This is about the Shkodra trial, but it should be said from the outset that it turned against those who organized it. The people of Shkodra brought accusations against the local authorities and the central government, defended their sons and martyrs with dignity, and shed light on the real culprits. One of the trade-union representatives, wisely organizing the defense of the truth about the Shkodra massacre, reached the logical conclusion: so, this is who our President is. The prelude to the trial in Shkodra was the televised interview with the President. He found the pretext to speak about the issue «over time». It is hardly surprising that his views on the land question changed in such a short time. Nor is it surprising to hear him utter such absurdities as: «Albania is neither East nor West» or «Albania neither furniture nor steps», etc., etc. But the real reason for the poorly staged television interview (like every contrivance) was for the President of the Republic to show the people his political creed: namely, that he had been one of those who contributed to the struggle for democracy in Albania (note how artfully he casts behind him the dictatorship of the proletariat, the class struggle, the expropriation of power, and the theft and deception of the people!!!), and that he had no connection with the events in Shkodra, as the press had accused him of having. It could have been made clear that the Shkodra trial would be a farce. That trial should never have taken place. Even the most mediocre prosecutor should have returned the file; even the most worthless judge should not have undertaken that trial. The criminal file should have provided the court with answers to all the crucial questions: who were the killers (the executioners), and who gave the order (the organizer)? Without answers to these questions, it could not be allowed to raise an information network among them. The operation of this network in the Directorate of Internal Affairs was in the hands of one of the leading men and the chairman. Everything that happens there is normally reported beforehand by a policeman (even the most ordinary one) to the chairman of the Directorate, Kër—this is called the cult of State Security, the Party’s most trusted weapon, which can control everything. And for no reason at all, the policemen have been thrown out onto the street. But why did this information network fail to function in the case of the events in Shkodra? Everyone understands that they did not want the truth to be uncovered. On the contrary, their flight to Greece is the strangest thing and perhaps the most telling. Those who planned this act of the policemen crossing the border cannot help but be afraid, because if those poor men return (or perhaps they will be silenced or pretend), they will bring back their Greek-language testimony and may be able to tell who escorted them, who provided them with passports, and who obtained their visas. It is not at all surprising that these things happened. The second issue, the mechanism by which the order came from above, should never have been raised; every precaution has been taken over it. The former Minister of Internal Affairs remains silent, does not flinch, but remains silent. Judge Nazim Gjojani asks «harsh», leading questions, which are prohibited by criminal procedure, in archaic Albanian, but without any hope of uncovering anything. What could compromise this case is the attempt to cast suspicion as far as the former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs. But there is a great truth about the mentality of centralized power, indeed one with a monarchical centralism, where the First Secretary’s word

I am compelled to make this statement before this Assembly today concerning an article published in the newspaper «Pasqyra» on 2 August of this year, in which my name is also mentioned, an issue that the honorable Xhemal Qerimani also discussed in the Assembly. He rightly asked that clarifications be provided and that a position be taken either in my favor and that of the driver, or in favor of the journalist and whoever allowed the article to be published, if the truth is not as it was written. I declare before this Assembly that the truth is entirely different. I am sorry to mention here the name of the honorable representative of the American Embassy in Tirana, and I apologize to him, but in the interests of truth I am compelled to say that he very insistently asked me, since his car was unavailable that day, to take in our car several packages of food and deliver them to Hotel «Dajti», where they were staying. I do not know how many packages there were, but apparently someone assigned to monitor the actions of ministers and members of parliament took an interest in this matter and counted them exactly, because according to him there were 37 portions. The Embassy representative unloaded them and took them with his own hands. He travelled with me and his interpreter from Rinas to Hotel «Dajti» in a car with license plate 05 597. I ask the Presidium to verify and examine this matter, and if it is confirmed that those goods were appropriated by me or the driver, I ask the Assembly to dismiss me from my post as Minister and strip me of my parliamentary mandate. Otherwise, the libeller should be prosecuted in accordance with the law, and the newspaper should be required to issue a public apology. I would like to point out on this occasion that the newspaper «Pasqyra» has previously published inaccurate things about me. I did not respond, out of tolerance and in the spirit of the pluralist atmosphere that exists among us today. But apparently, through what it writes, this «newspaper» considers itself entitled to call itself a party sheet—apparently, of the governing party. Those who run it, while blindly criticizing a Democratic Party member of parliament or government official, conceal malicious insinuations, but they will gain nothing from them except the contempt and hatred of the readers’ sound public opinion. It is regrettable to read this newspaper speaking in the name of the workers, with whom I have been spiritually united for 18 years, and I will never allow anyone to trample on their sweat and honor. But apparently this newspaper has only changed its name and has become the evil reflection of its predecessor, continuing to disinform public opinion, as it also did in the above-mentioned article published in its 4,558th issue, in its 47th year of publication.

