“...leaving my country, I have faith that I will return to it again. When I say this, I mean returning not after a catastrophe, but after a true democratization...” ISMAIL KADARE PARIS, 25.10.1990 It is an extremely cynical fact that just a few days after the French journalist from Bordeaux, Fransua Romie, wrote warmly in a Paris newspaper that when he had seen the Albanian giant Kadare somewhere near the Eiffel Tower, the latter had been completely eclipsed because of him; in my country, two or three boys who have accidentally called themselves journalists often try, through their overripe egos, to vilify in brainless little rags precisely the general of Albanian letters, because of whom, as I said, even the Eiffel Tower itself had been embarrassed for a moment... But, as the great writer Dostoyevsky says: “Snow is truly beautiful on a moonlit night, but in daylight it melts away all the better”; it so happened that the little rags in which the speculators of today’s common demagoguery line up were left in the hands of sluggish, dispirited newspaper sellers, while all the books of the exiled writer were silent this year as rarely before, adding to the pride of libraries. And this is explained by the simple reason... It must be said that in the long, black night of communism, Kadare was among the few who kept a candle lit for our nation until, they say, he grew tired, grew tired and imprisoned himself, because that way he would feel well. I know that in this time filled with professional politicians and common politicians, you will encounter all kinds of radical extremists who are ready to argue to the point of paradox, as in the story of the couple with the mouse and the little female mouse; they are ready to ask why Kadare lit a paraffin candle and not a wax one, why he lit a wax one and not a paraffin one. Don’t even the worn-out, hard-bitten ones talk about this, Dritëroi? Anyway. These are not the future, but merely a miserable, pathetic fragment of the present! Kadare lit the great fire of Albanian identity. Great fires of fighters may go out and his will not; political fires may go out and his will not, because he is the light of national consciousness, and a nation’s consciousness never d… indeed they stand as one, where Albanian triumph and calamity neighbor one another; indeed, they are one day. But now death must be exiled, and the Albanian has understood this. He has chosen life! This is one of the things he has taken from Kadare’s books. The day when celebration and calamity stand together like an astonishing and grotesque alloy is coming. It is not far away. Its footsteps can be heard. Listen! Troy and Anti-Troy together. Ruin and civilization. Shackles and free hands. Thus Kadare, the one we must always keep close, because a person always needs light, has approached, as if through a nightmare, a peripheral airport with giant strides. His hand reaching toward the ticket counter (freedom) is in step with our hand reaching toward the ballot box. And as long as we know how to overcome our fatalism, as long as we vote for Anti-Troy, for civilization and freedom, he will at the same time be buying a ticket for the most beautiful journey in the world, toward Albania, and we love it as much as he does. ... Let us vote for the return of our genius from exile. He is waiting at the peripheral airport. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Indeed, he is coming! prepar… the speculators of demagoguery? [the text above is cut off and partly illegible] …ordinary ones of today were left in the hands … Albanian identity. Great fires may go out … sluggish newspaper sellers, despair… great fires of fighters, and his will not; … all the books … political fires may go out, and his will not, be… of the exiled writer … as the light of national conscious… this year as rarely before, thus add… and the consciousness of a nation nev… increasing the pride of libraries. And… remains never, and all the more so when this… is explained by the simple rea… concerns the consciousness of Albanians. … the Albanians, now scorched… Albanians have great tasks … freed from dictatorship, those who waited ahead and know how to act. … with longing for 50 years, rarely… their sons confined in the cellars of consc… Perhaps this is a unique case in the… world, and this is explained by the cur… … the history of history and by the chara… this time, for the last imprisoned one of this kind, Kadare. both the absurdity and their grandeur stand so close to one another.

From September 1981 until December 1983, I completed my compulsory military service in Unit 324, the security battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tirana. This special unit, together with the soldiers of the Republican Guard, made up the army’s first contingent, selected on the basis of biographical guarantees. Therefore, extremely secret services of particular importance were carried out by this unit. For example, the state smuggling of tobacco from the civilian unit in Rashbull, Durrës, where the giant warehouses can be seen beside the national road. But one of this unit’s most delicate and practical duties was also the protection and escort of the state treasury and the archive. These duties were carried out by the 3rd platoon of the 3rd company, whose personnel included me. I personally never took part in these duties, because, as a non-commissioned officer, I was in charge of youth and cultural affairs in the battalion. The soldiers who took part in these duties were mostly selected and physically strong; usually, three men took part, with two automatic rifles and one light machine gun. warehouses can be seen beside the national road. The commander of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ command headquarters was N. Shkurti. They say that even the Minister of Internal Affairs, H. Isai, would stand to attention before him. I cannot say anything concrete about the movement of the treasury or its destination. I leave it to my former comrades who carried out these duties to tell us; and, strangely enough, all those I have met in the many Albanian towns I have had occasion to visit (since I am involved in sports)—such as B. Curri, Tirana, Berat, Tepelenë, Skrapar, Gjirokastër and Pogradec—have become policemen. Could this be a coincidence? The movements of the treasury became frequent after the arrest of the Kadri-Fecor group in 1982. At the same time, many secret objects were also moved from “the mountain with holes,” under the pretext that K. Hazbiu had discovered their secret. There were other mysteries in this unit, such as the “suicides” of an officer and two soldiers at a chemical facility and at the guard posts of the intelligence school, where they guarded the commander of this battalion, Sh. Halili. Now, following Xhon Megout’s statement on television, many discussions have arisen. … battalion, as at the time … The soldiers … physically strong; usually three men took part, with an automatic rifle and a light machine gun. These soldiers also loaded and unloaded the crates and guarded the vehicle during transport. None of the soldiers spoke about it, and no one had the right to question them about these duties; excessive curiosity was punished severely. These duties … the intelligence school … outside, or later the imprisonment of Megout’s statement on television, many discussions have arisen; it is said that the ar… has left Albania, but the treasury has not been taken out. Then do we have the right to ask: Should the gold be sought in the labyrinths of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in its tunnels?

