Frrok Çupi, wherever he tries to jump, gets caught on the stake of “ZP”.

Inside The first round of voting for the new President of France concludes Zhak Shirak heads for the Élysée throne Page 6 The encyclopedic page

On Sunday morning, 23 April, on Easter Sunday, the President of the Republic, Dr. Sali Berisha, went to offer his greetings to the intellectual family of Ilia Tili, Teacher of the People. He was accompanied by Interior Minister A. Musaraj, MPs Bahri Bregu and Sotira Stratorbda, Presidential Secretariat official Kolec Topalli, Prefect of Korçë Perin Kini, chairman of the district council Pavllo Lapanxa, and Mayor Gjergji Gjinko. Professor Ilia’s house is near Lendisë së Loteve, on the main boulevard: a typical Korçë house, where the lilacs begin to bloom now, in April. It is in the neighbourhood of this city’s famous railings, which, covered in snow in winter, make up some of the most beautiful scenes painted by our artists and foreign collectors... Although retired, Professor Ilia enjoys admirable health. At first glance, his personality commands respect. Professor Ilia is the author of several valuable books on physics and many important studies... And it was democracy that would remember this distinguished intellectual, awarding him the high title “Teacher of the People” in June 1993. “Easter is a day that brings us a very great message,” President Berisha told Professor Ilia, “the message of hope, understanding and tolerance. For us Albanians, this day conveys not only the resurrection of Christ, but also national rebirth...” The conversation then turned to citizens’ involvement in free enterprise during this period of rapid change taking place here. “Education must respond to this too,” said President Berisha. “The opening of Albania to the world makes this necessary as well,” said Professor Ilia. “Certainly,” said the President. “We are a small country. One language is included in the pupil’s curriculum; the other he chooses himself. So it is not imposed on him. Young people have a great interest in foreign languages. A few days ago, an English-language competition was held for a scholarship at a foundation. Most of those taking part were high-school students, not university students. And they were convinced they would win! You can see the level of interest!...” “Human society has made many discoveries,” Ilia said, “but in my opinion the school is an absolute institution, which gives society what no other institution...” “You are right,” the President agreed. “In all public sectors, education is the first sector. And it must be first. This means that the largest share of the budget should go to education.” “It is interesting, Doctor,” MP Bahri Bregu joined the conversation, “that our students who have gone to study at Western universities are on a par with European students, and sometimes even better. Thus, they present the Albanian tradition and their work in such a way that they can be equal even to a European...” “We are not inferior to anyone,” said Professor Ilia, “even though we were separated and isolated. The first wave [of intellectuals]—who, even under the dictatorship, without any obligation, produced all those works? I too have written several books.” “I know, and I am glad about your books,” Berisha said. “What you did is a great achievement. The process of forming Albanian intellectuals has been a difficult process, while also being an extraordinarily...”

On the “Alia-Nano-Dokle-Ruçi-Benc” scandal In an article published on Sunday in “ZP”, Namik Dokle tries, by interpreting Government Meksi Decision No. 183 of 14 May 1992 to suit his interests, to absolve himself and the PS of responsibility for the misuse of 400,000 dollars. On this matter, we asked the chairman of SHKSH, Mr. Blerim Çela, for a comment. The interpretation Dokle gives to Government Meksi Decision No. 183 of 14 May 1992 on the seizure of the account of the Central Committee of the PPSH shows only that he is deeply implicated in this matter. According to Council of Ministers Decision 183 of 14 May 1992, the Solidarity Fund comprised all the assets and funds at its disposal, which the Central Committee of the PPSH was required to declare, as well as those of its offspring “ZP”, to which 400,000 dollars from this fund had been sold. They concealed those 400,000 dollars from the government at a time when, under the decision, they were required to declare them, and this constitutes another violation. Accustomed to deceiving people for 50 years, they continued the same game with the 400,000 dollars: first by failing to declare them, and then by using them for purposes other than their intended use—purchasing a printing press (a punishable act, and a lesser one at that). If they had been even a little honest (something impossible to imagine of them), at least after concealing the 400,000 dollars from the government they would have used them for a printing press, not for trade, trips abroad to support the “socialist revolution in the world”, and other dirty deeds that they know well and for which they will answer before the courts. BLERIM ÇELA