Developments in Yugoslavia in recent days foreshadow grave events for our compatriots, the Albanians living on their own lands. Hundreds of thousands of armed men have poured into Albanian villages and towns in Yugoslavia. They await the order of the dictator Millosheviç, this Stalinist-type Saddam, to begin a mass massacre aimed at physically exterminating the Albanians and driving them from their ancestral lands. The Yugoslav army is serving to implement Millosheviç’s ominous fascist plans. Having been shamefully defeated in Slovenia, it has deployed its units along Albania’s borders and seeks to restore its lost glory by terrorizing the defenseless Albanian population in Kosovo. The defense of these Greater Serbian plans consists of the bombardment and encirclement of Kosovo’s villages, and the wounding, killing and abuse of entirely defenseless Albanian citizens. The failure of the European Community troika’s efforts to mediate, caused by Millosheviç’s Balkan-Byzantine deceit and the continuation of his Greater Serbian policy, marks the loss of the last chance to resolve the Yugoslav crisis. The Democratic Party regards the current war in Yugoslavia as a war between the totalitarian, medieval ideology of Greater Serbia and the Yugoslav army on one side, and a war waged by dictator Millosheviç to create a Greater Serbia against the democratic ideology defended by Yugoslavia’s other peoples. The policy pursued today by the Stalinist Greater Serbians Millosheviç and Axhici is a plan directed against the democratic peoples of Croatia and Slovenia. It threatens the lives and existence of Albanians, Bosniaks and Macedonians, and runs counter to the vital interests of the Serbian people themselves. It is the principal obstacle to democratic developments and peace in the Balkans. The Democratic Party welcomes

Words become credible when deeds follow them. At least in these times, the former rulers (PS) and their levers have finally had a chance to do something: to break completely with their discredited past. But, like the wolf, they do not change their ways; they keep forgetting. And this is an «axiom» that seems at first to blind them, but then threatens their entire existence. They should be ashamed… By the same logic, the Minister of Public Order, the leadership, and the finance offices of the districts were instructed to take an inventory of the main assets and other property that the PP (PS) and various social organizations such as BP, FD, BR, BG, etc., had and have in their use. This was on the understanding that these assets came from state funding and therefore, ultimately, belonged to the state; those using them had only the right to use and administer them, and were not their legal owners. Nevertheless, in some districts, branches of the PS, or former BP, FD, BG, SH, etc., have refused to carry out an inventory, on the pretext that they have received no written order from their own line (PS, etc.), which seems to suggest that they may have received a different order. (Continued on page 6)

The family of the patriot Xhemal Ferra came to our editorial office to express their gratitude for the gesture of public opinion, in Albania and abroad, which expressed its sorrow and condolences for the loss of their loved one. This occasion brought to mind the gift this respected man made to his beloved homeland some time before his death. The project was for a modern emergency hospital, with a final budget of nearly 1 million dollars. Xhemal Ferra provided all the funds at once. Alongside the construction, which is continuing, an order was placed abroad for equipment that was not manufactured here. Some of it has arrived, while some still has not. We learn that it had been planned to release 4 million lek in funds for 1991; these funds were later «reduced» to just 2.5 million lek. We ask: Where did these funds suffer their «hemorrhage»? Where did they disappear to, when foreign companies are waiting for their collection, with the ordered equipment ready? To squander a gift—and a genuine gift at that—is truly a sin! RD correspondent

— Currency trading is a gamble for poor countries such as Albania, IMF specialists emphasize. Why did the Albanian Bank lose its credibility in the world last year? Five tons of gold put up for trading on the stock exchange. Dhimitër Gaxha’s responsibility. Several months have passed since the financial scandal of the year was uncovered. Millions of dollars vanished without a trace. There is much speculation. Several months have passed since the financial scandal of the year was uncovered. Millions of dollars vanished without a trace. There is much speculation, but also many facts. These facts are being stated by specialists from the International Monetary Fund. Our own specialists are saying them too. The first conclusion: currency trading, or playing the stock market, is a financial science in its own right. It requires tradition. It requires expertise. It requires rapid information. It would have been difficult for the Albanian Bank to do these things, having spent 45 years working in isolation and with few international connections. In discussions with our employees, International Monetary Fund specialists emphasized that for poor countries, currency trading is a gamble. Could this be a discovery of our time? No. This was known. It was especially well known to Dhimitër Gaxha, who had gone to train for several months at foreign banks. So why did he embark on this gamble, which cost the country 170 million dollars in losses? The answer is very simple. For years, the Bank was run by ignorant officials of the calibre of Qirjako Mihali, who was never distinguished as a financier, only as a hunter and fisherman. Moreover, Dhimitër had the Prime Minister Adil Çarçani’s blessing for every action. The question arose: Did Dhimitër Gaxha embezzle money from currency trading? There is no evidence yet. But that does not absolve him of responsibility or grave fault. During the period when he was in charge, the economy and the people lost millions of dollars. Neither Dhimitër Gaxha nor the heads of his firms can escape that responsibility. What new elements have emerged from the audit? The Currency Trading Directorate had a free hand in every action, because the impression had been created that Dhimitër «only made profits». And for the supposedly successful Dhimitër, the doors of the state treasury were opened wide. Five tons of gold were taken from the treasury and used for currency trading, for playing the stock market. This is a great risk. Moreover, the large losses and deficits of the Albanian Bank, now amounting to tens of millions of dollars, are lowering its credibility in the world. Many foreign banks halted their financial operations with the Albanian Bank. The great expert Qiriako Mihali justified this loss of credibility by the ambassadors’ protest on 2 July. Adil Çarçani approved this general assessment, and Dhimitër continued his game calmly, despite losing millions and the trust of his partners. The analyses continue. Let us hope that no more shadows will remain around the financial scandal known as currency trading. RD correspondent

