With the chairman of the PD branch in Fier, Mr. Belul Çelo

Interview with Mr. Arben Gabraj, member of the FRPD presidium

Dr. ILIR YZEIRI Events in the political life of Albania and of the pan-Albanian space have now, at the end of summer, become newspaper subjects and have been viewed from several angles. After Berisha’s speech at the Tirana branch conference of the DP, the anti-Berisha noise and rhetoric were reactivated with renewed intensity; all the left-wing, self-proclaimed independent newspapers, “under the enlightened and farsighted leadership of ZP,” filled and blackened their pages with a flood of articles against Berisha, wanting on this occasion to rekindle once again their indelible allergy to the DP and the democratic Government. As soon as the change in the Meksi cabinet took place, and it was said that for the first time a woman minister had joined that cabinet, the propaganda machine rushed to the quarry of rumors and brought out stones of “corruption,” giving the new minister a place of honor in the wagon of gravel, hatred and insult. The process of recolonizing Kosovo also attracted attention. At this point, it is worth noting the announced divorce of the bourgeois politicians of the PAD, and considering the extensive space the self-proclaimed independent press is giving to “sincere” interviews, in the name of informational “objectivity,” with representatives of the Belgrade embassies or others—interviews in which the reader can easily understand, at the very least, that they are dutifully providing the answers expected of them. Perhaps he needs long occupations... somewhere on the coast, so that he can find the shores—unless it is the Kosovars whom, according to him, Berisha will send there. Thus, from every direction, there seems to be feverish impatience to celebrate a prepared trap; there seems to be enthusiasm for celebrating..., but, indeed, for celebrating DEFEAT. SP? At the DP conference for Tirana, Berisha stated that after the referendum the DP had managed to record a series of achievements and had proved capable and competent by implementing a series of good reforms... This reality demonstrated the vitality of the DP and the strength of the Government and, on the other hand, showed that the opposing alternatives had consoled themselves only with the victory of defeat. This was not a contest or duel between individuals; there is always a contest and duel between alternatives. It is the DP’s program and alternative that ensure a high pace of reforms and produce successes, because, as Sartori says, “liberal democracy also produces disappointments, but it does not betray you.” The certainty of the DP’s program stems from its alternative of profound economic reform, and the most renowned theorists of contemporary politics argue that the alternative of Western socialism is a possibility of defeat and an alternative that acts as a brake. We need only remind our socialists that even if, for a moment, we were to forget the heavy baggage carried on the shoulders of the daughter of the PP, the SP—even if we were to bring it into harmony with the present-day situation, unfortunately, and with the SP whose, regrettably, indelible Enverist fantasies keep it alive—if we were to forget all this and consider the alternative of European socialism, and suppose for a moment that our socialists turned out to be European like those there, unfortunately we would find that in this case we must prepare to celebrate another new defeat. Specifically: The DP’s economic reform alternative is based on the principle of profound reform and on transforming the centralized market economy into an economy of private initiative. The European socialist alternative, and therefore that of our socialists at best, is based on what is called market planning. The formula “market planning,” according to Lindblom, falls within the sphere of “market socialism.” And he continues: “In the market system, production is directed by consumers’ purchases, that is, by consumer sovereignty; in the project of ‘planner sovereignty,’ according to Lindblom, production, the state. In essence, the state commands ‘by buying,’ and this happens because the government is the sole buyer of all final products. ...The authority of the Government will (Continued on page 2) of ‘planner sovereignty,’ according to Lindblom, production, collectivism to the individual, is the great change that has ever taken place in Albania. There is no doubt that this is a very great step forward in our democratic development; collectivist, communist concepts have given way to the human being as an individual. One need only look at the new vision Albanians now have of their country and their European aspirations for the society they want to build. This is a greater misfortune than political economic doctrine. The free individual. It is this individual who will have his say at the ballot box, not the group; therefore, improving and reconsolidating all our structures wherever they may be, with a focus on individual work, house by house and neighborhood by neighborhood, remains our principal task for the period left before the elections. A detailed understanding of the electorate’s situation, house by house, away from broad and noisy campaigning, remains an extremely important duty of every member and executive committee member of the DP branch, Mr. Shehu emphasized afterward. He further said that developments in the country are positive and will remain so until 1996. Another problem we must address is [Text begins mid-word] ...of the PAD’s observational [appointments/communications?], and consideration should be given to the extensive space the independent press is devoting to interviews with “singers” in the name of informational “objectivity,” featuring representatives of embassies in Belgrade or someone else. In these interviews, the attentive reader can readily see attempts to reconcile views between our “cosmopolitan” opinion, represented—almost inadvertently—in newspaper pages, and the official opinion of Belgrade. As for the efforts of some journalist who has spent three years dreaming of Berisha and telling anecdotal stories about dictators and dictatorships, civil wars and bogeymen, I think it is not ... ...which even the harshest critics cannot deny. He also stated that the PS, on the one hand, and its allies, on the other, failed because none of what they preached or condemned was [unclear: “nga liberalizimi total i saj”]. As for the PS’s alternative, even if we were to believe the theories of its so-called moderate leaders, it is doomed to fail. This is borne out by ...

