At the invitation of the Secretary General of the EUCD in Slovenia , the Secretary General of the DPSh, Mr. Tritan Shehu, and deputies Vasil Gjika and Tonin Ujka [are attending]. Issues concerning the integration of other parties into this grouping, as well as organizational matters, will be discussed at this meeting. DPSh Press and Information Department

— From President Berisha’s meetings with Albanian and foreign investors in Shijak, Sukth and Durres This weekend, President of the Republic Sali Berisha went to the Durres area and to Shijak and Sukth, where he met with Albanian and foreign investors who, through their efforts, are revitalizing the country’s economy. His first visit was to the flour and bread factory in Sukth, which is owned by Xhemal Zarici. It was inaugurated a few days ago, and completing the factory required only 9 months of work. The President congratulated them on the investment they had made, particularly because their focus is on meeting people’s needs. This factory has a capacity of 40–50 tons of flour a day. If you look closely, President Berisha said, these investments show the level from which the revival of capitalism in Albania begins: with essential things, with the flour mill, with bread. Naturally, this time not according to the State Planning Commission, but according to the citizen’s own judgment. And this is many times faster, many times more successful, many times more competitive than what existed before. At the starch factory in Shijak, which is expected to begin operating in the coming days, the President learned about the efforts of the factory’s former owner, Deliallisi, who is bringing his property back to life, where 70 workers are employed. After assuring him of his support, President Berisha continued: Your daily activity shows that there are people who try to do something every day, unlike some others who do nothing and deny everything. But what matters is that we continue to do things, to build. Transforming Albania into a producing society, President Berisha continued, means transforming the country into one that builds its future. Another bakery in the city of Shijak is owned by Saveta Bajo, who bought it by paying 90 percent of the factory’s value with securities. “It is the system that gave us these opportunities,” says the owner. But President Berisha says that, in addition to this, there is also the readiness and courage of the people who breathed life into the opportunities that opened up. Meanwhile, the factory workers also discussed with the President their financial problems and their aim of becoming stronger and, later, making further investments. The use of opportunities created by freedom is also evident at the construction firm Nato, owned by four brothers from Shijak, who, after emigrating to Italy, invested in a construction-products production line. They started with an Italian owner, whereas now they are going it alone, thereby also gaining valuable experience. President Berisha praised their efforts and their desire for a better future for themselves and the country. The best way to… (Continued on page 3)

