On 24 June 1991, a conference on rural issues organized by the DP Steering Commission was held in Tirana. DP leaders and activists from the districts, agricultural specialists, etc., took part. The conference analyzed the current situation and the problems that have arisen in the countryside, and discussed the measures that should be implemented to better ensure and give concrete form to work with rural communities within the framework of implementing the DP program. The conference emphasized the extremely serious situation created in our countryside as a result of the profoundly misguided policy and incompetence of the PPSH (now PSSH). The breaking up of the united agricultural cooperatives, the forcible seizure of livestock from cooperative barns and the destruction of the barns, widespread damage to production, the mass abandonment of work in cooperatives, the seizure of newly harvested wheat, etc.—phenomena that have now become everyday occurrences—show a sense of insecurity, fear, and distrust that has gripped the mass of peasants throughout the country. The peasant has now understood that the PPSH has abandoned him, has betray- [?] families who are currently members of agricultural cooperatives. Distribution is to be made according to the number of people in each family. Family members of cooperative households who are employed by the state are to be excluded from this calculation. a. 4. Land-allocation calculations are to be made according to the boundaries of the united cooperatives, not on the basis of villages. a. 5. Land is to be allocated to families in a fair proportion of irrigated and non-irrigated land. a. 6. In allocating the land, the boundaries of properties peasants owned before collectivization will not be taken into account. Peasants should be told that, under the current conditions in our countryside, when the rural population has nearly tripled, when the state and cooperatives have made major investments in land improvement and irrigation across large areas, and when significant demographic shifts have occurred in many villages, observing the old property boundaries has become impossible. a. 7. Land allocation is to be carried out by a state commission sent from the district, with the participation of ... elected representatives who represent the local units and should serve their existing communities more broadly. b. The peasants’ land will be worked by SMT machinery at the rates also paid by agricultural cooperatives. g. The water-management enterprise will remain a state enterprise. Peasants will irrigate their land according to a schedule drawn up by village people’s councils. Irrigation rates will be those applied to agricultural cooperatives. h. The state will assist individual landowners with short- and long-term loans without bank interest, to intensify production. Within this framework, peasants may use annual loans to buy seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and to have work done by SMT. Long-term loans may be used to buy draft and productive animals, various kinds of machinery, etc. Likewise, during the initial phase, it will provide interest-free loans and free economic assistance to peasants in mountainous areas so they can revive their devastated economies. i. As part of the measures to revive the rural economy, the state will not tax individual peasant landowners for two years. j. Through the state insurance company, under proper legislation, individual peasants are to be guaranteed the right to a pension. k. On agricultural enterprises, the land will remain state property, but their economic activity will be conducted by joint-stock companies, which may be: k. 1 State joint-stock companies in which the state sells part of the shares to enterprise employees at preferential prices. k. 2 Joint state-private joint-stock companies involving Albanian and foreign legal entities and individuals. The state receives rent for the land and revenue through the tax system to be established by the relevant legislation. k. 3 The DP program will devote particular attention and care to finding positions for rural specialists, whom the PPSH’s policies and especially recent events in the countryside are casting out onto the streets. We believe that specialists who lose their jobs should receive their salaries until they are placed in new positions. The ways to place them will be as follows: a. Specialists living in the countryside should be given land like everyone else, ensuring them a secure means of livelihood. The state should give them preference in granting loans and financial assistance. b. Some of the specialists, mainly those living in towns, will cooperative, the seizure of newly harvested wheat, phenomena that have now become everyday occurrences, show the understood that the PPSH abandoned him, betrayed him once again, as it has done for 47 years. This party has lost control of the situation and is making one mistake after another in dealing with the countryside. It is neither able nor capable of finding the right solution for the countryside because it remains ashamed of its old dogmas about socialism, common ownership, and the centralized planning of the economy. In this situation, only the DP program offers the countryside rational and realistic alternatives for overcoming this catastrophic condition into which it has fallen and setting Albanian agriculture and rural life on the road to progress, on the road to Europe. Under current conditions, this path proceeds through two main phases: the first phase requires stabilizing the situation and restoring the peasant’s lost confidence, while the second phase will bring radical transformations to turn the rural economy into a fully-fledged market economy. 1. In the first phase, attention should focus on these key measures: a - Full privatization of the countryside must be carried out immediately, applying the following criteria: a. 1 - All the land assets currently administered by agricultural cooperatives must be divided up. a. 2 - Land must be given to peasants free of charge, as their full property, with the right to sell and buy it, inherit it, and lease it. a. 3 - Land must be allocated only to fam- large investments have been made in land improvement and irrigation, and significant demographic shifts have occurred in many villages, respecting the old property boundaries has become impossible. a. 7. The new land allocation must district, with the participation of representatives elected by the village itself. b. The livestock arbitrarily seized from the cooperatives must be returned, and all the livestock of the agricultural cooperatives must immediately be redistributed according to legal criteria approved by the cooperative members’ general assembly. The DP supports giving livestock to cooperative families free of charge. c. The Democratic Party supports dissolving the agricultural cooperative as a failed form of economic activity that has enslaved the peasant and plunged him into poverty. The peasants themselves will decide this of their own free will. d. The state must assume responsibility for supplying bread to the peasantry. The bakeries currently owned by agricultural cooperatives must be taken under state administration, supplied with standard flour from flour mills, and used to provide peasants with bread of the same quality as in the cities. The state should expand the existing network of bakeries, extending it to every village, both to produce bread and to bake casseroles and baking trays for peasant households. e. The collection of agricultural and livestock products offered by peasants must take place at state collection and trading centers. Alongside this, individual sales at the farmers’ markets in the towns should continue. f. The supply of seeds, chemical fertilizers, fruit-tree saplings, pesticides, building materials, etc. to peasants must be provided by state enterprises- of Shënkave, at the University of Tirana, at the National Historical Museum, at the Medieval Museum, and at other important cultural centers. I have come again. In the first phase, it will provide interest-free loans and free financial assistance to villagers in mountainous areas to revive their devastated economy. 1. As part of the measures to revive the village economy, individual peasant landowners will not be taxed by the state appropriate legislation, individual peasants shall be guaranteed the right to a pension. k. At agricultural enterprises, the land will become state property, but their economic activity will be carried out to the enterprise’s with rent for the land and revenue from the fiscal system to be established under the relevant legislation. k. 3 Special attention and care in the DP’s program will be devoted to finding placements for village specialists, whom the policies of the PPSH and, especially, recent events in the countryside are throwing onto the streets. We believe that specialists who are left without work should receive their salary until they are placed in new jobs. (Continued on page 2)