MARX

Meeting of the DP Branch Executive Committee Attended by Messrs. Tritan Shehu and Ali Spahia Lorenc Luka, the new chairman of the Shkoder DP branch, opened yesterday’s meeting of the branch executive committee, attended by the Secretary-General of the PDSH, Mr. Tritan Shehu; the deputy chairman of the PDSH and MP Spahia; Pepa, Ujka, and others. “The time has now come for everyone to clearly understand the role and responsibility they have in leading the DP in Shkoder,” said Secretary-General Mr. Shehu as he took the floor. “Your work down at the grassroots, in sections and subsection groups, dedicating yourselves to work on renewal, improvements and necessary corrections, must be your priority,” Shehu told members of the Shkoder DP branch executive committee. The psychological changes that have taken place in people today are so great that they could not have been imagined three or four years ago. The shift in outlook from the collective to the individual is the greatest change ever to have occurred the society they want to build. Speaking at this meeting of the Shkoder DP branch executive committee, the deputy chairman of the PDSH and Shkoder MP, Mr. Ali Spahia, emphasized that we must convince our electorate of the certain victory of the democratic forces. Far from euphoria and pessimism, confidence in victory and total mobilization are necessities for the period remaining until the spring 1996 elections. Mr. Filip Guraziu, the mayor of Shkoder, also spoke about certain features of organizational work, in accordance with the specific conditions of each district, and about improving the experience of Western center-right parties. Among others, Mr. Pjeter Kroni strongly raised the need to publish a democratic newspaper in Shkoder. MP and DP press chief Mr. Pjeter Pepa then also spoke in support of this idea and of propaganda and press work in general. Messrs. Ali Kazazi, chairman of the district council; MP Uka; Bujar Hoti, secretary of the Shkoder DP branch; Valentin Pali; Mark Marku; Elvira Daberaku of the women’s forum; Kolin Gjoka of the FRPD; and others also spoke. DYLYEMAN KARAJ

During the meeting he held yesterday with German Bundestag member Mr. Schulz, a member of the Defence Committee, President Berisha praised the growing cooperation between the two countries and thanked Germany for the considerable support it has given Albania, including in the military field. Mr. Schulz expressed his appreciation for the reform undertaken in the Albanian army and confirmed support in Germany for Albania, which, as a European country, must integrate further into Europe and the West. Press and Information Office at the President’s Office

During his stay in Germany, the Chairman of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, Mr. Pjeter Arbnori, met with the President of the Hamburg Land Parliament, Ms. Ute Pape. Emphasizing the further deepening of Albanian-German relations, the conversation also addressed the current situation in the Balkan region, and both sides expressed their willingness and joint efforts to prevent the war from spreading to the south of the peninsula. Special attention was devoted to the acute danger of colonizing Kosovo with Serbian refugees, which would constitute a dangerous precedent for increasing tensions. For her part, Ms. Ute Pape reiterated German support for democracy in Albania. Chairman Arbnori also met in Hamburg with representatives of the LDK in Germany and members of other Albanian clubs, who expressed to Mr. Arbnori their gratitude for the Albanian state’s national policy and assured him of their full support.

