A journalist from the Albanian Telegraphic Agency learned at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Douglas Hogg, Minister of State at the Foreign Office of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Commonwealth, will make an official visit to Albania from 21 to 22 December. During this visit, the Memorandum of Understanding for the European Community Monitoring Mission is expected to be signed. (ATSH)

On Saturday, 19 December 1992, the representative of the Embassy of the PR of China in Tirana came to the Ministry of Health, where he signed an agreement under which the Chinese government is providing, free of charge, a sum of US$100,000 as aid for our hospitals. The agreement clearly details the laboratory equipment—much needed by our hospitals—which the PR of China is providing to us. We emphasize that this equipment will arrive in Tirana soon and will then be distributed to many hospitals throughout our country. The agreement was signed on behalf of the Chinese side by the chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of the PR of China, Tas Miao Fa, while on our side it was signed by our Deputy Minister of Health, Besim Nuri. This present aid, as well as the aid provided a few days ago by the Chinese Red Cross for the flooded areas, clearly demonstrate the Chinese government’s and people’s good will and readiness to help our people during this very difficult period of transition. And at the same time, the Albanian people are grateful to the Chinese government for this gesture of friendship and assistance.

INSTEAD OF A GREETING... December ’90 brought forth, as the generation most fully equipped with ideals and aspirations for progress, the 20-to-25-year-olds of university lecture halls, who not only overthrew the dictatorship but also laid the foundations of a new democratic system, of a state governed by the rule of law. The outcome of pluralist developments, crowned on 22 March 1992, brought victory precisely to the youth of the past; it favored the idealistic originality of the aspirations of a revolution. The democratic youth stood entirely behind the first anti-communist opposition, the DP, implementing the bilateral agreement to overthrow the communist system peacefully. From December 1990 until now, those thousands of young people who sought, made, and are making a democratic revolution were not inspired by the manias and ambitions of older generations; emerging from the student demonstrations, they inherited and wisely preserved their own platform, leading toward a new democratic world. Despite tradition, deceptions, and career fluctuations, from one historic part to the whole, the position of youth is and remains a perfect art when Albania is never lost. In the ’60s and ’70s, France undertook a revolution in the administrative generations, inviting young people into power, and the success was great. At the beginning of the ’80s, a policy of respect for youth prevailed in Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Germany, and recently this approach has also been finding scope in the USA and Japan. Thus, the more civilized and developed world is continually seeking new blood in the spheres of power. This becomes especially significant when the issue is building political systems, where the new system calls for new people! Meanwhile, Albania, whose population has an average age of 26, was reborn through its youth, changed through its youth, and naturally should also have sought progress through its youth. The recent political developments themselves show that in Albania, in every legal element, there lies hidden a struggle of... generations. This sin of the new Albanian is certainly not true of young people. They have no complexes, do not maintain intellectual distance between human personalities, always wanting to believe that this country’s progress comes from the honest confrontation of generations, and not from resentment and jealousy. Everyone must ensure that, in a few years, Albania has a leading intellectual, political, and scientific generation, entirely different from the generations raised under dictatorship. A future without youth is dark, just as a nation without youth is a body without limbs. Democratic youth is a broad concept. In the objective sense, youth and democracy are one; in the subjective sense, this duo owes debts to each other. Democratic developments showed that whenever democracy respected the will of the young, it emerged victorious, and whenever it neglected this generation, it suffered a major setback. It was precisely the harmonization of the youth platform with the legal one that made 22 March a triumphant day. It was precisely because young people founded and strongly supported the DP that it won convincingly in Albania’s first national elections. Young people were divided among newspapers, [unclear] and faith in implementing the new democratic reform. Youth holds stability and calm, success and progress in its hands. Albania needs a psychological revolution, in which, alongside the superstructure of the new state governed by the rule of law, young people give the most authoritative signature. Albania needs to break with the past. This break, grounded in law, is the beginning of youth initiatives to bring 50 years of dictatorship before the doors of justice. Albania needs a national policy. If youth and the nation share a platform, then our national question will gain its own qualified forum. Albania needs friends, and youth itself presupposes well-being and peace, understanding and harmony among people. The democratic, national youth, perhaps «dejurom», is under the legal umbrella of the DP, while «de facto» the DP itself has not infringed upon the independence of youth thought. It has supported the youth and, through cooperation, they have preserved the freshness and success of democratic reform. Although in certain party systems youth representation is absent, the common denominator of the DP’s functioning remains its connection with the recent past, the present, and the future—as the party of youth, the party of the democratic youth revolution. Today in Tirana, 2,000 young people from all Albanian cities will gather to demonstrate their success and the strength of their political and intellectual vitality. Today democratic Albania is welcoming Christian democracy with a great democratic youth gathering, showing that this democratic country is, and will once again be, a shared home for all Albanians, where justice, freedom, dignity, independence, and total commitment to political and economic progress prevail. AFRIM KRASNIQI Deputy Chairman of the FRPD [The beginning of the column is cut off] ... a new, more democratic world. Despite the confusion, deception, slander and careerism of some young people, on the whole the position of youth remains a perfect art, as long as Albania survives. Young people became divided among newspapers, associations, parties, parliaments... Some changed camps and beliefs, some fell into corruption or the schemes of the security service, some emigrated, while many continue to live in Albania, impoverished and devastated by 50 years of Communist rule. Among these groups, the country’s future undoubtedly belongs to the thousands of young people who fought for democratic ideals, believed in them, and continue to believe in their realization. Time itself has shown that the goals of a principled generation of young people are numerous and highly significant for national progress. Albania needs intellectual and scientific, cultural and economic reconstruction, on the Western model, and no one but the young can bring it to completion.