- CONVERSATION WITH FATHER ARTUR LIOLIN, CHANCELLOR OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA, BY «RD» JOURNALIST MITRO ÇELA - - Welcome, dear Father! Is this your first visit to Albania? - This is my third visit to Albania. I first came as a tourist in 1988. I was driven by longing for my homeland. During this time, during the thirty-year period [?] that I stayed in Albania, I also held several meetings and conversations at a number of institutions, such as the State Archives, the Academy of Sciences, the University of Tirana, the National Historical Museum, the Medieval Museum, and other important cultural centers. I have come again to... Father! the thirst for you to be among us, but also for them to have material support. What is your opinion? - The Church is not only a tall building and icons. Religion is the human spirit, faith. The first thing is the thirst, if it is sincere. The Orthodox Church of the Albanians in America. Our Diocese in America, I am sure, will help, first of all in a moral capacity, by sending writings and various books by Fan Noli, hundreds of copies of which we have brought before, and many more now. Albania should launch a campaign to help the Church in Albania. I think the other sister Orthodox churches will also help. I think Albania, both economically and spiritually, should not rely on just one friendly nation or institution. Albania has been geographically a bridge between East and West. As I see it from abroad, and perhaps I am mistaken, whenever Albania has relied on a single country, whether, say, Russia, China, Tu- I have come again to ... in centers. I have come again to ... a copy among hundreds of others, and now, to Albania together with my wife in 1989, having won it on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of Liberation and Flag Day. Now I have come for the third time. — In your opinion, what are the biggest changes that have taken place in our country during this period? — The biggest change that catches your eye is the one that has taken place in people’s consciousness. People now speak freely, express their thoughts freely, without reservations, without fear. Another thing that stands out is the appearance of a number of new newspapers. We have a series of newspapers here competing with one another and thus bringing us pluralistic views. I have read the newspaper «RD», «Republika», «Koha» of Korçë, and «Zëri i popullit» is also improving, as are «Bashkimi», «Zëri i rinisë», etc. Secondly, another change is the reopening of churches and mosques. Religious reorganization has begun from within. There is an extraordinary spiritual thirst. Many people express this spiritual thirst. I have preached in Shën Gjergj. But in this article we have a source without thirst. In Albania, the opposite is noticeable. «For religious institutions in Albania to carry out their activities, I think that moral support alone is not enough, through listening to the writings and various books by Fan Noli, of which we have previously brought hundreds of copies, and hundreds more now. — What do you think the relationship between the state and the church should be? — The state and the church, or the state and religion, should be separate. But I think that in Albania, given the circumstances of the last 30–40 years, the state should help the church or mosque, because it has destroyed institutions and buildings, persecuted the clergy, and destroyed the nation’s morals. For now, until the situation stabilizes, this is the state’s duty. This is, so to speak, not merely to repay a debt. A people that had been proud, with deep family traditions, has been humiliated. You know how it is, as the saying goes: «The religion of the Albanian is Albania». Today I say that religion can save Albania morally, ethnically, spiritually. — And what can you tell us about the relationship between school and religion? — Personally, I think religion should not enter the sphere of general education, particularly in a state with three or four religions. School should be outside religion. Religious communities can establish their own separate schools. Religion imposed by force is no religion. — Recently, in our country, has there been any attempt at Christian-