When it is said that the SP retained the PPSH to the very end, “from the bekt to the fingernails,” as the singer of the “wild left,” Dritero, puts it, this should not be dismissed as cynicism or revenge. This opinion and assertion has a basis: it is supported by evidence arising from the actions and image carried by a political entity or party. Why is there an opinion that the SP is the PPSH, and, second, that the SP is a fierce bearer of political destructiveness? Both these observations are supported by events and consequences that clarify not only the manner of the SP’s “birth,” but also what constitutes its basis or “substance.” And, further still, what sort of substance has been used in the construction the SP has created for itself (in fact, presents as having occurred)? Let us examine things in order. In this article we will not discuss the Ramiz-era schemes and maneuverings to create this party, although Mr. Agolli or Mr. Zego may wish to keep these scenes hidden deep in the labyrinths of their communist mentality. In this article we will describe only those facts, those visible parts of the SP’s actions that we can see in all the dynamics of its “transformation” and “renewal.” Specifically: How was the SP created, why did it take this name and not another, why was it not founded from scratch like all the other parties, and so on. How the SP was formed and “born” was shown by the script drawn up in the “red fortress,” almost directly opposite the building where the communists had gathered. But the scripts for the “triumphant conferences” that gave birth to the “new left,” which “from the very beginning began climbing upward” through the “reaction” of the chemical-physical “transformation” of the most conservative communists into the “socialist left,” were something else entirely. This script was so confused that even the communists themselves, now called socialists, had not fully understood it. Not only were they unconvinced, but they did not believe they were “socialists.” The very hall where they gathered to “give birth” split into many tragic and comic “scenes” and “actors.” People such as Dritero Agolli and Moikom Zeqo, who kept Ramiz’s “secret treaties” inside them, wrote in code, as in De Rada’s ballads. Thus the entire “Congress of the birth” of the “Socialist Girl” turned into wails and onomatopoeic exclamations... Second, where did the conservative communists go—the ones who had divided into factions and fought one another for “Enver’s ideal and the PPSH”?!... Where did the ordinary people, the “gallows-and-rope” types, go—the ones who had no human characteristic beyond their desire for the PPSH? Where did the criminal investigators, prosecutors and guards go, who with pistols and knives brutally bloodied the square during the “Triumph of February ’91”?!... After a few days, they all “accepted” the SP platform and became its members. And this was no small contingent. Third, can some “mature” socialist explain to us how the Euro-socialists do not know what is going on in their party, where around 9,650 former State Security officers and more than 8,600 others of the same kind, but at the rank of sergeant in the secret police, became members?!... And what about the thousands upon thousands of State Security agents? And, strangely enough, at the very least, if they were ordinary members of the SP, most of them lead SP organizations and councils at the center and at the grassroots. Ruci is the secretary-general. Fourth, it is known that some old and honest communists joined the SP, whether because of their mentality or tradition, or because that was what they were accustomed to. In this way new members were also brought in; some of them formed a contingent of young people, some of whom were unconvinced and did not believe they were “socialists.” (Continued on page 2)

Prec Zogaj, a self-declared former collaborator of the State Security, now a member of the PAD leadership and director of the newspaper “Aleanca,” calls on DP members whom, according to him, are “disappointed” to go over to the PAD in an editorial published yesterday in his newspaper. Zogaj, who apparently measures everyone by his own yardstick, is addressing mainly those former DP leaders who were not reelected in the recently concluded elections. But “çiftelia” forgets that these people are respected individuals who have contributed and will continue to contribute to the DP, the party of the Democrats, and cannot follow R. Alia’s puppets. It seems Zogaj (who signs under a pseudonym, though not his well-known pseudonym “çiftelia”) thought the time had come to add some members to his little party, which is known as a party led by former State Security collaborators. Perhaps for this purpose, Zogaj and his associates are spreading the claim that those removed from leadership of the DP branches were former State Security collaborators. New elections within a party are a normal process for renewing a party and creating genuine democratic opportunities within it. It is no coincidence that the DP’s statute specifies that a branch chairman cannot be elected more than twice consecutively, but such processes are abnormal to “çiftelia” and its masters. Now, after daring to insult the former DP elected officials by calling them State Security collaborators, he and his associates dare to insult them again by inviting them to join a grouping (since it cannot be called a party) which not only failed to carry out the mission assigned to it by Alia, but has now been so thoroughly discredited in the eyes of the public that it can no longer find a patron to sell itself to. If there is any need for the honest members of the PAD, tomorrow, when the law forbids State Security servants from meddling in politics, it will be left naked in a grouping without leaders.

At the invitation of Greek Foreign Minister Karolos Papulias, Albanian Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi will pay an official visit to Athens from 31 August to 1 September. Official sources at the Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Albanian-Greek talks would focus on assessing bilateral relations and their prospects, the situation in the Balkan region, and cooperation between Albania and Greece in multilateral affairs. During the visit, Foreign Ministers Papulias and Serreqi are expected to sign an agreement on seasonal employment between the two countries. The Albanian Foreign Minister is expected to be received in separate meetings by other senior Greek officials. ATSH

Albania and Egypt are expected to sign their civil aviation agreement on Sunday, 27 August—the Albanian Foreign Minister, Alfred Serreqi, will make an official visit to Athens from 27 August to 1 September. Albania and Egypt are expected to sign their civil aviation agreement on Sunday, 27 August. The agreement will be signed during the official visit that Egyptian Foreign Minister AMR Moussa will begin on Sunday. He is arriving at the invitation of his Albanian counterpart, Alfred Serreqi. According to the protocol, the Egyptian Foreign Minister is scheduled to be received by Albania’s highest-ranking officials, and at the end of the visit the two foreign ministers will address journalists at a joint press conference. ATSH

The commander of the Italian frigate Sagittario, Roberto Viaggia, hosted a cocktail reception aboard the ship this evening. Those attending included Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi, Deputy Minister of Defence Alfred Moisiu, incumbent members of the local government of Durres, and others. Also present were Italy’s ambassador in Tirana, Paolo Foresti, and the Italian military attaché at the Embassy, Sergio Russo. The Italian frigate will take part in a joint exercise with our naval fleet forces.

By EDI PILAVERI