— IN THE ANNALS OF COMMUNIST BACKROOM DEALS — THE FATE OF THE HOMELAND IN DANGER It has been some time since the people and the entire Albanian nation entered the field of a great battle. The problems are numerous and intense, and the internal and external anti-democratic forces gathered on the opposing front suggest that the outcome of this battle is LIFE or DEATH. The political parties will lead our people toward one of these two alternatives. In the Albanian political arena, the protagonists are, on one side, the Socialist Party and, on the other, the Democratic opposition. An important factor that plays a decisive role in resolving the national question is the position of Albanian politics toward the world. This will depend on the parties, the PS or the opposition. At this hazy time, the waters have appeared again at our borders and are traveling the paths through which they might enter our country. An effort is being made to confront the anti-democratic forces … to have Serbs and … Greeks. Neither the first nor the … two will be able to achieve their aims unless they secure strong support from within. The Albanian bloc … clearly shows whom it supports … where it leans. This has been expressed … by their leaders, by the press, by various European state and party figures. Even “ZP” has unwittingly acknowledged this. The opposition’s tendency regarding support and future international relations is toward the West. A particularly important issue is the truth about the Socialist Party’s tendencies and aims. First, it is worth emphasizing that, regardless of its statements, this party is in fact the biological successor of the Party of Labour and the Communist Party. At first the Communist Party and later the Party of Labour have always played the role of promiscuous women, obediently satisfying the desires of the Yugoslavs, Russians, Chinese, and others. Oral history, the history alive among the people, and written history all prove this. The work of the “far-sighted” Enver proves it as well. Thus, the hub of economic dependence, and especially of ideological and political dependence on the East, is the Communist Party and the Party of Labour. Their fellow traveler, “ZP,” is the most obvious and compromising advocate of their anti-national and anti-democratic policy. During the communists’ pilgrimages in Albania, the names, the bands … and the patrons changed, but “ZP” remained the same: the poverty, terror and lies remained the same. As for the problem of Kosovo and the wall that exists between it and state Albania, the blame lies with the great European powers. This is about the year 1913. History, with its events and opportunities, turns and periodically gives peoples a chance to determine their own fate. History offered us such a chance at the end of the Second World War, when, as after every war of such scale, the possibility of revising borders existed more convincingly. At that moment, amid the misfortunes that had pursued Albanians for centuries, came the calamity named Enver. During this war he never thought about Kosovo, just as he had no plans to deal with it in the future. In Enver’s mind, Kosovo would always be a coin in the hands of the Serbs and Montenegrins, as payment for the position and support given him by M. Popoviç and CD. After the war and a few years later, Enverist policy attributed the successes of the Albanian war to Tito and Yugoslavia, thus, as so often, using the bones and dreams of the martyrs. In the first postwar PRIMER, the first pages bore photographs of Tito and Enver. Dictatorship is more or less this: “We would not have achieved these victories if we had not received the great help of the com…” (continued on page 4) ALFONS ZENELI

— IN LIEU OF A REPLY — A week ago, in issue 13663 of ZP, the organ of a 270-day-old party such as the PS, a certain Bujar Velaj appeared. He was an ordinary lackey representing the Hades of the Party of Labour. He is responsible for dozens of lives unjustly taken, having participated as a voluntary false accuser in show trials staged in the interests of Enver Hoxha’s dictatorship. From this perspective, it is extremely cynical that he is now trying, through a (naturally socialist) lawsuit, to stage a trial against me simply because I publicly expressed my opinion that here, on 22 March, criminals, thieves and vandals will cast their votes. The author’s only merit in this instance is that this time he has not signed with his interesting pseudonym, KUJTIM DALLASHI, but with his real name, Bujar Velaj. That is undoubtedly courageous and transparent, Bujar Velaj. The same has certainly been best demonstrated by such figures as Gjikë Perona, Oso Kurveleshi, Shkëmb Graniti, and others. It should be emphasized that B. Velaj foresaw only one thing: the prisons of conscience have been demolished, never to be rebuilt! Do you know Bujar? He is always walking around, turning a set of different keys in his hands, which “will open a door. Poor guard, the clientele he is going to have will always be missing him!

In view of our newspaper’s needs, as its circulation and demand have increased, we announce that we need newspaper sellers for Tirana and other cities. Those interested should report on Thursday, bringing their identity card, to the “Mihal Duri” Printing House. Payment: 3 old lek for each newspaper sold.