MURDERS AND TENSION IN KORÇË - The social and economic crisis has further heightened social tensions. The violent events of recent days, the killings and the aggravation that followed them, have caused indignation and concern among the residents of Korçë. People’s peace of mind has been seriously disturbed. The Korçë branch of the Democratic Party views this situation with great concern and calls on all its members and supporters to make every effort to avoid conflicts, acts of revenge, and violence. We also call on all political forces and social organizations to contribute to restoring order and social peace. The branch of the Democratic Party demands that the police and judicial authorities not remain passive, but act swiftly, effectively, and justly to prevent any possible conflict and to ensure that the actual perpetrators receive the punishment they deserve. Democratic Party Branch Korçë Korçë, 28.6.1991

[Photograph: a crowd of people around a man]

The events of 2 July 1990 have by now become known to everyone, to all the people of Albania and to all Albanians wherever they live in the world. 2 July 1990 has entered history. On that day, as today one year ago, for the first time in the 46-year history of Albania’s Stalinist-Enverist dictatorship, crowds of people dissatisfied with the conditions and the lives they and the people as a whole were leading openly expressed their dissatisfaction and rushed toward the diplomatic missions of European countries. Hundreds of people climbed over the walls and then through the gates opened by the embassies. Who opened the embassies? This question hangs in the Albanian atmosphere. Who saw the people being dragged away, and gets no answer? People were bloodied in the streets of Tirana. Who fired, who was killed? This question, too, remains unanswered. Popular memory never forgets 2 July. In our history, 2 July joins the sequence of events that shook our people; the Albanian opposition, the Democratic Party, had just been formed. It immediately demanded that this date be recognized and that what happened be made known. That day began the haemorrhage of Albanian blood, as thousands of people flowed beyond the borders of the homeland, through the opened borders, across the northern border, and aboard the many ships full of [?], children, Albanian people. Who brought the news that the borders had opened? Who brought the news that the ferry would arrive? Who gave the news about the ferry and the ships filled in Durrës? These questions have still not been answered. On 2 July 1990, shots were fired; people were wounded, people were killed. The mystery of the killings is even greater. Who fired? Who was killed? This was the first day the dictatorship openly opened fire. Then young people and children were shot and killed in Tirana, Elbasan, Vlorë, Korçë and ... Then, on 2 April 1991, prominent activists for Democracy were killed in Shkodër. The Democratic Party and all Albanian public opinion demanded, and continue to demand, that the killers be found. That they be found and made to pay. That the killing stop, that the dictatorship end. On 2 July 1990, precisely on the day the Assembly of Kosovo declared the Republic of Kosovo, all this confrontation and tension erupted here in Tirana, capturing the world’s attention and shaking Albanian hearts. 2 July has even deeper and more far-reaching roots. It will undoubtedly be fully uncovered. But when the mystery of 2 July 1990 is uncovered, the thread of a very important intertwining in the history of Albania’s life will be found. We do not forget.

The Democratic Party of Albania learned with indignation of the police-style action by the Greater-Serb chauvinist who, violating every elementary democratic norm and human right, arrested and imprisoned the chairman of the Parliamentary Party of Kosovo, the prominent Albanian politician Veton Surroi. The Albanian Democratic Party condemns this brutal act of violence as a further escalation of the repressive and anti-Albanian policy of the rulers of Belgrade and demands his immediate release. STEERING COMMISSION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY