Yesterday in the People’s Assembly NDREKE GJINI Yesterday, the People’s Assembly continued its work in a plenary session, considering and approving four draft laws. At the beginning of yesterday’s session, Parliament considered and approved the draft law “On an addition to Law No. 7698, dated 15.4.1993, ‘On the restitution and compensation of property to former owners,’” which, based on the main constitutional provisions, was submitted for consideration and approval at the proposal of a group of deputies. The first to speak about this draft law was Tonin Alimehlli, Chair of the Parliamentary Agriculture Committee, who discussed the importance of this amendment to the existing law Deputies Bufi, Strazimiri, Kalakula, and others then spoke about the draft law. Following the discussion, it was put to a vote and approved by an absolute majority, both in principle and article by article, as a whole. Yesterday’s plenary session continued with the consideration and approval of the draft law “On an addition to Law No. 7504, dated 30.7.1991, ‘On the Public Order Police.’” In the discussion of this draft law, it was emphasized that this addition to the “On the Public Order Police” law was prompted by the Ministry of Public Order’s need for officer personnel as a result of police reform, as well as by the need to rehabilitate the category of people who had served administrative sentences and sentences for political reasons. Approval of this law gives the competent authorities the right to appoint officers even without higher education, in addition to those who were convicted, interned, or deported for political reasons. However, the law stipulates that such individuals may be appointed officers only if they have officially obtained the status of former political prisoner and persecuted person. (Continued on page 2)

Following a phone call to the newsroom An angry voice called the newsroom at around 14:00 and, without giving their name, said that the news published yesterday in “RD,” announcing that payments to former political prisoners were beginning, was not true. A little later, the gentleman explained that at the location where the former political prisoners had gathered, employees of the Savings Bank had told them that payments would begin on Monday. The employees at that location told the former political prisoners who had gathered in response to the announcement that, although the lists had not arrived from the Committee of Former Political Prisoners, they could not pay them. The bank employee added that the lists would arrive on 2 December (that is, today), and distribution would begin. Thus, the Committee of Former Political Prisoners says the lists have been sent, while employees at the Savings Bank location say the opposite. We were unable to contact Mr. Florian Minga, who could have clarified this confusion. Nevertheless, according to confirmations from both the Budget Director at the Committee of Former Political Prisoners and the Savings Bank employee, payments should begin today. “The first installment of compensation has been deposited at the Savings Bank. The complete lists have been prepared, both for those who were executed and for prisoners, and have been delivered to the Savings Bank. Payments have begun in the districts, while in Tirana a kiosk has been designated near ‘Selman Stërmasi’ Stadium; payments will be made there. They should have begun today in Tirana too. The lists for Tirana have also been prepared and the necessary arrangements have been made. To find out why payment was not made today, speak with Mr. Florian Minga at the Savings Bank. In any case, compensation will definitely begin tomorrow, and it will be paid in full and immediately.” At 14:15 we tried to reach Mr. Minga by telephone, but nobody answered the phones at the Savings Bank. An “RD” journalist went to the designated payment location near “Selman Stermasi” Stadium. At 14:30, the employees assigned to make the payments were not there, but another employee at this Savings Bank location told our journalist that the branch had opened in the morning. The employees at this payments should begin today.

—At 16:00, a press conference at the Palace of Congresses— arrives in Albania. Its members include the political secretary, On. Mario Valducci, the head of Foreign Relations, On. Alessandro Meluzzi, and others. In addition to meetings with Democratic Party leaders, including Chairman Eduard Selami, the delegation will also meet members of the government and the President of the Republic, Sali Berisha. At 16:00, the PDSH Secretary-General, Mr. Tritan Shehu, together with representatives of the delegation, will be available to journalists at a press conference at the Palace of Congresses in Tirana.

A bilateral agreement between the Albanian and Italian police forces is to be signed in Tirana by the end of this year by Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and his Albanian counterpart, Agron Musaraj. Having noted that the existing agreement between the police forces of the two countries does not meet the current level of Albanian-Italian relations or address the issues concerning both countries in this field, the Albanian minister held meetings with members of the government as well as with at the Palace of Congresses in Tirana. The Director General of the Italian Police expressed full readiness to respond to Minister Musaraj’s request, following his invitation to his Italian counterpart to come to Tirana. During the days of the International Conference on the Fight Against

SAMI MILLOSHI What crisis are you talking about, gentlemen who lead the PS? You keep repeating the word, but it exists more in your heads than in political reality. These are precisely the things the PS politician must not forget. Pellumbukur, supposedly concerned about the fate of democracy, and, as he says, “to create a favorable climate for consensus,” claims that it is necessary to recognize RAD and PPD as new political parties. The PS leaders say this as if Albania were going nowhere, or—as the belated romantic puts it—as if Albanians had not voted for the Constitution because it was supposedly a Constitution of the Democrats. It is precisely these distorted politicizations of the Constitution that the PS…

