On 8 February 1992, Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha received and held a meeting with Prof. Dr. Rexhep Qosen, Prof. Dr. Idriz Ajeti, Prof. Dr. Ramiz Kelmendin and Mr. Hajrrula Gorani. At this meeting, Mr. Berisha welcomed the distinguished personalities from Kosovo to Albania and emphasized that he and the PD recognize and highly value the struggle and great efforts for the emancipation of the Albanian nation. The intellectual community in Kosovo, and you, have made a valuable contribution to liberating the Albanian people in their own lands in Yugoslavia and Albania from communist ideology. Prof. Rexhep Qosja emphasized that he highly values the major role played by the PD in all the democratic developments in Albania. He pointed out that resolving the Albanian question is now a fundamental task of the Albanian nation and requires the unification of all political forces. He sees national reconciliation and the convening of an all-national assembly for this purpose as serving precisely this goal of unity. At this meeting, Prof. Rexhep Qosja presented the platform prepared by the organizing council for convening an all-national assembly. He focused particularly on the great importance of this act and its all-national character. At the meeting, Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha told Prof. Rexhep Qosja that, from its founding, the PD had included national reconciliation in its program. To this end, in March he put forward several points, the implementation of which is a condition for national reconciliation. Through struggle and effort, the law on the innocence of political prisoners and their full rehabilitation was passed. But we must be aware that so far this law exists only on paper, because it has not been possible to achieve anything in terms of their social and economic rehabilitation. On the contrary, today they live in complete economic misery. As for convening an all-national assembly, our opposing stance was not opposition to the idea at all, but was connected with the following: First, with the way in which this demand was initiated and announced. It was announced by an anonymous group, elected by nobody, self-appointed or appointed from above, and made up of people who did not dare to give their names. This group later underwent changes, but has not gained legitimacy. At most, it can represent—and does represent, in the eyes of public opinion—the PS, which has fully supported it, and not the opposition, which has no participants in it. Second, we believe that the issue of national reconciliation cannot be resolved in Albania unless the victims of the absence of freedom of conscience become the driving force of this process. You should know that those whose consciences have been degraded in Albania constitute a powerful moral and political lobby, without whom national reconciliation cannot be achieved. Third, we believe that the conditions for carrying out this act also include the definitive victory of democratic forces over communism, which has been a divisive force in Albania and the Albanian nation. Therefore, during the current election campaign, we believe this issue should be left until later, so that no one can gain political capital through it. We also by excluding political forces and political parties. Their participation and involvement in this process are essential for all the procedures implied by this act. The PD believes that all these obstacles can be overcome and is confident that after the election campaign it will devote the necessary attention and energy to resolving this important issue. «RD» correspondent

For days, a pile of papers has been “resting” on the worktable. Decisions and counter-decisions. Information about Comrade Ramiz. About Comrade Adil. About the forgotten comrade Vangjush Çerava. Notices concerning the transfer of the treasury for safekeeping to the agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Notes of a clandestine nature: “The valuables were moved in the late hours of the night.” An explanation according to the “Mass Line” standard. Safekeeping means transported and deposited in the designated place, in the tunnel. Good Lord! This clarification is being made for Comrade Adil Çarçani! At the top of every letter, the usual label: “Secret” or “Top Secret.” A veritable labyrinth. Mystery upon mystery. Visible threads. But, more than anything, a spider’s web. The octopus. The Albanian mafia. Who can clear away this fog? First of all, the directors and actors in this scenario. The President. The former prime ministers. The former members of the Political Bureau. For a whole year, dozens of articles were written. Accusations and conjectures were also made. Some justified, some unjustified. But the gentlemen of the Political Bureau chose silence. Why, one wonders? The heirs of the Political Bureau were silent too. Before the secret documents came under the scrutiny of MP Berim Çela, they had passed through Mr. Nano’s hands three times. Once when he was a state secretary and twice in succession as prime minister. But he too chose the path of continuity: silence. The bank experts were silent too. They could have told us something. At the very least, about the right some families from the Bllok had to buy gold jewellery with cash from the Treasury. They could have said who bought what and how much they paid. They know many things. Their participation in the public debate would have cleared the fog, rather than making it even murkier, as the heads of the State Treasury did last year. What should we call this—silence? Fear? Helplessness? Complicity? Perhaps all three together. Not a soul came forward even during these days, when the press shut its doors for lack of paper. Apart from one late-night phone call, no one climbed the stairs to the newsroom. Where are the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Bank, the State Treasury? Why doesn’t the prosecutor’s office also open an investigation into the Treasury as part of its investigation of the people of the Bllok? Do these gentlemen know that even a friend from Turkey had her teeth fixed with Albanian gold? With a mountain of documents in our hands and an icy silence around us, we, two journalists, felt disappointed and powerless. Faced with the visible part of the golden iceberg, our initiative seemed like an adventure. Someone might accuse us of sensationalism. Yet there is no sensation… Debates with each other. Conjectures. Reading and rereading documents and articles. Conversations with veterans of the finance sector. Fragments from letters to the newsroom: “It would have been better if the German hadn’t taken the gold, because one day it would have been returned to us; instead, it disappeared like salt in Enver’s and Ramiz’s muddy water.” Another: “Let’s accept that the gold went to Switzerland to be melted down. But what did Enver’s son and Sulo’s brave men want as escorts?!” A “little” mystery within the great mystery. How do we get out of this vicious circle? We had one way out. We could publish in the newspaper MP Blerim Çela’s report to Parliament. But the reader would be disappointed. They are expecting something… And we think we have found one of the ke— (Continued on page 4)

