02/10/1997
Original newspaper scan
scroll · drag · double-click

Republika

2 October 1997

VEFA, the IMF and the pyramids

Ramiz Alia will convene the plenary session. Azemi curses the government. The Prime Minister gets off his horse VEFA, the IMF and the pyramids Alimuçaj: The Finance Minister, who yesterday was to be put at the service of the Security Service, is violating the laws of the state

Serbia bares its iron teeth

Rugova’s policy fails; Milo’s diplomacy is devalued Yesterday the Albanians of Kosovo demonstrated democratic culture, while the Serbian state bared the iron teeth of the bloodiest dictatorship in the troubled Balkans. More than 30,000 young people, students, professors and intellectuals marched peacefully through the streets of Prishtina. They held only flowers and banners in their hands. The Serbian state is deceiving European and American diplomacy. It is showing its true face, its bloodied face. Although it had promised them peaceful treatment, Milošević’s state had prepared a trap: thousands of police officers, soldiers, special forces, tanks, armored vehicles, buses filled with police. This was the surprise the Serbian state had prepared for the peaceful demands of Kosovo’s school-age youth. While the demonstrators’ chants were peaceful, the police response with rubber batons and tear gas showed the true face of a brutal state that has learned nothing from the sanctions imposed so far. Yesterday violence bit into peace; tear gas blinded the truth. Yesterday democratic Europe and America learned who the Albanians are and who the blinded ultranationalists are, who represent peace and who represent violence. Yesterday the mother country of the Albanians of Kosovo felt deeply distressed as it watched on television screens the violence against its brothers in blood and language. Yesterday Albanian diplomacy was slapped in the face as it witnessed the treachery of the chauvinist Serbian state. The PR’s insistence that talks had to be held in the presence of a third party was not a proposal put on the table for political gain, but one that sought guarantees from the Serbian side, which has often reneged on agreements. In this light, the Milo–Milutinović meeting is rendered worthless. Before the ink on the signatures to this agreement had even dried, the Serbs bared their teeth and bloodied Kosovo. Perhaps this is the moment for President Rugova, too, to reconsider his policy of going nowhere. The current protests are nothing other than a reaction to the Rugova–Milošević agreement. Now the people are in the streets, and Rugova’s call, “don’t rush,” not only rings false but sounds like a paradox. The logic is simple: The agreement on education did not work, so how will the legitimate educational demands of the Albanians of Kosovo be met? Rugova calls out, “don’t rush,” but when is the right time to demand these elementary rights that other peoples of Europe won long ago? Yesterday Albanian politicians condemned the violent actions of the Serbian state and supported the legitimate demands of Kosovo’s youth. It seemed that Parliament also did its duty following Godo’s statement. But there is a paradox that happens all too often in Albania: whenever major events take place in Kosovo, some kind of trouble breaks out here. Is it a coincidence? Yesterday the Albanian Parliament should have dealt only with Kosovo; the other nonsense should be left aside, because it is disruptive.

The Bloc residents will seek compensation for the coffees

F Page 2

Special: Hour by hour with the protests in Kosovo

Page 7

Yesterday, Godo before journalists: Azemi’s case is not political Page 4 The police soaked the citizens’ gunpowder. Qazim Gjonaj: Politics constricts justice

Qazim Gjonaj: Politics constricts justice

F Page 2

Hajdari in Parliament together with his son

F Page 3