Yesterday at the 2nd National Congress of the LDGSH

Speech by the Chairwoman of the LDGSH, Mrs. Flutura Hasko Dear delegates, Dear Mr. President, Dear ladies and gentlemen, invited guests, In the spring of 1993, in this very hall, democratic women organized the First National Congress of the L.D.G.SH. Some of them are present today as well. - Do you remember, esteemed ladies, what we were like then? We had just come out of the communist hell, we had just begun to take our first steps toward democracy. We had won freedom, but we still had no confidence in ourselves and did not believe it, especially in one another’s eyes; we held back our tears. In the same hall, with the same Congress, the democratic intellectuals with the former persecuted workers and the honest women and the students and the director, women and girls with the desire to (Continues on page 4)

- The President of the Republic, Mr. Sali Berisha, and senior representatives of the Government and the PD take part - Mrs. Flutura Hasko is re-elected Chairwoman of the LDGSH CHRONICLE The second congress of democratic women, which in Albanian life means the largest gathering of women in recent years, held its proceedings yesterday in the premises of the Opera and Ballet Theater. The LDGSH, the most organized forum of the fairer sex and the broadest group operating today in Albania after its structuring, saw in late spring and early summer of this year a renewed gathering in this congress in order to advance, through the development of projects and new solutions, the life of women in all political, economic and social spheres. Mrs. Nermin Basha, chairwoman of the LDGSH for Tirana, who chaired the morning session, opened the congress by thanking the President of the Republic, Mr. Sali Berisha, and other personalities, the guests for their presence in the hall. The president of the LDGSH, Mrs. Flutura Hasko, presented the report on the League’s activity since the first congress. After summing up what had been achieved, and which can fully be called successes of the LDGSH, she outlined in detail the work this organization had done for the deep and complete emancipation of women, the support that had been given to them so as to reveal their personality and intellectual abilities, as well as the contribution that democratic women had made to the realization of the PD’s contract with the electorate. She assured that the LDGSH would support democracy and vote for it. The position of women throughout the history of our country makes women today feel proud, but for them to display their spiritual potential and professionalism as effectively as possible, more work and support were needed. It was precisely this support that could be found in President Berisha’s proposals, which were made known in his greeting speech to the Congress. Within 1996, 25 percent of the administration proposed by the PD would be made up of women and girls. At the same time, the rise of (Continues on page 4)

Speech by the President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, delivered at the 2nd National Congress of the LDGSH Therefore, from this Congress I have the pleasure of proposing the following to the Democratic Party: 1. Within 1996, 25% of the leading positions in the state administration, central and local, among those elected, proposed and appointed by the Democratic Party, shall be held by women and girls, and this ratio shall continue to improve progressively. 2. In order to increase the role of women in the country’s economic development, their free initiative shall be encouraged and favored, and special credit lines with interest and special facilities shall be created for women. I am convinced that with all their inherited abilities they will demonstrate their talent in creating and running small and medium-sized businesses. 3. In order to make life easier for young girls and mothers, long-term credit lines will be created for young couples. 4. The Democratic Party will announce a series of special measures for the care of mothers and women who are heads of household and those with many children. 5. The program will be completed with a series of other measures in accordance with the proposals that will be made by this Forum as well as by women and girls throughout Albania. Dear Ladies and Misses, Delegates of the 2nd National Congress of the LDGSH It is a great honor and a special privilege for me to greet today the 2nd Congress of Albanian democratic women and girls and to thank them with deep gratitude for their extremely valuable contribution that they have given and are giving in building a society based on the most human values, the highest achievements of human beings and modern civilization. Your congress is an important event not only in the life of women, but in the whole of Albanian society. You come to this Congress freer, prouder, more worthy, more capable than ever before. In our old and new history no one can deny that the role of the Albanian mother and woman has been decisive for national survival. It was she, and above all she, who with care protected and passed on to children from generation to generation the finest traits and virtues of the individual, among them courage, hospitality, love, endurance — virtues that defined our national existence. Albanian mothers, women and sisters throughout history, in all fields and in the great horizons of freedom and progress, stood alongside men, with you and their brothers. They led hospitals, defended castles and won battles with their inexhaustible love for people and the universe of their spirit. The work of Teuta and Mamica, Elena Gjika and the Qiriazi sisters, Shote Galica and Margarita Tutulani, but above all the work of Mother Teresa, are our true national heritage and pride. But I believe that in the 1990s of this century the role of women and girls in the fate and development of Albania experienced a powerful rise in our national horizon. In these few years Albanian women and girls made a fundamental contribution to the overthrow of the dictatorship and to the building of democracy. During the communist dictatorship, hundreds and thousands of women and girls suffered persecution, prison, camps, class warfare, tears, separation and divorce for political reasons, while others were altogether confined early into the ranks of unemployment, third shifts, prolonged and extremely exhausting work on farms and agricultural cooperatives, and experienced the humiliation and debasement of their clothing and their physical appearance. The dictatorship proudly proclaimed women to be a productive force of society, while the country’s leadership had been usurped by a clique of criminals and ignoramuses. Therefore the women and girls of Albania rose together with their men, sons and brothers, and through a powerful nationwide anti-communist movement overthrew the cruelest dictatorship our nation had known in its thousand-year history. Together with their men, brothers and sons, they stormed the Berlin Walls in Tirana, the barbed-wire fences and stakes on the borders, joined hunger strikes and led demonstrations, and sacrificed their children for (Continues on page 2)

Greeting of the Secretary General of the PDSh, Prof. Dr. Tritan Shehu, addressed to the 2nd Congress of the LDGSH Dear Mr. President! Madam Chairwoman! Dear delegates! The progress of the work of the democratic women’s congress undoubtedly represents a moment of special importance, not only for you, but also for the entire life of the PD and for political developments in Albania. It constitutes an event that will contribute to strengthening democracy, strengthening the PD to (Continues on page 3)

Meeting of the National Council of the PDSh On Monday, 9/10/1995 at 11:00 a.m., a regular meeting of the National Council will be held at the Palace of Congresses, Tirana, on the topic: “Aspects of the organizational and structural work of the PD at the current stage of the reform process.” Invited are PD deputies, members of the Government, the secretaries of the branches of the PD, the chairpersons of the branches of the RPD and LDG, the chairpersons of the municipalities and district councils, of the PD, etc. The Presidium of the PDSh

Top secret Minutes of the Political Bureau meeting of the Central Committee of the PPSH on 8 October 1982 E. Hoxha: “You leave having known, as the Party said” P. Miska: “... you wanted to take the entire state archive to the Soviet Union” ISAI: “... it is the report of Liri Gega... who said that Mehmet Shehu is an agent of Beria” Hazbiu: “A slogan like that, that this one or that one is an agent, and there has been one” Enver Hoxha: Move on to the next question Hoxha: Did I call you to Dajt, or did you come on your own, on your own initiative? Hoxha: When did I tell you “turn off the tap”... PAGE 5