. Today, Kosovars will once again show that they are not a people who do not know how to govern themselves and, consequently, that they are a people who do not know how to determine their own future. Today’s elections, despite diplomatic circles pretending to regard them as an Albanian “joke,” have succeeded in imposing themselves on the international community as a tangible reality, as they did five years ago. The very fact that this is the community now insisting more than ever that the Serbs and representatives of Kosovo’s Albanians sit down for dialogue means that those elected by the Kosovars’ vote have won the right to be recognized as such in the world as well—and that right has been granted to them by the elections, as it will be by those taking place today. There is little point in measuring or defining our entirety, or in bewildering ourselves searching for the vocabulary and terms with which to fill it. Kosovars are voting, and the world recognizes their vote. On the other hand, Serbian brutality, like all brutality—especially that which has its origins in and is inspired by an ugly Greater Slavic ideology—is harming its own perpetrators more than it is harming Albanians. The International Community is increasingly becoming convinced that Albanians are not to blame for Milošević being a “modern” fascist, but rather the chauvinistic mindset of the systematic policy that gave birth to him and the Greater Serbian violence that he represents. The American administration and President Clinton himself condemned the brutal Serbian violence inflicted on the Albanians of Kosovo, saying that the United States does not want it to happen again ... Continued on page 3

Marsi: handcuffs ready for 20 crime bosses The properties of “Gjallica” seized. Alimuçaj: Not a penny for the strikers Page 2

Illustration: Bardhi 15.3.1998

Our reliable correspondent, Vështrim Syri, from the city with the world’s most beautiful view, said that yesterday at around 5 p.m., God scattered snow over the territory of Tirana for about 45 minutes. “God did this to refute the accusations that He had supposedly forgotten Albania,” said God’s spokesperson in a press release about the event. One of the little snowflakes said that “she and her friends came to Tirana on a mission to soften things.” That was all the little snowflake said, and then it melted. Regarding her not very clear statement, they approached God’s spokesperson again. He told Republika that there should be no misunderstandings, as often happens in the Albanian press, about the word “soften.” “God decided to send the snow not to soften the weather, but to bring some peace to the souls of Albanians and to soften the stubborn heads of the copaliticani,” explained the most important spokesperson in Time and Space, concluding his statement. Adi Thano

Republicans accuse the state and politicians: They are linked to crime. Ceka and Legisi: Justice is criminal. Pages 3, 8 Bezhan(i) turns to journalists: Now I’ll deal with you. Page 17 Milošević’s latest madness: Serbian court sentences 6 Americans. Page 6 Kadare: Politics should not cooperate only in times of national disaster. Page 16 Sunday literary supplement: Kallulli, Orgocka, Swan, etc. Pages 11–14