FROK ÇUPI Tirana’s landmark, the Clock Tower, its own station symbol. In the evening the news broke that someone had stolen it, had taken away the Clock Tower. No one noticed, and it disappeared. Will someone let the news be known? Will anyone at least do that? Will the state rise up to say this baffling truth? These are the torments that are killing us, and someone must do it. It is his. Ordered, what a spirit like that! In such states one has often known how to sacrifice oneself for one’s own soul for reasons, even without guilt. But holes like these, which we are talking about, are not even of that scale; they are scales of loss. And yet this is what is happening to the Tower. Where was it torn out from? In whose hands? For what? All this comes like a fever. If, first, one allows by law to steal and get away, then the turn of the city is coming. Even our thieves have stolen Easter and exposed it in half-light and have scattered it throughout the city as if they were honest people. But there will also be, however, local organs of the state. What first gained, the so-called lie that the government is starting up conservative mediators as well as becoming root-cluster conservatives. This is with all its flaws, but it will manage and take responsibility in hand. In the daily article I repeat once again that the state must bring administration back to its own benefit. Indeed it must be restored. A state that cannot even protect its own monuments is not a mature state. Who stole it? Did it go missing? But who came out? Did it go missing? Yet with the loss of the Clock Tower, the moral fertility of this city was lost as well. Not to mention that a hat or a mullah’s cap was lost, something someone can put on without asking. Here we are dealing with a marked work, with a culture, with an identity of this city. Is this a state that kills? If so, will they be punished? Or will there once again be silence? Will there once again be bargaining so as not to cause trouble with the clergy, with the state, with the municipal employee? Who will speak? Who will come out? Who will show that it is not only the Clock Tower, but all of Tirana that is being devalued every day? The clergy should have been the first to raise its voice. Because here not only an object has been lost, but also a sign of time, a sign of history, a sign linked to faith and to the city. The clergy must protect it, denounce it, demand it. The state must likewise take responsibility. In a city where every day a piece of memory is lost, we cannot behave as if it were something with no owner. This is our face. Who broke it? Who stole it? Who allowed it? The answer is as moral as it is legal. (continued on page 3)

[?] THE FRENCH DAILY “LE MONDE” PRAISES THE ARREST OF ALEKSANDËR FRANGAJ The well-known French newspaper “Le Monde”, on 1 April 1993, published on its front page the “spectacular” arrest of the journalist and young writer Aleksandër Frangaj. According to “Le Monde”, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Koha Jonë”, Armand Shkullaku, who was arrested together with Frangaj, was arrested a few moments before they were to summon him to the office of the prime minister mo-[?] AFP: JOURNALIST FRANGAJ ACCUSED WITH COMMUNIST LICITET The editor-in-chief of the independent Albanian newspaper “Koha Jonë”, Aleksandër Frangaj, was arrested for defamation against the Albanian prime minister, after he had begun dealing with issues of the management of Yugoslav tourism. Frangaj is accused of having had contacts and of having given false news according to which Albania had begun Yugoslav cultural tourism. Furthermore, in a conversation in the office of a chief, before the eyes of a moderator, he had asked in a soft but specific tone where a sum of 22 million dollars had been sent. For this Aleksandër Frangaj was arrested and questioned. According to the prime minister’s complaint, Frangaj had defamed and had infringed the honor of the Albanian government. TO THE SUPPORTERS The Albanian newspaper “Alanca”, in yesterday’s issue under the title “Voices against the defamations of Aleksandër Frangaj”, writes among other things: According to the complaint of the prime minister of Albania, the publisher of “Koha Jonë” had defamed by claiming that through secret channels the sum of 22 million dollars had passed in favor of a senior official. This news, according to “Alanca”, was false. Later the complaint requested a public apology and compensation. Meanwhile, the magazine “Çdo gjë me vlerë” writes that Frangaj’s arrest is a sign that the government will not tolerate defamation in the media and will seek legal accountability. Some local newspapers have considered the arrest a sign of state strength, others an attack on the free press.

What first gained was the old idea that a government initiative for agriculture and construction makes little sense. The Conservative Mechanism has become possible and must be done differently. Let us wait for the first darling: it will have weaknesses from the opposition, and like any power it will manage and return five years later. Let us hope that the degeneration will be eliminated in the response, along with the weight of truth. But who emerged victorious? Who came out the loser? For a single party with the duty of governing, the replacement of three ministries does not carry much weight. In the end, while for now a government with a wide majority no longer creates [?] but fresh new funds. And the news for me, about the new ministers who were replaced, points to a very “professional” ministry, a minister who was taking spots and was contemporary. For example, before the law, the replacement of the minister of culture with a poetess in the high northern rank is a clear attempt at her affirmation and rehabilitation. It remained with a lighter face. This is the first reason for the loss of a few serious edges of the opposition, which had begun to become more critical. Everyone knows that it really did criticize the government. But somewhere that criticism was losing its breath because of a lack of seriousness. These are moves that show power seeking a redistribution of image and not necessarily a deep reform. In this sense the winner is the government itself, which gains a little political cushioning, while the loser remains the opposition, which fails to present a clearer profile of confrontation. (continued on page 3)

Among the intellectuals who came forward early in the morning with their requests to become part of the newspaper “Koha jonë” there was also an economics professor graduated in Italy. He then said: “No one should have to stay away from the newspaper, but they should give way to the work of the two so that they can go on?”. We are very happy to add from today onward to the head of our line three names and also a lecturer. In addition to the esteemed professors, two more candidates for university distinction are being listed. 1. Arian MANJASA “Paris VII” University, in the Institut d’Adminzio, Italy 2. GJOVANI SHTYNI [?] An “agrarian of the students”. AXEL FUNDO of “PUNO” accepted in agricultural sciences. L. Shitoli