Mr. SALI BERISHA meets Mr. ANOOP SING On the afternoon of 14 July, President of the Republic Sali Berisha held a working meeting with Anoop Sing, Director of the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Sing conveyed to Mr. Berisha the warm greetings of the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Michel Camdessy, who is following the economic reforms in Albania with particular interest and satisfaction and will visit our country on 8 October. President Berisha briefed Mr. Sing on the considerable work done by the government and parliament to launch the reform measures, which democratic forces in Albania understand to be the only way to separate Albania from the socialist economy and build a market economy, in order to integrate it into Europe. In this context, he emphasized, the reform in the countryside is very positive. It began peacefully and without incident. The democratic government inherited an extremely serious state of economic ruin in the countryside: land had been distributed over only 20 to 60 percent of the area, depending on the districts—in other words, less than the previous government had declared—and around 40 percent of arable land had been left unsown by the government of stability. It found the country without oil, without sugar, without soap, and with almost all production enterprises in the process of being destroyed by the 80-percent law, while directors and administrative staff received full salaries and continued their dealings and enrichment. During the three months of its existence, we can say that the government not only achieved undeniable success in establishing public order and calm, but also, despite difficulties, planted the land left unsown with spring crops, while land distribution continues at a rapid pace. Everywhere, farmers are working; despite difficult conditions, they are making use of every opportunity to get the maximum from the land. They are satisfied because they have what is theirs and will be the true owners of their land; no one is now taking taxes from them, and, most importantly, the first prices to be liberalized were the prices of agricultural products. Today, a farmer sells one egg at the market for as much as he used to earn for a day’s work in the agricultural cooperative. These days the price of meat was liberalized too. Of course, this will temporarily reduce meat consumption in the city. But this measure is absolutely necessary for us, not only to encourage the raising of livestock and meat production, but also to support the export of our livestock to neighboring countries, which had been continuing by the hundreds and thousands of head. Every day there were many demands that it be stopped. But that was not right, because a farmer who owned the animals could sell them in Albania for 20 lekë per kilogram, whereas in neighboring countries he could earn many times that amount. Now, with the liberalization of meat prices and the use of a floating exchange rate, he will no longer be tempted to sell abroad; he will sell domestically at a profitable price and can exchange the money for dollars or any other currency. All these measures have transformed the Albanian countryside from a Bolshevik cooperative, where hundreds and thousands of people suffered from diseases caused by partial starvation, such as pellagra and vitamin deficiencies due to a lack of milk and dairy products, from a kolkhoz where the farmer was exploited like a slave and whose sweat and toil went toward the luxury of the red caste and the construction of bunkers according to the dictator’s paranoid strategy, into a countryside where, for the first time, the Albanian farmer is not exploited by

According to European Community experts THE DEEP ECONOMIC CRISIS IN AUGUST 1993 BRUSSELS — Albania will emerge from the deep economic crisis it is experiencing, provided that nothing unexpected happens, by the end of August 1993. The forecast was made by experts from the European Commission, who outlined in Brussels the main points of the meeting of the Group of 24, which will take place in Tirana on 22 July. According to the experts, following the initial devastating crisis, Albania’s agricultural reform has begun to bear fruit, and they forecast that around 80 million dollars in food aid will be needed for the period August 1992–August 1993, whereas more than twice that amount was needed in the period August 1991–August 1992. The economy can be stabilized, the experts stressed, if progress is made by mid-1993 and if the G-24 meeting in Tirana establishes a structural assistance program to stabilize the balance of payments (estimated at approximately 200 billion lire), to completely reorganize agriculture, to import spare parts and raw materials, to provide technical assistance, and to equip the country with efficient infrastructure. The G-24 includes the 12 EC member states, the 7 EFTA countries, Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States and Turkey. Albania, with a population of three million, has a gross domestic product equal to one-tenth of Portugal’s and equal to that of Congo-Brazzaville. Italy, the experts note, is Albania’s largest aid donor, having allocated 270 million ECU, around 400 billion lire. The government in Rome is also providing the country with substantial technical assistance. According to the experts, the EC has allocated a total of 160 million ECU to Albania, around 240 billion lire, in direct aid, while Greece and Turkey have allocated 30 million ECU, around 45 billion lire.

