The entire village is searching for the girl's maniac cousin After tying her eyes and mouth, he threw her over his shoulder and raped her in the woods page 9

By EMIN BARÇI The right wing in Albania still does not understand that the main obstacle to coming to power is not the majority, but the Democratic Party and, above all, its leader, Sali Berisha. It is precisely the second-line parties of the right that are continuing their fierce attacks on the Electoral Code and the Central Election Commission. Their latest action is the petition they have submitted together with several representatives of the small parties in the “Alliance for the State” coalition, in which they continue to demand changes both to the law and to the Central Commission. The truth is that the “quarrelsome” parties, under all the laws and commissions tested in Albanian elections over the past 10 years, have only lost, never managing to receive more than 4% of the votes from the Albanian electorate. The Socialist Party has not been, and cannot be, to blame for these parties' minimal results, since it owns the left-wing votes, which have eluded it only once, in the March 1992 elections. By contrast, the right-wing vote has historically been gathered by the Democratic Party, mainly thanks to its leader Berisha. Even where the Democratic Party has had difficulty gathering these votes, it has used against opponents of the same political orientation the same methods of violence it has used against the Socialists. The leader of the Republicans, Mediu, is living proof of this right-on-right repression in the 1996 elections. The leaders of the small right-wing parties still do not understand that Berisha himself is certain he can no longer retain 86% of local-government power. And for the next defeat, he needs the alibi of a defense that would exonerate him before the electorate and his party. It is perfectly clear that Berisha has decided to defend himself with the “they stole my votes” line. And if he applies the same formula in next year's parliamentary elections, Berisha will continue to dominate the right side of Albania's political spectrum for at least another five years. Meanwhile, the Socialists will continue to govern the country, while the small right-wing parties will continue to have press conferences as their main political activity. If these parties accept the electoral process without prejudging it, and seriously commit all the human resources they have within the institutions already approved to ensure that the preparatory process and the electoral process are proper and honest, they have every opportunity to pin the right's defeat on the main culprit, who is now clearly and unmistakably Berisha. Only a political naïf would believe that the right represented by Berisha could win elections through rigging. Only politicians who are dazed, emerging from unauthorized kiosks, could believe that a man politically beaten into a corner by UMNIK and KFOR—that is, by the international community—could win normal and honest elections in Albania. With the approach “let's shout ‘thieves’ louder than Berisha,” it is proven and certain that you gain no advantage in politics, especially since the Democratic leader may soon declare his secret weapon against the left, the nuclear one, which of course the small right-wing parties do not have. If they truly want to be voted for, the small right-wing parties must find their own path: they must not lower their spears against the left, and they must stop being a shield for Berisha, their real political enemy.

Interview/Speaking: Genc Pollo page 4

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Sunday supplement page 21