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. Four years ago, in the last week of February, in Tirana and throughout Albania, the most powerful nationwide anti-communist revolt in the history of the Albanians erupted. Albanian democrats in Tirana, Durrës, Shkodër, Kavajë, Vlorë, Korçë, Gjirokastër, Elbasan and throughout Albania, in a massive and powerful movement, amid volleys of gunfire, tanks, terror and outright violence, surged forward and toppled the symbols of the dictatorship, the busts of Enver Hoxha—the Albanian Pol Pot—and his clique, thereby expressing their profound revolt against his criminal deeds, his prisons and concentration camps, genocide, collectivization, isolation and the devastation of the country. In those days of February, facing the revolutionary Albanian democrats stood the cruel machinery of the dictatorship. To crush the revolt, Ramiz Alia summoned H.Lleshi, F.Nano, G.Ruçi and N.Dokle around him and raised them to power, with whom he organized and proclaimed the scenarios of coups and fratricidal war. The specter of dictatorship, carried by red-hooded figures such as S.Gjodedi, Milloshi, etc., sowed death, terror and violence in Albania’s cities and villages. The aim was sinister: fratricidal civil war to preserve their power. [text continues, cut off at the bottom of the image] The red pashas organized attacks, slander, insults and provocations against Albanian democracy, the institutions of the rule of law and the constitutional order. Those who killed and massacred yesterday are denouncing Albania and its democracy today. The Albanian justice system continues to remain silent in the face of their horrifying crimes. We consider this indifference and silence unacceptable. Their justice, February 25, 1995

PROF.DR.JA.FROWEIN Honorary professor at several universities in Germany, France and the USA In order to write a short memorandum for the President of the Republic, Dr.Sali Berisha, concerning the issues surrounding the proposed referendum for the adoption of the Constitution of Albania, I have at my disposal the Draft Constitution, as well as the constitutional laws of the Republic of Albania. 1. Referendum as a procedure for adopting the Constitution It is a direct consequence of modern constitutional theory, based on the principle of democracy, that the adoption of a constitution by the people through a referendum is regarded as a normal procedure for adopting a constitution. The famous French principle, proclaimed on September 21, 1792, was based on that theory. The National Convention declared: “Who would not want such a constitution as the one adopted by the people”. Several democratic constitutions in Eastern European countries after 1989 were adopted by referendum. These include those of Romania (1991), Lithuania (1992) and Russia (1993). On the same day as Spain’s 1978 Constitution, a referendum also adopted the constitution of a German Land—that of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Thuringia. Another possibility is the adoption of the constitution by a specially elected assembly or constitutional convention. This was the case with the Weimar Constitution in Germany, for which a competent constituent assembly was elected with specific powers to adopt the constitution. The same procedure was also used in Portugal in 1976. The German Constitution of 1949 (Grundgesetz) was not adopted by referendum, mainly because of the fear at that time that a referendum, which could have been held only in the western part of Germany, might contribute to the division of the country. This was the reason it was regarded as a limitation on the adoption of constitutions by referendum in the Federal Republic of Germany. This highly exceptional procedure can be explained only by the circumstances prevailing in Germany under Allied authority. It is also possible for an ordinary legislature to adopt a constitution, often by a qualified majority. This is the procedure adopted in some new countries, for example in the Czech Republic. However, this procedure creates difficulties if the legislature does not have a special mandate to adopt the constitution, since a parliament normally cannot bind its successor. It can safely be said that adoption of the constitution by the people through a referendum is a procedure that closely accords with the idea that the constitution is the fundamental norm on which a legal system rests. This norm must be a direct expression of the sovereign will of the people. 2. Rules relating to constitutional amendments The common procedure for constitutional amendments in many countries is that they require the people’s approval through a referendum. This rule exists in some countries as the sole procedure for changing the constitution (Switzerland); in other countries it is one of the possible amendment procedures, while in others it also exists (as in France and Italy). In some countries (such as Germany, in Bavaria), a referendum is required for a constitutional amendment. Therefore, the system to be introduced by Article 130 of Albania’s new Constitution, according to which every amendment requires a referendum after two-thirds of the members of parliament have approved it, is fully consistent with constitutional traditions in Europe. 3. Transition from Albania’s constitutional laws to the new Constitution The adoption of the Constitution by referendum in Albania can also be analyzed as consistent with the constitutional provisions currently in force. Article 16 of the constitutional provisions states that the People’s Assembly may adopt and amend the constitution. It may also decide by referendum (Article 16, Nos. 2 and 7). Article 16 is fully respected when the People’s Assembly decides to adopt the Constitution and hold a referendum. Article 44 of the final provisions stipulates that the provisions of this law remain in force until the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania, whose draft is to be prepared by the special commission appointed by the People’s Assembly. The special commission has prepared the Draft Constitution, which will now be put to a referendum. Article 43 of the final provisions states that amendments to the constitutional law are made by the People’s Assembly by a majority of two-thirds of all deputies. The question could be raised as to whether this rule requires the decision to put the new Constitution to a referendum to also be approved by two-thirds of the deputies. The new Constitution cannot be viewed as an amendment to the constitutional laws that have existed until now. This is clear from the wording of Articles 43 and 44 of the final provisions. The fact that Article 44 of the final provisions, which concerns the adoption of the new Constitution, follows Article 43 shows that Article 43 has nothing whatsoever to do with the adoption of the new Constitution. Such a conclusion is consistent with the Constitution being the highest legal norm in the country and prevailing over all other laws. This is expressed in Article 128 of the new Constitution. (Continued on page 2)

In recent days, the mass media have launched a frontal, disparaging and malicious attack against the Ministry of Defense and its head. Added to this are publications purporting to translate from a Bulgarian newspaper, interpretations, conjectures and fanciful slanders concerning the alleged involvement of the Ministry of Defense, its head, and even senior state officials in the military sphere, in the direction of Serbia, through the shipment from Albania of weapons to Bulgaria. I am authorized to declare: 1. The Ministry of Defense of Albania has never submitted to the Ministry of Defense of Bulgaria a request to purchase weapons of any kind. 2. No official of the Ministry of Defense has made a request or signed any contract or document of any kind with the Ministry of Defense of Bulgaria. 3. Regarding a person who has been implicated (we do not know to what extent), we inform you that he was dismissed from his position as director of the enterprise as of August ’93. During the period referred to in the press, he was not listed as an employee of the enterprise. The Ministry of Defense cannot answer for the intentions of unauthorized persons. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Defense duly filed reports with the justice authorities. 4. The Ministry of Defense has officially informed the Ministry of Defense of Bulgaria of the truth—that the institution and the Albanian state were not involved in this matter. Meanwhile, it has done everything possible to help the Bulgarian side clarify this matter. 5. In conclusion, nothing implicates the Ministry of Defense or the Albanian state in this matter. The authors of such articles must be held responsible for misinformation and slander against institutions, relying only on hearsay, conjecture and the fantasies of certain journalists, without obtaining official confirmation from the ministry. Spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense

Yesterday, one of the anonymous writers of ”ZP” in an article about the year of tolerance proclaimed by the UN attacked, in a completely unscrupulous manner, the decree of the President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, removing the decorations from the criminals Hoxha, Leshi, etc., calling it medieval. article about the year of tolerance proclaimed by the UN attacked, in a completely unscrupulous manner, the decree of the President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, removing the decorations from the criminals Hoxha, Leshi, etc., calling it medieval. This article, which follows Mr Pellumbi’s shameful statements in the Albanian Parliament, once again demonstrates the Enverism deep in the bones of the current Albanian socialist leadership, which takes the removal of the decorations of the Albanian Pol Pot and his clique as a test of intolerance. I believe the Albanian Leshi needs no comment; I would only say to you that you are the medieval ones, red-hooded figures who, after murdering and persecuting an entire people, transform yourselves with criminal cold-bloodedness into “professors” of democracy and defenders of genocide.

Tribute to the martyrs of the February massacre RUDOLF MARKU 1. In totalitarian states, Terror reigned and Hypocrisy reigned; this fact, as tragic as it is shocking, was unfortunately put into practice in dictatorial Albania without the slightest deviation, indeed with mathematical precision, down to the last detail... It is February 1991. Three months earlier, in Romania, Nikola Ceaushesku and Elena, whom many journalists would call the most faithful incarnation of the Macbethian couple, had ordered that the crowds be fired upon—women, children and students—believing that violence and terror would thus produce a result of love for the monstrous dictator... As is known, the end of the Romanian communist emperor and of the first lady chemist (glorified by official propaganda as Europe’s most distinguished female scientist, at a time when twenty of her relatives whispered that she could not even remember the formula for water) was an execution in a banal laboratory engaged in agricultural experiments, as if wishing to satisfy, for the last time, the desires of the Ceaushesku couple—the love of Comrade Nikolaos for the couple and the adoration of Comrade Elena for laboratories. Afterward, the bodies were thrown into an unmarked pit... The senior Balkan leaders were bloodied and arrested for genocide and corruption; in Poland, Solidarinoa and Walesa had shaken the solid foundations of the military regime; in East Germany the miracle of the fall of the Berlin Wall had taken place, the European evil that had treated people as the greatest shame ever inflicted on the German nation. The fall of the Berlin Wall had by then been declared the most eloquent metaphor for the collapse of totalitarian systems, the collapse of all those obstacles erected by the malignant bricklayers of communism to separate Man from Man, East from West, one half of humanity from the other half of humanity... Albania, the country with the harshest dictatorship in Europe and the longest-lasting dictatorship in the world, the country where Stalin’s statue still desecrated the name of the Boulevard of the Martyrs of the Nation, the country where senior party and state leaders discussed at congresses and on TV whether a farmer should be allowed five chickens or two goats or one cow, was considered just as miserable for the Albanian as the arena bull was for the Spanish bullfighters)—Albania seemed backward and dismal, and demonstrated that it remained the most oppressed country, with the harshest dictatorship and the most brutal communism, with apocalyptic scenes in a country that was neither in Africa nor Bangladesh, but in southern Europe, bordering Italy and Greece. Le Monde newspaper had called the miserable faces of Albanians hallucinatory, while their expression constituted a shameful accusation against communism. Photographs of ships carrying Albanian refugees were not only being published on the covers of prestigious and authoritative magazines, but had also begun to be displayed in museums (for example, the Museum of History in Copenhagen). A whole world had suddenly discovered the political system, distorted and marked by apocalyptic images in a country, and the images of Comrade Nikolaos bodies were thrown into an unmarked pit... (Continued on page 2)

“Trends toward restoration of the old system are apparent” Sofia: Bulgarian President Zhelio Zhelev declared in Sofia, in the presence of Bulgarian filmmakers, that the country was threatened by a “return” of the cultural values of the Communist era. The president’s statement, by a former dissident, is directed against the Socialist Party (former Communist), which won the necessary majority in the parliamentary elections in December. “Trends toward restoration are apparent. This is about undermining the spiritual freedoms won by the people after the collapse of the Communist regime in 1989.” “The intelligentsia once again has to fight to defend its civil and political rights and, first and foremost, its creative right,” he declared. President Zhelev also declared that “there is censorship” on Bulgarian national television. He criticized the television service for having “censored” his statement made after his return from the United States last week, and refused to be filmed by a television crew.

Sofo Lazri, Pipi Mitrojorxhi, Hamdi Sallaku, etc. return to “ZP” under their old pseudonyms Servet’s call has been answered by the rusty pens of “ZP”, to defend Enver and the genocide inflicted on the Albanian people by the dictatorial regime. Such repulsive names as Sofokli Lazri, Pipi Mitrojorxhi, Hamdi Sallaku and others have returned to their newspaper. The old vultures of crime have emerged from their lair to once again become editors of the Party’s newspaper. Perhaps nostalgia has made them less “careful”, and they have started writing again under the pseudonyms they used back when they attacked imperialism or the agent and enemy groups in the Party. Their return is yet another confirmation of the fact that when you want to take Albania forward, the PS [Socialist Party]... This once again shows where the “renewed” leaders of the PS come from and where they are headed. E.P.

Where they come from and where they are headed THE PS’S PROGRESS

Yesterday, one of the anonymous writers of “ZP” in an article [text cut off]