Verifying the implementation of the PD’s program — What was promised three years ago is being fulfilled Verifying the implementation of the PD’s program Privatization vouchers, an opportunity to participate in privatization — What was promised three years ago is being fulfilled The three-year experience of the PS in opposition has given rise to a phenomenon: opposition for opposition’s sake, resistance to and rejection of every government decision at every step, in the name of reform. Consensus or praise have been excluded from this practice. Privatization vouchers met the same fate. The day after the decree was issued, people took up their pencils to portray this measure as a tool for political speculation. But this did nothing except add one more item to the body of facts on the basis of which the Socialist leadership has been presented as anti-reform. Because to condemn privatization vouchers means to be against reform for the following reasons. First, it is known that these vouchers were not conceived to be distributed with the aim of selecting a group of people to make them rich. The ultimate aim of distributing these vouchers is to carry out the privatization process. This process will lead to the creation of effective private entities. Opposition to privatization vouchers comes precisely from the position of someone who abstracts from the ultimate aim they are intended to achieve; and it is no coincidence that the opposing argument is based on arithmetic calculations, on the value of the vouchers that will be çedogpr... [column continues, cut off at the edge]

Lawrens H. Summers Albania—among the most successful countries Lawrens H. Summers, Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, delivered this speech at the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, at the EBRD Summit in London on 10 April 1995: “We are seeing fundamental changes in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union,” Summers said. “Let me say without hesitation: one of the greatest priorities in the Clinton administration’s foreign policy is to see your countries transformed into democracies based on market economies.” INTRODUCTION: Mr. Chairman, Mr. President, government officials and delegates: it is an honor to speak before you today. This is the second annual meeting since the EBRD came under new leadership. The Bank’s productivity has improved thanks to the efforts of Jacques de Larosiere and Ron Freeman. Lending to enterprises and administrative costs are declining. The EBRD is now a strong and credible organization. Reforms in the Region: We are seeing changes [The text continues:] strongly supported reforms. They brought order to macroeconomic policies. They moved quickly toward privatizing small enterprises and liberalizing prices and trade. There is now rapid growth there, driven by the private sector. Other Central European countries that did not adopt market reforms as quickly are now falling behind. And Hungary, which has been implementing reforms for a long time, is now facing new risks and challenges. Its large deficit must be closed quickly, and the role of government in everyday life must be reduced. Transf The data in the EBRD Transition Report show that reform is progressing well, but also state that transition cannot remain in a permanent state. Let me mention three tasks that remain to be completed in the transition of the countries of Central Europe. —PROTECTING STABILITY. You have invested a great deal of political capital in stability. And it is paying off in jobs, exports and economic growth. A renewed crisis would lead to a long and costly deterioration, with the risk of a costly setback. Five and a half years after the fall of the Berlin Wall gave momentum to freedom in Central Europe, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic States and Albania have moved quickly toward privatizing small enterprises and liberalizing trade prices. sector. The other Central European countries, which did not adopt market reforms so quickly, are now falling behind. The Bank’s productivity, however, is Freeman. Lending is increasing and administrative costs are falling. The EBRD is now a strong and reliable organization. Reforms in the Region: We are seeing dramatic changes in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Let me tell you without hesitation: one of the Clinton administration’s greatest foreign-policy priorities market economies. the Czech Republic, the Baltic States and Albania have ... reforms so applying reforms for a long time, finds itself closed quickly, and the government’s role in everyday life must be greatly reduced. I recommend that Hungary’s economic leadership prepare tough measures to address these problems... I hope Hungary will work hand in hand with the IMF. I also hope that the EBRD will welcome its efforts in Hungary to restore this momentum toward transition. The data ... and economic growth. A resurgence of crises would lead to a long and costly response, with the risk of moving toward an integrated Europe. -INTENSIFYING STRUCTURAL REFORMS. Your economies are experiencing developments in Western Europe. Could there be a better time for you to take further steps toward lasting stability and integration into the global economy? -REDUCING THE PUBLIC SECTOR. (Continued on page 2)

President Berisha met with President Rugova yesterday at midday. At the meeting, they discussed the development of the reforms and their progress, the extremely difficult situation of Albanians in Kosovo, and the crisis in the region. Both presidents considered it essential that the Kosovo issue be regarded as a fundamental problem, without whose just resolution the Balkan crisis cannot be resolved. They also emphasized that dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade, in the presence of a third party, is imperative in order to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. President Berisha stressed that he would consider the removal by the Belgrade authorities of exit visas for travel to Albania a positive step. President Rugova, for his part, expressed positive views about the improvement in relations and the climate of understanding between Albania and Greece, and regarded cooperation and friendship between the two countries as an important factor for peace and stability in the region. During the meeting, President Berisha also highly praised the efforts of President Rugova and the political forces in Kosovo to achieve a democratic solution to the Kosovo problem, and stressed that the Albanian government has insisted, and will continue to insist, on respect for the human and national freedoms and rights of Albanians in Kosovo and throughout the former Yugoslavia. Press and Information Office attached to the President

“ZP” accuses the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and those who made public the fact that the PS leadership is deceiving the public about the “alternative draft” of the constitution of waging a war against free thought EDI PALOKA “ZP” would describe as a war against free thought the fact that “RD” made public the PS leadership’s deception concerning the “study” that, according to them, is being carried out by the Council of Europe on the “alternative draft” of the constitution. In fact, [these are] the illegal activities of the Albanian opposition. Enraged by this, the PS leaders ordered a shadow writer to attack the Albanian ambassador in Strasbourg, who, through no fault of his own, received this kind of reply from the office of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. It is the unquestionable duty of every senior international official not to allow the unquestionable duty of every senior official to take an interest in the constitution’s alternative draft at the Council of Europe.” In any case, whoever wrote that article can better read the beginning of the third paragraph, where it says: “Meanwhile, the draft is being studied at the Council of Europe...” (“ZP”, Wednesday, April 12). So it is not “RD”’s fault that these words in “ZP” bear no resemblance to the reply of Mr. Shuman, which said: “... no expertise will be carried out on the alternative draft, and no request by the opposition parties for consideration of this draft will be entertained.” The reasons for the Council of Europe’s position are no different from the reasons why the opposition’s “alternative draft” is not being considered in Albania either: “... only a draft that passes through the official bodies designated for this matter, and whose consideration is requested by those same bodies, can be examined by experts at the Council of Europe’s centers.” In other words, Europe too has no time to deal with fact, the PS leaders assigned who conveys his words only to have them disavowed by Europe. It is the unquestionable duty of every official, and especially an ambassador, to take an interest in important issues such as the constitution. Mr. Koliqi is interested in this matter too, and once again it is not his fault that Mr. Shuman’s reply displeases the PS leadership. “ZP” itself writes in the article in question that Mr. Koliqi should “take an interest in the passage and assessments concerning the content of the alternative Draft...” Well, Mr. Koliqi did take an interest, and the reply he received of Europe is the one quoted above, which “ZP” considers a war against free thought. “ZP” has the right to accuse and attack international political figures; after all, it is not the first time it has crossed the line. But there is no reason to attack “RD”; it is the one publishing the truth. According to “ZP”, apparently what was written in its article was not read properly: “The alternative draft continues to be studied bear no resemblance to Mr. Shuman’s reply that It is the PS leadership that, after committing unlawful acts, seeks to deceive the public by publishing false facts in order to give its actions a legal passport. But these are punishable, gentlemen of the PS: your deceptions and acts are illegal under the law. This is your concept of “freedom.” As for what is written in yesterday’s column of “ZP”—that the PD does not have the constitution—it is pointless to engage with you. Albanians know the facts very well and can judge who is against the constitution. The PD is trying to explain to people the need for a constitution, while the opposition did everything it could to leave Albania without one.

The CUCKOOS of the season—the 47-year-old season that turned Albania into a bunkered kolkhoz and wanted to turn Albanians into peasants of the Enverian laboratory—even after the Dictatorship’s machine went rolling downhill and political pluralism was born, did not lay down their modern-day Don Quixote weapons. Sometimes with their “cuckooing” lament and sometimes with a painful scheme, these nihilist knights of destruction, these avant-garde champions of anti-reform and anti-hope, are trying to distort the image of democracy and kill the honest faith in freedom. Their strategy is as old as the demons of jealousy and political revenge themselves, which their father, Enver, had called “promoters” of the movement of human society. These demons, not because of the law of inertia but because of the ideology and practice that unite them, set in motion the extremist PS headquarters, which has gripped the 54-year-old party, dressed in the suit of a socialist “supermodel,” at the gates of left-wing radicalism. After 1991, the year in which the communists carried out one of the darkest scenarios of bloodshed and destruction, these atavists, now unrestrained but still harboring ambitions to return, took up an aggressive course of [unclear], and have tried—and continue trying—to confront the laws in Parliament, artificially heighten political and economic tensions in the country, and revive demons of doubt about the values of democracy. While the PD’s program transformed the social economy, which had collapsed completely, into a free-market economy in which Albanians became masters of their property and initiative, the PS’s frozen-pole headquarters, which makes a great deal of noise about the social market economy they say they will implement if they win, is once again venting in Parliament against the approval of President Berisha’s decree “On the issuance and distribution of privatization vouchers.” Such an anti-reform act, in the long series of neo-Bolshevik aggravations, represents another moral and political failure of the PS. When it comes to confronting historic opportunities with a green light, it raises its own card against them, thereby demonstrating its inability to overcome the legacy and the heirs of its directors. This regressive course, along whose straight line some of the most malicious mindsets and practices have taken shape, leads the Albanian opposition to cast itself as the strategic opposition to its political rival. (Continued on page 2)

Mr. Dokle, the justice system is dealing with your dossier Mr. Dokle mentioned the newspaper “Modeste” at the end of an interview, modestly asking for the files to be opened. We cannot understand which files he means, since he is the main protagonist of the “labor” dossier, “The 400-thousand-dollar scandal.” As a politician, Erbë J. Dokle should fully and transparently account for the 400 thousand dollars in detail: who took them, where they went, what his role was, whether he was part of it, and in which bank they were deposited. And what file was Ruçi summoned over from Tepelena, and what role did he play in the solidarity fund? In the end, let us put it this way: the beginning of this solidarity, which yesterday [unclear] and is waiting for reforms to unblock [it], concerns other PS leaders; an investigation into it will uncover further surprises. Therefore, he confessed that it was easy [unclear]... E. DIBRA

441 million dollars is the fortune deposited in Hong Kong by PS member No. 3, Bettino Craxi The left-wing MP Piflio Alaci stated that the former head of the socialist government, now sentenced by a court to 14 years in prison for corruption, Bettino Craxi, has 441 million dollars deposited in banks in Hong Kong. As can be seen, since the autumn of 1993 Milanese judges have shown interest in numerous bank accounts held by Italian politicians in Hong Kong. The investigators who have been looking into the matter will be fewer and will be managed, Hong Kong Attorney General Mr. Xeremin Methius stated. As can be seen, the corruption scandals involving the PS’s No. 3 membership card have not run out. The first PS membership cards, belonging to its leadership, have their best-known holders. It is for Albanian justice to investigate the connections between them, between the Hong Kong accounts and the PS’s No. 1, Fatos Nano, and the other numbers—or, in other words, Dokle, Ruci, and Co. B. KASMI

P. Milo’s lust for power is truly Machiavellian. He has become so blinded in his pursuit of the chair that what he says is astonishing the world. “The medieval Kanun is challenging Albania, democracy and the state at the end of the twentieth century. The state stands as a spectator in the face of this macabre phenomenon because, as the press says, its President has described the Kanun as the essence of democratic constitutionalism.” And further down, Milo gives voice to his distress: “Albania cannot be governed today with relics of history.” Another story has now surfaced below. He should know that after being governed for 50 years not by laws but by orders, directives and family [unclear], this state is finally functioning through the mechanism of laws—hundreds of them, passed by a parliament elected by the free vote of the people, and not from the offices of Mihal Bisha’s personnel department, as Milo’s party chairman used to become a deputy. Milo must not forget this, just as he must not forget that, despite his pathological hatred and devilish insinuations, he cannot convince us that the Kanun has supposedly taken hold in Albania. Lies mixed with malice are usually the product of [unclear]. Where did you get those figures of thousands upon thousands of men supposedly threatened by blood feuds, Mr. Milo? Where did you get those figures of tens of thousands of children who have supposedly left school and been confined to their homes? They are figures exaggerated by the sick imagination of a political historian—figures that even those foreign authors whom Mr. Milo has discussed, and who consider the Albanian people “savage,” would envy. You have joined their chorus, Mr. Milo, and that is truly shameful. And after all this, ... we might ask this gentleman: could it be that Milo sleeps at home but thinks un-Albanian thoughts? As a historian, sir, you should also be passionate about presenting convincing arguments concerning the factors and the extent of criminality, rather than spreading falsehoods as if the problem were the claim that “his President (of the state—you speak as if you were a foreigner, as if this state were not yours too) Izua Milo, what gross distortions you make! You may boast all you like about being from the land of lemons, but you have no right to slander vulgarly and toss away, like a squeezed lemon, a national cultural value such as the Kanun. No one can claim that Albania at the end of the twentieth century should be governed by the Kanun, but you, Mr. Milo, apparently attribute even an ordinary verse of fertility to the Kanun. No, Mr. Milo, your calculations are wrong. They stem from the affliction of a pampered provincial. The era of the pampered is over, Mr. Milo! You must learn, even though you are a deputy, that Albania today is governed neither by orders and party directives nor by the Kanun, but by laws passed in parliament, into which you entered with the help of the PD. Remember! FEHMI STRUGA

PAGE 2

Mojkomi speaks like Zeqo’s mother at the mulberry tree! Fier Preparatory work has begun for the distribution of privatization vouchers PAGE 2

A text that corrects many historical distortions Assoc. Prof. Dr. MUHARREM DEZHGIU PAGE 3