Local elections are approaching, and the Socialists have begun their election campaign, using their most successful methods, including making use of parliament. With the “advantage” of being in opposition, they are doing everything they can to exploit the unproductive nature of President Berisha’s visits abroad, the fact that public order has not been stabilized, and so on and so forth. Although they do not say so openly, the Socialists imply that “things would be different if they were in power...” It seems that the former Communists, after “forgetting” their name, very quickly forgot that they have been in opposition for only a few months. Have they really forgotten so completely that they fail to remember that the miserable situation was not created during these few months, or do they lack even the little intelligence needed to understand that in a few months one cannot repair what they destroyed over many years? Of course, they know all this very well; nevertheless, they hope to confuse the troubled minds of the people. But this time they forget themselves: they forget that not long ago this people lived under the Communist government of Nano and his successors. The changes in the field of democracy are now acknowledged even by the Socialists, although one can observe some of them making the absurd mistake of ranking the victories of democracy among the 46 years of socialist victories. But let us leave the Socialist jokes aside and deal with the economic problems, which are more tangible for people. People talk about the poor state of the market, which is understandable, but let us not forget that today one can find almost everything in the private market, even if at prices that are unusual for us. What would you prefer: a market full of goods at relatively high prices (which are also temporary), or a market like the one permitted under the Socialists? Besides, sporting goods supplied mainly through aid are being sold at prices that have not been liberalized, so they do not affect household budgets. Since we are mentioning aid: the Socialists whisper and mock ... (Continued on page 2)

The newspaper “Zëri i popullit” reports that on 13 July the chairman of PASOK, Andreas Papandreu, “received the chairman of the PSSH, Fatos Nano, at his residence in Athens and spoke with him at length in a very cordial and friendly meeting.” What is it that binds these two party leaders so cordially and so amicably? “Tell me who you spend time with, and I’ll tell you who you are,” goes an Albanian proverb. Mr. Papandreu is known as a figure who for a long time occupied the columns of the Greek press devoted to financial and sexual scandals. Mr. Papandreu is known as an ally and close friend of Belgrade’s red dictator, the killer of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, the executioner of the Albanians—our brothers who live in their ancestral lands in Kosovo and elsewhere. He is known for opposing the sanctions unanimously imposed by the entire international community on Milosheviç’s Serbia; logically, this means leaving Sadani of Belgrade free to continue his criminal deeds and even spread the flames of war further across the Balkans. So, who are you, Mr. Nano?! Which side are you on?! It is clear that you are even with the devil, provided that the hell of communism returns to Albania, provided that in every way the undermining and destruction of democratic achievements, of democracy itself in Albania, is served. The very content of the talks held between Nano and Papandreu proves this. While the entire democratic world welcomes the victory of democracy in our country and is making a valuable contribution to its consolidation and to helping us pass through, with as little pain as possible, the catastrophic situation bequeathed to us by the tragic incubator of communism, which carefully nurtured Nano and his company, the interlocutors Fatos and Andrea left no curse or slander unused in order to denigrate democracy and the genuine democratic forces in Albania. They spoke of “revanchism” and “totalitarianism,” of “violations of human rights” and cooperation between democratic forces and “collaborators and collaborators of fascism,” of “signs of the revival of dictatorship in Albania,” and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, Mr. Papandreu advertises these communist accusations put forward by Nano as “very realistic.” In truth, one could hardly have expected anything else from him. Mr. Papandreu has been the “only Western leader” to publicly glorify the “magnificent achievements” of Enverian social-fascism in Albania. He is the only Western politician to have presented Albania, the country of genocide unparalleled in human history, as an exemplary showcase even for Greece! Nostalgia and interests, or backward political calculations, apparently bind Enver’s heirs and his admirers together forever, in good times and bad. For Nano, for Milosheviç, and apparently for Mr. Papandreu as well, the overturning of the balance established in the Balkans and beyond after the Second World War, and the overthrow by the peoples of this region and beyond of the communist dictatorships, is an unacceptable catastrophe. They cannot ... (Continued on page 4) BASHKIM TRENOVA

