On 17 January 1994, the PD’s Activ was held at the headquarters of the Democratic Party, with the participation of the PD chairmen and secretaries from the districts. The Activ, which met under the direction of the Chairman of the Albanian Democratic Party, Mr. Eduard Selami, assessed as a prospect the admission of 1,300 new members into the ranks of the PD during this year alone and at the beginning of 1994. The Activ assessed 1994 as an important year for establishing reform and advancing it further in all fields, expressing the Democratic Party’s full support for the realistic policy pursued by the democratic government and President Berisha. The participants who spoke at the Activ stressed the need to implement the laws approved by our People’s Assembly, calling this a condition for the functioning of the rule-of-law state and for improving public order and calm in the country. Participants considered it essential to strengthen public order, since, as was said there, there are districts and areas where public order continues to be a concern. They called the delay in appointing the prefectures and starting their activities unjustifiable. Likewise, the Activ condemned and rejected the irresponsible accusation by Mr. Imami, who called the Democratic Party an “organizer of crime,” and demanded that he be held criminally accountable before the judicial authorities for this statement. Mr. Eduard Selami also spoke at the Activ. He praised the work done so far by the district branches, but at the same time raised the need for the PD to expand further by bringing in new members. He underscored the need for contacts and open dialogue between the PD’s MPs in particular and the people, both to hear people’s problems and to provide solutions to them. Mr. Eduard Selami described 1994 as an important year for consolidating democracy and advancing the achievements made so far, especially by giving priority to resolving the problems that concern Albanians today. The PD Chairman assessed that there was an activation of the conservative bloc against the Democratic Party, led by left-wing extremists who had usurped the Socialist Party, as well as their alliances of every kind of extremism, united by their fight against reform, against the rule-of-law state, and against the Democratic Party. Their aim is to hinder Albania’s progress at any cost, denying and destroying everything. In this way they aim to kill people’s hopes in order to prepare for their own swift return. Although this extremist coalition is a fact, they have found no support among the people, only in the pages of the extreme-left press. Finally, Mr. Eduard Selami described the foreign policy of the democratic state under President Berisha as very successful, having secured Albania credibility and dignified integration in Europe and the world. On this occasion, the PD Chairman welcomed Albania’s membership in the “Partnership for Peace” and praised American assistance and that of our countries. We will provide a more detailed account of the Activ in our next issue. Prepared by: M.BUÇPAPAJ