The parliamentary debate on the law concerning political prisoners made it clear once again that the PS was a direct continuation of the PP and a worthy heir to its dictatorial line. Honest people expected this to be an occasion for those MPs who had held leadership positions in the party or the monist regime to break with the past and accept their share of moral and legal responsibility for the national calamity of political imprisonment. Taking on this responsibility should have been the most basic demand of the younger generation of PS MPs, who were not implicated in the dictatorship’s rule. But what happened? A group of «socialist» MPs sang the familiar song in unison, in keeping with the tradition of the continuity congress. According to them, political prisoners cannot be exonerated because they were sentenced under the laws of the time, which were supposedly legitimate. Thus went the reasoning of those who defend the system. Yet politically it is untenable, given that the elections, the constitution and the judicial system were all rendered invalid by the orders of the dictator and his party. Thus they recited the notorious litany about propaganda and agitation, slander against an official, or escape, and «distanced themselves» from the errors of the past, while «forgiving», with Enverist magnanimity, the innocent prisoners. MPs, many of whom had been admired by the Enverist communists, behaved just as they had during the anti-rallies. The most worthy representative of the Socialist Party in this regard was Bardhyl Faskaj, who, together with his colleagues Xhevair Tahiraj, former head of the General Investigations Directorate, Reshat Leku, deputy head of the Fier branch of the Internal Affairs Directorate, and Mihal Qipi, should have faced a trial like the one in Shkodra for organizing the shooting of demonstrators in Fier, where 11 people were wounded. This is why Mr. Fasko tries in his speeches to discredit the Shkodra trial, which paves the way for the appropriate trial concerning Fier. It is clear why he misses no opportunity to insult in the crudest terms those he confronted during the struggle to overthrow Enverism: Mr. Sali Berisha, Azem Hajdari, Neritan Ceka and Abdi Baleta. As a continuer of Enverist methods of intimidation, he went so far as to physically touch the chairman of the Democratic Party parliamentary group, Mr.

— On Sunday we were at the headquarters of the US delegation, at Hotel Dajti, on newspaper business. The US representative, Mr. Hill, spoke to us with considerable anger about what he had read in the newspaper «Pasqyra». «Look, these are the packages that I asked the minister, Mr. Mero, to bring here in his car, since I didn’t have a car. Why make such slanderous accusations? Why smear honest people like this? Why publish such a serious accusation?» Mr. Hill showed us the packages—the box weighed around 300–400 grams and contained several small packets of solid food. He opened one, crumbled it, added a little water, and when we tasted it, we saw that it was pineapple fruit. The other foods were similar. I took them, he said, so I could give the necessary explanations about how they should be used. They were not only unfamiliar to us, but we Americans too need to see concretely how they are used. Meanwhile, we learned that other planes carrying American food aid of this kind arrived yesterday at Rinas airport. I take this opportunity to express our thanks to the Government of the United States for this assistance.

The children left, they left, they ran as fast as their legs could carry them. The parents weep and curse, curse and grit their teeth. The children left, they left, a whole structure swept away. The parents curse, condemn, rogues and dictators. The children left, they wander, as if through old Europe. The parents spend the nights awake, waiting for a scrap of paper. The children left, they roam, crisscrossing Greece. The parents weep over the photographs in the family album. The children left, they wander, in the land of Helicon. The parents wait all night for the telephone to ring. From far away the son speaks—his poor voice trembling—the parents, in tears, kiss the receiver’s handset. The children left, they remain abroad at a crossroads. The parents want the accursed ones to be brought to trial today. PETRAQ KOLEVICA