“All the parties are knocking at PAD’s door.” MENSOR SHEHU Immediately after the results of the referendum on the draft constitution were announced, the 53% became prey to 17 opposition parties. Each of them is claiming its share. In this struggle over the biggest piece, the PS, PSD, PD, PAD and PBDNJ are making the greatest claims. For its part, the PS is not giving way; it merely claims that it made the greatest contribution, and that it also has the majority of the electorate in Namik Dokle. We do not know whether Mr. Dokle would really accept that the PAD is wiser than the PS. Neritan Ceka, as a “great politician,” when asked why all these knocks, replies: “This knocking is a good sign and should warm things up, because politics is returning to where it belongs”—that is, according to Ceka, to the Alliance. Their bluff is exposed when they answer that so far only the PSD has crossed the PAD’s threshold, and that they are soon expecting the PBDNJ to come knocking.

THANK YOU FOR THE COALITION, TAKE THE SHARE THAT IS YOURS...! 90 percent of the NO vote. PDD’s claim is that its electorate was predominant in producing the NO vote. But in this situation PSD and PAD are making the same claims. Ceka himself got tangled up in the assessment of his leaders, and the whole thing shows how much importance he gives himself—not only for the contribution he made to the NO vote on the Constitution, but mainly for its political power as the promoter and leader of the opposition. The battle in Parliament, this arrogant mindset of PAD’s leaders, has gone so far that they declare that parties are knocking at the Alliance’s door, where, according to them, 17 opposition parties are coming together to find a political solution with them as its promoter. Both PAD leaders declare that their party is characterized by its ideas (Ceka), while Perineta Toto says that the Alliance has sound ideas and greater intelligence. And when “Dita” asks them what new idea their party offers, they answer: elections—only early elections. What kind of new idea is this? Anyone who reads all the issues of “ZP” will see that ever since 22 March 1992, it is rare to find an issue of the newspaper that does not call for new elections. Who owns the authorship of this “new” idea, the PS or the PAD? The Alliance’s claim is illogical; it makes you understand that the Alliance is drinking from the fountain of the PS’s ideas, and of all those who want political crises in Albania in order to settle scores. Caricature with the number “90” and a person embracing it; speech bubble: “THANK YOU FOR THE COALITION, TAKE THE SHARE THAT IS YOURS...!”

It seems that the requests made by the War Invalids to the country’s authorities and senior figures have also been resolved. A statute for War Invalids is being prepared and will soon be presented to Parliament. This shows that Parliament has properly understood our efforts and ideals, Mr. Arbnori was told yesterday by Mr. Tase Çori, deputy chairman of the War Invalids’ Association, and Mr. Skender Malindi, a member of its governing council, at a meeting held at Parliament’s headquarters. As a further expression of respect, they presented Arbnori with the Association’s badge, Honorary Membership and their memoir, “Wounds That Speak.” For his part, Arbnori said that Parliament considers it an honor to do as much as possible for Albania’s War Invalids.

A complaint from the city of Fier concerning the privatization of a one-bedroom apartment has also come to the attention of the State Audit Service. Its investigation found that, although the matter was in judicial proceedings, the Municipal Council had decided to allocate the apartment to another citizen. According to the State Audit Service, the head of the Municipality’s Office, Mr. Edmond Gjoleka, acted in violation of Law No. 7652, dated 23.12.1992, “On the privatization of state-owned housing,” Article 5/2, and the relevant decision of the Council of Ministers. Meanwhile, the Municipal Council remained indifferent to the matter in question. The State Audit Service has requested that disciplinary action be taken against the Mayor of Fier: a “Warning Reprimand.”

EDI PALOKA At the conference held by the Tirana PS, the PS deputy chairman S. Pellumbi, currently the party’s number two, also delivered a lengthy speech. His speech raises several issues that never become truly clear, because they are deliberately confused. WHO ARE THE PROVOCATEURS? Pellumbi calls those who say that after 6 November the PS has been asleep “provocateurs.” In fact, those who put forward this thesis were the political journalists at “KJ”; therefore, regardless of these political journalists’ outlook, Pellumbi should be convinced that they did not mean the PS any harm. On the contrary, their only great desire, stemming from their independent-minded partisanship, is to see the PS go from victory to victory. The problem with these journalists is that they actually do believe it and take the PS leaders’ statements at face value—that 6 November was a victory for the PS. WHO DID 53 PERCENT OF VOTERS SAY “NO” TO? Connecting this to the previous point about clarifying what confused the PS leaders—that is, whom 53 percent of voters said “no” to, and whom they said “yes” to—the only problem is that the PS leaders themselves are not clear about it either. Thus, at first they declared that everyone who voted against the draft Constitution had voted for the PS. Later Dokle narrowed it down even further and concluded that 1 million 200 thousand people had voted for Nano. Meanwhile, in the course of his speech, S. Pellumbi says three contradictory things. First he says: “The ‘no’ vote of 6 November was more a protest vote against the country’s governance than against the draft Constitution.” A little further down, speaking about the people, he says: “They rejected a bad constitution.” And from Pellumbi’s own speech, “ZP” draws the conclusion that: “The no vote was a protest against (To be continued on page 2)

