- Pëllumb Bataj face to face with Genc Ruli and Gramoz Pashko - The trial against the defendant Pëllumb Bataj, for publicly defaming and insulting the injured parties Gramoz Pashko and Genc Ruli, is being postponed more and more. In addition, some press outlets are distorting the truth regarding the reasons for the delays in this proceeding. To inform readers accurately, we contacted the heads of the judicial authorities in the Tirana district and asked them for the documentation confirming the dates on which both parties met in the courtroom and which of them had been absent from the preliminary hearings. The defendant Pëllumb Bataj and the injured parties Gramoz Pashko and Genc Ruli were summoned for a preliminary hearing on 11.02.1992. On that date, G. Pashko arrived somewhat late and asked for his hearing to be postponed because he was due to go abroad on official business. On 24. 2. 1992, the first face-to-face confrontation between the defendant and the injured parties who had brought the accusation took place, after which the court hearing was scheduled for 5.03.1992. The defendant was informed of his right to be represented by a lawyer. He undertook to choose a lawyer himself. On 5.03.1992, the defendant stated that he had chosen Maksim Haxhiu as his lawyer, but the latter did not appear because, according to him, he was ill. For this reason, the hearing was postponed until 13.03.1992. On that date, G. Pashko did not appear because he was on official business in Vlora for the election campaign. The next court hearing was opened on 26.03.1992, but did not proceed because lawyer M. Haxhiaj was again absent, without any reason. The trial was postponed until 2.04.1992. This hearing proceeded properly. The participants in the proceedings were heard and further evidence was taken, but the hearing was not concluded because Luçie Doçi did not appear. On 9. 04. 1992, Luçie Doçi appeared and was also made a defendant; under the law, she was given time to prepare her defense. She stated that she would be represented by a lawyer whom she would choose herself. For this reason, the court hearing was postponed until 18.04.1992. On that date, the defendant Luçie stated that she would be represented by lawyer M. Haxhiaj, who was present, but the defendant Pëllumb Bataj did not appear at the hearing because he had been admitted to hospital. His discharge from hospital is awaited so that the proceedings can continue.

At its meeting of 21.4.1992, the People’s Assembly Committee on Agriculture and Food, having analyzed with concern the serious condition in which agriculture and the countryside currently find themselves, and with the aim of accelerating the measures that must be taken to improve this situation, considers it essential to draw the attention of Parliament and the Government to the following: FIRST: The countryside and the country’s agriculture are in a state of complete paralysis. The land-privatization reform is currently suspended. In some areas of the country, land has not been distributed in accordance with the law. In many other areas, distribution has been halted because farmers are waiting to see what the new Parliament and the democratic Government will do. In quite a few villages there are also tendencies to restore distribution along the old boundaries, while many former landowners are putting various kinds of pressure on farmers to stop them from taking the land allocated to them by the village committee. SECOND: In most former agricultural cooperatives, the assessment and distribution of property have not been completed, and farmers have been left without any source of income. The distribution of property is being obstructed first and foremost by the fact that most former agricultural cooperatives are indebted to the state. On the other hand, irregular actions and speculation have been observed in quite a few of them by the chairmen and other members of the assessment committees, who have taken the lion’s share for themselves or their favorites, while leaving the farmers the bones. THIRD: Farmers have been left without the means to work the land. Agricultural Mechanization Enterprises have been fully organized in most districts. In this situation, some tractor drivers are exploiting the farmers by disregarding state rates. (Continued on page 2)

These days, some enterprises in the Food sector have been restored to around 80 percent of their capacity and are looking forward to resuming work. Thus, the pasta factories in Shkodër, Durrës, Korçë, Përmet, Peqin, Vlorë, Peshkopi and Tiranë have delivered their first production. The starch factory in Korçë is also operating at full capacity. The Shijak factory is expected to begin production soon. Raw materials have been secured, and efforts are under way to ensure that work proceeds smoothly in the biscuit and lokum production units in Tiranë, Durrës and Vlorë. The difficulties in the beverage-production branches are of a different nature. Raw materials have been secured, and the workers are ready as well.