- Documents prove that far more than the 200,000 dollars Dokle declares entered the “Solidarity Fund” from the state budget Dokle’s “political mistake”: he equates the PS with the PPSH EDI PALOКА Namik Dokle continues to get entangled in the net that has caught him fast. His efforts to escape the net only bind him more tightly, until one day he will no longer even be able to struggle. In the previous issue, “RD” published some statements by Dokle and others from the PS on the question of how the 400,000 dollars disappeared. Those statements show that apparently the communist “masters” [believed otherwise]. With this logic, in 1990–91, when they realized things were changing, the PPSH leaders [sought to handle] things differently and [keep] all the wealth created through the work of Albanians. But, to their misfortune, this logic can no longer prevail. In any case, Dokle, thinking he has found “arguments”, tries to defend himself. But once again, agronomist Dokle confuses politician Dokle, while his attempts to deceive will expose him as a fool yet again. There are also numerous other documents proving the transfer of money from the state budget to the Central Committee’s Solidarity Fund. One of them is Central Committee Secretariat decision No. 19, dated January 1967 and signed by Haki Toska, ordering the transfer of 700,000 dollars from the budget into that fund. So Dokle’s calculations come to nothing. In any case, Dokle would be well advised not to get into other calculations, because he will get them wrong again, and the same thing will happen to him as with his first statements, which he was forced to change. Namík Dokle is caught in a net that has him badly trapped. His struggles to get out of he will no longer some of Dokle’s and other PS members’ statements about the question of how the 400 thousand dollars disappeared. Those statements show how the truth apparently had to be hidden. Dokle is badly entangled and, faced with the force of new facts, has been compelled from time to time to change his statements, which constitutes proof of his guilt (an innocent person has no reason to lie). Having failed in his attempt to “argue” that the 400 thousand dollars were not misappropriated (after facts proved that the money was used for other purposes and not for the printing house), Dokle is trying to jump to another branch, but at the outset he is just as unsuccessful as in his first attempt. Dokle is trying to “argue” that the 400 thousand dollars belong to “ZP”; according to Dokle, then, they could also have been squandered, as they were, and no one should be held responsible for this. In fact, the PPSH ruled for 50 years according to this political logic. It treated its comrades as slaves who had to work to sustain, to some extent, the great scandal recently exposed, known as the “Alia, Dokle, Nano, Ruçi, Benc” scandal. But the efforts of ZP, in response, deceive public opinion and insult the scandal on Vrioni. The purpose of the attempts to revive the great scandal of the 400 thousand dollars... Nevertheless, But agronomist Dokle once again confuses himself with politician Dokle, while his attempts to deceive will once again bring him face to face with the facts. Convinced that the hands of justice hold only one document confirming Solidarity Fund, he decides to launch a counterattack over the 200 thousand dollars paid by the State Bank and plunges into calculations without realizing that they are somewhat difficult for him. According to Dokle’s calculations in ZP of Sunday, since only 200 thousand dollars from the state budget went into the Solidarity Fund and the Meksi government “received” 1,865,016 dollars there (according to Dokle, at least), the state owes Dokle and the PS money. “Let’s sit down and do the sums, and we’ll see who owes whom—you or us?” Dokle writes. If Dokle were a little more intelligent, he would understand that in this “discovery” of his he is wrong not only as an agronomist but also as a politician. As an agronomist, we would tell Dokle that one [unclear] cannot make a [unclear]. Besides the 200-thousand-dollar document, there is always this as well, and this time it is k... [illegible/cut off]...

- According to the conversation with Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi after his return from the Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Association Council, ... At the Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Associated Council of the Central European Initiative, held in Kraków, Poland, on 21 April 1995, the delegation of the Republic of Albania also took part, headed by me as Foreign Minister. The meeting adopted a final communiqué and decided that the meeting of the Heads of Government of this Initiative would be held in Warsaw on 6 October 1995, where its enlargement would also be considered. Minister Serreqi explained that five countries have associate status in this initiative, and all of them expressed their political will to become full members of this organization and to deepen cooperation within this framework. He added that it should also be taken into account that the purpose of this meeting was not to decide on enlargement of the initiative to grant full membership to countries holding associate status. Such a decision on full membership in this initiative, Mr. Serreqi said, would be taken by the meeting of the Heads of Government of the initiative, which, as I said above, will be held in Warsaw on 6 October this year. During discussions among the foreign ministers of the associated countries at the Kraków meeting, their countries’ full membership was unanimously requested, while the foreign ministers of the member states responded positively to this spirit and expressed the view that expanding the initiative would be beneficial both to its member states and to the associated countries. There were individual states, Mr. Serreqi explained, such as Italy and Hungary, which expressed some reservations about expanding the initiative as a bloc, each guided by the motives and objectives of its national foreign policy. But the indisputable truth must be underlined: The final communiqué of this meeting best describes the issues discussed at the Kraków meeting and how it was decided to proceed further regarding the question of expanding full membership. It states: The ministers agreed that, in order to further expand cooperation between the associated countries and the Central European Initiative, it would be useful to consider the following steps: — defining the points of (Continued on page 3)

