On Friday morning, President of the Republic Sali Berisha attended the ceremony inaugurating Kavajë’s new mosque and the Friday prayer on the first day of Ramadan. In his remarks, President Berisha expressed his pleasure at attending the inauguration of the newly revived mosque in Kavajë, which the dictatorial regime had criminally destroyed years earlier. This inauguration, he said, follows the many inaugurations of churches, mosques, cathedrals and türbes throughout Albania, which serve to revive the faith of Albanians and further strengthen love, respect and understanding among one another. Holy places have never been places of division, and so we raise them with justifiable pride. At this moment of inauguration, we are also fulfilling a duty toward those who died with their faith suppressed. As we pray for ourselves and for them, their souls will rest peacefully in Albanian lands. President Berisha reminded those present that the fateful February of 1967 must not be forgotten, when the dictatorship signed the death warrant for the destruction of the nation’s soul. The dictatorship fell, he continued, while the religious spirit and faith of Albanians continued to grow stronger. In conclusion, President Berisha said that, in congratulating Kavajë’s mosque, he was also extending his wishes to all believers in God in Albania, to Muslim believers on the first day of Ramadan, and wishing everyone joy, harmony and mutual understanding. At the ceremony, speeches were also given by the chairman of the Muslim Community of Albania, Hafiz Sabri Koçi; the city mufti, Muhamed Hoxha; the mayor of Kavajë, Selim Veizi; and the representative of the World Islamic Relief Organization, Sheh Jasin, among others. After the ceremony, President of the Republic Sali Berisha took part in the first Friday prayer at Kavajë’s new mosque. Construction of Kavajë’s new mosque began in February of last year, and more than 120 million dollars were spent on it, as a contribution from the World Islamic Relief Organization, which is headquartered in Tirana. It was designed by engineer-architect Ikuf Sukaj and built by the construction company “Adriatik”. The mosque stands on the same site as the old domed mosque, built in 1735, which was destroyed 27 years ago during the red inquisition’s campaign against religion in Albania. After the old mosque was destroyed—which, in addition to its functional value, had great architectural and museum value—the communist regime built the city’s public baths there, further insulting believers and making the crime even more blatant. The new mosque, larger than the old one, has a capacity of around 500 people. In addition, the World Islamic Relief Organization has promised to make a further investment within 2–3 months to create a garden, build the wall surrounding the mosque and install the colonnaded portico, which was arbitrarily taken to Durrës after the old mosque was destroyed. ATSH

-Meeting of PDSH chairman Mr. Eduard Selami, Ministers Manushi, Halili and Belortaja, and MP Aferdita Zeri with residents of the Berat district- On Friday, PDSH chairman Eduard Selami, accompanied by the Minister of Construction, Housing and Territorial Regulation, Mr. Ilir Manushi; the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Mr. Hasan Halili; the Minister of Industry and Energy, Mr. Selim Belortaja; and MP Aferdita Zeri, met in the morning with farmers from the Kutalli commune and held a discussion in the afternoon with residents of the city of Berat. WITHOUT SUPPORT FOR FARMERS, ALBANIA CANNOT MOVE FORWARD At a meeting held in the village of Drenovice in the Kutalli commune, PDSH chairman Mr. Selami told the villagers that the leaders of the PD and our government officials have now made meeting with people a regular part of their work. We come here to explain the political situation and the progress of the reform, to share one another’s concerns and see what can be done for you as quickly as possible, and how we can make your lives easier. The commune leaders told me that you have harvested a lot of produce and are having difficulty selling it. That is a good thing, Mr. Selami said: you, who as villagers once had nothing to put on the table, now have produce in such abundance that you are looking to sell it as well. This idea was raised at the meeting by Minister Belortaja, in response to the villagers’ concern about difficulties selling agricultural products. Since the old structures have disappeared and he, we must… [text is unclear in the source] opposition concerning the tax that will be imposed on villagers, Mr. Halili informed them that this tax would be very low, and that it had been used in ancient times and is applied in every country in the world. Mr. Halili explained that the draft land-tax law provides for a tax of between 150 and 600 lekë per dynym. The hall applauded the refutation of rumors that livestock would also be taxed. “No, gentlemen,” Minister Halili said, “do not believe malicious gossip! Livestock will not be taxed. Only livestock kept on state pastures will be taxed. If they have been registered, that is simply for the state’s statistical purposes. Not only that, but I think, Mr. Halili said, that where the privatization of land has been delayed, as in the case of some state agricultural enterprises, there is no reason for them to be taxed for 1994. MARKETING CENTERS SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED IN VILLAGES Minister Belortaja raised this idea at the meeting, prompted by the villagers’ concerns disappeared, he said, we need to take care of infrastructure, public services, etc., about which government officials would take note and make recommendations to the relevant ministries. Residents were promised that the drinking-water problem would be solved, provided that the local authorities seriously committed themselves to securing projects and paving the roughly 2 km road. “Financing and construction in the village will also be made possible,” Mr. Halili said, “with the introduction of taxes, since the commune itself will use 60 percent of this amount for public investment.” “Why have the prefectures not started operating?” a villager asked. “That is a valid question,” Mr. Selami said. “The government’s delay is unjustifiable.” BETTER TO MOVE QUICKLY AND MAKE CORRECTIONS ALONG THE WAY THAN TO BE DELAYED WHILE SEARCHING FOR AN IDEAL PATH At the meeting held in the Palace of Culture in the city of Berat, Mr. Selami gave those present an overview of the country’s political stability and the progress of the reform. “No one can deny the achievements of these past two years,” said the PDSH chairman. “Of course, there are things that could be accelerated; there are problems that are held up through the incompetence of local government, but our motto has been and remains: That is why we are accelerating our march toward the full privatization of the economy.”