Prof. YLLI VEJSIU Member of the DPSh Presidency, Deputy Three years after its spectacular defeat in the elections of 22 March, the Socialist Party, gripped by anxiety over the new election campaign, is unable to hide the clear signs of its crisis or to define the course of its political movement in the face of the new reality that changes every day before the eyes of our public. It is now too late for it to understand that, over the past three years, it has lost its great opportunity to play the role of an opposition for reform and for the country’s democratic transformations. Exhausted by its obsessive efforts to come to power through early elections, it now seems unprepared to face the challenges of the times and incapable of dealing with the new political and economic developments our society is experiencing. The past three months have displayed several new phenomena, which the SP itself observes sadly and is unable to gloss over with its hackneyed commentary. Beneath the guise of the calls “VINCEREMOS,” clear-eyed observers now have the opportunity to see an exhausted body, unable to conceal the obvious symptoms of illness. The first symptom is the SP’s panic, its anger and anxiety, its nervousness in front of people and events which, ironically, led Albania to… democratic, would transform the country so quickly and with such irreversible steps, ruthlessly destroying the old structures; that Parliament would build, stone by stone, the edifice of new democratic legislation, of the rule of law, of the market economy and free enterprise. Some sour-faced emissaries, who swarmed through Europe’s airports, failed to persuade the Old Continent to prevent Albania from entering its fold. Statesmen, dignitaries, experts, journalists and sincere friends of this long-suffering people seemed to have agreed among themselves when they all left positive assessments in the “book of impressions” of what they had seen achieved in Albania in such a short time and on such a broad scale. The four-year period of Democratic governance seems to the PS leadership like “The Skin of Sorrow,” shrinking every day in direct proportion to the action of its dream of restoring neocommunism in Albania. What would it have left to do after 1996? To diminish what was built in four years of freedom and democracy, to dismantle what was carefully put together, to deny what was affirmed by the world and by an entire society that no longer accepts a return to the past? That is why this party’s programme is barren of ideas, with unclear alternatives and no prospects. That is why the PS leadership cannot be clear-headed, and its propaganda from the purple era cannot become measured, on the eve of new elections. Analysts from almost all parties do not hide their surprise at the second symptom of the crisis, which is manifested in its tendency to deny the unexpected transformation of its leader into a LEADER. But, in particular, another sign—a sure symptom of the morbid condition prevailing in the PS’s upper echelons, which it can no longer easily keep hidden—is corruption. To be closer to the truth, it was inherited from the infamous communist nomenklatura and, it seems, coursed through the veins of the PS, which refused to… (Continued on page 3) Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. The meeting of Foreign Ministers, to be held in Noordwijk in the Netherlands on 31 May, will discuss defence support activities, the Partnership for Peace planning and review process, as well as political and security issues. RD correspondent Yesterday, a meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe was held in Paris. The agenda included, as item 18, Albania’s request for membership in the Council of Europe. The Committee examined the report prepared by rapporteur Kolumber and supported it, but since proceedings continued until late afternoon because of the large number of issues, because time was needed to prepare a statement on the situation in Bosnia, which was scheduled for that day, and since the report was to be voted on paragraph by paragraph, the vote was postponed until the next meeting in Strasbourg. ATSH …the pleasure of deceiving itself, expressed so loudly, particularly through the so-called SP barometer. The issue is not only the accuracy and objectivity of this poll. Such surveys are never conducted by the political forces themselves, which cannot be indifferent to their results. The problem lies elsewhere. The Socialist Party, having inherited every negative trait from the PPSH, also carries with it the arrogance of forcing the figures to speak in its favor at all costs, even when this is done in the most grotesque ways. Have people forgotten the absurdity of voting days during the dictatorship, the anxiety of the mass media and the efforts of the Front’s lackeys to announce as early as possible that voting had ended, with a figure of 99.99 percent? It is difficult to imagine that anyone truly believed that result; nevertheless, for its leadership, these deceptions by fraudsters had become a way of life, beyond the agony of dictatorship and its decline. One day, one of the PS deputies told me, supposedly as a joke, that when he had recently been on the platform at a rally organized by the PS in a district, he had once felt the magical pleasure of his sudden transformation into a LEADER. But, in particular, another upper echelons, which it can no longer easily keep hidden, is corruption, about which, to be closer… free enterprise.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Meksi received the directors of the World Bank’s Executive Board, who are interested in learning about Albania’s investment needs. Based on the conclusions of this visit, the World Bank’s Executive Board will make a decision regarding Albania. The directors of the World Bank’s Executive Board decide on the provision of aid and loans to each country. At the meeting, the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet stated that the government’s priority is infrastructure. Speaking further about the meeting, Meksi said: “We asked for more opportunities for roads, irrigation, electricity and, in general, for all those sectors where, at the current stage of Albanian development, we are seeking qualitative growth. On the other hand, I would say that these projects that have begun in Albania have, as is known, yielded good results so far, in the sense that they have become effective and produced tangible results, such as those in irrigation and rural development, which you know we are starting. This is one of the reasons why we asked for further support, because otherwise we would not have had the right to do so.” Asked about the IFD’s intervention and what this would mean for Albania, Prime Minister Meksi replied: “More money and loans for Albania, in substantial amounts, and, moreover, for the private sector too—which is quite a noticeable change in the World Bank’s policy toward Albania up to now.” Mrs. Ivin Hekfers, who led the talks on behalf of the World Bank, considers the request for investment in infrastructure reasonable. Assessing Albania’s and the Albanian government’s achievements to date, she says that the World Bank should do more for this country. The World Bank helps those who help themselves, and thus Albania ranks first. Nevertheless, it is the government’s work and determination to continue the reform. I think people can see the Western-oriented changes for themselves, and I conclude here.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Alfred Serreqi, left yesterday for the Netherlands, where he will take part in the Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Alfred Serreqi, left yesterday for the Netherlands, where he will take part in the Meeting of of Foreign Ministers, to be held in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, on May 31, will discuss defense-support activities, the process of

Yesterday, a meeting of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights was held in Paris. Item 18 on its agenda was Albania’s application for membership in the Council of Europe. Yesterday, a meeting Human Rights was held in Paris. Item 18 on its agenda was Albania’s application for membership in the Council of Europe. The committee considered it late because of the large number of issues, the time needed to prepare a statement on the situation in Bosnia—which was not on the agenda—and the fact that The vote was therefore postponed until

