Main protagonist: PJETER NIKA We had announced the article weeks earlier. But, strangely, the first article writer found himself among us: should he publish it or not? In the end, the negative answer prevailed! After a reaction in public opinion. The second journalist was assigned. In the name of the work, he says. Pjetër Nika anxiously followed every move of the journalist[s]. But, as always, he was determined to find his opponent’s weak points. He found them. He struck again at the editorial office? … This was the feeling, as well as the self-criticism we offer our cultured reader. • Dozens of his friends and acquaintances intervened to block the article. • Anonymous phone calls: “Don’t publish the piece. We’ll blow you up with dynamite!” • On Tuesday, two people armed with pistols and dynamite threatened the editorial office: “We’ll burn down the editorial office and the home of editor-in-chief Nikollë Lesi!” Since we have many readers throughout the country—Tiranë, Durrës, Shkodër, Laç, Kavajë, Elbasan, etc.—we should first explain who Pjetër Nika is (people in Lezhë know). In any case, it must be admitted: he is a handsome, tall, well-known, outwardly warm-hearted man; to put it briefly, a gentleman. He is a member of the PS. He also has a particular ability: when he takes on a new job—?—he gets it done, despite obstacles and pressure. He never holds back in achieving his goal. The people of Lezhë still remember the explosive drama of the electrician Teuta Zhuri, who, for his sake, was put through years of—?—waiting month after month for justice at the Central Committee of the PPSH, at the Ministry, at the High Court, at the People’s Office, the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, etc. Wherever she went, the matter of qualifications? was raised against Pjetri. That woman had attached a half—?—with good reason, over several dismis-?—and anniversaries, on the director’s side. The investigations were carried out, the strict and uncompromising order… Martin Gega, facing? the risk of being shot, in Ishull’ Lezhë. Perhaps we would not press this issue so hard, if it had not been the number-one topic discussed in Lezhë for years. No public answer has yet been given to all this uproar, so we continue: the “Teuta” case became the issue of the day. People expected justice. Justice was turned into injustice at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour. The people of Lezhë came up with a saying that, without doubt, even as we write these words, contains some truth: “Whoever thinks of taking on Pjetër Nika should first make sure he has the noose ready for himself!” Gradually, the directors in question came and went, in truth not without discomfort and nervous tension. The “Teuta” case was once again in the foreground. Teams continued to arrive, supposedly to see justice done, but in front of this gentlemanly man, they fell to their knees. In his comfortable office, he plotted the dismissal of auditor Martin Gega. As for Teuta, who had caused him so much trouble, he showed himself “magnanimous”: he wanted to expel her from the Party as a slanderer and took her to court. An article was sent from Lezhë to “Zëri i popullit” and laid out for publication, but, strangely, because of the director’s tempting offers and later pressure, right up to threats of dismissal, the journalist carried on with his job. He uncovered the theft of a large sum of money. Then the “mania” went into swift action: documents disappeared and an alibi was prepared. The auditor, a man sufficiently seasoned by life, photographed the documents and, at the opportune moment, produced them to shed light on the darkness into which the case had been plunged. Meanwhile, alongside the pressure being applied at the time to the electrician in question by the former First Secretary of the Central Committee of the PPSH and member of the Central Committee of the PPSH Higmet Çuka, by GjyI Brahimi, in his capacity as secretary of the district KP, and by the Chairman of the district Executive Committee, the “uncompromising,” as they called him, Irakli Vero, pressure also began to come from above. The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the PPSH, Ramiz Alia, sent team after team of inspectors, who, as soon as they arrived in Lezhë, softened up in front of director Pjetër Nika. Strange! “Marxists” set out from Tirana and ended up “capitalists” at the hotel … the next morning it was not published. Muho Aslla, from Durrës, phoned Higmet Çuka: “Hey, is it right that a talkative woman won’t let that new, hardworking director, Pjetër Nika, work?!” Hiqmeti (fortunately for the accuracy of this report, I happened to be in his office) replied: “I think so too, comrade Muho. They won’t let Pjetri work. I’ll deal with that matter…” And indeed he did. He called for the electrician to be expelled from the Party! But she proved stubborn. Along with a telegram to Ramiz Alia, he sent instructors; on one occasion, Mihal Bisha, a mediocre Party official, even came specially to (not) resolve the matter. Apparently, the phones rang incessantly in the district First Secretary’s office. This time it was Sokol Hoxha, Enver Hoxha’s son. Hiqmeti mentioned this in a casual remark, without thinking that he was compromising himself. Then everything became clear. Pjetri was all-powerful. If he had wanted (and it would have been better if he had), he could have dismissed both the First Secretary and the chairman of the Executive Committee! He had a friend at the summit of the ruling pyramid: the dictator’s son. To him, the others were flies, living thanks to his mercy or generosity. Throughout this chaos, he emerged stronger, thanks to his connections. He remained powerful! Perhaps more powerful than ever. Calmly, he plans other schemes for the future. But he has long left the enterprise to its fate. The city is in its worst state when it comes to the heaps of rubbish; the apartment blocks are neglected, and darkness covers almost all of them, except where senior local state officials live. He also has another trait: he gets along well with all the leaders of the political parties. He is shrewd! Precisely, cunning and sharpness are his number-one characteristics. Without going into some other problems within the enterprise he runs (we’ll leave them for another time), and as I approach the end of the article, I would like to put these questions to the pluralist Executive Committee: Will you be the first and most capable of triumphing over his skill, or will you cower under the fear of his friendship and powerful connections in Lezhë, and especially in the Prime Minister’s Office?! Will you be capable of using his agility (I speak sincerely) in the direction that serves Lezhë’s interests, or will he make the law in his own private interest? Be on your guard, pluralist committee members! If you do not feel strong enough to take him on, do not enter a dead end. His “tentacles” can throw you from the committee offices all the way to the villages of Kashnjet! The public demands that action be taken. NIKOLLË LESI

