6 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall EDI PALOKA Six years have passed since the final collapse of the communist walls in Europe. On 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, the wall that divided two completely opposite worlds: communism from the free world. 9 November 1989 was the day that liberated millions across half of Europe. Today the world remembers with respect people such as former US President George Bush or German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who, through their political wisdom and foresight, brought the long struggle between the two worlds to a conclusion and the free world prevailed over communism. Many today recall people who cried on the Wall of division, people who struck with rage at that bloodstained symbol in the first days of Chancellor Kohl, who finally “demolished” the Brandenburg Gate on 3 October 1990; six years ago the collapse of communism began. In Germany, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, the rotten system was brought down by the peaceful uprising of hundreds of thousands of people. In Romania the beast did not surrender without blood; the corpse of dictator Ceausescu sealed its irreversibility once and for all. Communism’s final hour had come and history could not be stopped. Only in Albania was Ramiz Alia still pounding the table, with people like a curtain against everything normal. Feeling the end of Albanian communist power, they shouted: “We took it in blood and we will not give it up without blood,” and that is how it happened. Even for another year the dictatorship in Albania lingered on, but until the end it shed blood and killed people. The end of 1989 marked the end of communism in Eastern Europe, while Albanians experienced with anxiety the events in Albania. The East had set its eyes on them too; if the communist beast did not surrender to the very last moment, it would be overthrown by force. The first to begin were Shkodër and Kavajë. In Shkodër the dictatorship jailed people, while in Kavajë, under its hail of bullets, fell the first martyr of democracy, Josif Buda. But nothing could stop it anymore. It was Tirana itself that would deliver the final blow. On 28 January 1990, hundreds of thousands of citizens, not only from Tirana, demonstrated in silence to show the criminals of the spirit of freedom that they were stronger. On 2 July 1990, the young people of Tirana and of all Albania dealt the dictatorship its first powerful blow. Blood was shed again, more dead and wounded again, but the dictatorship no longer frightened people, nor did hatred. The rally in the center of Tirana, where Xh. Ginushi, Dokle and Ginushi hurled curses at Albanian youth, showed not strength but the weakness of the dictatorship. The students’ 8 December, finalized on 12 December 1990 with the founding of the PD, marked the beginning of the end of the rotten communist system and in Albania, for the first time decisively, it would come on 22 March 1992 and again on 26 November, amid blood and victims. Today in some of the countries that were liberated from communism six years ago, former communists have returned to power and people are feeling the consequences of this return. Even in Albania the self-styled socialist communists have not forgotten the reasons to return to 23 March ‘92, but Albanians no longer want to hear the word communism. March was overthrown and in the country that gave birth to it, Albanians have no intention of raising it up in Albania. Today, six years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people must remember and reflect on what we have lived through.

The power grid ensures only lighting and cooking Local authorities must secure the supply of fuel Energy reserves ensure normal supply for 3.5 months Interview with Mr. Abdyl Xhaja, Minister of Mineral and Energy Resources What is the situation and how will the problems be solved... By Zef Lleshi The power grid ensures only lighting and cooking Local authorities must secure the supply of fuel It is not a question of an energy crisis Energy reserves ensure normal supply for 3.5 months Interview with Mr. Abdyl Xhaja, Minister of Mineral and Energy Resources The worsening weather in our country was accompanied by frequent faults in the power grid both in Tirana and in several other districts of our country. A sudden week of sub-zero temperatures has increased the weakness in supplying the population with fuel. The power grid exists, but the grid could no longer cope not only with heating but even with lighting. This was the reason why the Government planned considerable investments for the rehabilitation of the electricity network. Italian credit was used for the first phase of the reconstruction of the capital’s electricity network; the construction of hundreds of electrical substations and the laying of thousands of km of cable speak of a visible improvement in this network. Nevertheless, it by no means can also handle the heating of the population. It is rightly appealed that electricity should not be used for heating. But what will be used to ensure heating? At a meeting held yesterday at the Tirana Municipality with kerosene traders, it was said that throughout the entire month there had been no kerosene at the points of sale. They were privatized precisely (Continues on page 6) Question: Mr. Minister, the drop in temperatures in our country was accompanied by breakdowns and disruptions in the supply of energy to the population. How do you foresee the situation for the coming winter? Answer: The situation is energetically better and much more favorable than last year. In the Fierza reservoir today the water level is 284.4 m compared with the quota of 264.6 m that had been at the same period last year. Put differently, we have a water reserve of about 805 million kilowatt-hours. The country’s consumption in these last 3-4 days has increased in proportion (Continues on page 6)

SALI KELMENDI mayor of Tirana BASHKIM EMIRI Director of the Tirana Electrical Branch I think that the accumulation of the electricity supply problem has come as a result of the lack of fuel. Specifically, there is a shortage of kerosene on the market. This is because there has been no coordination of work between the municipality, Petrol-impekti and the relevant section in the municipality. We have taken measures so that, starting from today, people will be supplied with abundant kerosene. Question: Mr. Bashkim, is it true that 34 thousand families have been left without electricity as ZP writes? Answer: Yes, 34 thousand families are half of Tirana (!) The figures can be given as newspapers wish, while we have full information about the network in Tirana; we tell you that only 3 feeders have had problems. Lapraka, the area of “Bardhyl” street, which was stabilized yesterday, and these constitute 10 thousand families, go down and there are families where electricity is temporarily cut off. Question: How have you organized your emergency electrical service? Answer: We have a dispatch center in the center in front of the Bank where citizens report faults. In two weeks we will open two more points that will collect information on possible electrical faults. Question: What phone numbers have been assigned to inform citizens? Answer: The numbers are 226-16 and 264-92. We will now give this service 6 new vehicles that will make it possible to quickly eliminate faults.

Shkodër During the years of the communist regime, around 40 people are believed to have been executed Shkodër A mass grave is discovered During the years of the communist regime, around 40 people are believed to have been executed According to Voice of America correspondent in Shkodër, Pëllumb Sulo, a mass grave has been discovered in Shkodër where, for more than 20 years, political opponents of the communist regime were executed and buried. The existence of this grave was also confirmed yesterday to Voice of America by sources at the police station of this district. It is learned that the mass grave is located about one kilometer on the outskirts of the city of Shkodër in the territory of the local radio transmitter. One of the witnesses to the persistence of this grave, the engineer of the radio station, Nikolin Noci, said that this place had been carefully chosen by the executioners. The shootings and burial of the lifeless bodies are believed to have started during the 1970s, and continued until the end of 1990. Sources from the police station report that, apart from the graves on the border, this mass grave also contains the bodies of those executed for political motives, among them those from the 1985 revolt in Qafë Bari prison. Also buried here are those executed for ordinary crimes, whose bodies were never handed over to their families.

After 9-omy-se of Chevron, Nafteplin of Egypt, two other powerful companies are entering our country for oil. Financing the complete reconstruction of the laboratory of the Ballsh Refinery, in which work will be carried out after a three-year paralysis, was among the main objectives of the agreement signed yesterday at the Ministry of Mineral and Energy Resources between the “company” Burmah Oil-Castrol” (Juglani, as was also emphasized during the talks and signing of this cooperation agreement by Bejleri, Krvaca, “Burmah Oil-Castrol” will supply Albpetrol with all components and base oils for the production of lubricants. All this will be carried out through the company “VEVE”, the exclusive representative of Castrol in Albania. DYLJEMAN KARAJ

