Meidani before the investigators
Prosecution: “What do you know about the uprising of 14 September?”
Enver’s name above the Berat mountain
Page 2
Meidani, calm[?] and compromise-oriented
BY BLENDI FEZIU
In the television message delivered on Thursday evening, the head of the Albanian state, Rexhep Meidani, declared that he had “no knowledge, either in an institutional way or through operational channels” of what had happened before and within the institution of the Presidency. In a few words, he was stressing that one of the prominent figures emerging innocent from the political accusations over the events of 14 September was himself. The Albanian President, without any forced equivocation, admitted in his message that the political authors of the organization of the revolt and the coup of 14 September were others. Indeed, it seems that he in a way had also completely brought to the forefront the persons with very important names and positions in connection with what had been prepared: the place, the organized individuals, the weapons, their types, and of course also the persons who knew or did not know about what would happen. At a time when OSCE and the international community were informing the political group about the Revolutionaries that the US and the US for them[?] insisted that the solution should be a political one and not through criminal charges, Prime Minister Pandeli Majko clearly stated the day before that the question of whether he would be questioned and in what form, and whether the close presidential circle was informed or not, is a matter for the investigative institution. The question posed by the PD deputy and his institutional successor, while from the screen of Albanian television on Thursday evening he was calling for “understanding and compromise,” really sounded like a very real challenge. “Is it not enough for the President to declare that it was a mistake and a solution? Whoever cooked it up, whoever incited it; the intermediaries, even if they are Albanian or foreign, must answer before the law...” Mr. Majko would declare last night. In the background of this situation, it had been repeatedly said during the week by some voices from the opposition that the creation of an OSE[?] and new anti-communist demonstrations? in line for the US leadership? to take Tirana out and save Berisha’s leadership from something close to... In any case, the PD deputy’s question has remained the same in these days of mass arrests that affect both sides of the political scene in Albania. “Given the place he occupies in the hierarchy of the state, Meidani must provide not only an answer for the reasons for the lack of information, but also for the political position of the names circulating through the corridors,” in other words another opposition figure declared last night. In any case, it seems that in the country’s political January, where the events of 14 September will continue to be one of the main stories of the new Albania, the main factors influencing political life are Meidani, the Speaker of Parliament, and the Prime Minister.
Dictation Enver Hoxha