SAMI MILLOSHI lead the PS? You keep repeating this word, but it exists more in your anxious heads than in Albanian political reality, where the desire to get a seat is what matters. For a crisis to arise, as you know very well, certain conditions must be met—for example, conditions that prevent Parliament from functioning. But Parliament is functioning, and we see you on television every day. For there to be a parliamentary crisis, Parliament would actually have to have reached the end of its life, but none of you has the courage to test that politically, except through propaganda blackmail and the jargon of Enver’s nostalgics. It is another matter that many MPs who won votes only because they stood as PD candidates have now taken a different position and presented different political programs in the parties they have formed. If they had had civic courage, they should have resigned as MPs; then they could have formed those parties and competed for seats in Parliament. But they did not have that courage because they calculated that they might lose a lot by doing so. Now they have taken up a comfortable opposition position and find it easier to boast that they have “new ideas.” In short, they won their seats in Parliament in the name of the PD, but they also insult the PD and supposedly plead for democracy. These are precisely the things that the PS politician must not forget. Pellumbi, says, wanting is necessary to recognize PAD and PDD as parliamentary parties. What Pellumbi says is nothing more than political myopia. He knows very well, but does not like to admit, that the two MPs who formed the PDD are among his most staunch political opponents, and Mr. Pellumbi vainly tries to throw Pellumbi a “bone.” Yet this kind of treatment, or political group, that Pellumbi… [text unclear] So where is the crisis? The crisis is nowhere. The draft Constitution was not approved. Fine, but another political initiative for approving the Constitution has been put on the table. So let us approve it—or, more precisely, prepare a better draft for the people to approve. This may be the motive of an honest politics that seeks consensus and genuinely leads toward it. However, we must not forget that Albania already has a package of constitutional laws, and no one has the moral right to go around saying, as PS MPs do, that all Albania is supposedly going nowhere, or, as the belated romantic says, that Albanians did not vote the Democrats. It is precisely these politicizations of the failure to approve the Constitution that the PS and certain other forces are trying to exploit to amplify the so-called crisis. Gentlemen who amplify the crisis, Parliament has a majority that supports the government. It is another matter whether the government’s composition could and should be more efficient. But that does not mean you should cloud people’s minds with your claims that you alone embody the crisis. So, gentlemen of the PS, to be realistic about the parliament you voted for, you should not forget that you received a minimal percentage of the votes, and very few of you were elected directly by the people. So on what grounds do you seek to impose yourselves on the majority? You should also not forget that it is this same majority that is inviting you to reach a consensus on the adoption of a new Constitution. But apparently you are not interested, because your concern is neither the Constitution, nor the fate of democracy, nor Albania’s entry into the Council of Europe; your concern is your seats. Life goes on, gentlemen who amplify the crisis. It shows that the crisis exists mostly in your heads.

“This is a political trial,” the former PS secretary declared, after Italian judges accused him of corruption. Later, taking advantage of the “tolerance” of the justice system, Craxi managed to leave Italy, thus escaping the sentence the court had handed down against him. After the blow dealt by Craxi’s conviction, the PS was forced to disband, and Craxi’s successor, Del Turko, declared that (To be continued on page 2)

PDSH Deputy Chairman Mr. Engjell Hysenbegasi and Presidium member Flutura Hasko held a meeting with representatives of the PRD, including its chairman, Tahir Shahu. Mr. Hysenbegasi emphasized the goodwill PD has toward expanding alliances and, in this context, also discussed the beginnings of talks with extra-parliamentary parties. Mr. Shahu emphasized the support his party gives to the PDSH position on major issues such as the constitution and its approval through the institution of direct democracy—the referendum. He emphasized that this position would remain the same in the future. Mr. Hysenbegasi asked to learn more about the program of the Republican Right Party and expressed the wish that such contacts continue in the future as well. PD Spokesperson SOKOL BALLA

How did the eye escape