The red mafiosi have shown themselves to be perfect masters at covering up crimes. But this time the Shkodër trial has caught them red-handed. And what do all the minutes from those days show, across all the accounts? Mere formal expert reports. And in the end, five people were arrested, initially accused of abuse of office. The accused are told by the masters of crime: “This is the only alternative to save both you and us, who gave you the orders. You will receive symbolic sentences, just for appearances.” But events this time did not unfold as the criminal masterminds had predicted. The accused were also charged with murder; this greatly shook both the accused and the masterminds behind the scenario. But the soldiers quickly pulled themselves together, and invisible lines told the accused: “Resist; do not admit anything. Keep together as a group in your statements before the court; as for the facts and the witnesses, we’ll take care of them ourselves.” They were even sent reassuring messages along the invisible threads of the red spiderweb that still survives: “Hold on, they won’t last long. We’ll take control again.” The accused were pleased and have remained consistent on their criminal path. When the 45 witnesses had finished being questioned, they breathed freely, because this time the trial was postponed to gather new evidence and to deal with other matters that will be tried. Rrapi and other matters of exclusion? ... Here the presiding judge, Mr. Qazim Gjoni, also declared that Qemal Lame had not appeared as a witness at the trial. It is said that he has gone to Germany, but this is not certain. What is certain is that he will not come to court to testify. When they heard this from the presiding judge, the accused and the former prosecutor felt relieved. Now we ask: Who has made Qemal Lame leave? Why did they not take measures for him to... ...he came? Rrapi testified to general matters, but, as he said, forgot that the main thing was to identify the killers. Yet on 12 April 1991, at a meeting with prosecutors and investigators, he had said that those who organized the rally had to be identified and that the investigative work was commendable. On 21 December 1992, however, he said that the investigation had been poor; that they had not detained those suspected of firing shots; that they had not collected the police weapons that had been fired; and that the examinations had been conducted badly. Rrapi placed all the blame on the investigative team of that time. When they read him the minutes dated 12 April 1991, Rrapi was left speechless, like a culprit caught red-handed. It has been observed that the accused, their former investigators, the former prosecutors, and the criminalistics group are doing everything in their power not to tell the truth, but to conceal it as thoroughly as possible. When the presiding judge, Mr. Qazim Gjoni, asked the witness Rrapi Mino whether he had been threatened during the investigation, given that the chief investigator had been threatened, he answered: “No.” “Did Ramiz Alia call you in those days, and did you speak with him about the events in Shkodër?” The Prosecutor General replied: “No!” We ask Mr. Rrapi Mino: how is it possible that he did not call you, who were the Prosecutor General, and called only the former head of the investigative department, Mr. Qemal Lame? This seems absurd to us. That day Ramiz held a meeting of the Presidency; he summoned ministers and others, branch chiefs and an ordinary prosecutor, and said nothing to you about this matter? And why did he hand you the order to arrest Çapajev Taqi, Dilaver Papar, and Gjek Çela through donazi Haxhiedin Shyti, rather than deliver it to you officially, and why was Haxhiedin sent along with it to the Ministry of Internal Affairs instead of someone else?! Qemal Lame says in his depositions and in published writings that Ramiz Alia did not agree to the arrest of the officers, but only of the policemen. You say you have no knowledge of this matter. Can this be believed? You, former Prosecutor General... [continues on page 4] [The first part of the interview is cut off] ... still survive. Hold on, these people won’t last long. We will take it. They had threatened them. He replied: “No.” “Did Ramiz Alia summon you in connection with the Shkodra events?” Answer: “No!” We ask Mr. Rrapi Nino: Is it possible that he did not summon you—you, who were Prosecutor General—and that he summoned only the former head of the investigation ministers and others, department heads this matter? Now we will ask: Who let Qemal Lame leave? Why did they not take measures to stop him from going? Is it true that he left? Or is this some kind of alibi? Who had an interest in Qemal’s departure? Who made him leave, and where did he go? Qemal knew many things. He stated that they had openly threatened him: “If you arrest Çapajev Taqi, they will disappear along with the cat.” He also stated that the voices calling him came from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and that he recognized from their voices who the people making the threats were. Those who had him in their custody and perhaps let Qemal Lame leave must answer before the law. Those whose duty it is to find Qemal should find him and bring him back to testify about everything he saw and said, and about what he did not say for fear of threats from the ma- [Continued on page 4]

