-After the meeting between the strike committee and government officials, the strikers call off the strike- The strike by representatives of several villages flooded by Lake Fierza had been at the center of attention of Albanian public opinion for days. Many interests became entangled in this issue, which, although it had no political orientation whatsoever, was exploited in every way by those interested in stirring up trouble. It was no coincidence that the Socialist Party’s propaganda fanned this problem every day in various ways. At first, supposedly concerned about the problem of the flooded residents, they “protested” and demanded that the government hold a dialogue with the strikers, even though dialogue had already begun. Then, when the strikers also met with the Prime Minister and other government officials, the Socialist Party’s propaganda had nothing left to do but, as always, express its dissatisfaction that this problem too had been resolved through dialogue and had not managed to become a tool for achieving their aims. After the representatives of the flooded villages met with government officials and the Prime Minister, an understanding was reached and the strike was suspended. The chairman of the strike committee, Tahir Trota, told ATSH that the talks had been constructive and that the government, having deemed a large part of the demands justified, had tasked the government committee with resolving them. As they had declared, after being informed and satisfied with the decision, the strikers decided to end the strike, regardless of the dissatisfaction this may have caused some people. The government must now speed up its work procedures so that similar problems are resolved before the “hallxhinj” become prey to the political aims of those who continue trying and seeking by every means to bring back the time of destruction and chaos in Albania.

-Why did R. Alia convene the PPSH plenum on April 1, 1991?- -Did Alia order the shooting on April 2, just as he ordered it on February 20, when Hoxha was toppled?- Ramiz Alia will soon answer before the courts for many of his crimes. The former First Secretary of the PPSH, later turned President of the Socialist Party, will this time appear before the court not as a witness, as he has until now, but as a defendant, accused of genocide against the Albanian people. Many of his crimes have now been proven and will come to trial, but there are still crimes on which Alia’s signature is not visible or has been concealed. One of the gravest and most tragic is that of April 2 in Shkodër. It is difficult to find an Albanian who doubts Alia’s hand in the events of April 2. Even those who continue to defend Hoxha’s right-hand man every day, even today, can hardly be unaware of—or at least fail to imagine—Alia’s role in those events. The elections of March 31, 1991, took place amid extraordinary tension. At every moment, the Democratic Party faced provocations that could lead to dangerous outcomes. Enver’s associations, the military of the Officers’ School, the exodus, threats by day and killings by night. All of this was done under Alia’s seal and could, at any moment, have plunged Albania into a civil war in which the security forces would clash with the people. R. Alia was not actually interested in an all-out civil war, because he knew what the result would be; he only wanted to create a state of tension and fear, to give the impression that red terror could erupt in Albania at any moment against those whom Alia, in “secret” speeches, did not hesitate to call dangerous enemies. Meanwhile, in public Alia presented himself as the figure who alone stood in the way of that terror—which he himself was inciting—breaking out. Alia was afraid, and therefore he equivocated. The result of March 31 encouraged the communists, but they knew that such a result would not go unanswered. Alia then decided to convene the PPSH plenum on April 1. What was said at that plenum? What was decided? What would R. Alia sign and order afterward? In fact, it is not known precisely what was decided there. Nevertheless, one fact is well known: the next day, on April 2, four young men were shot in the back. Some of the perpetrators of this crime have been convicted, but they did not act on their own. It is now known to us from the police officers who were sought. What will he reveal? They did not act on their own. By now, one of the policemen who was being sought has been apprehended. What will he reveal? When the monument to Hoxha was toppled, Alia ordered people to be shot at; what about April 2? EDI PALOKA

The President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, received the Malaysian government delegation headed by the Minister of International Trade and Industry, Ms. Rafidah Azis, who was also accompanied by representatives of the private sector. In his presentation on the progress of reforms in Albania and the results achieved, President Berisha emphasized the potential Albania offers Malaysian investors, especially in textiles, clothing, tourism and construction. Ms. Rafidah Azis expressed her willingness to cooperate closely with the counterpart ministry on institutional improvement, the exchange of experience, export promotion, etc. She also assured President Berisha that she would encourage Malaysian businesspeople to invest in Albania.

