• Lezhë is in the grip of an alliance of the incompetent. • The People’s Council of the district is not functioning. The chairman of the district presidium has the title in name only. He neither criticizes nor praises, nor does he take up any problem on behalf of the people of Lezhë. • The chairman of the district Executive Committee, Irakli Vero, is doing more harm to himself and the district by not resigning from his post. Lezhë, magnificent for its geographical position and delightful for its air and sea flora, which seems to caress it every evening, is left worrying over its troubles, with nobody taking care of it. And the people of Lezhë ask themselves: Do they deserve such a “servant”? Naturally, the explanation for everything must be sought in Enver Hoxha’s Stalinist politics. That politics is the source of poverty, today’s impatience and the exodus. That dictatorship fell. It was overthrown never to rise again. Indeed, not even to be remembered! The senior party leaders of the PPSH were also overthrown. They fell, but without opening their mouths before a people’s court. A political trial by their own Party alone is not enough. Much more is needed. Do the “blockmen” of Tirana, whom Frrok Çupi struck so forcefully, really think they lived alone, without a retinue of servile followers and their own people in the districts? Logic does not allow a negative answer. They lived only thanks to them! The “Octopus” has 25 legs. And, unfortunately, in the other 25 districts of the Republic we have not cut off a single leg of this monster. On the contrary, many of them are being “renewed”; many are hiding in positions from which they can attack their former “masters.” It is astonishing that they have no shame, not a drop of Albanian blood in them with which to make a self-criticism for having been their tools. Seeing that they have no sense of self-criticism and are trying to benefit once again, the good of the Homeland (of the districts) demands that all the “Octopus’s” legs be cut off! The people of Lezhë have seen and experienced a great deal at their own expense. They have seen first secretaries and committee chairmen arrive worn down by hardship and leave Lezhë fattened; they have seen secretaries and officials arrive solely for its luxury and seaside, and make the law in the fullest sense of the word; they have seen and felt every kind of injustice. Even pluralism is leaving them at the mercy of Irakli Vero (chairman of the Executive Committee), who does not understand even the most basic rules of courtesy, puts his own interests above everything, and has his mind set on leaving for Korçë while keeping his bench in Lezhë. Pluralism found the people of Lezhë—and is keeping them—under the shadow of the incompetent, beneath their unshakable alliance. This is not pluralism’s fault! It is the fault of Lezhë’s intellectuals themselves, young and old, who still do not understand that Lezhë belongs to them and not to incompetence; that Lezhë needs their voice and ideas, not hypocrisy. The people of Lezhë can live better. Why does the chairman of the Executive Committee do whatever he wants? Who lets him roam free and decide our fate—that is, the fate of Lezhë? Besides the central government, it is our own inability to set a limit for him that lets him do so. The incompetence of some committee department heads also lets him do it; they continue to regard him as a god, as Zeus, who can fire them or appoint them wherever he wishes. A mentality of submission and fear of losing their jobs, now that new cuts are being made, have led them and others to say “yes, sir” and “you are right” about everything. Lezhë cannot be sustained only by the sweat and advocacy on behalf of the people of Lezhë of the deputy Agron Dibra. Lezhë cannot be sustained only by the ideas and intellectual courage of Tonin Çobani, who has never thought with Irakli’s head, but with his own. Lezhë needs other voices; it needs more people to stand alongside Agron and Tonin. Lezhë needs the courage to escape the predicament into which it has been thrust by incompetents and swindlers cloaked in party and state power. The future of Lezhë and its people does not lie with Gjyl Brahimi either, as chairman of the district People’s Council: he is an upright and honest man, but incapable of performing the chairman’s duties. Nor with Pashk Smaci, distinguished for his incompetence as head of the education department, ... Lezhë does not belong to some other committee employees either, who know only how to sign the payroll every fortnight. Nor does it belong to certain wheeler-dealer directors. Lezhë wants its future to be shaped by its own young people, its sons and daughters—not only young in age, but in their thinking. There are many examples (continued on page 3) NIKOLLË LESI

