Statement by the spokesperson of Albania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Albania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its profound concern over the considerable increase in Serbian-Kosovar state terrorism in Kosovo. Within one week, Serbia’s police and military forces have undertaken three punitive expeditions against the civilian population in Mitrovica, Prishtina, and Gjakova, using firearms, wounding many people, and beating and arresting dozens more. Serbian state terrorism is acting not only openly, but with the premeditated aim of creating a conflict in Kosovo. The Republic of Albania has continually drawn the attention of political circles, parliaments, international institutions, and the entire international community to the great danger posed by Belgrade’s aggressive terrorist policy in Kosovo and to Serbia’s strategy of spreading the flames of war to the south of the peninsula. The events of recent days prove more than anything that Serbia is deliberately pursuing a policy of provoking the two-million-strong Albanian people in Kosovo, in order to create the conditions for a confrontation on a very broad scale, which would naturally have incalculable consequences. The heightened level of danger in the southern Balkan region is also foreshadowed by the increased military provocations Serbia is undertaking against the Republic of Albania. The provocation of 6 August, in which three people were wounded by Serbian forces on Albanian territory, and the violation of our airspace by a Serbian helicopter on 11 August, shed light on Belgrade’s truly macabre plan to provoke new tensions and conflicts, in order to (Continued on page 4)

As has been announced, these days the European Community offered Albania new assistance amounting to 35 million ECU, or 42 million dollars. Through this assistance, the Community once again showed that it is the leading, multifaceted donor, whose aid amounts to a total of 350 million dollars. This assistance showed that the European Community is at the forefront of Albania’s well-wishers. Its aid has been used for purposes such as the balance of payments, financing the Phar program, etc. The European Community’s new aid initiative is an important confirmation of a real fact; it gives concrete expression to a judgment that has now matured in international political, economic, and financial circles: reform in general, and economic reform in particular, needs to move rapidly in Albania. Indeed, these organizations themselves have expressed their view that the pace at which reform has been adapted in Albania has been surprising to them. The success of reform in Albania to date clearly demonstrates its merit and that it deserves support; the Community is setting an example in this regard. Through its initiatives to assist Albania, the European Community has conveyed to other international economic and financial organizations the message that support from them is also essential. And the fact is that Albania has enjoyed full support. It has cooperated with and received support from the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Bank for Reconstruction and Development, etc. As a result of this support, Albania has received more aid per capita than all the other countries of Eastern Europe. By positively assessing reform in Albania and the improvements in economic and financial support, the EC inspires optimism among Albanians—the optimism needed in the face of current, inevitable difficulties and the efforts of social-communist forces to destabilize the country, etc. The EC’s support for Albania is also a positive assessment of the political force leading its reform process. It shows that the course pursued by this political force and its current Government is the right one, and that the stated objectives will be achieved by following it. The Albanian people have always been sensitive to the goodwill others have shown them. They have always responded to such goodwill with gratitude. For everything the European Community has done to help their country, Albanians respond with one word: Gratitude. SHPETIM LUKU

R. Alia, P. Murra, F. Çami, V. Çër(r)ava, M. Asllani, P. Miska, and B. Bekteshi are arrested. Of the entire former bureau, only L. Çuko remains outside. - One more charge against R. Alia: “They were connected with Beni because he knew Italian.” - Alia: “I would prefer a political trial.” - «ZP» mourns. - How did Alia’s friends receive him at Tirana prison? At last, after numerous accusations, protests, and an “untimely” radio report, on Thursday the former number one of the communist regime, R. Alia, exchanged his daughter’s comfortable home, where he had been under house arrest, for a cell in Tirana prison. On the same day, Foto Çami, Prokop Murra, Vangjel Çërrava, Muho Asllani, Pali Miska, and Besnik Bekteshi also took their places in their cells. Thus, with the exception of Lenka Çuka, all the leaders of the criminal communist regime are in Tirana prison. They are accused of ordinary theft. They took advantage of their positions to steal. There is one additional charge against R. Alia: his collaboration with Nano in the Italian aid scandal, in which 8 million dollars “disappeared.” Released on the charge of two... Alia will be sentenced... a statement, in a series of earlier statements and interviews. “This is about political struggle, dictatorship, etc.” In other words, no public statement specifically related to the charge. Nevertheless, his explanation in “private” quarters concerning what happened in Beirut was: “They were connected with Bei—” For all this time, an anonymous god who suddenly appeared in «Alternativa SD» had stood in the corner of society and at the tail end of events, not knowing what he wanted, going neither left nor right. In Alia’s interview, he seems repentant, but he is not. R. Alia continues to spew venom and look for blood. “I see blood in this country,” he said in one of the private settings I mentioned above. He saw blood when his friends were arrested. The “strange” coincidence is that R. Alia said this at the time when Nano was accused along with him in the Italian aid scandal, and K. Islami was calling for a retaliatory breaking of things after Nano’s arrest. R. Alia sees blood and admits that he committed political crimes, yet «ZP» and the PS mourn his arrest and that of the other PP (PS) leaders: “Tirana prison has never before held so many former high-ranking officials in its cells at the same time,” “... Albanian democracy has been left an orphan. The beautiful dream was stolen, was killed. Together with ...”