Local elections are approaching, and the Socialists have begun their election campaign, using their most successful methods, including making use of parliament. [For] of being in opposition, they are making a great deal of noise about the “miserable situation,” speaking of unfulfilled promises and the people’s disappointment and revolt against the DP. They are ready to “uncover” every mistake the new government has made or has not made, but, strangely, they never manage to offer a solution or explain what should be done so that these “mistakes” are not made. They pray that aid from abroad will not arrive (at least not until election day) and openly express their sorrow when they see ships unloading in the port of Durrës. Nevertheless, not all Socialists are so theatrical in expressing their emotions. The PS also has its “diplomat,” Nano, who, unlike the others and the megaphone “ZP,” is “delicate” in his attacks. Thus, after declaring that the PS wants Mr. Meksi’s government to be allowed to work, he expresses “regret that this government is not capable of solving the country’s many economic and social ‘problems.’” He is “concerned” about the failures of foreign policy. of foreign policy.

“THE SOCIALISTS” ARE DISSATISFIED WITH THE PACE! For what reason, in its leading article, does the newspaper «ZP» say that it is not its own priorities but the people (oh, the people, the people!) who bring it out, its organization’s leaders together with an anonymous figure such as Shpend Bregu. Perhaps this is a member of the old Political Bureau, perhaps a new Communist leader, perhaps... some communist from «...». And so this Shpend of backroom dealings questions the beginning of reform in Albania. Against the current, Shpend! If Reform has “not” begun in our country, then what has «ZP» been complaining about as “blocked” until today?! If Reform has not brought about a system that is communist, which is difficult to... geve, the rhetorically difficult thing before the PPSH, and has not made major changes, even with the Reform law; if the transformation of property relations itself is not the beginning of Reform, what transformation of ... ... Reform in Albania!!! If opening the way to investment is not the beginning of Reform; if ordinary people are feeling more and more each day that the state should be expected only not to obstruct the free initiative of the individual; if you do not consider it the beginning of Reform that, after this difficult year, next year the farmer will feel his economy being revived; if Shpend Bregu does not feel the freedom of the individual to act, and the creation of opportunities for all Albanians to contribute to their own prosperity, then we do not know what the democratic government should do for the socialists to feel that Reform has begun in Albania!!! Then where do they see the “revanchism” of the forces in power?! Where do they see “purges” against the socialists?! Where do they get the idea that the condition of political prisoners and those whose property was confiscated is deteriorating badly?! Do not overdo it with your jokes, gentlemen! It is well known that by now people would come to the “OFFICES” to complain and ask for help in becoming capitalists from the communist apparatus—or their little brothers—and likewise it is claimed that a minister, a director, an employer does not seek work from someone as negligent as a “small journalist,” as Jui-tori Neo puts it. We are not doing these things so badly; all the work for Shkall and the hostages, if we did not carry it out literally like this, would be a point of difference tar/tur. ... Our Reform is not yours too, that much is clear! You think it is “small,” and you cannot understand it! But the fact that it began “small” does not mean you cannot understand its broad distribution! Naturally, we are not talking about the “people” who are like that, with your newspaper! ... directed, Lu postin, u Vëlzguesi

A few words about Alban Kosova’s article in «ZP». The saying has become commonplace: «...that if “Zëri i popullit” hasn’t insulted you, you are not on the right path to democracy...» . The «ZP» article dated 4 July 1992, entitled «The National Intelligence Service paralysed», served this purpose too, showing that the reform in SHIK is completely on the right track. The article, from the very first reading, convinced you that it was in the typical form of operational information directed to the “mother” party, already in use. Look carefully at the article’s sections: operation, political rationale, “hostile” conclusion, decision. The author has not managed to stray even a comma from his operational stereotype, and, to reinforce his slander through and through, he uses the pseudonym Alban Kosova. It seems that «ZP» has become a gathering place for former criminal employees of the State Security Service, since «Breztothiti», who led the campaign with his articles during the 31 March elections, has been given a different role in the local elections, that of another former employee of the Security Service— (Continued on page 3)

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