. Changing the method of collecting turnover tax—a necessity. No one has experimented with the transition from a centralized, state-run economy and the system of real socialism to a market economy that has severed the bridges to the development of modern capitalism. Therefore, there can be no recipes for this transition. Mistakes and inaccuracies, especially in the economy, are natural at this stage of transition. In «oppression», the brakes on income growth imposed on private initiative are generated, obstacles that constitute barriers. According to many of our merchants, what should be development of the business economy and free enterprise is transformed into a burden of insurmountable difficulties. The sooner mistakes are caught, the less damage is done to the Albanian economy, which is in an extremely critical condition. The modern capitalist state communicates with its citizens and businesspeople chiefly through the tax system. Today, this is the economic language of relations with the state. It can speak harshly to its citizens and merchants or show flexibility toward them. With citizens, it must think twice before acting, because strikes can paralyze its activity. With businesspeople, when they are still in their infancy, it sometimes risks trampling on them. The idea of the bureaucratic state triumphs over the idea of free trade and its promotion, although there are competitors, the decoration and benefit of the whole country. Adam Smith, one of the giants of (continued on page 2)

- President Berisha received the Speaker of the Russian Parliament, Hasbullatov - The President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, received the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, Rusllan Hasbullatov. Your visit to Albania, Mr Berisha told him, represents a special event in the new friendly relations that Albania is building with your great country, democratic Russia. Our countries are indeed incomparable in certain respects: Russia is a large country, Albania a small one; they are not even close to one another, yet during this century they have shared major experiences, and the most recent one—liberation from communist dictatorship—has been a fortunate event of extraordinary importance in their history. I believe this has created great opportunities for the rapid and comprehensive development of relations between Albania and Russia. We greatly appreciate and follow with keen interest the efforts of the Russian Government and Mr Yeltsin to resolve the major problems created by the dissolution of the former USSR; a just resolution of these has been important not only for you but for all of Europe. Through its foreign policy, Russia is contributing to peace and stability in Europe; and, through the examples it has set and its domestic policy for resolving ethnic problems, such as the establishment of the Republic of the Volga Germans, etc., it is also a great example for everyone else. For our part, we are ready and would like to develop and strengthen relations between the two countries in the political, economic, cultural and educational fields. We are now experiencing common difficulties and can help one another and benefit more from one another. We also appreciate Russia’s position on the Security Council and its major efforts to resolve the crisis in the former Yugoslavia, which can be achieved not by adhering to schemes based on old interests, but by taking account of new realities. We believe that, at present, halting the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina and preventing it in Kosovo are the most important elements in resolving the crisis of the former Yugoslavia. The state and political forces of the Albanians as a whole, in Albania and Yugoslavia, mindful of the great dangers—war carries consequences not only for us but for the whole region—have adopted and will adopt a policy aimed at preventing and containing the conflict. Albanians in Kosovo are the only people in Europe experiencing a genuine occupation. Nevertheless, they are trying to resolve their grave problems solely through peaceful means and methods. We fully support President Rugova and his position at yesterday’s meeting with Prime Minister Paniq, held in Prishtina under the mediation of Mr Arens; likewise, we consider this meeting useful and Mr Paniq’s visit to Kosovo an effort made in good faith and a worthwhile attempt to avert conflict. We believe that resolving the issues discussed in Prishtina, for which working groups were established, is important. It will ease tensions, increase confidence in dialogue and create the necessary climate for resolving Kosovo’s political status through negotiations. I believe that the political forces of the Albanians in the other republics of the former Yugoslavia have also adopted a truly constructive position. Thus, in Macedonia, Albanian political parties are now in government, and they have accepted this role in an extremely delicate situation solely so that they can give the new state the stability it deserves, while others are trying to destabilize it. I believe that the non-Albanian political forces and the international community will understand that, without full respect for the human and national rights of the Albanians, the State of Macedonia cannot have genuine stability. Progress has been made in this regard, and we hope it will deepen to the point of transforming Macedonia into a state where Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, etc., live in harmony and mutual understanding as equal citizens. In conclusion, I would tell you that factor for peace and stability. Although 3 million of them live in the former Yugoslavia, Albanians are not seeking movements or changes of borders. They pose no threat to any other people. They are seeking the human and national rights guaranteed to everyone by the Helsinki Charter and by the London Declaration on the peoples of the former Yugoslavia. But one thing is also very certain: without a just and acceptable resolution of the Albanian problem, the crisis of the former Yugoslavia will not only be impossible to resolve, it can only deepen and take on more dangerous dimensions. The Speaker of the Russian Parliament, Mr Hasbullatov, conveyed President Yeltsin’s greetings to Mr Berisha. He spoke about the friendly relations that should be further developed in the future. At the meeting, they discussed the further development of relations in the political, economic and cultural fields. Both sides pledged to pursue exchanges at parliamentary, governmental and other levels. Mr Hasbullatov went on to say that we share a totalitarian past, and therefore both our countries can benefit greatly from one another’s experience. Regarding the crisis in the former Yugoslavia, and Kosovo in particular, Russia expressed its position in favour of a peaceful resolution of the problem through dialogue. Rusllan Hasbullatov, was also received in separate meetings by the Chairman of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, Mr Arbnori; the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Mr Meksi; and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Selimreçi. (ATSH)