Reflections through unframed wooden portraits... First of all, we would like to clarify the use of the term “extreme.” The definition—understood as a murder, a watchdog of S. Berisha?! Meanwhile, this brings to mind the testimony of a patient, also from Vlora, who, at the time when Dr. Brokaj was minister ...the history of the Albanian University... The final “button” on Kaci’s “breastplate” of crime would be “sewn on” by his statements

A sensational story: The anonymous god in «Alternativa SD» has finally revealed his son, “Jesus,” Fatos Nano. «Alternativa SD» had been standing nor right, neither forward nor backward. He merely watched as society fell apart, and the anonymous god (said to be a social democrat) had to choose a son, a new ally, who would establish order among people and create the morality of a new society, create a new Bible to save corrupt humanity. And finally, he chose his son, “Jesus” Nano, the savior of sick souls. And to create the new Christ, He chose precisely an antichrist, thereby demonstrating His divine power. Thus He chose the new Christ, the “Chief Antichrist,” a volunteer seasoned in the destruction of churches and mosques, a burner of holy books, a persecutor of the faithful, and the chief of the corrupt. This is the miracle! And now that the disobedient “Jews,” the Democrats, have put this new “Jesus” in prison, he, in order to fill the vacuum he himself created, is working out his theory, which will be published... (Continued on page 4) ... Nano. wanted, going neither left theory, which will be published... ... The beautiful dream was stolen, was killed. Together with it, the main protagonists of the transition period were also ‘killed.’” So, according to «ZP», democracy is in mourning because the criminals ended up in prison (R. Alia himself admitted it). In any case, Alia prefers a political trial. A statement that surely has upset the others inside. It is known that some of Alia’s former collaborators consider him responsible for their “misfortunes.” Alia defends himself by saying he prevented bloodshed, but others, such as H. Isai, accuse him of the opposite. So what will happen to Alia and the others? Will they be sentenced as ordinary thieves, or will murder, imprisonment, internment, and the encirclement of an entire people with barbed wire also be added to their charges? Today, even legally, with parliament’s annulment of the law approved by R. Alia, under which one could not be sentenced for crimes committed more than 20 years ago, it is possible to fulfill R. Alia’s preference. EDI PALOKA

