The third DP conference was held in Vlora VLORA HAS SUPPORTED AND CONTINUES TO SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY -Mr. Selami and Mr. Spahia took part- The proceedings of the final conference in the DP’s election campaign, that of Vlora, opened with the annual work report delivered by Ibrahim Vasjari. Vlora, one of the most respected centers of traditional democratic heritage, has supported the DP since its establishment, bidding farewell to communism. The DP’s and its government’s achievements, the concerns surrounding reform and other issues, such as organizing the youth and reaching out to intellectuals and women, etc., were the subject of the annual report. Vlora has its own economic and political record. 118 new members, 58 of them intellectuals, are few for this district. The production of added goods during the first ten months of 1993 was 45 percent higher than during the same period last year. The distribution of land, completed for 83.7 percent, equivalent to 16,700 families, corresponds to the issuing of title deeds for 16,820 hectares of land. Wheat production increased by 43 percent. Twenty-four bakeries have been built, and 78 percent of commercial units, 89 percent of service and transport units, and 29 percent of the agricultural machinery industry have been privatized. In support of agriculture… …increased by 38 percent. In addition to the 6,000 people employed in the private sector in 1992–93, another 1,000 are engaged in itinerant trade. The district has 18,000 employed people, 7,000 receiving social assistance, two thousand families receiving financial assistance, while 8,000 employees of agricultural enterprises have land for use. This year alone, 25 import-export companies are operating, and every week 7 ferries, 3 ships, 56 cars, 22 trucks, etc. enter the port of Vlora. Customs revenues amount to 19 million lekë per month. Crime, compared with 1992, has fallen by half (there were 247 crimes, compared with 606), while detection capacity has increased by 70 percent. Speaking in a conversational format, the chairman of the DPA, Mr. Eduard Selami, summarized the DP’s theses and views, affirmed at the DP conferences held during the two-month election campaign within the DPA. Mr. Selami once again emphasized that the DP is not a party of biographies. It has accepted and continues to accept all those people united by its program and commitment to reform. Every individual in the DP has ample room for debate and democracy, but none of them… …with devotion, and it kept that promise. It promised the people freedom and the rule of law, justice and a market economy, and everyone is a witness to the fulfillment of this promise. The DP has been and will remain determined in the fight against corruption and crime. It continues to call the degeneration of the social-communist opposition into a clique of left-wing extremists a national calamity; they have nothing in common with socialism or the European left. The DP, Mr. Selami reaffirmed, once again expresses its deep respect and gratitude to the working class and former political persecut ees, and its readiness to continue working with them for their full inclusion in the country’s political, social, economic and cultural life. Later, the DP vice-chairman, Mr. Ali Spahia, greeted those present and described the DP’s program as the most humane, most democratic and most patriotic in Albanian history. He called for greater attention to youth and women. He described the former owners’ demands as falling outside the DP’s program and stressed that today in Albania the potential danger is and remains left-wing extremism represented by… …with machinery industry have been privatized. In support of agriculture, 129 large tractors and 20 small ones have arrived; they have been provided on credit, and another 50–60 are expected. Compared with 1992, livestock numbers have increased: cows by 22 percent, sheep by 29 percent, goats by 13 percent, and poultry. [upper part of text cut off] …the DP’s positions and democracy, but none of them has the right to demand a change to the program, since this program has the votes of one million two hundred thousand Albanians. Mr. Selami stressed that the DP is a deeply modern, intellectual and democratic party. It promised the people the overthrow of communism, great extremism, represented in the opposition parties and in parliament. Finally, the election was held. Mr. Bedri Shaska was elected the new chairman of the Vlora DP branch. RD correspondent

Well-informed sources report that recently some Macedonian officials have been using pressure, blackmail and violence against Albanians in Macedonia to make them keep discredited figures such as Halili, Eminin, Mesini, etc., at the head of their political forces. These figures were links both in the enemies’ trap organized by the secret services of the Yugoslav People’s Army and in the imprisonment of innocent people in Macedonia. These Pilates are also responsible for blocking the democratic life of the largest political party of the Albanians of Macedonia. They are the authors of the confusion surrounding Albanians’ legitimate demands, confusion that their patrons have used on a massive scale against Albanian interests. Now, having committed with them the monstrous crime in which people also died in prisons, they want to keep them in the positions they held so that they can continue their services. The puppet-and-sellout game that Belgrade has long played with the Planas, Zenels and Tërnovcas in Kosovo, the Çekas, Jamas, Çunes and Shqiperis, and the Halilis, Eminins and Mesinis in Macedonia, is shameful, thoroughly discredited and a failure. Former majors and colonels of the secret services can represent only those who pay them, never the legitimate interests and rights of Albanians. The circles in Belgrade must understand that nothing can be resolved with Albanians through their quislings, but only with legitimate representatives who enjoy the confidence of Albanians as well as that of democratic forces and international public opinion. To play games with the sellouts of another people means pursuing a medieval Byzantine policy; all the more so in the case of Albanians, who, just as they possess the virtue of loyalty to the national ideal, also have a deep contempt for quislings and bootlickers. (ATSH)

