— WITH THE PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY, MR. MARTINEZ — Yesterday, at the Palace of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the Albanian parliamentary delegation, headed by Mr. Pjetër Arbnori, Chairman of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, was received at a special meeting by Mr. Miguel ANGEL MARTINEZ, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. At this meeting, Mr. Pjetër Arbnori spoke to Mr. Martinez about the current situation in Albania and the continuation of the country’s democratization process in all areas of life, as well as the various problems that have arisen along the way. The Council of Europe’s particular commitment to integrating Albania into the European community as soon as possible and to strengthening its position as a full member of the Council of Europe was also emphasized. For his part, Mr. MARTINEZ, President of the Parliamentary Assembly, expressed his pleasure at meeting the Albanian parliamentary delegation and stressed the full support that the Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe have given, and continue to give, Albania in connection with the reforms undertaken in our country in the fields of legislation, the constitution, economic, social and cultural development, human rights, etc. Mr. MARTINEZ expressed his pleasure at the decision to visit our country on 12–14 November 1992, when he will meet President Sali Berisha and the senior figures of our country, in order to give even greater impetus to cooperation between Albania and the Council of Europe. He stressed that Albania is the country (Continued on page 4)

On Tuesday, at the “Palace of Brigades,” the President of the Republic of Albania, Mr. Sali Berisha, held a reception in honor of the IMF Executive Director, Mr. Mishel Kamdesy. Those attending the reception included Prime Minister Mr. Aleksandër Meksi, the diplomatic corps accredited in Tirana, government officials, representatives of parliamentary groups, and others. President Berisha and Mr. Kamdesy each delivered a greeting on this occasion.

FROM PRESIDENT BERISHA’S GREETING Dear Mr. Kamdesy! It is a great pleasure for me to thank you for the visit you made to Albania today. It is a pleasure for everyone that you are here today, and I want to assure you that this visit is a great encouragement for us. Your visit, accompanied also by Mrs. Kamdesy, adds another dimension—that of friendship—for which I thank you and Mrs. Kamdesy. Albania has always found great support in the IMF. Thanks to this, [sentence fragment as printed: “the important international organizations.”] The IMF was the first to admit Albania after it opened up. On the other hand, I want to assure you that Albanians, too, have trusted the IMF and are grateful for the assistance you have provided. The assistance, as I also told you in our discussions, was first and foremost assistance in principles. Awakened after a long night, which had extinguished within us the principles of the market economy, we received them from the IMF better than from anyone else. The IMF’s assistance has been extremely important for us, not only technically but financially as well. I assure you that neither the complexes of the future nor the shadows of the past will be able to weaken Albania’s cooperation with the IMF. The reform we have embarked upon has two current aspects: an initial phase that encourages us with the promise of initial results. So we are determined to follow this path. Implementing the reform is important for creating stability, which, in conditions where the region is at high risk, takes on double importance—not only for us but also for other peoples. In this constructive spirit, we are determined to offer you our assistance in resolving the regional crisis. Albanians, with democracy as their aspiration, clearly see that within the framework of the London Conference, their issue is not only not being lost, but, on the contrary, may find a fair and satisfactory solution for all parties. Once again, thank you, your wife, Your Excellency the Ambassador, and all our friends.