-The Hungarian people, with their free vote, elected no extremist parties to parliament—not the fascists, nor those who drag people along and crack skulls.- Excerpts from an interview President Berisha gave to TVSH after his visit to Romania The purpose of this visit was to expand political, economic, cultural and scientific cooperation, and all relations between our two countries, which are undoubtedly friendly countries. During these two days in Romania, we signed a series of agreements, culminating in the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between our two countries, followed by all the other agreements, including those on double taxation, investment promotion and economic and scientific cooperation. Thus, this legal framework, which has been completed and is being completed rapidly, places the relations between our two countries on a new footing and guarantees a secure outlook. Romania is fully committed to contributing to the prevention of conflict in the region and to resolving it through dialogue and peaceful means. During this visit, President Berisha insisted to Romanian President Iliesku and the Romanian government that Romania’s traditional ties with Serbia be used to influence Belgrade to begin an unconditional dialogue with Prishtina in the presence of a third party. Such a dialogue would be very important for reducing tension and beginning a joint resolution of Kosovo’s very complicated problems. Romania is ready to support Albania’s membership in the Council of Europe, just as it is ready to cooperate with Albania within the framework of the Partnership for Peace and other international institutions. At my meeting with the opposition and Mr. Konstantinesku, who was also a friend of ours, we were pleased to note that, in foreign policy, both the government and the opposition share the same positions. I should also say that both sides feel deeply friendly toward Albania and the Albanians, and are interested in close cooperation with our country. My meeting with Hungarian President Gons was brief, but there was great understanding. President Gons said that the Kosovo issue is an extremely delicate problem and that there will be no resolution of the crisis without resolving this Balkan problem. My meeting with the Hungarian President took place one day after the free elections held in that country. Such elections are always a victory for democracy, but I would like to add that, with these elections, the Hungarians taught all the peoples of Eastern Europe several lessons. One great lesson of these elections was that they were held exactly after four years, which means that there was an individual and political determination in Hungary to respect the free vote; lesson of every democracy. Another powerful and very important lesson of the elections in Hungary was the fact that parties to parliament—not the fascists and the fascist wing, nor the extremists who wanted to drag people along and crack skulls—but instead elected those parties they considered capable of further deepening democratic processes and reforms. These lessons are very important for all of us who are on the path to democracy and who undoubtedly have much to learn from one another’s experience.

-We have been and remain anti-communists- -Reç has one vote, and it will give it to the Democratic Party.- -We do not forget the 50 years of dictatorship, when the people of Reç kept body and soul together on a piece of moldy corn bread and a pickled tomato-

Yesterday, the FRPD presidium met at the DP headquarters for its regular meeting. During the meeting, the main issues facing the FRPD and the current political situation were discussed. Particular attention was paid to the local elections to be held in several municipalities in different districts. In this regard, it was decided that the Forum should also play an active role, especially in those areas where people, despite enjoying the results of democracy, continue to cling to old mentalities. The FRPD presidium meeting also reviewed the work done so far to organize FRPD sections, increase membership, carry out activities and improve administrative structures. Another issue discussed at the meeting was finding ways to improve the FRPD newspaper “Barku i djathte” [?] and to define more precisely its basis as a youth and political newspaper. “RD” CORRESPONDENT

Yesterday in the People’s Assembly ENERGETIC MEASURES AND CLEAR VISIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF ALBANIAN RAILWAYS (From the interpellation of the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr. Fatos Bitincka, on rail transport) Yesterday morning, at the request of the PS parliamentary group, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr. Fatos Bitincka, appeared before the People’s Assembly for an interpellation, primarily on the problems of rail transport. After first speaking about some of the current problems of maritime transport, he went on to speak at length about the problems, the attention being paid to them, and the Government’s policy. Describing the difficult state in which this government took over the sector, among other things he emphasized that in April 1992 rail transport was at its lowest point. Passenger trains were in an alarming condition, the carriages completely wrecked and stripped, the telephone system entirely out of operation, with around 215 km of line destroyed; passenger stations were wrecked, without windows or doors, and some of them had been turned into “livestock stables”; there was extensive damage to freight wagons, including 400 wagons belonging to foreign railways, causing economic damage of 230 million lek. Other damage was also caused in various railway sectors, such as the repair workshop departments, etc. The total damage caused during this transition period is estimated at around 700 million lek (at current prices). Under these conditions, passenger transport was completely suspended, while freight transport fell to minimal levels. Faced with this situation, the entire amount of the European Community’s first loan allocated for transport, 2.5 million dollars, was made available to the railway for the purchase of raw materials, supplies and spare parts. Funds from the World Bank’s critical imports loan were allocated for the purchase of communications equipment (around 10 million lek). With these funds, the repair and restoration to service of railway vehicles began, especially passenger carriages, and radios for communication were procured. In addition, as aid, 20,000 used wooden sleepers were obtained to replace the rotten sleepers. These measures, together with the import from Italy of 63 used passenger carriages, in relatively good condition and worth 576 million lire, made it possible to resume passenger transport in June 1992. The number of passengers and revenues in January 1994, compared with the same month in 1992, had increased 5.4 times, with around 12,000 passengers currently being transported per day. In July 1993, major repairs were completed on all passenger and freight station buildings, at a cost of 14 million lek; as mentioned, these had been completely wrecked. With 80 million lek in state-budget funding for the repair of foreign wagons, and in coordination with the railways of several countries, measures were taken to clear around 400 foreign wagons by the end of 1992. They had been wrecked and stripped during the transition, thereby averting economic damage.