17th Plenum of the Central Committee of the PPSH. May 1991. Ramiz Alia resigns from the Party post of First Secretary of the PP. He remains only President. Meanwhile, in the USSR, Gorbaçovi continues to hold the post of Secretary of the Communist Party as well. 24 August 1991: After the coup d’état, Gorbaçovi is forced to resign from the post of Secretary of the PK. He remains only President. But he did something Ramiz Alia should have done in time: he dissolved the Central Committee of the PKBS. B. ALBANI

— Greece will not release the body of the dead young man Petrit N. Marku from Lezhë without payment of 400,000 drachmas. — Mourning continues in the village, while the deceased has still not come home to be mourned. — Five villages are still collecting money to pay the amount required by Greek regulations. — His little sister, starting school for the first time, was expecting a schoolbag from her brother in Greece, but now even her dead brother’s body is not coming to her. Far-off Zijami is in dire straits. But today, after the tragic fate of Petrit Nikollë Marku has shaken it to its core, that patch of “earth” can hardly recover. How exhausted this little stream of seventy houses has become in recent days; they do not know whether they are alive or dead. They search their pockets for their last two coins, do not buy all the children’s books, take their only livestock down to sell, all just to collect some money to buy the body of their son, accidentally killed in Greece. O God, 400,000 drachmas are demanded to buy the body of their own flesh and blood! His poor mother has neither known nor ever seen this kind of money. His father cannot find Larissa on the map, where his son is being kept in the morgue, despite his poverty. Fate has cornered him. Between him and his dead son stand the money he does not have. The bridge to get there pays no heed to his pain. Once again, old Charon ferries the dead across in his boat—this far. But the boat costs 400,000 drachmas, which five villages cannot manage to collect. Zijami is in mourning, but has been left without a corpse. And the poor village wanders through the night, exhausted, penniless, humiliated; without any hope, as the hours stretch on and on and do not end until the boy comes from Greece. The little sisters, glowing like embers, weep. They had made plans together that when they started school, Petriti would bring them a blouse or two. But all their dreams were left hanging, and their big brother’s body lies in a morgue, on foreign soil, beneath Greek words. Like the women of ancient Lemnos, they lament. Perhaps someone has composed, in the night, the verses with which they will mourn him tomorrow. I have no money to bring your body home, my dead son. What horror. The word “money” seems utterly out of place, but it is the magic of grief. Is this word not now between parent and child like the Berlin Wall, like the Bridge of Qabesë? Our Albanian is stranded there, in the sands of death. Put your hand in your pocket, my Government; call that boy’s body back here, he who spoke the language that you, too, use when addressing the people. MARK SIMONI

Very dishonest spy-o-shadow-substitute of the great ZP metropolitan! In the piece “When Logic Is Borrowed,” dated 25 August in ZP, you mention the word “donkey” with such unrestrained zeal that I would not be surprised if you had signed it with that very word as well. MARASH MIRASHI

Fourth year of publication Friday 30 AUGUST 1991 Weekly No. 25 (176) 1 LEK