It is not at all difficult to understand that something is currently going wrong in Albania: settling scores has begun against those who “think differently”; although democracy accepts everyone, in essence this is nothing but a growing spirit of revenge. The spirit of revenge is plain to see in our press. Newspapers are faced with two alternatives: to reflect the moment in which the Albanian people are living, or to become an arena for duels between the factions defending the life of a faith sick with leukemia. I believe our press no longer calls RAI a reactionary and antihuman television station! The question arises: Will newspapers continue to come out like this? If they continue this way, then the writers in a democratic country are not democrats, because they do not represent the will of the majority, owing to their personal egoism and ignorance. If we continue this way, the people may be called “rak- Revanchism is plainly evident in our press. Faced with two alternatives—to or to become an arena for duels between two article writers, to our misfortune—the newspapers have chosen the second alternative. A few days ago I was at the surgical hospital, in Dr. Besim Elezi’s ward, to visit a friend of mine. There, in one room, in a criminal environment, three men had been admitted and... a girl of about 12. The girl was slowly fading away. A snake had bitten her on the leg, and now the infection had spread to her abdomen, because our hospitals had no antivenom for her condition. Seeing this village girl, who even had to eat from the food parcels brought for the three patients in the room, I thought: instead of fighting on the front page to save this unfortunate girl’s life, the press is occupied with polemics and personal insults. Shame on all of us! I would like to remind you here that human fate is not the foremost concern of true journalists. On Saturday, one of the most popular programs on RAI-2 began with the presenter’s appeal to the Italian people to help keep the newspapers coming out. If the newspapers continue to be published? If they carry on like this, then the article their personal egotism and ignorance. If we continue like this, the people may be called “abandoned by the press,” and this may, without exaggeration, be called a national catastrophe, since, as is well known, the democratic press is also called “the fourth estate.” Why should we leave the Albanian people without this power? Who benefits? The time has come to look the national catastrophe in the eye and try to build something, rather than destroy further. To take a concrete example, I would like to ask: regardless of what some people think about Kadare, is it better to destroy such a talent through denigration, or to fight to discover and promote other talents of this caliber? And I pose this question to the Albanian world in general. Seeing the chaos arising in the press and the growing spirit of revanchism, I think journalists should be called to an urgent national conference of their own, to rescue their noble profession from this shameful position into which others have put it, including successive governments—and, all the more, the press law in Parliament.

- Only democracy will lead Albania toward prosperity, progress and Europe - We are all aware that the new government is taking on an extremely heavy burden today : fighting corruption, and ensuring justice in judging issues by being guided at all times by the demands of the citizens. Any hesitation in this direction would have serious consequences for democracy itself-

- Only democracy will lead Albania toward prosperity, progress and Europe - We are all aware that the new government is taking on an extremely heavy burden today, and successfully shouldering it can only be described, for our country, as the most important historical mission of at least the second half of this century. - - on an extremely heavy burden today, and successfully shouldering it can only be described, for our country, as the most important historical mission of at least the second half of this century. It would be difficult to find totalitarian regimes anywhere that have so crippled and so mercilessly mutilated their country as the Enverian dictatorship did Albania. The wounds left by the dictatorship are great; we encounter them in every sphere of life, but they hurt most in the economy, where almost every kind of activity has come to a halt. After more than one year of general collapse and chaos, amid the absence of the state, the paralysis of the law and of the bodies and institutions that should have upheld it, amid the roots of criminality and the insecurity of citizens’ lives and property, the question now arises: What are the government’s primary duties, and what measures must be taken to meet them? In the circumstances that have arisen, where perhaps everything would have to start from zero, it is essential that the government’s work be characterized at every moment by three important qualities: honesty, dedication and wisdom. This suggests that the same spirit should be conveyed as soon as possible throughout the entire hierarchical structure of the state. Honesty means fighting corruption and judging issues justly, always guided by the requirements of the law. Dedication presupposes commitment to the ideals of democracy and to the demands of reform, but at the same time it requires as much, and perhaps more than before, bravery, courage and steadfastness in carrying out one’s duty. Wisdom, meanwhile, is closely connected with intelligence and creativity in seeking effective ways to manage domestic and foreign relations. Respecting the requirements set out above means that work must begin immediately, gradually and responsibly in all ministries and the subordinate bodies under them. For it is clear that reform is comprehensive, and in this sense each ministry must design and implement its own reform. Nevertheless, there are several areas in which putting things on the right track as soon as possible is urgent, because it determines the overall progress and satisfactory pace of the reform as a whole. 1. The government’s first duty is to ensure, step by step, law and order and public peace. This is required by two very important factors. First, by the general demand—irrespective of political beliefs or social and cultural strata—to guarantee citizens’ lives, property and full freedom of activity. Any hesitation in this direction would have consequences threatening democracy itself, which is still fragile. Second, measures to establish order and the authority of the law are dictated by the need to attract large-scale loans, investment and foreign capital to our country. Without law and order, no investor or lender will agree to take the risk. Under these circumstances, it is necessary, on the one hand, to enforce the law rigorously, while, on the other, to supplement and strengthen existing law in order to protect citizens’ rights. Here, democracy has often been confused with anarchy, especially during this past year. This is explained, among other things, by the fact that under a dictatorship, the greater the violence, the greater the desire for freedom and democracy; but this does not mean that the level of democratic culture rises in direct proportion. The concepts “desire for democracy” and “democratic culture” are not the same thing; an equals sign cannot be placed between them mathematically. The more brutal the dictatorship, the deeper the gap. (Continued on page 3) AZEM HAJDARI