The Albanian Democratic Party rejects and condemns as a grave provocation the statement by Mr. Imami, made in the newspaper “Zëri” dated 16.1.1994, that the PD is a party that has organized and is organizing crime at every level. “This statement is an insult and a grave provocation not only against the Democratic Party, which has become a symbol of the struggle against dictatorship, crime and corruption, a symbol of the struggle to build the rule of law and justice in Albania, but against all Albanian democracy. Belgrade’s power-holder, the man who goes to meet with Milošević’s party, the greatest criminals of our time, can readily portray the PDSH and the Albanian democratic state as criminals. In any case, the statement by this power-holder of Belgrade does not surprise us at all. It is understandable that it was published with the aim of letting him shamelessly kiss and embrace war criminals in Belgrade, who force him to trample on the oppression and severe apartheid imposed on millions of Albanians in Kosovo, while claiming that the PDSH—which works with effort, sacrifice and dedication to build a state of justice and a market economy—is supposedly organizing crime at every level. We denounce this statement by Mr. Imami, made through the notorious newspaper of Albanian left-wing extremists, as criminal, vile and baseless: the most merciless extremism Europe has known in its history, ‘Zëri i Popullit’. We demand that the judicial and state authorities make their position known. In particular, as regards accountability, in this undertaking of ours, as in the changes between eras and systems, it has often been punished with obstacles and difficulties imposed by regressive forces, by left- and right-wing extremists who want at all costs to prevent the trial and punishment of the old nomenklatura and of yesterday’s and today’s criminals and corrupt figures. The PDSH has the legal right to speak out.” Also, in the newspaper “Aleanca,” dated 16.1.1994, the statement of the Democratic Alliance Party accuses the PDSH and its co-chairman Ali Spahia of organizing and escalating violence against AD members and leaders, and directly of the crime committed against the young Shkodran, Mr. Gjovalin Cekini. The PDSH, its members, leaders and supporters deeply condemn such a statement, fabricated and assembled by failed careerist politicians, inclined toward revenge and destabilization by any means and method; in a democratic context, it publicly denounces AD’s baseless slanders and insinuations. 1. The PDSH is wholly committed to establishing full democracy in Albania and, through its parliamentary group, to drafting modern legislation for the democratic governance of the country, in order to eliminate as quickly as possible, through institutional, administrative, economic, legal, social and psychological reforms, the consequences of the communist dictatorship; to respecting human freedoms and rights; and to creating a rule-of-law state in which RTV, SHK-KU, the police and other state institutions serve only the law and the individual, not parties. In particular, as regards accountability, in this undertaking of ours, as in the changes between eras and systems, it has often been punished with obstacles and difficulties imposed by regressive forces, by left- and right-wing extremists who want at all costs to prevent the trial and punishment of the old nomenklatura and of yesterday’s and today’s criminals and corrupt figures. The PDSH has respected and will respect political parties and the role and place the electorate has given them through its free vote. It has respected and respects observations, opinions and constructive criticism, just as it has denounced and continues to denounce every slander and every attempt to destabilize democracy. 2. Following the example of the PS bosses, who accused the PDSH co-chairman, Mr. Ali Spahia, over the peaceful gatherings of Shkodran leaders against Nano, and each of their lackeys, AD leaders accuse Mr. Spahia, without a shred of evidence, of the murder of the 26-year-old, Gjovalin Cekini. The authors of such a slander must answer for it criminally before the judicial authorities. 3. The PDSH condemns the crime committed and expresses its sorrow at the loss of the young Shkodran, Mr. Gjovalin Cekini. It offers its sincere condolences to the victim’s family and relatives and at the same time asks Albanian justice, through a full and impartial investigation, to deliver the verdict required by law against the perpetrators and those responsible for this crime. 4. Through their destabilizing calls, insults and slanders, and immoral insinuations against PDSH leaders and the Albanian state, AD leaders have repeatedly instigated deliberate incidents at their meetings, culminating in this murder. Instead of using democratic culture and ethics to advance their opposing views, AD leaders have consciously chosen the opposite. The moral responsibility lies with them. Tirana, 17.1.1994

TIRANA—On 14 January, at around 15:00, citizen Gjovalin Cekini was shot dead in front of “Radio-Shkodra.” Immediately after receiving the report, an investigative team comprising the district prosecutor, criminal-investigation police officers, experts and legal specialists went to the scene. The team concluded that the murder took place under the following circumstances: After the end of the Democratic Alliance meeting, several participants made insults and public abuse in the street. At that moment, citizen Selami Cela, who had just got out of his private green “Benz,” became involved in a conflict with the group of participants. As a result, 4–5 people, including the victim, punched and kicked him; while fighting, they moved about 100 metres from where the conflict had begun, as far as “Radio Shkodra,” where the shooting took place. At the scene, two cartridge cases belonging to an old-model handgun were found. An external examination of the body, since the family did not permit a medico-legal examination, showed that the victim had been struck by a bullet, which remained in his body. On the basis of the examination findings, expert assessments and investigative actions, it was concluded that the murder was committed in the heat of the moment and is classified as a simple murder, without motive. The investigative team is working to identify and apprehend the perpetrator, as well as to further document this incident. ATSH