Interview with President Berisha by Austrian journalist Ingrid Steiner, published in the well-known Austrian newspaper «Kurier» on 29. 11. 1993 Question: - At the beginning of your term, 18 months ago, you were described as a surgeon who would heal Albania. To what extent have you fulfilled this task? Answer: - In many areas we have made decisive progress in foreign policy, legislation and the economy. Inflation is under control. Our currency (the lek, the national currency) is stable and has appreciated by 8 percent. This year Albania will achieve the greatest economic growth of all the other Eastern European countries. Question: - In view of these surprisingly Western-sounding figures, possible German [investors?] were judged a short while ago, just as they also, without result? Answer: - There are no legal obstacles. Our investment laws have been rated as very good by the International Fund. Our problem is that we have not yet fully liberalized the sale of land and property. Before that, the ongoing reforms must be completed. Question: - When will this be achieved? Answer: - This is a continuous process. Privatization of large enterprises should begin in 1994. The government is preparing a package of 600 enterprises to be sold. Question: - Will Tirana stand idly by in the face of a possible war in Kosovo? Answer: - Absolutely. We are 7,000,000 Albanians, a geographical and ethnic continent. Albanians in Kosovo are not seeking a change of borders. All they want is space for democratic life and democratic institutions. The risk of war in the region is very high; the Serbian side has been provoking it even in recent weeks. Question: - To what extent are the reforms in the Albanian army useful? Answer: - In a three-stage plan for reorganization and … (Continued on page 6)

The Socialist Party and its spokesperson, «ZP», fanatically defend November 29 as the day Albania was liberated. Their debate, in one institution and in the forums opposing November 28 as the true date of liberation, was taken to the point of absurdity, with every historical argument denied. The PS accuses the Democratic Party of smearing the National Liberation War by moving this date, and of seeking to reassess national history on paper. After these accusations, the PS says that time will judge history. Regarding the first assertion, we must say that reassessing history from a new historiographical position, with old documents on the table that were concealed for a long time, is entirely normal; it does not mean denying history as a whole. [some words unclear] …revisionism of certain facts. Behind the first assertion lies a political attitude toward history. In fact, the PS is concerned that this reassessment will expose the falsification of history by Enver Hoxha, the truth [unclear] … When we say that the PS is the ideological and political continuation of the Party of Labor, we do not say it merely as a slogan, but base it on facts and arguments provided by the PS itself. The ideology and policy of the Party of Labor, or more precisely of Enver Hoxha, were said and propagated to be based on «historical materialism» and «historical dialectics». That was only in principle, because in practice Enver Hoxha was a metaphysician and the entire work of the PP was metaphysics. It is enough to recall that, as a rule, the place of a congress would be set so that heavy industry could develop, or for «war-ification», even though these directives came from the gravediggers of the national economy and drove the people into extreme poverty. These matters were taboo, and anyone who opposed them was threatened and even called an enemy. Likewise in the field of history, dialectics was merely a slogan, while metaphysics was acceptable. The revolutionary events in history and the revolutionary events that took place, and the interpretation given to them by Enver Hoxha: anyone who attempted a new interpretation was declared dangerous, even an enemy. In this regard, we could list a whole range of metaphysical distortions of history. The same metaphysical attitude is considered acceptable within the PS, even though it declares itself dialectical in its explanation of history and of historical reality. Its metaphysical stance is evident when it refuses not only to change the liberation date from the 29th to the 28th in light of indisputable facts, but even to discuss the matter. The PS refused to reassess the Mukje Conference, although the facts clearly call for its reassessment; the PS continues to call all those martyrs who were unjustly condemned and executed without trial enemies of the people. To this day the PS has presented no reassessment of Enver Hoxha’s criminal policies, even though the facts show that the PS must do so. The PS reveals its metaphysical nature also when it claims that historical truth is determined by TIME and not by facts. It is precisely after 50 years that it denies the right to review history in the light of new facts. As metaphysics, the PS seeks to freeze history, because then the events and judgments concerning the glorious history of its predecessors are frozen too, even though in this way the history of the nation is falsified, distorted and altered. By taking this position, the PS forgets that between history and truth lie the new facts brought forward by time. As [continues on page 5]

In a recent article in «Zëri i popullit» by Koço Broka, entitled «The inner iceberg», we learn of a sensational discovery: December 1990 did not «mark the beginning or origin of the democratic processes and, even less, were the leaders or the DP the architects or fathers of these processes». According to this author, As the same author says, measures had been undertaken and … [final portion cut off]

In a recent article in «Zëri i popullit» by Koço Broka, entitled «The inner iceberg», we learn of a sensational discovery: December 1990 did not «mark the beginning or origin of the democratic processes and, even less, were the leaders or the DP the architects or fathers of these processes». And a little further on, the author dares to continue his idea and announce that the democratic processes «were synthesized and formulated in the 8th and 9th plans of the Central Committee of the PLA…». According to this author, measures had been taken as early as the 1980s «to democratize the entire life of the country». We do not know why Comrade Enver is not quoted, since he stated more clearly and with better argument than Koço Broka that our democracy was the most advanced in the world and that we were 100 years ahead of the most developed capitalist countries. Indeed, when those bourgeois countries attained our democracy, we would still be 100 years ahead of them. On the one hand, it is good that the author of this article did not mention Enver, since he might have compromised himself. The author has thoroughly appropriated his ideas and those of Ramiz Alia, admitting it openly when, speculating about the first document concerning the DP’s demand for crimes, he says that the «initiator of economic reforms» is today’s prisoner, former President Ramiz Alia. As if all this were not enough, in his ravings the author presents «Zëri i popullit» and Fatos Nano as the protagonists of December. In other words, it was «ZP» and the chairman of the PS who prepared December, while the students merely carried out their instructions. «If on June 22, on the front page of “ZP”, it had been declared that nothing was a monopoly or taboo among the economic and social orders our society had surpassed, then on July 10 and later on “Voice of America” Fatos Nano would raise sharp issues, elaborated for resolution…» As an active participant in drawing up and implementing economic reform, Fatos Nano was neither a notable for the transition nor a practitioner for the future: «Among the snow, fine, and the frost too, but what is this little leaf looking for? A morsel for the quiet ones». After continuing with his clear vision of a capitalist society attributed to Fatos Nano and his pronouncements as an oracle of the market economy, the aforementioned author «cannot deny» that Sali Berisha also wrote an article or two, «certainly courageous for the time». And the paradox continues: while Fatos Nano supposedly had a clear vision of pluralism and a market economy and openly criticized the socialist system of the time, even opposing Ramiz Alia, Doctor Sali was far behind, being in favor only of «pluralism of thought and not multiparty pluralism». After these claims, nothing remains but to rewrite history as well: in other words, it was not the students in December, nor anyone else, who led and directed this anti-communist democratic movement. Rather, it was Ramiz Alia and Fatos Nano at the head of the Albanian communists—now renovated and later self-described as socialists—who rose up against the communist regime and the senior party leadership and insistently demanded the creation of the first opposition party, the Democratic Party. As a result of Ramiz and his Fatoses’ tireless struggle, the opposition was born, while Sali Berisha and Azem Hajdari, at the head of the police, were forced to put the students into tanks and, with special police and army units, tried at all costs to prevent communism, with Fatos at its head, from entering in the name of freedom and democracy. The author should have stated this truth plainly as the conclusion to which Koço Broka’s article leads. It would have been good if history had unfolded as Comrade Enver planned it and as Koço Broka and his comrades explain it. Then today, instead of replying to «ZP», we would be learning by heart at school and in historical education programs about the democratic processes written by Comrade Koço according to the party’s directives and described through a Marxist-Leninist lens. After all, that is the only milk available in the herd. Unfortunately for Koço and the PP, the December students did not follow the useful advice of the Party’s top leadership, nor the Central Committee’s other plans and programs for advancing the democratic processes «initiated» by the all-encompassing plans. It was not the dire economic situation that forced Ramiz Alia to find a solution by allowing political pluralism, as the article’s author claims. Ramiz Alia had meanwhile chosen other solutions to overcome the economic situation: was he not the inventor of the livestock and small-plot schemes, which «enriched» the village and «drowned» the farmer in milk? Was Comrade Koço not himself, together with me, praising in the newspapers the farmer’s happiness when he handed over his cow and sheep, which had become a burden underfoot and were draining his life? Perhaps Comrade Koço’s memory has failed him, but let him refresh it by leafing through a few issues of «Zëri i popullit» from a few years ago, and then serve us today the marvelous economic solutions of the Party of Labor and Ramiz Alia, and their comprehensive measures to democratize the country’s entire life, as the article’s revered author, «The December Iceberg», solemnly declares. As we recall, the December students would not even let the PP’s and President Alia’s envoys approach their town square, although they were accompanied by tanks and armored vehicles. Yet now, according to Broka, they were supposedly the inspirers and leaders of the student movement, while the students merely carried out orders! As the people rightly say, «The other man is still in the village, and he’s already asking for the priest’s daughter!» Of course, I cannot deny that Fatos Nano also wrote and spoke about the market economy at the time. But he spoke only as much as the director of his institute, Comrade Nexhmije Hoxha, allowed him to. It is not impossible that Fatos put forward some ideas that were courageous for their time, but it sounds absurd, even comical, to claim today that he was the architect of democratic processes in Albania and that, together with Ramiz Alia, he initiated the December student movement. That is rather like saying that Comrade Enver was politically persecuted because he was accused of the policies he pursued, which had harmed the partisans and … [final portion cut off]