First of all, we would like to clarify the use of the term “crime.” like to clarify the use of the term “crime.” It is usually understood to mean an act of murder, violence, torture, etc. of this kind. We will use the term in its legal and moral sense, which gives the act of a crime a fuller and broader meaning. Thus, under the Penal Code and according to the morality of a society, crimes include not only the above, but also insults, slander, forgery, hypocrisy, immorality, cynicism, shamelessness, and so on, and so forth... And for each of these, both the Penal Code and the morality of a society prescribe clearly defined penalties... Let us make our observations concrete through real portraits of those who, although today without wooden frames, have changed and continue to change their portraits in wooden frames adorned with gilded decorations of power: FATOS NANO: He has snatched from this world almost everything it knows about its own soul. Perhaps this is an innate “greed,” since his peers recall that even as a child his intelligence stood in stark contrast to his cynical and petty manner. These same peers have not forgotten his thefts at «Sami Frashëri» high school. There is no need to recall his later biography or his moral and political activity, since these are already widely known. We will only recall that the final “buttons” on his “breastplate” of penal and national crime were the scandal involving Italian aid and the joint declaration with PASOK. We will not mention here the tragedy of April 2, when he was prime minister, nor his “contribution” to Nexhmije Hoxha’s Institute of Marxism-Leninism, nor the implementation of the second-stage strategy for “ruining Albania.” SABIT BROKAJ: He is inextricably linked to the era of crime just mentioned, in the sense of the dictator Enver Hoxha’s henchman. He cannot explain the fact of his confrontation with one of his own spouses in the shady dealings of the firm «Meta...», though today with Dr. Bro... En. But the balance of his aggression remains at a critical level. People have heard vulgar outbursts from him such as, “Get lost, you dog when Dr. Brokaj was Minister of Health, had told him: “Mr. Sabit, solve my problem, because I have all the evidence in my hands to discredit you!” And the doctor-minister had sent him away with the brutal reply: “Get lost!! Discredit me—you’ll be doing me a favor, because they’ll remove me from this job where I earn 11 thousand lekë and send me somewhere else where I can earn 50–60 thousand...” Yes. The ideas were clear, the predictions accurate, and the devotion to “the people’s troubles” likewise. They had thought and acted for the democratic “revenge” of tomorrow from that time onward. The “buttons” on Dr. Sabit’s “breastplate” of crime must by now be fastened right up to the neck... We need only recall the “disappearance” of the medical aid donated to Albania.... GRAMOZ RUÇI: An intellectual educated at the Party school and the institute for village teachers, “remembered in Tepelenë” for those classic scenes involving secretaries of the PP committees. But what will remain indelibly in memory is the scene of his testimony in the Shkodër courtroom: he, the former minister of April 2, in the role of witness, glaring with hatred at his former subordinates and accomplices, still in the dock. The message in that stare was: “Save me, and I’ll save you! Don’t break the oath! Have faith in us! Our time will come very soon, and we’ll release you!... Better for one of us to be outside than for all of us to be in prison!...” And they did not break it, and to this day they have not broken their “faith”! They went only to their own cells and left Gramoz and his fellow criminals outside. KASTRIOT ISLAMI: People affectionately call him Kaci, but this does nothing to soften the indicators of his vulgarity, crudeness, arrogance, and overbearing character. They say his criminal tendencies began long ago, but I would say they took shape on the day Kaci abandoned physics and began dabbling in politics; that is, on the day he agreed to put in his pocket the wallet of that Minister of Education who would close the Albanian University for the first time in its history... Kaci would “sew on” the final “button” on his “breastplate” of crime with his notorious criminal and unconstitutional declarations advocating the use of violence, communist-style... May God (if he believes in Him) save him from his sins!... After the three portraits mentioned above, we would close this series with another, somewhat lower and off to the side from the “type” described above, but higher in its own “type,” namely: NAMIK DOKLE: Orator, prestidigitator, juggler, and “nightingale” of the social-communist word. I would single out those days in December ’90 and the beginning of ’91, when, in the role of chief of the communist press as editor-in-chief of «ZP», he hacked left and right at the fragile body of Albania’s newly born democracy. His inquisition was macabre: with a list of the names of the new leaders of democracy hanging on the wall of his editorial office, he would announce and order: “Today it’s so-and-so’s turn! Tomorrow, what’s-his-name!...” Then came the assault of slander, intrigues, and ultimate threats against the image and character of those who had sacrificed everything for democracy’s triumph. Dokle is the one who, over time, has given the “buttons” on his leaders’ “breastplate” of crimes the proper “shine”—a shine that has blinded him, leaving him unable to see the hopeless... If he cannot do it himself, may God (if he believes) save him too!... As can be seen, setting Dokle aside to some extent, all the others are united by one fact: they are members of a bloodthirsty government like the one of April 2. Among them lies the enigma of the “masterless” crime, although everyone knows the secret behind this enigma... And it is precisely this modus that unites them. The disintegration of one link in it “burns” the entire chain of those implicated. We are not dealing with a modus, but with an alternative or political alternative. This is the latter, since the PS also has personalities who aspire to democratic socialism, but who are now finally declaring publicly that coexistence with their “fellow idealists” is impossible. (Continued on page 4)

The singer of communism cannot stop singing about communism. - For Dritëro Agolli, the 65 percent of Albanians who voted for the PD are a mob. - The persecutors, Sigurimi agents, executioners, corrupt people, the lumpen of Enver’s red army are apparently the people. - The standard-bearer of red corruption, Fatos Nano, will become a hero and a legend just like Enver Hoxha. «ZP» did very well to publish in full, without editing, Dritëro Agolli’s discussion at the meeting of the PS General Steering Committee on 6 August 1993. «Koha Jonë» did even better by publishing, in its humor pages, the wonderful interview—in what was perhaps a lucky chance—for its nationalists, so they could be convinced that Dritëro Agolli died as a poet on the day Enver Hoxha died. Knowing him well, knowing that more faki than blood flows in his veins, and that he can be ill only 65 days of the year, I am not at all surprised by comrade Dritëro’s delusions, nonsense and unripe plums in this discussion or «historic» speech, in which Albanians who voted for the PD are called a mob. - The people: legend just like Enver Hoxha; he this discussion or «historic» speech and in the interview. We are even more convinced that the Nanolist directors and actors are very cleverly exploiting the name and memories of Dritëro to promote, as democratic poetry, the new betrayal they want to carry out on the Albanian national stage. It is... (Continued on page 4)