The Ministry of Public Order, in a press release issued on 16 January, provides information concerning the manipulations that the extreme-left press is seeking to make regarding the killing of citizen Gjovalin Cekini. The notice says that on 14 January 1994 in the city of Shkodra, leaders of the Democratic Alliance Party held a meeting at which they made a series of irresponsible statements. These statements were met with deep indignation by most of those in the hall and, being considered a provocation, caused threatening reactions, whereupon the meeting’s presidium requested police assistance. The police, together with the local government authorities, took the appropriate measures. After this, most of the people returned to the hall. After the meeting ended, supporters of the PAD leaders outside the hall made insults and public abuse. At that moment, citizen Selami Cela, who was passing by in his private “Benz,” got out of the car and exchanged words with the group making the insults. Immediately, a group of 4–5 men broke away and attacked Selami Cela, punching and kicking him and dragging him towards Radio Shkodra; in the ensuing scuffle, Gjovalin Cekini was killed. The Ministry of Public Order and the criminal-investigation police team consider this to have been a killing during a quarrel, committed with an old-model weapon, with no premeditation, and denounce all the manipulations by MP Imami and others. It is for the judicial authorities to clarify whether there is any connection between the senior official responsible—the former co-chairman of the State Security service at the meeting’s presidium—and their supporters in the hall, on the one hand, and Mr. Imami’s irresponsible statements and the fatal incident that followed, concludes the notice. ATSH

-“I’ll bastardize the cunning fathers” -The PAD meeting—an attempt to sow division- At noon on 14 January, the PAD leaders finally appeared in Shkodra. Posing and self-important, they climbed onto the stage of the “Migjeni” theatre. Before the microphone: the trio Pashko, Imami and Zogaj. The hall was packed with Shkodrans from across the political spectrum: Democrats, Democratic Alliance members, Socialists, Republicans and others. The scandal of tired pensioners and the internal branch also stood out. In the first row, 10–15 young people clapped and cheered like puppets on a string. The first to have the “kindness” of entertaining us at the microphone—solo—was Preçi. As always, calm, metaphorical and cunning. He spoke and talked around the subject. He said what he said. The poor man complained about curtailed civil liberties (“by the government’s scythe from the sun,” which “might” even cut them off from Belgrade). He spoke of the winds of desolation and the polar ice that, according to him, threatened the political climate. He forgot to mention the wind of Milot that had dried out his back years earlier, when he was in office on those sides, an assimilator behind the carts of workers, with a few poems about Enver to boot. Whereas today the wind of democracy has brought him a chill (apparently he did not cough even once). At the end of his “programmatic” speech he pulled from his pocket, like a sweet—a promise—the phrase: if we win, we will open trade along the entire length of Albania’s border (Apparently this border, he told me, was also with Belgrade). But the promise had been made to Belgrade. The hall did not understand the promise, however, and shouted: “Down with the spies!” After Preçi, Dr. Pashko took the microphone alone. “Tell us whose son you are,” some voices from the hall shouted (they were the sons of those whose death sentences Pashko’s father had eagerly signed). In politics, the sins of father and son often become intertwined. From the graves, sons rise up, dragged by the feet onto podiums, and are given their due. The flushed and confused doctor replies: “I haven’t come to Shkodra to engage in self-glorification...” In my opinion communism is dead, the hall reacts forcefully ... Let’s leave the vendettas, forget the grudges, leave the accounts unsettled ... I have come to Shkodra to spread my ideas (...“The Alliance has won the political tender”). One vendetta Pashko had not forgotten, despite calling on people to forget their accounts. He himself had kept accounts of the governments since the 1970s, and then of the Meksi government, which apparently had not built a single school (!) and had not built a single nursery or kindergarten, left to decay and destruction in the time of (doc) (Continued on page 4)