That is what Mr. Belortaja said when speaking about the prospects opening up for foreign investment in our country. “To say that foreign investors are not coming to Albania,” he said, “is ridiculous, malicious and anti-national. Foreign investors have come and are continuing to come.” After mentioning several foreign companies and numerous requests to invest in our country, he once again emphasized the advantages available to each of them: political stability (no country in Eastern Europe has had a party win with a majority like this one), our country’s abundant resources, the qualifications of its workers and its intellectual potential, a comprehensive legal framework, a package of laws to attract and protect foreign investment, etc. THE FATE OF UNPERMITTED CONSTRUCTIONS: THEY WILL ALL BE DEMOLISHED (!)

TIRANA: During its visit to Bulgaria, a delegation of the People’s Assembly was received by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Zhelio Zhelev. The Chairman of the Presidium, Pjeter Arbnori, expressing his pleasure at the meeting, conveyed to Mr. Zhelev the greetings of the President of the Republic… [source text is garbled] “We welcome his visit to Bulgaria. I am optimistic about the construction of the Durres–Shkup–Sofie–Stamboll road, and Bulgaria will contribute to the realization of this project,” Mr. Zhelev said. He then pointed to several means of economic cooperation, including business development, opening chambers of commerce, construction, and setting up a joint bank, etc. Addressing the issue of tensions in the Balkans, Mr. Zhelev emphasized that we support the non-intervention of neighboring countries in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Intervention by neighboring countries would mean a Balkan war. What is happening in Bosnia, he said, is a disgrace for the Balkans and the international community, which has failed to find the strength and means to put an end to the massacre. Yesterday, our delegation also held talks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ATSH

…share our concerns with one another have such an abundance of produce that you are looking to sell it too. The PDSH chairman then congratulated the residents of Kutalli for the support they had given democracy by voting around 90 percent for the PD, and stressed that the state would continue to support farmers as primary actors in the country’s development. The Minister of Agriculture and Food, Mr. Hasan HALILI, spoke about the prospects opening up for our farmers. “You know,” he told the villagers, “that in 1992 the cost of one hectare was 700 lekë, whereas today it has fallen to 250–300 lekë per hectare. Likewise, during 1992–93 around 5,000 tractors arrived through state and private channels, a figure amounting to 40 percent of the tractors brought in over the previous 45 years.”

WATER SUPPLY, ROAD PAVING, TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS, DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTY, PREFECTURES… PROBLEMS THAT NEED SOLUTIONS the villagers’ concerns disappeared, he said, we need to think about new structures suited to the times. “You,” he told the villagers, “should strengthen your ties with Agroeksport, either now or when it is privatized. That will be easy if you establish a marketing center at the local level. Our ministry has also been working on this,” Belortaja said. He then explained that a market-analysis department had been established in the ministry to study foreign-market supply, demand and prices. The farmers of the Kutalli area asked many questions. They concerned…

our motto has been and remains: full privatization of the economy.” While explaining specific points of the government’s program, Mr. Selami reiterated that the PD supports a social market economy, which means economic benefits for as many Albanians as possible. “That is why,” he said, “we are not changing the land law. Those dissatisfied with this law are in the minority.” Likewise, he said, our commitment to a social market economy is also reflected in the distribution of vouchers, which will be implemented in the first six months of ’94. be implemented in the first six months of ’94.

One of the concerns discussed at length at this meeting was illegal construction. The hills of Berat, said one participant, are filling up with unauthorized buildings. “Unauthorized buildings will be demolished,” said bluntly Ilir Manushi, Minister of Construction, Housing and Territorial Regulation. The district council and the KRT are also responsible for this. “Is it true what the B.B.C. says, that another textile combine will be built behind the Textile Complex in Tirana?” “It is not true,” said Mr. Manushi. A foreign company has asked to build a line for producing garments, but not a textile combine. HOW CAN IT BE EXPLAINED THAT THE PS IS LED BY AN EXTREME LEFT-WING LEADERSHIP? This was one of the questions put to Mr. Selami, who said: “The PS’s Second National Conference also showed that this party has not distanced itself from the past, from the dictatorship and the dictators. It is still led by people who not only held high office in the communist dictatorship, but also bear direct responsibility for crimes against the Albanian people. Their lack of courage to distance themselves from the past is not an expression of wisdom, but of their inability to break the very strong ties they have with every structure and level of the Enverist-communist dictatorship.”