Symbol — No political car wash can cleanse the PS’s scandals of corruption DUKAGJIN HATA The forces of darkness, represented by figures in crisis and symbols of scandal—with the latest of these, perhaps not chronologically but in sequence, being the scandal of the 400 thousand dollars—have not exhausted the stream of old and new tangents involving the head of the PS. They seek to give a political makeover to the rampant corruption that has entangled the Socialist Party in shady dealings and black money. In their efforts to find a way out, the socialist leadership is trying, through political arguments now faded and discredited, to defend the indefensible involvement of some PS and “ZP” leaders and the “Progresi” enterprise in the 400-thousand-dollar scandal. At first, Dokle tried to deceive people in a televised debate by declaring that the Solidarity Fund consisted of aid from the world’s communist parties, but he was soon forced to backtrack because the documents prove that the money came from the Albanian state budget and was intended as “aid” for terrorist groups. The “predecessors” and “successors” with whom Dokle wants to wash his hands—and “ZP” as well—are no use even as material for a comedy sketch, let alone as legal arguments, since it is now known that the transaction took place when Dokle had been installed as the strongman at the head of “ZP”. Meanwhile, Pellumbi, the leading figure among the PS’s four deputy chairmen, after declaring in Gazeta Shqiptare on April 16, 1995, “... the other 250 thousand dollars are in the Bank at the disposal of ‘ZP’, but no one has touched a single penny,” has now gone so far as to call on the Marxist to denounce those who exposed this scandal. Not only were the funds not in the bank, as lecturer Pellumbi had claimed, but they had actually been squandered on tractors, salad oil, paper and other goods. His audacity in denouncing those who exposed this blatant act of corruption has therefore been exposed; it cannot BELIEVE ME... THIS FILTH CAN’T BE WASHED AWAY WITH THE SOLIDARITY SLURRY!

-Gonzales: “Nevertheless, parliamentary elections will be held in ’97” Europe is increasingly shifting to the right. The latest elections in Spain confirm this. Spain, one of the strongholds of Western European socialism, held local elections on Sunday. As predicted by the polls, these elections were won by the center-right, Spain’s Popular Party, which received 35% of the vote overall, compared with 31% for the Socialist Party. Assessing this victory, PP leader Hose Maria Hatnai emphasized, among other things, that it was a victory for young people, who, according to the polls too, voted for the center-right. Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Filipe Gonzales, who is also the leader of the Spanish Socialist Party, after conceding defeat, stressed that “nevertheless, the elections will be held in 1997.” The Socialist Party has governed Spain for 13 years, while Sunday’s elections showed that the orientation of the Spanish electorate has also changed direction. On Sunday the center-right won in all the major cities except Barcelona, where the Socialists will have to form a coalition with the Communists in order to govern. According to analysts, if parliamentary elections were held in Spain now, they would give the center-right an outright victory. E.P.

p. 2 Austrian dignitaries express their views on Albania: Austrian Federal Minister of Justice Dr. Nikolaus Michalek; Prof. Dr. Rudolf Machek, CPT member at the Council of Europe, member of the Austrian Constitutional Court, President of the Association of Austrian Lawyers; Vice-President of the Austrian Constitutional Court Dr. Karl Piska; Secretary General of the Austrian National Bank, Mr. Rudolf Klier Former teachers of Harry Fulz school are commemorated and honored Meeting of the Albanian-Greek commission on the Cross Border programme

Yesterday, at around 3:00 p.m., near his home, Adrian Krasta, the well-known television show host, was brutally assaulted by three young men who have not yet been identified, but whom Krasta, despite being in serious condition, was able to recognize. This is a reprehensible act that calls for the utmost commitment from the competent authorities to identify and punish the perpetrators of the violence.

As you have been informed, starting May 1, 1995, the Albanian Post Enterprise has accepted and will continue to accept subscriptions at all post offices for individuals and every natural person, legal entity, state or private body, domestic or foreign, to the newspaper “RD,” at the following prices: - 1 month: 250 lekë - 3 months: 750 lekë - 6 months: 1,500 lekë The newspaper’s editorial office, in cooperation with the Post Enterprise, guarantees accurate, prompt and high-quality service at the address specified by the subscriber. Subscribe to our newspaper! NOTE: Those who have paid at the previously published rates may collect the difference from the post office where they made the payment. The editorial office of the newspaper “Rilindja Demokratike” Albanian Post Enterprise

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