On 25.4.1992, the Deputy Director of the Financial Police, Mr. Sokol Hyseni, summoned the Head of the Tirana Financial Police Branch, Mr. Dilaver Bengasi, to the Financial Police Directorate and informed him of the order issued by the Minister of Finance and Economy, Mr. Genc Ruli, dismissing him from his post as Head of the Tirana Financial Police Branch and discharging him from the Financial Police. This is only the beginning of administrative reform in the Financial Police structures.

These days Mr. Alexander Casella, representative of the Information Program on Emigration in Albania, visited our newspaper. This program is part of the International Organization for Migration. Mr. Casella explained to us that the program for Albania aims to inform the Albanian population about various emigration-related issues and to secure legal employment and emigration quotas from Western European countries. Some countries have already agreed to this. The main thing is to stop and address the routes of the exoduses that are taking place illegally, and that also give Albanians a bad name. According to Mr. Casella, the talks have been good and fruitful in several countries, which are ready to receive and employ Albanian workers. But a great deal of work must be done to inform people about how they should go about leaving the country. To this end, this organization will set up an office here in Tirana to organize legal emigration and inform people about everything related to employment abroad. There will also be language and technical specialization courses, etc. This will create the freedom to move in accordance with the law. But, Mr. Casella, freedom to leave one’s country or state for life is not freedom of movement. At the end, or in another home. We, he said, will do everything we can to achieve our goal. Currently, public asylum is no longer being granted to Albanians; therefore, the emphasis is on economic emigration, on employment. Another problem is the legalization of Albanian emigrants who are abroad without documents. The Italian government is willing to find a solution for this purpose, but a mechanism that works as well as possible must be found. We hope that a level like that of Hungary or Czechoslovakia will be achieved, so that Albanian citizens can travel freely with documents for three months in Western Europe. The above briefly describes the purpose and objective of this organization. In order to make its work as effective and useful as possible, I invite all readers of “Rilindja Demokratike” to write letters to our editorial office about specific problems concerning emigration issues. These letters will make it possible for the organization to provide more accurate and useful information to those who want to find employment abroad. The letters, together with the appropriate replies from the International Organization for Migration, will be published in a special section of our newspaper. We welcome all your letters about any kind of problem. ARMAND SHKULLAKU

A few days ago, the Steering Committee of the Democratic Party of Albania met. Mr. Tomor Dosti was elected secretary of the DP, while Mr. Ali Spahia was elected deputy chairman.

Revanchism is plainly evident in our press. Faced with two alternatives—to reflect the moment in which the Albanian people are living, or to become an arena for duels between two article writers, to our misfortune—the newspapers have chosen the second alternative.

To the Albanian Autocephalous Church, His Eminence Metropolitan Anastas, Patriarchal Exarch in Albania, Tirana. To the Albanian Autocephalous Church, His Eminence Metropolitan Anastas, Patriarchal Exarch in Albania, Tirana. On the occasion of the holy day of Easter, it is a particular pleasure, in my own name and on behalf of the entire Albanian people, to send you and all the Orthodox faithful of Albania our most sincere congratulations and warmest wishes. May God be with us. SALI BERISHA President of the Republic of Albania