In an article published in an issue of “ZP,” Gramoz Ruçi, the most zealous representative of “democratic” socialism in Albania, assures Albanians that he and his clan know perfectly well how to govern. “As for how we will govern, nobody should worry,” he declares without batting an eyelid, because, as is now well known, Gramoz Ruçi is no novice at governing: he has tried out various posts in turn, from party secretary to Minister of the Interior in the governments of Fatos Nano and Ramiz Alia. So it is clear that this leader has considerable experience in management; he knows how to run the affairs of the state, he knows how to rule. And to that end, he knows how to build partnerships with his associates, of whom there are plenty! At very difficult times, he had an entire ministry under his control—and not just any ministry, but the Ministry of the Interior, the secure and faithful weapon of the Party of Labour, which throughout its rule served with devotion and professionalism, ensuring the Albanian people happy and peaceful lives, without political violence, without prisons, without inhuman torture, without concentration camps, without unlawful executions, without secret killings behind people’s backs, without involvement with foreign intelligence agencies—in short, a fairytale government that the Albanian people can never forget. And this was as much the merit of the PP, of which he was a loyal member and devoted functionary, as it was unquestionably the merit of the state, in which Gramoz served during its most difficult times, not simply as an ordinary functionary, but as its supreme chief—that is, as minister. Does Gramoz Ruçi know how to govern? Who could possibly doubt it? All the more so since he is open to cooperation and has so many associates among his subordinates. Of course Gramoz Ruçi is not lying when he says, “We know how to govern, because we do not know how to lie.” So there is no point in worrying.

-Will the Socialists guarantee the people jobs, security, peace, property, prosperity?!! Although it was heavily promoted at the PS’s Second National Conference and in the “ZP” newspapers as the party of Ramiz and Fatos that had distanced itself from the Enverist past, it is clear that nothing has changed, that everything is pure demagoguery. The PS is the same old thing, the PK or PPSH, not only because it inherited the largest contingent of members and leaders, declared and undeclared assets, and ZP, but also the entire theoretical and practical baggage. The most fundamental and active part of that baggage is hypocrisy and demagoguery, deceit and manipulation. In yesterday’s issue, ZP makes the country and the world burst out laughing and further exposes itself with the sensational declaration that “Albanian socialists guarantee the people jobs, security, peace, property, prosperity?!!” Clearly, the people have no choice but to pour into the streets, climb up and bloody their hands while cheering for the PS, descended from heaven, which will at once secure for the people all the miracles it promised but failed to deliver for 50 years; for Fatos Nano, Servet Pellumbi, Namik Dokle, Gramoz Ruci, who will make real in the blink of an eye what Enver, R.Alia, A.Qarçani, P.Miska, L.Çuko and their other comrades could not accomplish during the nine five-year plans. According to the scribblers at ZP and those who give them their directives, the PS will give the people back everything they had for 50 years and which the PD took away in two years—that is, jobs, security, peace, property, prosperity. Such madness and lies can come only from the Quixotic imagination and the mouths of old and new Albanian Enverists. According to this socialist-style fairy tale, it was the PD that built factories and combines wholly dependent on imported raw materials and that consumed more than they produced; that robbed Albanians of their property and gold throughout the hundred years before 1945; that collectivized and dispossessed them; that invented and introduced ration cards and coupons, the 80-percent system and queues; that impoverished Albanians so much that it turned them into Somalis and Ethiopians on Europe’s knees. Also, according to Servet, Namik, Gramoz and Fatos the Enverists, it was the PD that forced Albanians in July 1990 to storm the high walls and iron fences surrounding foreign embassies in Tirana, to rush into the freezing sea, and when they [text garbled] in March 1991 and [text garbled], in 1991 and afterwards, [text garbled]… According to ZP, which is 52 years old, it was the PD that destroyed Albanians’ security and peace, built the terrible prisons of Spaç and Burrel and the internment camps, turned Albania into a hell and a prison for an entire people, and made Albanians enemies of the whole world and of themselves. The socialist leaders have lost their reason and self-control so completely in their mad pursuit of power that they do not understand that with promises and fairy tales like these, with such naked and repulsive demagoguery, they mock, insult and enrage the people so much that the people will grab them by the collar and throat and tell them: “You have ruined our nerves and lives for 50 years with socialism; the nations have seen through you, and your socialism is all paper and fraud!”