A kind of Albanian Jean Valjean. Enver Hoxha and M. Çelmen kill the Beatles. When will the great bell of amnesty ring for three million prisoners? If anyone on the back of the world needs a kind word, a water bottle filled with cold water, a new pair of shoes, it is the prisoner. The prisoner who was shackled because, in the heavy traffic of his thoughts, an idea, a word or a dream rebelled and stepped out of line, beyond the boundaries, beyond the white lines laid down by the dictatorship. Do not touch his dark fate. Don’t. A thousand times, don’t. 1 — Is it not enough to make one cry out and go mad when one thinks that for a hundred years or more, readers around the world have been moved by the fate of Jean Valjean, who was imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread, while those readers have no idea that in 1928, in Kashnjet, Albania, a man was imprisoned for speaking about underbaked bread. The poor wretch was shackled for eight years. In this regard, what is Hugo’s hero beside our prisoner? Nothing. This single act will be enough to undo this world reader and make the Parisian Hugo admirer altogether modest. With us, everything was different: the act, the time, the drama, life itself. Einstein’s relativity. Everything moved backwards, as in the Islamic calendar. While the world opened its eyes to the cosmos and spoke of visitors from outer space, while the «Viking» was landing on Mars, while publishing houses were bringing out Esperanto dictionaries so that the world might share one language, security operatives were opening files and summoning people to ... [?] ... a mentally ill man from the hospitals of Liverpool. (The first imprisoned young people for them, because he was jealous of such brilliant universes that excluded him from the realm of people as a figure, while the second declared in court, «I killed John Lennon so that I too could become famous. Why only him?») Look at the unique connection between the communist chief and the mentally ill man. Haven’t we all talked about bread, haven’t we all watched foreign television stations, haven’t we all sung «Let It Be», and how close the prison wall came to us. Thus, we have all entered prison a little; its black shadow has fallen across our shoulders (perhaps because we have never actually crossed its threshold). In any case, Hemingway’s radiation took place here (...whenever the bells rang and announced someone’s death, something died in all of us). Whenever someone was arrested (the teacher was shackled in the classroom before the eyes of his pupils; the intellectual was dragged away across the studio), whenever someone was summoned there, in some way we felt the image of cold handcuffs in our hands, in our souls. 2 — Evening comes quickly in prison, Seven dense iron lattices, Seven heavy doors close behind you— says a poet from Djarbekir. Inside these bars, behind these doors, the human being remained. The space surrounding him became three-dimensional: terror, sadness, longing. Time in prison was long, and this exchange took place with that tormentor, feeling. In place of beautiful memories, laws, orders and the screams of the guards violently entered, as plague might invade an innocent children’s garden. As the walls of the gallery closed in, the prisoners used more and more terms in their conversations that had to do with life’s most vital part, with its essence. In their souls they knew the cult of the sun; they wrote about the sky, about meadows, solely to balance the dimensions of their small, dark rooms. Don’t we, too, talk so often about life and its space in our cramped homes, made expressly to make us weary of life? In a way, don’t these resemble prison? Don’t you feel that all of us Albanians have, in one way or another, spent a little time in prison? Does the moon not come and lick the empty bowl of the condemned man, as once it did for Livadhitist, and for me, and you, and everyone? Does this moon not also lick my son’s simple plate, the shop counter that has been left deserted? And so, although we have not been formally sentenced, we have all felt the handcuffs. When will the bell of amnesty ring for three million prisoners? When will we be like Fazell Dallarxha’s crowd, emerging from the evening of amnesty «liberated, but free»? operatives were opening files and summoning those who moved their television antennas. Oh God! They were summoned to prison for a Beatles song. But who didn’t like these famous singers? There were two such people in the world? The first was Enver Hoxha, chief of Albanian communism, and the second was M. Çelpmen, a 2 — Evening comes quickly in prison, Seven dense iron grilles, Seven heavy doors shut him in, says a poet from Diyarbekir. Within space surrounding him became three-dimensional: terror, sorrow, longing. In the condemned man’s buried memory, real, familiar, utterly beloved things—like the sea’s waves, the road lined with poplars, a kiss, the old gerrja (which the prisoner carried in his own bag all the way to his cell)—gradually moved away, faded, whitened like clothes, until they died. The more... And so, though not officially sentenced, we have all experienced the handcuffs. When will the amnesty bell the crowd of Fazëll Dagllarash, emerging from the evening of amnesty “unchained, but free”? When? Ring out, my time, you who are “yes” stretching onward, my time, you who take the shape of no-time. Change the clock. Enough of the broken mainspring. MARK SIMONI

XHORXH BUSH in the midst of an emotional moment.