- The idea of early elections is casually floated - [Text in the narrow column above the headline] ... in conversation, Albanians need unity and not division; the Socialists, with Mr. Nano, are calling for a political crisis and early elections. We do not know whom this policy helps. Albania? Never—but perhaps Serbia, which in no way wis... [Columns of the article after the headline] ... wants our country to move forward and progress, to be a country of democratic reform. But how does the Socialist Party, with Mr. Nano, justify this position? Why, after so many national and international efforts to calm the situation, draft modern laws, ensure the functioning of a pluralist parliament and take the first steps toward economic recovery, should gasoline be casually thrown on the fire—or, better yet, should people be called to do so? Mr. Nano justifies his extremely anachronistic, Communist-fascist position with the absurd logic that... being in the phase of transformation from a confused anti-Communist movement into a political party of former owners or middle-class owners, as it has passed from the past into the future, they are fragmenting and trying to unload their internal tensions and contradictions onto the Socialist Party.» Do not worry, sir: no lightning will strike the Socialist Party as long as it does not act. But when it adopts poses against democracy, the backlash of democracy can certainly strike. We repeat once again that none of the tensions or pressures you mention will come from the return of the houses and plots of land in towns and villages that the Albanian Party of Labour wrongfully took from people. This does nothing other than restore to its rightful place the right to private property, on which every democratic state is built. You too say, «you are for democracy,» but without these properties. Or perhaps you are acting out of your own personal interests, since you will have to leave the house you live in, which was confiscated nearly half a century ago? No, sir: national issues must not be confused with petty, small-minded interests... Before the echoes of the visit by the President of Italy, the esteemed Skalfaro, had even died down—a further important success for the foreign policy of our democratic government—Mr. Nano came out openly, aggressively and destabilizingly at the meeting of the Socialist Party’s Steering Committee. This shows how European the Socialists are, at a time when they follow their mother party’s practices of action, one by one. Specifically, Mr. Nano said: “The Socialist Party bears no responsibility for this parliamentary political crisis; early elections are being caused by the governing coalition forces through intolerance and irresponsibility.” Why should anyone speak of an imaginary political crisis when democratic Albania is being supported in every way by the strong hopes of Western Europe and the United States; when our President, Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha, is invited to NATO; when legal experts and the whole civilized world are helping us with reform, not only through experts but also with funds and advice, thanks to the ... [The rest of the column is cut off] But you, through lies, want to smear every achievement of democracy. You reach the point of absurdity when you say: “The majority that controls the new democratic institutions is showing nothing serious toward achieving a genuine state governed by law and justice in Albania, but is spending its energy reinstating political tutelage and control over power with the fresh-mindedness of yesterday’s totalitarianism or the anachronistic ideas of preconceptions of revenge.” Could it be that you want not the majority but the minority (specifically, the Socialist Party) to control the democratic institutions!? In no country in the world does the minority govern. If you oppose this, then you are a typical representative of dictatorship, because in that system the minority rules and terrorizes the majority. Then whom should we believe: the esteemed Skalfaro, an Italian and world-renowned figure, who spoke admiringly of the reform and democracy in Albania, and of the great strides we have made (and you know that European countries have accurate information), or you, who try to deny everything, even the major efforts to draft modern legislation that we are making? Apparently, you are displeased that our laws are being reviewed with the help of distinguished experts from the most developed democratic countries. Your absurdity (which reveals a state of agony) goes so far that you even speak of “... the projections of the fictitious electoral psychology of March 22.” The whole world knows how fictitious those elections were: it accepted them and is supporting them. Thanks to that “activity,” you were forced to leave political power, which you dream of and seek to regain as soon as possible, solely to satisfy your economic interests, because when your mother party or its apparatus was in power during the period of stability, you benefited improperly from economic power. If this is not a personal affair of yours, then it concerns many of your colleagues, about whom a great deal of noise has been made. And why, now that you no longer govern, does democracy—meaning the party—... the people entrusted their votes to ... [Text unclear and truncated] ... the homes will be returned to the citizens, and the homes they rent will be made available to them in accordance with the legal amendment that has been prepared; yet you rise up and ... [Continued on page 3] (Continued on page 3)

The young people split up among newspapers, associations, parties, parliaments...

Now we will ask:

Before the echoes of the visit by the President of Italy, the esteemed Skalfaro, had even died down—a further important success for the foreign policy of our democratic government—Mr. Nano came out openly, aggressively and destabilizingly at the meeting of the Socialist Party’s Steering Committee.

But you, through lies, want to smear every achievement of democracy.