The pages of the daily press have carried a great deal of information about the privileges of the Bloc, sometimes illustrating them with figures presented in comparative tables. But in these lists of people, the root of those names, Enver Hoxha, is conspicuously missing. Data and figures have been published about Muho Asllani, Lenin-ka Çuko, Simon Stefani and other obedient pupils of Enver Hoxha, while their president, the dictator Enver Hoxha, is discussed in passing, and similar figures are given for the upkeep of the former members of the PPSH Political Bureau, while “the biggest slice” is left untouched! We all agree that his three-storey palace (if it is not merely a façade) must consist of rooms and bathrooms added to his previous “old” residence; the number of these, however, while the others are clearly accounted for, is not given for the Hoxha family ... as actual facts. That is to say, we need facts from those who lived through that time, testimonies from those who saw, heard, suffered and [unclear]. The facts are still alive among us. Then why is Mrs. Nexhmije afraid of the truth? We know all about Enver Hoxha’s good deeds, because they were trumpeted to us day and night for 45 consecutive years. But the medal has a reverse side too—the monstrosities of Enver Hoxha. Who could bear the primary responsibility, apart from him, for the murder of patriots—not only those who were “red,” but also comrades in the cause, “traitor” comrades; for the imprisonment and internment of thousands of Albanian families, the disappearance of graves, the spiritual burial of prominent figures, martyrs trampled underfoot in their dignity, and so many other atrocities of this kind? Or does the dictator’s wife think that the only true facts are the husband’s voluminous books, published by her famous institute, of which she was director? It is precisely this same “honorable” lady who, at the 10th Congress, painfully admitted that Enver had gone a little too far with the class struggle. A question naturally arises: how can this dictator’s wife mock the soul of an entire nation so monstrously, a nation she has torn apart with the vampiric and civil class struggle? The dictator Enver Hoxha’s wife calls this struggle “apokëzim?” Then we are entitled to wonder what her twisted mind has guaranteed under the notion of the word “excess.” Mrs. Nexhmije Hoxha’s threats to take legal action against her sound ridiculous in the face of the general insult the dictator has inflicted on this nation, driven to ruin. The people will always speak with a word of purpose, one that the dictators’ dictionaries do not contain. That word is “THE TRUTH.” LUAN PENGILI

Local government paralyzed For over 8 months, the People’s Council of the district of Lezhë has not been functioning. To be more precise, during this period it has held no meetings, although its rules require it to meet at least once every two months. Has Lezhë had no problems to bring before the highest organ of power in the district? I think it has—indeed, quite serious ones. Agriculture is in a critical situation; livestock has been stolen everywhere, the division of land has reached an impasse, and barns and other economic facilities have been damaged. Nearly half of the village shops have been looted. There are also social concerns. Had the district People’s Council taken up this issue, it would have helped unite efforts and made it possible to put the councillors and officials to better work to overcome the situation. One more thing. It is apparent that some of this body’s powers have so far been exercised unjustly by the Executive Committee. Specifically, the district budget plan for this year is being implemented without the approval of the People’s Council. No account has been given, and no legal approval obtained, for its implementation during the previous year either. There have also been violations concerning personnel. Some department and office heads have been transferred without obtaining the approval of the district People’s Council, which has authority over their appointments. There is no other name for these practices than paralysis. Head of the Planning and Budget Commission of the district People’s Council PREKË MIRAJ

I hereby inform you that we have finally decided to withdraw from the position of chairman of the Balldre agricultural cooperative. For this purpose, for four months I have formally and orally sought approval to transfer from this job, but, it seems, my legitimate request has fallen on deaf and empty ground. The reasons for my withdrawal are: 1. — Through no fault of my own, problems have accumulated in the enterprise that I am incapable of resolving. It began with the livestock, continued and continues with the facilities and the division of land, and most recently with members taking the wheat, putting the people’s bread in question. 2. — In fighting to implement the duties and decisions handed down from above, I have ended up in opposition to most of the people. This is because the instructions from above are no longer appropriate to the times and do not correspond to reality. — For this I ask the people’s forgiveness. 3. — I have had very little support and assistance in my work, both from the Executive Committee and at the local level. 4. — My profession is financial economist (not an agricultural specialist), so it makes no sense for me, a city resident, to come and manage agriculture in Balldre when there are many agricultural specialists, employed and unemployed, even within the village. I believe the period of “militancy” for which you sent me as a Party soldier has ended. Let the people judge how I have worked in Balldre over these years. I hereby inform you definitively that as of today, 25.6.1991, I am no longer the cooperative chairman. Please take measures to appoint someone else. I also ask you to notify me on the day you introduce the new chairman, so that I can meet the people. PREKË MIRAJ

• From a consultation in Shkodër Your opinion about the future of medical services in hospitals made an impression on me. The idea that, when admitted to hospital, we should pay for the hotel and food seems right to me. Indeed, it should be put into effect without delay. But regarding pharmaceutical services, I do not think the suggestion is right or sound: that medicines in all the pharmacies in our country be provided free of charge with a doctor’s prescription, while, in parallel, the establishment of private pharmacies is also allowed. What would these private pharmacies be like if, as you said, the state pharmacies are to provide everything—and, moreover, free of charge—to our citizens?! Is there not a contradiction here on your part, Mr. Minister? For abuses will occur. Medicines will be obtained free from the state pharmacy with a prescription and sold to the private pharmacist for less than their real price, or given to him free of charge so that he can sell them to citizens. So, both state pharmacies where all medicines are provided free of charge and private pharmacies—this seems to make no economic sense! B. SIMONI

After Shkodër and Tirana, Lezhë was among the first to remove every symbol of communism and of those people whom it does not want—or whom even their own birthplace is removing and erasing. Historically, the 2,300-year-old city of Lezhë has been with the West, not the East. Enver Hoxha’s totalitarian system, which lasted for several decades, brought and installed these disgraceful symbols, leaving us so far behind developed Europe. A. MARKU