WHY DOES THE SOCIALIST PARTY KEEP HER IN ITS RANKS? Almost every day our newspapers write about the colossal waste, benefits and abuses of this «honourable» family during 47 years of socialism in Albania. Every reader of ours knows the facts surrounding this matter. Millions of lek in pointless waste, villas, countless household appliances, trips abroad using state currency for pleasure and tourism, and who knows what other misdeeds they committed at the expense of this people, broken by want and poverty. Who could possibly know the true value of these abuses? Journalists write, give figures and facts, some covering a three-month period, others one, two or three years. But what about 47 years? Only God knows! Some are astonished, some do not believe it, another says the amount is smaller, another says they are lies; the president says other mistakes were also made. But the law, they say, calls them unforgivable mistakes. But what does the law say? Is there a law? The newspapers keep writing. They are just as truthful as they are lying, someone might say? Since the law says they are all true, and not the newspapers, why are the articles not held accountable? Which newspaper, someone might ask? It really is a problem that today even «ZP» itself, which until yesterday wrote in large letters «Enver lives and will live forever in our hearts», is now providing facts about this family’s benefits; nevertheless, there is room for the truth everywhere. «Where there’s smoke, there’s fire» — as they say around here. And indeed, there is something to it, because if the opposite were true, the law would not hesitate to come to this family’s defence, whose head was «our unforgettable leader». And indeed, these facts are making him unforgettable: He «lives and will live through the centuries» in our minds and hearts, but not as Ramiz Alia said and judged; Enver and his family will be remembered for the «good things» they brought to Albania and the Albanian people. Mrs. Nexhmije, at first, after some articles appeared in «RD», asked to defend herself and said that Enver did not like luxury. All right, madam, let us believe you. Let us believe you, let us believe you, let us believe you. Let us also believe that no one in your family liked luxury, since the newspapers say that luxury fills your villas (I don’t know how many there are; the newspapers don’t know either). Dozens of televisions, colour televisions, tape recorders and telephones, armchairs rather than floor cushions, refrigerators and radiators, curtains and carpets—aren’t these luxuries, madam? Or are these not true either? Why doesn’t the law speak? The newspapers keep writing. The law is silent. Whose side is the law on? Enver’s? That can’t be, because the government, and even his own party, are not on Enver’s side. At its 10th congress, the Socialist Party criticized and expelled from its ranks all those leaders who had unjustly profited at the expense of this people. But Enver? Let us accept that Enver did not like luxury and did not benefit from privileges, and that is why his own party did not expel him from its ranks. But Nexhmije? You Socialists say you are renewing yourselves. Then why did you keep Nexhmije in your ranks? Did she not like luxury either? All right. Then why don’t you defend her against the opposition’s accusations... Why is this family not brought to trial for these violations and abuses, so that the truth can come out as it is? Why should these facts be food only for the newspapers? ALEKSANDER FRANGAJ

AN INFORMATION ITEM FROM MIRDITA On Friday, 12 July, a meeting of the PD branch for the district of Mirditë was held, attended also by delegates from the PDSH Steering Committee. Among other things, activists and supporters of this party forcefully raised the question of why Frok Çupi had been removed from his post as editor-in-chief of the newspaper «RD». Had he made mistakes, or was he not capable of running a newspaper? Wasn’t he the first of the journalists to strike so hard at the PP bloc?! Wasn’t he the one who, with all his heart, worked together with the others to strengthen and consolidate «RD»? Wasn’t he the one who sacrificed more than the others? The people of Mirditë asked many questions about this issue. — It was said that he had been removed in order to appoint him to another, more important position, as head of the newspaper’s foreign affairs section; — But isn’t this an old practice? ZEF MARKU

The establishment of new sections of the PR branch throughout our district is one of the most important issues at present and for the future. The number of sympathizers and members is constantly growing, but, with all due goodwill, we want to say that greater effort must be made regarding the qualitative composition of those seeking to join our ranks. Above all, the Republican Party demands quality and people of character; it seeks courageous and honest people, and expects them to see joining our ranks not as a career move, but as a way to find themselves and work for the good of people, their fellow citizens and fellow villagers. It must be acknowledged that so far we have a broad network of sympathizers and members in Rrillë, Tresh, Zejmen, Balldre, Gjadër, Tale, Kodhel, Dajç, etc. But we also need to engage in self-criticism regarding the mountainous area of Kashnjet, where we have not established a section and where the sphere of influence is more on the side of the PP (PS). This is also our fault. I say this because the PS is still manipulating people with the besa. Besa is given to the one who keeps it, not to the one who has betrayed it for 46 years! (Continued on page 2)

Moral persecution — the watchword of the Enverist dictatorship. Interview with Ms. DRITA KOSTURI. IN THE NEXT ISSUE: Interview with Mr. PREÇ ZOGAJ, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, given to our editor-in-chief NIKOLLË LESI A cycle of poems by MARASH MIRASHI