The grave and painful events that took place in Poliçan in recent days will have a special place in the history of Albania’s new democracy. They will accuse and curse, generation after generation, their instigators and organizers, the demons and nostalgics of violence, division, fratricide, accidental bloodshed and the hatred of the Enverist dictatorship. It would be extremely naive to believe that events of such magnitude and with such aggression, as manifested in Poliçan, could be spontaneous and merely the result of a serious or very serious economic situation. All of Albania is in a catastrophic state. There are regions that are even worse off than Poliçan economically. There are villages without bread, where children go to sleep hungry. Such days have also been experienced in the capital. Nevertheless, the wise and patient Albanian people have grown accustomed to hardship; perhaps they have expressed some dissatisfaction, complained and protested, but they have not allowed themselves to descend into vandalism and crime. They are aware that a new society cannot be born without hardship, care and pain, just as it could not be born in a time of enslavement. What happened in Poliçan was different because reactionary forces took root there, enemies of the values of democracy and of the people, devotees who, out of greed and lust for power, stop at nothing—not even bloodshed, killings, destruction and arson. These are the people who made terrible use of Poliçan’s difficult and deteriorating economic situation. They are the ones who organized secret meetings and brought out young children to sacrifice them for their selfish interests. They were ready to sacrifice even an entire town in order to overthrow democracy in Albania. These people, these forces of hell that want to plunge Albania and the Albanian people back into hell, must be dealt with using the full force of the law, without any mercy. The President, the government, the police stations and the justice authorities must not back down in this case, but must act with the full force of the law. Democracy does not mean allowing a wrongdoer to kill with impunity whoever he wants. Democracy, with all its mechanisms, must use to the fullest the power entrusted to it by the people in order to defend their interests and those of society. The people of Poliçan have experienced the bitter truth. The violent acts against them must be stopped and all that is necessary must be done to ensure that the people of Poliçan can stand up to them. The people of Poliçan have nothing in common with crime and criminality, nor with vandalism. In the name of democracy, Albania’s future and the Albanian people, Poliçan itself and its children, this must be done.

On August 20, the President of the Republic received the chairman of the Skrapar District Council, Mr. Venecali Zami, and the mayor of Poliçan, Mr. Arshi Tusha. They informed the President about developments in Poliçan in recent days. Mr. Venecali emphasized that the workers’ demands were those put forward in July and that the negative response to them, along with disagreements and workers’ protests, which were supposed to be resolved on August 20–21, instead spilled over into August 24. Errors were also made in setting the inspection price at the enterprise. Mr. Venecali said that those responsible for what had happened were only a few people, who had been identified, and that all the issues had been discussed during Wednesday’s meeting. However, Mr. Venecali insisted on the clear need not to confuse the problem of Poliçan with that of Skrapar, or with a group of people committing violent acts. President Berisha told the district chairman and the mayor that he had insisted, and continued to insist, that the legitimate demands, which could be resolved, be resolved fully and within a reasonable, specified period, and that all of them had been put on the path to resolution. It is true that the suspension of the humane treatment of the crime and the residents of Poliçan had not signed a processing agreement, so they had asked for funds to continue the work, and so on. I have learned that wages have been paid for this work and have called for the delays to be investigated and responsibility established. I have been informed that the workers refused to accept wages paid late and instead asked to be signed up for the strike. The court’s decision will be awaited in this matter; whatever the court decides will be done. There may have been errors in implementation, and this will be verified. But there are also those who have objected to being placed on assistance. I will tell them that the economic reform laws have been approved by Parliament and are in the interest of the whole country. They must be implemented, despite the hardship they cause. People unquestionably have the right to present their economic demands and insist on achieving them through democratic means, the President stressed. It is absolutely unacceptable for them to defend those demands through criminal activity by burning, destroying and, finally, committing the ugly terrorist act of taking two officers hostage. He stressed that those who are causing anti-democratic incidents today have nothing in common with democracy. They are terrorists, and the law will act against them without mercy. The state must make no compromise with them. If there are innocent people among those detained through the intermediaries, they should trust the court: they will not be convicted. As for the ugly crime of holding the officers hostage, this is a serious and unprecedented act that does no credit to Poliçan or to those responsible. I am convinced that it was a terrorist act by a criminal group, against whom the law and justice will act with their full force. But, he thought, it is an anti-government act, and particularly a grave act against the President and the government, that government officials present the police and all of Skrapar as responsible. Those 52 army officers were carrying out their duties; they were in Poliçan on duty and had their families and homes there. No force or disregard by the guilty parties will be accepted. The terrorists will be punished in accordance with the law. Those who stand behind the kidnappers will also be punished. The necessary investigations will be conducted. New warnings should be sent to those making threats with those slogans and slanders used to incite democratic unrest and not criminality. The latter will be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the democratic state. The chairman of the Skrapar district said that he had personally made great efforts that day to get the officers away, and that the ugly act was condemned by all honest citizens. But, he said, this act cannot go unpunished. Mr. Venecali also requested that a government commission be sent to study Poliçan’s problems. The President stressed that the people of Skrapar and Poliçan, the workers and farmers of this area, are noble, honest and respected people, with admirable traditions known throughout Albania, and that he would personally commit himself to resolving their difficulties and problems. “For this, I will also send a government commission to examine the problems on the spot, but it is essential that all the citizens of Poliçan show determination against those who, by manipulating the workers’ demands, engage in criminal activity intended to harm one another, cause fires and take people hostage—acts that do credit neither to Skrapar nor to Poliçan.” PRESS AND INFORMATION OFFICE AT THE PRESIDENCY