— Prime Minister Meksi, Ambassador Foresti, lifelong Italian senator Francesco Kosiga, etc., attend. “Please, good Father, bless the first stone in the foundation of this printing house. Send it to this

—Prime Minister Meksi, Ambassador Foresti, Italian senator for life Francesco Kosiga, etc., attend. “We pray to you, O good Father, bless the first stone in the foundation of this printing house. Send your holy spirit into this work; let all those who work here be inspired by high ideals, and let them have honesty in mind and heart, driven by the deep desire always to seek the truth and justice... Amen!” These were the words of blessing spoken yesterday by Monsignor Ivan Dias, Apostolic Nuncio to Albania, as he blessed the cornerstone at the ceremony marking the start of work on the printing house named after our distinguished patriot, the famous Franciscan writer “At Gjergj Fishta.” The inauguration was attended by Prime Minister Meksi, Presidency Secretary Koço Kocaplli, Italy’s Ambassador to Tirana Foresti, Italian senator for life Kosiga, Apostolic Nuncio to Albania Monsignor Ivan Dias, Archbishop of Tirana and Durrës Rrok Mirdita, ministers, MPs, representatives of political parties, local government officials from the capital, and other guests. “...This is a new initiative in a European Albania, in an Albania that only three years ago no foreigner would have...”

The PS scandal cannot be covered up with fabricated, false scandals Defamation and fraud are punishable by law “ZP” and its sensationalist journalist Brace, in a series of articles, are deceiving public opinion and insulting Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dylber Vrioni. The story begins with the ZP article of March 29, 1995, in which, amid numerous baseless insults and accusations against Mr. Vrioni, the accusations that stand out concern violation of Article 47 of the Law on the Bank of Albania and the claim that he held constitutional [office/powers]. To clarify the truth for the public, Mr. Vrioni responded with numerous facts in the newspaper RD, dated March 30, 1995. On Sunday, ZP published a facsimile of the clarification from the Italo-Albanian Bank and, commenting on it with distortions and lies, concluded that there was a scandal, in order to pin the ZP scandal on Vrioni. [The article continues in the columns above.]

DUKA GJIN HATA The offspring of the Dictator Hoxha’s barren era, tribunal nostalgics, think that their time has come to distinguish themselves in the anonymity of the destructive political forces they represent, calling President Berisha a communist and a neo-communist in their miserable little papers, even though they are convinced that their absurdities in broad daylight make the whole world laugh. The failed actor Imami, who thought he could play two roles at once in the political game, with the same face and at the same time, had forgotten that a day would come when the old master Alia, who had deigned to use him as a small apprentice for his “great” work, would burn him in the political code, breaking him like a sacrificial lamb. Imami and his clan would pay dearly for it. In this way Ceka, Imami, and half a dozen handicapped politicians, who, as in Márquez’s tale, “have no one to write them a letter,” are fighting windmills and the phantoms of their own delirious minds. The atavistic Imami feels sorry for the “attack” on the left-wing opposition in Albania, since, according to him, serious political struggle should not be based on the past but on competition between political alternatives. Whatever complexes Imami, despite his youth, has about the past—of which he remains a fanatic—he would do well to reflect on them himself. But neither he nor the masters he serves can erase 50 years of dictatorial fanaticism with a stroke of the pen, in defiance of historical experience; all the more so when the opposition to which he himself belongs continues to be guided by the dogmas of the past and has Marxism at the center of its political platform. Imami presents himself as more “advanced” than the leaders of his PS, which is also thirsty for [unclear]... because over these three years, what has been missing from the Socialist Party’s political platform is...

The fact that you cite accurately means that by now you know that law well. Referring to my reply in “RD” of March 30, 1995, you at ZP have dreamed up the quotation. If you continue reading the text of the reply to the end, the public will read: “I have received no compensation from this bank during the time I was a Member of Parliament or Minister of Finance. Meanwhile, upon my appointment as Minister of Finance, I notified both of the principal parties participating in this bank of my departure from the position of chairman of its board.” This action of yours shows that you have deliberately misrepresented the matter, or that you are still possessed by old ways of thinking, according to which those of us with a different past from yours should not have equal rights in a democratic society. Since you show such great zeal in demonstrating respect for the law, you would do well not to forget the press law as well. Dylber Vrioni Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance