Spartak Ngjela, Minister of Justice: “The plan against the South is madness” Pages 3, 4

It is unlikely that former Chancellor Vranicki imagined, as he landed for the third time on the runway at Rinas, that his mission would have such an unexpected ending. The visit, which was supposed to set the final points on the road to elections, fell into the trap of the logic of conflict that has historically dominated the living and dead politicians of this country. The high-ranking OSCE representative has surely begun to understand this trait of our political class, which is demonstrating its old reflexes even as the now battered agreement of 9 March continues to flutter in the background. The political compromise reached between the opposition and the president has been held hostage by the latter’s thoroughly dishonest manoeuvres and by the party he rules with an iron hand. Viewing the election date as the end of its power, rather than the beginning of the normalization of the situation, the DP and Berisha are wielding all the power given to them by the stolen May ’96 vote to push into the Greek calends the only path to salvation left amid the disintegration of the state and mass arming. They have found their crooked stick: the committees of the South. The Democrats say that there will be no elections without their elimination (note the term), while saying not a word about the weapons and chaos in the North. And that is not all. To further complicate the electoral pact with the other political forces, the DP has now thrown up technical obstacles as well, such as the electoral law. Alone in its desire to go to the polls under the existing law, the DP is not swayed by the fact that everyone is against it. In this way, it is becoming clear that it is preparing to reject the deadline it itself signed on 9 March 1997. The Democratic Party and the president are holding Albania hostage. Although this force and this leader no longer have any moral or political standing to claim such a thing, Albanians continue to suffer the cynicism of a party that did considerable harm to the country during the five years it governed. The time has come for certain truths to be spoken openly, and a “reconciliation” agreement that has almost entirely collapsed cannot prevent this. In five years, this party built a state that disintegrated within a few days. Members of parliament, ministers and mayors fled, while the army and police fell apart. Thousands of weapons were taken from depots as never before; several hundred people lost their lives, and total anarchy replaced the law. The DP was reduced to a party without a state, while Berisha became a commander-in-chief without an army. The legacy the Democrats are leaving their successors would alone be enough to show that Berisha, Shehu and Abrnoni have no moral right to veto anything. The president cannot demand that the opposition party be supported by “two thirds” of the country, since his own party’s branches were burned not only in the South but also in the North. Anyone who cannot show that a square is on his side cannot expect the national tragedy to end as soon as possible. But for that to happen, its principal perpetrators must make the necessary self-criticism and retreat from their positions of force. Because today’s DP is not the DP of ’92, just as Albania in ’97 is not the same country either. K.J

Abaz Ermenji, chairman of Balli Kombëtar. Photo: G.Shkullaku

Prime Minister Fino’s difficult task is facing the stubborn insistence of President of the Republic Sali Berisha that Deputy Interior Minister Agim Shehu not be dismissed. The deputy minister in question, with a bad record as former director of the border service in 1989–1990 (during Ramiz Alia’s time), has been placed entirely under Berisha’s heel to stir up trouble. Agim Shehu is one of the authors of the orders to kill people at the border in 1990; he is a principal perpetrator of violence against the free press; he is one of those who took up a truncheon on 28 May ’96 and beat the opposition’s people in Skënderbej Square; he is the man who controlled and put 33 journalists from “Koha Jonë” in the cells of Tirana Police Station No. 2 on 26 February 1996; he is the man who threatened the “KJ” editorial office, saying “I’ll wipe you out...” (the recording exists); he is the man causing the police to act; the man who directed the suppression of the revolt in the South; Berisha’s permanent deputy minister, regardless of whether ministers are dismissed or resign. Even Prime Minister Bashkim Fino’s latest attempt to dismiss him and appoint someone else (also from the DP) has failed so far. Given the threats, and given that people say Agim Shehu and Bashkim Gazideda are stirring things up, in Berisha’s state, why does the prime minister not dare dismiss him? Being prime minister of a half-destroyed country does not mean being merely cautious, but also courageous—even when confronting evil. If the prime minister is afraid of a conflict with Shehu or his men, then he should let Agim Shehu run the government outright. The prime minister would also be doing the president a favour by dismissing Shehu, removing a troublesome thorn from his side. The president needs advisers, not Agim Shehu, Bashkim Gazideda and Blerin Çelo, who have misinformed him and abused the president’s trust. If Fino wins this undeclared “battle” with an all-powerful deputy minister, then things will improve. Otherwise, everyone will fall, including Prime Minister Fino. Agim Shehu is untouchable. He is capable of causing trouble not only for the opposition, but for his own minister, Bedri Çelo, as well.