Local elections must be prepared carefully President Berisha has already given the signal for local elections to be held, asking the parties to announce within a few days whether they will participate and to submit the necessary details. Some, especially in left-wing political circles, are trying to present this as a maneuver by the head of state to catch his opponents by surprise. But it should not be forgotten that, under the constitutional provisions, local elections must be held no later than three months after the expiry of the four-year term from the date on which the preceding elections were held. So, in this respect, Berisha is within his rights, perhaps even a little late. Also, those who interpret this move by Berisha as an attempt to remove the May 26 elections from the discussion agenda are mistaken to link them to the local elections. Those political forces that have decided not to par— carefully, so that as many as possible of the causes that led to the disturbances of May 26 can be eliminated. Above all, these elections must reflect reality, bringing to the top of the administrative units the people most capable and most preferred by the electorate. This would also be a guarantee that local government is cleansed of the epidemic of such diseases as corruption, incompetence, and lack of initiative. Furthermore, the normal conduct of local elections would prevent tensions such as those that followed the May 26 elections. But the main point is that we are now under the strict observation of Europe and various international organizations. So, for the entire Albanian political class, these elections are a good opportunity to show Europe and the USA that Albanians have truly moved forward in terms of the development of democracy, and that what happened on Local elections can also serve as a kind of valuable experience for future electoral consultations, such as a possible referendum on the constitution or other elections. But for success to be achieved in this regard, cooperation among all the country’s political forces is essential. For this reason, every venue where dialogue can take place should be used, without underestimating any of them. It would have been a mistake, for example, to fetishize the role of parliament while underestimating the parties’ roundtable, recommended by Europe, or vice versa, not to mention other formats such as bilateral meetings, etc. A. D.

Two days after the Council of Ministers’ decision to liberalize the price of bread, its price at retail outlets in the city of Berat rose by 38 to 56 percent. Thus, today a loaf was sold for 50–60 lekë each. But the price per loaf is not a complete indicator unless it is compared with its weight. At all retail outlets, it is stated that the weight of each standard loaf has increased from 350 to 400 grams, and its maximum weight is now 1,200 grams. Most buyers approved the price liberalization, since before it a loaf sold for 40 lekë and weighed only 800 grams. According to the calculations made re-

Tirana pays the price for its “tolerant” policy toward Macedonia The Macedonian border police confiscated 225 copies, in Albanian, of international human-rights literature, which Albanian human-rights activists attempted to take into the former Yugoslav Republic. The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights stated in a declaration that the books were human-rights documents from the Council of Europe and the CSCE, as well as the constitutions of several Western countries, all translated into Albanian. During a recent visit to Macedonia, a committee group planned to give books to several educational and cultural institutions of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. But the group was detained for several hours at the Albanian-Macedonian border crossing at Tushemisht by Macedonian border police, who confiscated all the books under the pretext that they were “illegal literature.” “This action is reminiscent of the obscurantist practices of a totalitarian regime,” Continued on p. 4

The quantity of copper slag exported to Malta, Croatia, Italy, etc., has reached around 30 tonnes. Its successful use to clean the underwater parts of ships when they are brought into dry dock for repairs increases the possibility of expanding exports of this waste product. Meanwhile, production at the slag-drying plant in Shëngjin has doubled; 80–100 tonnes of copper slag arrive there every day from the Laç plant. I. Z.

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P. 2 Continued later, p. 2