FROM MR. KAMDESY’S SPEECH Today, Mr. President, I am a happy man, first because we are in Albania to visit friends, of whom you, Mr. President, are the first. I have the opportunity to be the seventh director of the IMF. For 45 years, my predecessors and I had been waiting for the happy opportunity to be invited to Albania, and as soon as you were kind enough to invite us, I did not hesitate long before making it happen. My greatest joy was seeing that Albania is a country where history is moving forward and where democracy is growing stronger, and that you have promised the Albanian people an improvement in their lot, for all those who are dissatisfied after waiting a long time and deserve so much. Mr. President, you thanked me very kindly for the assistance the IMF gives your country. I would reply that the IMF follows from time to time an evangelical principle; in truth, it is a somewhat severe principle: “Help yourself, and heaven will help you.” I am not the one in charge, and I do not hold the keys to paradise. But what I have observed during my career as an international expert is that the more difficult the crisis facing a country, the more its people show determination to take their fate into their own hands, and the more they do everything possible themselves to improve the lot of their people, the more determined and persistent the international community is in the assistance it will give them. Institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank are simply instruments of your countries, gentlemen ambassadors, to provide support to countries such as Albania, which are committed to an immense challenge: finding the necessary support for themselves. I am pleased to tell you here in Tirana that this principle has not been disproved. From what I know about Albania’s current efforts and the determination of the president and government to continue them, I can tell you that there is no doubt this country will continue to improve the lot of its people, and that democracy here will deliver on its promises to improve people’s lives. Your country and our organizations will know how to play their role in applying experience to improve the lot of this people, so that it may play its role in the European community. In this hope, I thank you once again.

— At a meeting with students, Prime Minister A. Meksi declares that the scholarship announced in advance by the government for scholarship students will be covered by the state, at 1439 lekë per student. — Students receiving half-scholarships will pay only 657 lekë; the state will cover the remainder. — This has been obstructed or left unexplained only because of the bureaucratic procedures of the relevant departments. — Students will receive the sums listed above at the beginning of each month at their schools. A feature of the reports from recent days in the historic “Studenti” city has been the often heated dialogue between students and the staff on duty and dormitory warehouse keepers over various issues. Through RTSH, government representatives had announced the new arrangements for students. HOW MUCH DOES A STUDENT ACTUALLY PAY? As a result of the increase in the price of food, equipment and dormitory service fees, and the canteen costs, the cost of providing for boarding students and pupils has risen about fivefold this school year. To help the families of boarding pupils and students afford to continue their studies, the Council of Ministers, based on the country’s financial capacity, issued Decision No. 421 dated 15 September concerning student scholarships. Under this decision, for pupils and students who meet the criteria upon verification of the required documentation (for October, students will be reimbursed the amount of money covered by the state). — The state will cover all material losses borne by students who owe money in the “Studenti” city. — The previously announced charge of 2500 lekë was reduced to 500 for the first semester and 500 for the second semester. — In the “Studenti” city, only after 14 August 1992, around 15 million lekë were budgeted for improving living conditions. — (Continued from page 3) where there are no vocational or higher schools of the relevant field in their place of residence, the state grants a full scholarship according to a set plan to pupils and students without sufficient income, and a half-scholarship to pupils and students in this category (again, those who have no schools in their place of residence). The value of the full scholarship is 1520 lekë for students of the Institute of Physical Culture and 1427 lekë for students of other higher education institutions. Students who, under the criteria, qualify for only a half-scholarship will pay 705 lekë at IKF. which (Continued from page 3)

“STRATEGIST” F. ZANAJ GIVES THE ARMY LESSONS THE ATTACK ON ARMY REFORM — AN OPEN ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY THROUGH F. ZANAJ, “ZP” LAUNCHES ITS MOST FURIOUS ATTACK AGAINST THE ARMY When you finish reading Fatmir Zanaj’s article “Who is responsible for the hemorrhage in the Albanian army,” published on October 2 in the 50-year-old tribune of lies, deception, manipulation, demagoguery, antidemocracy and antihumanism, “ZP,” you ask yourself: did he write it with a clear head or while drunk? Does he come from another planet or from a desert? In any case, for anyone who wants to argue with him, Fatmir himself has made the task very easy, with his contradictions in every sentence, and his many absurdities and inconsistencies. He has built a stalk out of sand which, if seized even at a single point, collapses all at once. asks the fervent red partisan, Fatmir Zanaj. The former PP of Enver, Ramiz and himself; or today’s PS of Fatos, Servet, Gramoz and his own heart — we answer with complete conviction. For Fatmir, like all the other evils, the hemorrhage in the army is the fruit of the DP, of March 22, of infant democracy. For our people and for the democratic world, they are profoundly inhumane, anti-Albanian and anti-democratic deeds of the 50-year-old PP(S)SH. The hemorrhage in our army began on the very day its leadership was usurped by the most rabid anti-Albanian and the most deranged adventurer, Enver Hoxha, who, through behind-the-scenes machinations and with the help of Tito’s emissaries, sidelined military officers who had graduated from the best-known academies abroad. It became more evident after 1960, when he purged, with his merciless sword, those military officers he had singled out in order to create alibis about threats from abroad or hostile groups within, branding them with the mark born of his demonic mind. The hemorrhage in our army broke out openly, uncontrollably, and on a devastating and destructive scale in 1966–1967, when, as Comrade Fatmir himself says, his idol Enver Hoxha took it into his head to apply the Chinese experimental “revolution”: the expert in abolishing ranks, placing command under the authority of commissars ignorant of military training, and creating open schools... As if these blows, inflicted in the name of the mass line, which severely damaged the army’s structure, training and discipline, were not enough, Enver Hoxha invented other anti-party groups and, using draconian methods, liquidated the then cream of the army: a group of senior officers, in fact much better prepared than he was, not only in their specialties but also in general military culture. His work and his bequest—to carry this hemorrhage in the army through to the end, reducing it to a morsel that could be swallowed with ease and (Continued on page 3) (Continued from page 3)