On Monday at noon, 10 February, Petrit Llaftiu, a Democratic Party MP from Shijak, died in a car accident in Italy. He worked for many years as a teacher, for fifteen years at the industrial secondary school. He was a highly studious man and skillfully combined his long practical experience as a career teacher with the scientific literature that passed through his hands. For years, Petrit’s family and Petrit himself fell victim to the cruel class struggle. For a long time, the injustice continued during the national liberation war, and the communists considered him an enemy for many years (only in recent years did they declare him a martyr, [text unclear]). Petrit was forced to do his military service in a labour brigade. The people and democratic forces of Shijak proposed him and elected him as an MP in Albania’s first pluralist Parliament. Petrit represented the people of Shijak with dignity. He was one of the most beloved and intelligent MPs in the Democratic Party’s parliamentary group, whose members, with the loss of Petrit Llaftiu, have lost a steadfast colleague in the struggle for democracy, a committed fighter against the hated one-party dictatorship. The loss of Mr. Petrit Llaftiu is a grievous loss for his family, his wife, children, brothers and all his loved ones. It is a grievous loss for all members and supporters of the Democratic Party, and for every honest person and patriot. On Monday at midday, February 10, Petrit Llaftiu, a Democratic Party deputy from Shijak in the Durrës District, died in a car accident in Italy. Mr. Petrit Llaftiu was in Italy to collect a considerable quantity of humanitarian aid as well as supplies for the Shijak hospital, gathered by CARITAS, citizens and churches in several Italian cities. Petrit Llaftiu was born in May 1942 into an honest family of a baker in Shijak. Because of the difficult economic circumstances in which his large family lived, Petrit was able to complete only eight years of schooling. While still very young, he had to begin working as a blacksmith, as a fisherman and at other jobs, while continuing his secondary education with great determination and without taking time off work. After completing secondary school, again while continuing to work, he completed the faculty of scienc- [continues in the adjacent column] ... years as an enemy (though in recent years they themselves declared him a martyr). Petrit Llaftiu’s family was persecuted. labor brigade. Petrit Llaftiu was an honest and courageous man. On several occasions he had spoken out and expressed indignation at the monist regime. He was among the first to support and embrace the democratic efforts to uproot communism. [Column continues above, cut off at the top:] ... declared him a martyr). [fragment cut off] ... Petrit’s family. support and embrace the democratic efforts to uproot communism. He devoted the necessary attention and energy to resolving this important problem. [Another column, cut off at the top:] ... all members and supporters of the Democratic Party, and every honest person and patriot. The memory of Mr. Petrit Llaftiu, who died at the head of a patriotic and humanitarian mission in the service of his people, will remain forever unforgettable.

VLORË On 1 February, PD MP Roland Tafili held a meeting with residents of the village of Vajzë. After clearly explaining some of the most essential points of the PD’s program for the countryside, Mr. Tafilli answered the many questions from those present. He assured them that the PD has not supported, and never will support, the creation of new estates and landlords in the village, and that even now it is working to secure substantial agricultural machinery assistance. TIRANË On 5 February, the Tirana branch of the PD organized a meeting with PD members and supporters from the village of Paskuqan. Also present were the chairman of the PD in Tirana district, Prof. Dr. Ylli Vejsiu, MP Abdyl Baleta, and member of the Tirana PD branch leadership Nijazi Kosovaçiu. After presenting these founda- [text cut off] (Continued on page 2)

- ZEF MARGJINA - On Tuesday, 10 February 1992, Zef Margjina died in a car accident in Italy. Zef Margjina’s entire life was marked by a great love for Albanians. This life, which resembles a daring “adventure,” is divided into two parts. The first part, spent in Albania, is filled with suffering, dangers and pain. It is the life of a man who devoted his youth to justice and the freedom of his people, for wh— [text cut off] (Continued on page 2)

