GRAMOZ PASHKO declares DISCUSSION AT THE PD’S EXTRAORDINARY CONFERENCE Gentlemen, —I do not wish at all to try to convince you, since I know very well that arguments will carry no weight in this hall. Its outcome has been decided in advance. Gentlemen,—I do not wish at all to try to convince you, since I know very well that arguments will carry no weight in this hall. Its outcome has been decided in advance. But I must remind you that it is your misfortune to have written your names on a list that will remain in Albania’s history as the list of those who voted to destroy the first anti-communist opposition party in Albania and, above all, you will be directly responsible for the consequences this will bring. Tomorrow, after this conference, you will go before the people rejoicing that you declared all the founders of the PD to be a hostile gang that you had liquidated… Instead of gathering here to address the great difficulties that lie ahead, you will carry out your work like ignoramuses, and then tomorrow you will eliminate even the first loyalists, replacing them with other loyalists, and so on. By eliminating capable people in this way, world opinion will also distance itself from you, refusing to tolerate your serious violations of democracy and freedoms. How will you answer world opinion when it asks where Albania’s first opposition figures and renowned intellectuals are? Will you say you expelled them because they were all agents of Ramiz? Will you say that Ramiz formed the first opposition? Perhaps you have devised this very merit for him because you want to leave Ramiz in peace as well, assigning him a place in history. What do you think, that all of world opinion… gave me the chance to remain an observer, but also left me with the great sorrow of not being able to stop this catastrophe. I wanted not to get involved; I wanted to occupy myself with my lectures and my books, but you changed the rules of the game, power blinded you and you went beyond logic and reason, and, above all, beyond morality. Gentlemen,—I am not afraid of your lynching. All this time I have met people in different regions and seen that no one believes your slanders and demagoguery against me anymore. To this day you have produced no fact or argument to prove any fault or crime of mine, so I am sure that this time too you will only say untrue things behind my back. Why don’t you open [the records?] and they know very well that I put everything I had at their disposal: my home, my family, my honor. I followed them because I wanted to win freedom for myself and my children. But I feel that this freedom is being violated. And I will fight to the end against those who violate this freedom; they are my enemies, whether they are communists or fascists. You, Sali Berisha, have begun to think that you are truth personified; you think that now that you have become president, you are justice, you are democracy; you think you are the star that lights up our hearts; you think you are God, and therefore you can do whatever you want, even trample every law and principle. But I am telling you publicly: you know that these are signs of paranoia, the illness of dictators, and that the delusion… the delusion of grandeur is accompanied by a persecution mania. And this latter makes you plunge your hands deep into wrongdoing and cook up a concoction that even you yourself cannot stomach. Do not forget that politics is not a matter of days and months; it goes on for years. If what I have said above is untrue, I am the one who will answer to your judgment and that of history; but if it is true, one day you will answer—not only before God, but also before the law. 13.8.1992 This statement is being sent to all the main newspapers: RD, Alternativa, ZP, Republika, Balli i Kombit, Koha Jonë, as well as Albanian Radio and Television. to the people with joy that the initiators of the DP were proclaimed all together, branding you as having liquidated an enemy gang. Instead of gathering here for the great difficulties awaiting us, for how we will build this devastated country, instead of discussing new ideas, clear programs and concrete solutions, you are conducting witch hunts as in the Middle Ages. — You fail to understand that you are carrying out neither economic nor institutional reform. You do not understand that very soon you will be left without any support among the people. Your revanchist Inquisition is already causing the intelligentsia to begin withdrawing its support. What will you tell public opinion when economic collapse knocks at your door together with winter? Will you repeat the old refrain that we would have done many things, but were slightly delayed because we discovered and liquidated the class enemies? Do you say you will solve the problem by putting [it] in Ramizi? Could it be that you have concocted this very merit of his because you want Ramizi himself to remain, while inventing a place for him in history? What do you think, that world public opinion swallows such antidemocratic actions without any criteria or sense? Do you think it knows the Sancho Panzas who have appeared on the scene today? Do you think it will swallow crazy formulas that exclude Pashko because he is an agent and a pseudo-democrat, or has deviated from Sali Berisha’s line, or will you tell it that through Blerim Çela you uncovered his corruption? No, gentlemen, neither domestic nor international public opinion can be fooled by such wretched formulas, let alone European politicians. — I have said that we are heading toward a new dictatorship. Today you are sanctioning it. But do not forget that it will engulf all of you, and much sooner than you think. Your exclusion more Why don’t you open and publish my file, or do you know that you have nothing to find in it with which to accuse me? Or perhaps you have opened it and lack the courage to publish it because you have seen my surveillance from 1976 through 1991? You have only threats and blackmail against me, or violence against my family, left as ways of trying to force me to withdraw or leave. There, I repeat it to you—I am not leaving. After all this, Gramoz Pashko will remain firmly embedded in Albanian politics, like Banquo’s ghost after Macbeth. I want neither a post nor ranks; I have enough of those. The students called me in December to join them, my comrades called me and I went without even…