— We have been and remain anti-communists — — Reç has one vote, and it will give it to the PD. — We do not forget 50 years of dictatorship, when the people of Reç kept body and soul together on a piece of moldy corn bread and a pickled tomato — — We have been and remain anti-communists — — the PD. — We do not forget bread and a pickled tomato — From Peshkopia to Reç, the road winds along the banks of the Drin, between mountains. A remote area, with poor and scant land, unable to provide a prosperous life, but inhabited since ancient times by a patriotic, brave and noble people. To speak about the people of Reç today, one must first recall their history, which is just as glorious as the history of Dibra and Albania. The Enverist dictatorship did not merely deny the people of Reç their history; it also trampled their human dignity with contempt, taking everything from them: their land, livestock and honor. For 50 years, the people of Reç worked as laborers on their own land for 3 lek a day. “We do not forget,” says a man from Reç, “the 50 years of dictatorship, when they corn bread and a pickled tomato, even though we worked from morning till night. We were not allowed to keep even a goat or a sheep; they would not even let us keep chickens. The land was scarce and poor; everything belonged to the cooperative, the party secretary, the cooperative chairman. So the people of Reç were exploited, given only enough to keep them alive. But, above all, we had no freedom to speak of our troubles or ask for anything more, because the State Security (Sigurimi) would be waiting for you.” The suffering the people of Reç endured for 50 years under communist rule led them to vote for the Democratic Party in all three elections. They found their hope for the future in this party. And the people of Reç say they have not been disappointed, no matter what fairy tales and slanders those from the PS spread. Among many other people from Reç, Riza Toshi from the village of Hurderchec says: “We have made up our minds; only the PD candidate will win here. We have an expression for someone who has died: ‘May your head be sound.’ The PS, as the successor to the PP, is dead to us, so we say to them, ‘May your head be sound.’” During these campaign days for the election of the head of Reç Commune in Dibër, PS deputies such as Ndre Legisi and Halil Lalaj, along with journalist H Jup[e], are also making the rounds. They go from house to house at night with a lantern (they like the illegal methods of agitation and propaganda), rather than in broad daylight. (Continued on page 2)

“ZP” compares De Klerk with R.Alia In its frenzied effort to defend the former members of the Bloc, crime and the red caste, the socialist leadership these days, through its presidium member, Comrade L.Rama, does not hesitate to exploit the day Mandela was sworn in as president of South Africa to defend Ramiz Alia by comparing him with De Klerk. Comparing R.Alia with De Klerk is a grave insult to peace and democracy; it is an open defense of crime, from which the socialist leadership is apparently unable to break free because of its involvement in this vortex. The comparison between De Klerk and R.Alia is an insult to the feelings of patriots, democrats and the entire exhausted Albanian people. To make this comparison without any sense of responsibility means, at the very least, to cynically trample on the blood of all those who were barbarously killed and dragged along Albania’s border strips, or in Albanian towns and villages, in 1990–91 on R.Alia’s orders. Only a blinded logic serving to defend Enver—or, as the people openly called him during the fiery days when the dictatorship was overthrown, Hitler—to defend Nexhmije—or, as our people have described her, the black panther or Lady Macbeth—to defend an ordinary thief linked to the Mafia and a murderer such as Fatos Nano, or R.Alia, otherwise known among the people as Tano Karidi, could descend to such absurd comparisons as the one between De Klerk and R.Alia. With this short observation, “ZP” once again demonstrates that it is capable of defending the figures of crime in Albania not only with the most unreal fabrications, but also by smearing Nobel laureates, as it is effectively doing by comparing Mr. De Klerk with R.Alia. “Zëri i popullit,” however, is doing nothing but continuing along this path and once again advertising itself as “Zëri i krimit.” THE OBSERVER

Yesterday, under the dictatorship, he felt like the freest man in the world; today, in a democracy, he does not feel free or safe. His message: let freedom under dictatorship return once again After promoting himself for some time as a repentant man, distanced from his own past and that of his beloved party, and after standing on the sidelines at the beginning of democracy, Guro Zeneli has now become his former self again. Thanks to democracy’s natural tolerance, his lost courage, never tested in the many bloody battles of class warfare alongside R.Alia and his other comrades-in-ideals, apparently seems to have awakened again. For some time now he has been sharpening his rusty sword and wreaking havoc on the battlefield—in the pages of “ZP”—whose terrain and nature he may know better than those of his birthplace. If in his previous articles published in “ZP” he took care to be more restrained and refined, so as not to show himself as he really is: a faithful son of the party that gave him everything, nostalgic for the dictatorship and Enverist or Ramizian-style socialism, then with the article published on May 12, in the 12th issue of “ZP,” he is fully exposed, or has fully declared himself.