ISMAIL KADARE: his words and his time Being a great writer in a great dictatorship is harder than in hell. Dictatorships, once they find out—usually from outside—that a great writer also lives within their domain, alongside the all-out war they wage against him (intellect is a permanent danger), also try to keep him alive as long as possible; to collect the tax of praise from him, but also to create an alibi of false freedom before the world and the future. The great writer is naturally the first to disrupt this fact, silent as obituaries. Our Kadare attacks the dictatorship early, when it is at the height of its monstrous power, without stopping and without tiring. At times he feels increasingly alone. Within him, an alarm sounded early: a message that could not be told apart from the flow of the starry light of the future, or from the depths underground, like a bequest from the dead. If we were not all able to understand this mission of his, then the burden was on him to understand it better himself, and he decided to preserve it, more for us than for himself. Only the petty become jealous or envious and demand a sacrifice; they want the writer’s 70–80 kilograms of human flesh and bones to be martyred, forgetting that what we need is the life of the great writer, not his death, which might be more beautiful and more precious than the other. They seek the writer’s wounds more in his work than in his body. This divine gift, bestowed on one person or a few among a people, and not in every era, is everyone’s wealth, which its owner sometimes uses worse than anyone else. Reminding us of Homeric heroism, cloaked in his pride, Kadare struck «with the arrows of art» sharply at «Achilles’ heel». His humane gesture, as with his other hand he briefly caressed the dusty hair of the immortal who was dying, moves you, and it is hard not to understand him now. Did Kadare not walk along the edge of abysses with the clandestine anxiety of someone who would have the mines blow up a new massif that was blocking the dawn? That is the main thing. Everything else was survival, illusion, or an invitation to improvement. Let us also see things in their own time. And let us understand something else: you can speak of freedom, as the dictator did, and everything you say can reek of tyranny; or you can speak of dictatorship and have freedom blaze in your words. Is it a challenge that Kadare’s works, among the most beautiful in the world, were written under one of the world’s most terrible regimes? When Kadare felt that the dictatorship did not want to break, and would give it no time to be enlightened by the blows, he decided to fight through his absence. He left. In other words, he changed trenches. Someone might say that he chose the more comfortable struggle. In fact, he chose the more useful struggle for a writer. He did what others could not have done and left undone what others could have done. Masterfully, he once again knew how to define his own destiny—a thing that is confusing so many others today. He universalized the Albanian fate more than all of Albania, isolated in the second half of the 20th century. The wide-ranging work of this spiritual ambassador of his nation is astonishing, including, among other things, his correspondence with eminent figures of the world, with the Pope and presidents, with his colleague Havel, with forums and conferences, and contacts with Albanians who have emigrated, etc. And his interviews alone, across the world’s mass media and those at home, are not only testimony to and an elevation of the Albanian people, but also a real contribution, a program, an expansion of horizons for our new democracy. More than cheers, freedom is brought by free thought, which thinks of building before it thinks of demolishing. Let us hear our dear Kadare again: The newspaper «RD» begins with you from its very first issue. Your work, the manuscript «The Pyramid», was published. Meanwhile, in Albania, the construction of a luxurious pyramid had been completed, the only modern architectural work built by the dictatorship: the dictator’s museum. Now your novel has been published in full in France, ranking among the best books in the world. Is there any connection (or any inspiration to write it) between our dictatorship, our pyramid, and those of Egypt from centuries ago? KADARE: Of course there is. The first dictatorships in the world were hydraulic, autocratic ones, because they were connected with the great canals of the rivers (of Babylonia). Was a dictatorship needed to dig those gigantic canals, or did the canals help subjugate the peoples? The latter was more the case. Like the canals of Babylonia, the pyramids of Egypt served the same purpose. In other words, they were gigantic works that exhausted and terrorized a people. Our dictatorship, too. The pyramid made of skulls by Timur the Lame brought out the true idea behind the pyramids. Before being a tomb or a monument, a pyramid is a mechanism that has human heads. Pyramids are a phenomenon repeated around the world. For example, the White Sea Canal in Russia, built by prisoners, was not ... (continued on page 4)

- A half-measure, invalidated and obstructive - By distributing prices among the nomenklatura of the Council of Ministers, the ministries or the former executive committees, they won the right to belong only to the one they ought to belong to: the law of value. This is an absolute law that justifies every kind of ambition they may have to rise higher. Their eye-popping effect is no longer calculated. Nevertheless, high prices (a concern for the people) compel you to seek a solution. What kind? One involving forcibly restraining them? Since the decisive factor is the supply-and-demand mechanism, economic logic compels you to seek the solution there, that is, in increasing supply. But how can this be achieved at a time when nothing is being produced? What can be done when 90 percent of the people’s food is provided through aid? At the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, in one of the directorates, we «meet» with a fax: it was a faxed offer for 12,000 of sugar, with specifications listed by a foreign private company. The price gave this fax a convincing force: 281 dollars per ton. But, unfortunately, a fax without value. As a state, it is impossible to carry out this offer. A bank without money takes away every desire, every possibility. And I am reminded of the words of an Albanian businessman, spoken on television, according to whom these people (businessmen) could fill the market with food products. In other words, they could increase supply. And in the face of massive supply, the price would have no choice but to bow its head. But a government decision does not allow the sale of basket products (which are basic products) above the price set by the state. And this is based on a compelling reason: a chaotic situation would arise, making it impossible to distinguish violations of state prices from those concerning basket products. In other words, we would have a dual-price policy, something that would be unique to our country. If we try to follow the logic, we would say that a solution would be effective if it could remove the restriction arising from the government decision and ensure a unified pricing policy. Such a solution would be to raise the prices of basket products to a level at which a private seller would not make a loss, and to consider this a shadow price. Financial compensation should be provided to the population for this price increase. Naturally, the objective circumstances of the situation make a solution involving financial difficulties for the state, which perhaps cannot afford compensation, difficult. But perhaps it is better for efforts to have this as their objective than to leave in place a half-measure that has been rendered ineffective and obstructive.