The day before yesterday afternoon, at 5 p.m., the IMF Executive Director, Mr. Kamdesy, and the delegation of experts accompanying him met with ministers Genc Ruli and Artan Hoxha, as well as with the Governor of the Albanian Bank, Mr. Ilir Hoti. At 6 p.m., this meeting was followed by a meeting with Prime Minister Meksi and the other members of the government. At 7 p.m., the delegation headed by Mr. Kamdesy was received by the President of the Republic, Mr. Sali Berisha. On Wednesday, the second day of his stay in our country, Mr. Kamdesy began with a working breakfast meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Besnik Mustafaj. This was followed by a meeting at a secretariat of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly with Messrs. Tomor Malasi and Shaqir Vulaj, as well as members of the Assembly’s economic committee. The above meetings were followed by a meeting in one of the premises of the Ministry of Agriculture with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Food, Mr. Uka, and ministers Xhaja and Shehu. At the Palace of Congresses, Mr. Kamdesy later met with ambassadors, representatives of the EC and members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Tirana. He also gave an interview to print and RTV journalists.

Azem Hajdari: “...But if democracy, like Bardhyl Londo, comes this way, may it never come!... And yet, regardless of what Bardhyli has said, whether Azem likes it or not, even so, it is still coming... and I don’t know that it would come without a curse, and perhaps it would never come at all...” Teodor Keko: “The inclination was for Parliament’s first decision concerning Mr. Hajdari to be his proclamation as a National Hero,... ‘I don’t believe there is any reason to call this “hope” futile’: a concrete proposal, which has not been made yet. On this occasion, we suggest that Mr. Keko submit his request in writing to the Presidium of the Assembly; and it would be good, since he has started it, for him to see it through to the end,... even ll-” Arben Imami: “...Your call not to politicize the issue resembles the calls from the time of the dictatorship: ‘these things happen,’ ‘let’s not politicize it,’ ‘the party is not to blame,’ etc. ... Since this is a question of blame, and yet last night it seemed to us that he was interpreting, we ask Mr. Imami: honestly, who is to blame?” Dritëro Agolli: “...With all this, the wind of terror blows through Parliament. ‘Neither the Parliament’s [unclear] nor the Director’s white hair was stirred by nature...’ Good grief, he has taken it ‘poetically’ far, far away: ‘the wind of terror’ to mean ‘the wind of raki (with politics).’” RAKIP SULCE

(A little something that was discussed concerning Mr. Hajdari’s immunity) ...the group of those who, after Azem, he expects to see at the illuminated altar of the “Heroes of the Nation”—in Qaqo Apostolli: “As we saw, we kill them very quickly. So, since he accepts their killing, let’s wait. When are we Albanians supposed to kill the heroes...”

No. 421, dated September 19, for ...