Prophecies of the PS - FEIGNED POLITICAL NAIVETY AS «ARGUMENTS» - World history knows of no case in which democratic parties have degenerated into fascist parties. It is true that communist parties, wherever they have been established, have always tried to present themselves as parties representing and defending the fullest, purest democracy, the interests of the broadest layers of the population, and so on. Regardless of this typically fascist dogma, at its core the communist doctrine of seizing power through violent revolution, by force of arms, and retaining that power through violence, by means of the genocide of every class war, has clearly determined both the philosophy and the character and fate of these parties as dictatorial and totalitarian, ultimately as variants of fascism or social fascism. But for the whole of the PS and its propaganda, for authors who [text cut off] ... «24 hours» under pseudonyms is the democratic reality being consolidated in Albania, it is the democratic opposition parties, especially the Democratic Party and its leaders, who are supposedly offering Albania and the Albanian people a fascist dictatorship: In this way, by exercising psychological terror, they seek to hinder historical developments in our country and gradually deprive our people of their inalienable right to determine their own destiny. Everything they have woven in this direction is based on the anachronistic Enverist concepts according to which dictatorship was advertised as democracy, while democracy was presented as dictatorship. On the basis of such an absurdity, the pseudo-arguments they put forward can only be absurd. (To be continued on page 4)

«ZP» was very concerned in its first issue after the pause—a letter. What happened to Mr. Nano is significant. The first signs appeared in Shkodër. In short, Shkodër, and today Tropoja, Kruja, etc., declared in a far from diplomatic manner: we no longer want the party that governed us as the PPSH, the PS! This is not being said by a few people. A whole people is saying it. The question is: are they right or wrong? Let us consider that. I think the people have the right not to want the PP and the PS. A respectable family suffers greatly when it is the family of a prostitute or a «disgusting» degenerate. It is disgraced if it does not separate itself from them, even by force; the PP and PS are such a parent. Does Mr. Nano know this? Since the former PS deputy complained in parliament and in «ZP», apparently he does not. But this is a great disgrace for Mr. Nano. I am still amazed that this man, who can father children, adopted such a piece of filth as the monstrous PP, when a rational person avoids it like the devil avoids incense. Everyone knows that the PS is the old PP. Indeed, even foreigners do not believe Mr. Nano’s retouching, let alone us, who know him and have seen him inside and out. Because the PS has in its ranks people who are criminals against this nation: former ministers who sent tanks into the streets, killers, jailers, thieves who steal not from individuals but from Albania! What god could protect these people? The answer that can be given to Mr. Nano is this: the people do not attack just anyone. Today, Albania’s fate is being decided. Men decide it. Where were you, Mr. Nano, on December 12, February 21, March 5I? It would have been better for «ZP» to ask you this question, instead of begging for sympathy for its first secretary. «ZP» opens carnival season It is hard to imagine a newspaper like «ZP» last Sunday. That whole patriotic newspaper, wider than it was tall, mashallah, crammed full of saws, insults, perverse insinuations about the opposition, had only two or three names at the ends of its articles! On the one hand, it is heartening that Albania has so few courageous liars. On the other hand, it makes you think that «ZP» appears masked at the end of its articles, like a sick woman during carnival season. If we consider that all those newspapers and signed articles consisted of parliamentary discussions previously broadcast on TV, it follows that «ZP» found almost no authors outside carnival season. Pity the PS for the «ZP» it has! The «ZP» article-writers are so ugly you could make their souls come out through their noses. And they refuse to go out into the street without the mask of a pseudonym. What are the poor things to do? They know the campaign supporters will beat them up during the election campaign. Well, aside from all that, how is it that «ZP» is now making the Albanian race of journalists look bad? N. KEKO

COMRADES! DID WE PLEASE YOU A LITTLE? WHY ARE YOU STANDING BEFORE YOU AS A CROWD... The humorist Bujar Kapedhiu, inspired by the public response to visits by PS Chairman Fatos Nano to several districts of the country, brought the cartoon we are publishing to our editorial office yesterday.

On Monday at midday, February 10, Petrit Llaftiu, a Democratic Party deputy from Shijak in the Durrës District, died in a car accident in Italy.

On Tuesday, 11 February 1992, a meeting with the chairpersons of the PD’s governing committees and electoral committees in the districts was held in the ISTN hall in Tirana, under the direction of PD Chairman Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha and its vice-chairmen, Mr. Azem Hajdari and Arben Imami. The meeting was opened with a brief address by Mr. Arben Imami, chair of the PD central electoral committee. Next, Mr. Sali Berisha spoke about the current election campaign as decisive for Albania’s future, the election procedures and selection of parliamentary candidates, the work of the PD, and so on. The meeting then held an extensive discussion on the issue of an electoral coalition with the other opposition parties. Finally, participants were briefed on the new Electoral Law and discussed other technical and procedural issues. «RD» correspondent