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Meksi to Berisha: They’re wasting their time; the DP and the Council love me very much Bread prices rise, leek prices fall. Fasino: We had warned Tirana

. The publication of the memorandum by 14 members of the DP National Council also prompted, in parallel, the beginning of a campaign by the party’s mechanisms to condemn them. The dissection of their motives and labeling them “career failures” by the newspaper “RD” was amplified by Shehu in press interviews and by President Berisha in Peshkopi, accusing the plotters of being careerists and collaborators with the far left. It is not known how much the memorandum’s authors anticipated the counterattack by their own party, but the experience of these years has shown that the DP has been extremely harsh toward its own sons who have strayed “from God’s path.” Thus, the emergence of the group of motion supporters in ’92, the right-wingers in ’94, and Selami later on led to the party borrowing a good part of the methods the PPSH once used against its enemies. The fire-for-fire severity with which the memorandum and its authors are being attacked shows that the DP is preparing to spend a large share of its energy closing off avenues for the ideas put forward in the document within the party. The stone of Sisyphus that the memorandum’s authors have undertaken to push to the summit will apparently roll back down, taking them with it. Thus, it would not be surprising if Genc Ruli’s criminal case, which the previous Parliament archived by refusing to lift his immunity, were soon reopened; if Dashamir Shehi’s activities as minister and deputy minister were examined under a powerful magnifying glass; if every decimal point of the foreign-policy errors made while Alfred Serreqi was in charge were counted; if the reasons why Tomorr Doshti was not re-elected DP deputy chairman or chosen as a parliamentary candidate for this party were made public, and so on. But using attacks as a way to suppress division within the party could set dangerous precedents under the country’s current circumstances. By attacking its own figures, the DP discredits the spirit of dialogue with other political forces that it is trying to spread far and wide. Because you cannot engage in dialogue with others when you do not accept it among yourselves. In any case, the ruling party’s fixed idea and intransigence so far about stubbornly insisting on keeping the current government in place, together with the intensity of the attacks against the memorandum’s authors, lead one to believe that the 14 authors will face political and public lynching. They now stand before the cross, and all that remains for us is to see whether they will go to crucifixion like Christ or like the sinners who were crucified alongside him.

The massive theft that the Meksi Government inflicted on the people has now become an international fact. It will remain for a long time in the people’s memory. The vain hopes of compensation of any kind from Sudja, Gjall ça, Grunasi and the others who will come later are futile. The people’s revol[t] was a natural expression of opposition to injustice, daily deceptions, violence and uncertainty about the future. The people understand the proverb well: “You will be punished for not having milked the cow, but not the one who stole the cow.” And this awareness among the people, together with their deep hatred, now colors politics. However, anger is not a good adviser. I say anger, because how else can one understand Mr. Kurt Kola, a political persecuted person for 30 years and Chairman of the Association of the Politically Persecuted, linking arms with Mr. Namik Dokle at the Tirana rally? Continued on p. 5

“REPUBLIKA” newspaper, “Sami Frashëri” Street, near “Petro Nini Luarasi” High School, Tirana, Account No. BTK 986 /110 Tel/Fax 259 88 Tel. 230 90