The instigators of the incident in Shkodra, with their many ties to the criminal underworld, after reaping the tragic “fruits” of the meeting in this city with a man, have not stopped issuing one statement after another, each more absurd than the last, thinking that this is how they will make themselves important. Milošević’s power-holder, the denouncer of Astrit Qorrri, Neritan Ceka—known among the people also as Neritan Alija—thinks he can make his accusations credible, knowing that he is branded for many things, and thinks he can clear himself. He is wasting his time. Neither he nor the people around him can wash away their sins. Shkodra was struck by one more misfortune in January. The Shkodra incident is a continuation of their pro-Serbian policy, whose composition was exposed in a hall and which backfired on them on every front. They are outbursts and their allies who want to destabilize Albania, to exhaust it in a civil war, to turn Albania into a country weighed down by the scales of the besiegers, and thus realize their anti-Albanian aims, deal a deadly blow to democracy in our country and settle accounts over Kosovo. They are the Serbs and their allies who accompany the leaders of Ramiz Alia and Fatos Nano—offspring and successors of Enver, whom he served until the end—on their visits to cities. These and other related motives explain what happened these days in Shkodra and, more generally, all the campaigns of the left-wing extremists against democracy and democratic rule in Albania. The aim is to save Ramiz Alia, Fatos Nano and others who, in their view, have committed crimes, apart from the ones they themselves have committed. THE OBSERVER

Regarding the old slanders and accusations made by “ZP” against the Chairman of the PD, Mr. Eduart Selami, systematically amplified and repeated with the same intensity in “Koha Jone” since 12.1.1994, we clarify once again that: 1. The claim that there is a secret agreement supposedly reached between the Chairman of the PD and the Italian Democratic Party is a lie. The Chairman of the PD has dismissed it as baseless. This slander was raised by Mr. Nano after he was accused by the State Audit of the 9 million dollars in aid. After he answered him, this slander was not repeated by Mr. Nano, even though he declared that he would produce evidence and pursue the matter to the end. It must be said that he produced no evidence to “shed light” on this slander, and it ended with his silence. Although he is very busy with other matters, Mr. Nano is once again very concerned about responding to or assessing evidence and in his statements of thanks to his until-now standard-bearer, who has not rushed, but is

-Albania must not become Palermo — the PD’s historic obligation Made up of a group of people who have tried to create the impression of being an elite and who should in no way be deprived of important posts and jobs, the AD has taken several actions through which it has avoided the indifference it would normally have deserved. And then came this latest misfortune, when people were brought to its meeting in Shkodra. A man died at the age of 27. The hearts of friends, brothers and sisters were wounded; fellow citizens felt sorrow. The AD mourns the violence of that day against citizen Gjovalin Cekini, but it does so by [text breaks off] (Continued on page 4)

TIRANA Regarding the refusal to allow the rally scheduled for 21.1.1994, in reply to letter No. 47, dated 12.1.1994 By not allowing you to hold illegal gatherings, the police are enforcing the requirements of the law on assemblies in public places. The ultimatums and pressure you are putting on Police Commissariat No. 1 and the Ministry of Public Order through the newspaper “Zëri i Popullit” and its subsidiaries remind us once again of the calls to break bones and terrorize citizens, dragging them through your rallies. These are pressures being exerted on the Albanian judicial authorities on the eve of the trial of t. Alia, F. Nano and other senior PP officials. The Ministry of Public Order will allow you to hold gatherings when it has guaranteed that you can do so peacefully and in the appropriate place. The Ministry of Public Order warns that it will hold all those who seek to create anarchy by violating the law, whoever they may be, accountable under the law. MINISTRY OF PUBLIC ORDER

The latest issue of the newspaper “Aleanca Demokratike” says: “Aleanca Demokratike” is shamefully lying when it says that I was at the meeting held on 14 January at the “Migjeni” theatre. In the latest issue of the newspaper “Aleanca Demokratike,” it is stated: “Aleanca Demokratike” is shamefully lying when it says that I was at the meeting held on 14 January at the “Migjeni” theatre. In fact, on 14.1.1994 at 6:00 I entered the meeting hall (Dukagjini) to hold a work meeting. The Shkodra committees came to me at 24:00 that day. I returned to Shkodra at 24:00 that day. CHAIRMAN OF THE PD IN SHKODRA LUDOVIK DEGA