The problem of Tirana’s water supply, as a very important part of the infrastructure, has remained at such a level that it presents many troubling problems that are difficult to solve. The problem of Tirana’s water supply, as a very important part of the infrastructure, has remained at such a level that it presents many troubling problems that are difficult to solve, accumulated over the years. More than 20 years ago, it was concluded that a normal water supply for the city of Tirana, including in the future, could be achieved only by making every effort to complete a complex project to exploit the waters of the Terkuzë River, which would be collected in the Bovilla reservoir, purified and used to supply the city of Tirana with water, through a treatment plant with a capacity of 1,800 liters per second, with some modifications to the suitability of...

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On August 29, 1992, a meeting of the Presidium of the Democratic Party was held in the presence of its chairman, Eduard Selami. Since the Party’s statute provides for one party chairman and two existing deputy chairmen, only one must remain. Since Mr. Azem Hajdari won the candidacy in one of the votes, Mr. Ali Spahia remains deputy chairman of the Democratic Party. DP INFORMATION OFFICE.

— Unanimous demand of the clergy and Orthodox believers — On Saturday in Tirana, a consultation of Orthodox believers was organized on the issue of the autocephaly of the Albanian Orthodox Church. The consultation was opened by master Stefan Vokopola. Petro Bodini spoke on this issue of vital importance to our Orthodox Church. In support of his remarks, Lukia Prifti, Niko Kiriak, a representative of the US Orthodox association, and Zyhdi Turdiu, chairman of the “Tirana” association, took part in the discussion. Others included Professor Kristo Frashëri; Krisavij Zego; Petro Dhimitri; Abdi Baleta; Virgjil Kumi; Zef Rakacolli; and Professor Radi Thoma. The participants said that Anastat Janullatos’s remaining in the position of archbishop of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania was contrary to Article 16 of the statute of this Church, approved by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1937. Janullatos must therefore leave Albania immediately. In some of the discussions, the point was also made that the government and the President of the country should not remain indifferent to this problem. Patriotic Orthodox believers are pleased that our state, through President Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha’s speech in Peshkopi and the protest by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, rightly raised its voice against the chauvinist opinion of an official from Athens, who, at the funeral ceremony for the Himariot athlete Piro Dhima, winner of the gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games, spoke of the unliberated lands of Epirus! We supported our state’s position, which asked the Greek government to distance itself from such ideas, but it is strange that in silence it is accepted that Ja- (Continued on page 4)

We awaited the August 25 issue of the newspaper “Zëri i Popullit” with no small interest. On a jubilee anniversary, a fifty-year milestone such as that of ZP is worth looking back on its path; under normal circumstances, one would write about it and feel ashamed of those shameful and repulsive decades of its existence. Or it would be more honest not to mention its fiftieth anniversary at all, just as the mother parties do when they remain silent about their renewal congress and do not hold another first congress. Nevertheless, ZP, set on its own slippery path, did what no one could have imagined. With a long leading article, continued on page four, entitled “Zëri i Popullit – 50 years,” and subtitled “The newspaper with the longest lifespan in history” — Social greetings on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of the first issue — The Albanian press boasts of its glorious fifty-year path. In truth, the pride is legitimate and may surprise ... (Continued on page 3)

We are two engineers specializing in water utilities, and we know the condition of the capital’s water supply system in detail. We were greatly astonished when we heard the ultimatum by the chairman of the Workers’ Command, the troublemaker Kastrot Muço, demanding a solution to the capital’s normal water supply within a record time. This problem, because of incompetence and not lack of funds, was not solved by Enver’s government over a long period of almost half a century. Now, with this ultimatum, the Meksi government is being asked to solve it, even though its treasury is empty, having been planned and plundered by Enver, while it has also inherited foreign-currency debts. One question arises: Could these other demands also be of this nature? If so, the people who do things are to be congratulated! Senior Research Associate, Eng. STAVRI NAÇO Eng. FOTU SULA [The project involves] exploiting surface waters and the volumes of water stored in Tirana, Terkuzë and Erzen. Specialists still support this conclusion as the only solution for present and future needs. Instead of the ministry bureaucracy supporting this solution, the opposite happened, and so this problem remains—and has still remained—unresolved. Every effort should be made to complete the complex project to exploit the waters of the Terkuzë River, which would be collected in the Bovilla reservoir, purified and used to supply the city of Tirana with water, through a treatment plant with a capacity of 1,800 liters per second, with some modifications to the suitability of...

The discussion published anonymously in Saturday’s issue of our newspaper, concerning the events in Poliçan and within the framework of the debate about them, was written by Ali Spahia. THE EDITORS