The chiefs of the PS have changed their minds: DUKAGJIN HATA Genocide, the tragic chapter of the communist dictatorship, is now a reality recognized and proven by all political forces, even by those same forces which, in structure, political figures and mentality, present themselves as the political heirs and continuation of dictatorship. Even a typical old part, directly implicated in the criminal practice of the former regime, such as the PS, has been forced to admit the use of genocide in the communist system as part of the rulers’ strategy to retain power at any cost, even by trampling over the corpses of innocent victims. Concrete facts that archives, relatives of the victims, media outlets, etc. have failed to present, hundreds of eyewitness and scientific testimonies of Albanian communist barbarity make up the dossier of the dictatorship, in which the weight of the genocide already consumed and the one still being committed is striking and beyond any imagination. It is such abusers that even PS leaders have been forced to admit that in Albania the dictatorship exercised genocide over those it ruled, although there is analogous responsibility that Alia also called by the Berisha regime for reasons of political opposition. The reminiscences of certain socialist circles are clear, with the cult of the leader as the priority “to be, therefore to assess with the passage of time even if those weaknesses are black.” From this forced homage also stems the tendency of the socialist leadership to insert the anti-genocide law into the borders of propaganda and ideology, with the aim that its legal and political effect, as a law that seeks to cleanse Albanian politics from the pollution of the past, should fade and be minimized. But such a tactic, which is apparently slipping from their hands in the face of the mass of facts proving the existence of the institution of genocide and of the responsible persons, authors and executors of it, has made the socialist leadership of the PS, which has manipulated the country within the PS, not have any statement, if one takes into account the consciousness of having removed a meeting of the “Bllc” type where there were no harsh polemics about the position the PS should take on genocide. The group of fanatics that makes up the majority in the 54-year-old party’s leadership staff has raised voices and brutality against the tendencies expressed to admit the use of genocide in the communist regime, setting the ban that in this way “they will admit the denial to leave politics outside politics in ‘popularity’ and the presentation of this political phenomenon as without affiliation and judgment toward the ‘era of democratic socialism’.” Genocide, this institution of the communist empire of death, has turned into an “apple of discord” between the parties and factions. As if to remain in favor of the winners of the debate, two days after the parliamentary meeting, in the day-before-yesterday issue of “ZP”, deputy editor-in-chief Luan Rama, in the article titled “The special brigade against war criminals or the Albanian wall”, tries to convince us that “in Albania there was no genocide in the innocent war.” “This thing, says Luan Rama, was first done by Tito, Ranković and their people.” Such a clear apology for the dictatorship has so far perhaps been made only by some café fanatic, let alone by a deputy editor-in-chief, one of the most trusted people of the PS side, and not only of the staff of the newspaper “Zëri i Popullit”. As can be seen, even this time, as in the case of the festivities in the division of the clans and currents within the PS over genocide, “ZP” will take the side of the strongest, the side of the leading Marxists (Continues on page 2) trying to defend genocide

The life and work of Cardinal Mikel Koliqi were the subject of the commemorative evening organized last evening at the International Center of Culture in honor of the first anniversary of the consecration of the First Cardinal of Albania. The program included, alongside the performance of the melodrama by Dom Mikel Koliqi with text by Neke Lodes, Rrethimi i Shkodres 1937, Ruba e kuqe 1939 orchestrated and arranged by Gjon Simoni, performed by the RTSH symphony orchestra under the direction of Alqi Lepuri. Also shown was the documentary film, a production of Albafilm, Mikel Koliqi, the First Cardinal of Albania. The speech on the occasion of the evening was delivered by one of the directors, Rikard Larja, who presented the portrait of Dom Mikel Koliqi’s life from youth to communist persecution and up to his consecration as Albanian cardinal by Pope John Paul. At the ceremony organized by the Ministry of Culture there were also many guests. Among them were Albanian actors, Albafilm studio, parliament member Tomor Malasi, Minister of Culture Teodor Laço, Hamit Boriha as? [?], the Catholic bishop Dom Rrok Mirdita as the spiritual leader of the main religious community, Mikel Haxhi Sabri Koçi and the bishop of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania Anastas Janullatos.

From the Plenum meeting: “On the marked lack of vigilance and the serious mistakes of Kadri Hazbiu at the time when he was Minister of the Interior” Kadri Hazbiu: “My father-in-law had made a report to the Central Committee of the Party, in which he wrote that he had seen Mehmet Shehu’s son’s wife meeting a Frenchman and, when he saw her, she was together with Nazar Berberi drinking coffee” PAGE 5

It is not believed that PSD spies on PS in the Socialist International The law on genocide — at the right time The poor souls forget that they are only a ghost It is not believed that PSD spies on PS in the Socialist International The law on genocide — at the right time The poor souls forget that they are only a ghost PAGE 2