo spoke about the distortions in the governance of the country that brought about this political situation, presenting the alternative • The socialists cannot win in Albania, because that would be a catastrophe for the Nation. • But we have the firm conviction that the day of this law will come, since the right to private property reigns as the supreme law in every democratic state. Further on p. 3

On Saturday it became known that the Prosecutor’s Office in Tirana had issued an order concerning the arrest of 14 former officials of various ranks, accused of genocide. As was learned, certainly not in complete detail, some of the prominent figures on that list were not in Albania, and another had even been dead for several years. Three days after the “blitz” operation to arrest the genocidists, there is still no precise information on how many of them fell into the net of the competent authorities, to be later brought before justice. The result of this operation worries us because so much of this government’s work is done like a cockade after the feast or left half-finished. Thus, in this case too, if the above action had been undertaken three years ago, Qemal Lamej would not have been in Germany, and Shkëlzen Barjaktari would not have been able to obtain New Zealand citizenship in order to escape any pursuit, and those who would have carried out his arrest would have returned empty-handed or would have been satisfied with arresting a half-dead man like Haxhi Lleshi, even giving him the chance to slip away once again. How can one speak of justice when a large part of those who should long ago have been held accountable for their crimes now roam freely through the cities of the world, strut about, and mock the government’s orders and decisions against them. If today people are talking about the danger of the communists returning to power, first and foremost the government and the Democratic Party must look for the cause in the delayed or half-hearted measures taken over these years. But even more than the escape from justice of some figure of the former regime, what is worrying is the failure to respect the rules for compensating those robbed by the communist regime, by returning property without any limitation to the lawful owners and by integrating as soon as possible former political prisoners into the country’s life, the majority of whom have no support in this regard. The state would do well not to remind us of Brazilian associations with hot football, whose name was born from this expression of F.1 lacon. D.D.

The electoral draft law will not be discussed in the Albanian Parliament this last week of ’95 either. This is the answer the Arbnori majority gave to the opposition parties yesterday morning, at the meeting of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly. Although Ginushi, from the PSD, and Abdiu, from the PS, insisted that the draft law signed by all opposition deputies be discussed before January, Arbnori and Spahia left it for the beginning of next year. The chairman of the social democrats, saying that he had been the only one insisting in the presidium, indicates that he had said at the meeting that the draft law should be discussed within December; indeed it should have been discussed, “elections under the law can also be announced on 22 March,” Ginushi said at the meeting of the parliamentary presidium, “therefore it is nec- (Further on p. 2)

The Constitutional Court is not issuing a decision. At an unspecified time it will notify the parties to the case of the ruling. Thus, both the PS, as the plaintiff, and the Chairman of the Albanian Parliament, Pjetër Arbnori, as the defendant, will have to wait a long time yet for it to become clear whether there was falsification, negligence, corruption, or whether the parliamentary session of 26 October 1995, when former Court of Cassation chairman Zef Brozi was dismissed, was conducted in accordance with the law. The PS parliamentary group, as plaintiff, is challenging Brozi’s dismissal as unconstitutional, and the plenary session was held unlawfully because there were not enough people in the chamber to make decisions. In the sa- Further on p. 3

The communist wind is blowing across the steppes of Russia Page 6 Foreigners are learning the gateway into Albania Page 3 Here is memur nefi-jakanun defi Page 2 The National Question of the Albanians in the historical process Page 4

On Friday, 22.12.1995, at 10:00, in the Press Conference Hall of the Palace of Congresses in Tirana, the meeting of the PR National Council will be held. The National Council will discuss: - The problems of the electorate and party organization - The revised program of the PR - Press and propaganda. Press and Information Office