IN THE NEWSPAPER «KOHA JONË» On Wednesday, the inspection team of the Republic’s General Directorate of Financial Police arrived in Lezhë. Its members also include experts from the Tirana branch, as well as from the Lezhë Financial Police. The inspection team will conduct an inspection at the independent newspaper «Koha jonë». This is the 19th team to come to «Koha jonë» within 5 months, to carry out the order of our esteemed President, who takes special care to silence the free press. According to unofficial sources, next week the 20th team from President Berisha’s Cabinet is expected to arrive.

BLERIM ÇELA declares Dear readers, we are obliged to republish this scandalous statement made a short time ago in Shëngjin by Mr. Blerim Çela, Albania’s Minister of State Control. After this statement was published in «Koha jonë» and mentioned in «ZP», Mr. Çela wrote in «RD» that Nikollë Lesi is a liar and corrupt, that «Koha jonë» is [such-and-such], and other absurdities that are now familiar and expected from Blerim at any time. In no paragraph of his response in RD does Mr. Blerim say that such a statement is untrue; instead, he tries to deceive the reader with words like corruption, corrupt, and so on. As for the accuracy of this statement, we clarify for Mr. Blerim and our readers that it was recorded on a tape recorder and copied onto other tapes as well. In recent days, a Kosovar journalist also asked us for and received such a tape for the Albanian-language press in Kosovo; he promised to send it to all the Albanian-language press around the world. We will also send such a tape to Mr. Blerim so he can hear how eloquently he spoke. We believe it is unnecessary to comment on a statement like this, in which the Albanian Minister declares and calls for a vote for Sllobodan and Serbia, and not for the Albanian socialists. Oh God! How can such a person be Albanian?! And what is more, how can he be a Minister in a democratic Government?!

— The authors of the motion are expelled without any argument about the danger posed by the motion. — The founders of the PD are declared agents of Ramiz Alia, while Ramiz Alia is seen at liberty and gives interviews. — Abdi Baleta, who is not a member of the PD, takes the floor from Azem Hajdari and sets the PD’s strategy for the future. In an enthusiastic hall packed to capacity, amid the delegates’ chants and cheers, the proceedings of the PD’s extraordinary conference took place. Chaired by Mr. Selami and pashym Berisha, the conference had as its main and sole purpose the expulsion from the party of the authors of the August 5 motion. From the very first speaker, one immediately sensed the determination to carry out this action, as well as the harsh, violent tone, the lack of reasoning, and the standard epithets borrowed from RD’s leading article the day before. Avoiding any analysis of the motion, and not even mentioning it, the speakers labelled its authors agents of Ramiz Alia. Most of the speakers attacked the PD deputy chairman, Mr. Azem Hajdari, and also did not spare former student Arben Lika, who declared that Azem Hajdari had played no special role in the December Movement and that during it he was led by the State Security. (continued on page 4) hands ma- the facts that from Du- in Tropo- hands here. modfta borders and I emphasi... shime of merchants Zi work- operation ... time of elections ...ve for ... II explains: ... course ...services ... I finished the speci- ... gentlemen- ... correct ... time and ... «bloc» ... ruajtju ... in Ku- ... with ... Lezhë ... Nikë ... to U...

Starting with this issue, the newspaper «Koha jonë» will be published twice a week: on Tuesdays and Fridays. This is because the number of contributors and people wishing to publish in «Koha jonë» has increased so much that we cannot manage to publish their writings once a week. Readers’ requests are also increasing with every issue. We can see this in the circulation figures, where there have constantly been requests to increase the print run, from almost all the districts of Albania. NOTICE TO NEWSPAPER SELLERS Newspaper sellers in the districts will receive «Koha jonë» on Tuesday and Friday mornings, while newspaper sellers in Tirana will collect it as usual one day earlier, that is, on Monday and Thursday afternoons.

In the article «BLINDNESS» published in «ZP» on August 18, 1992, the note accompanying the article was left unpublished, for reasons I do not know. I am publishing this note in «Koha jonë». «Albanian intellectuals should value their own intellectuals, [who] made it possible for political parties to have their own newspaper even when they are merely parties of “flesh and friends” and [that is why] they receive no votes from the people. I am publishing this note in «Koha jonë». The people must learn to value their own Albanian intellectuals for the issues they raise, and therefore they are obliged to act for the benefit of Albanians and often to publish in party newspapers. The State has…