President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, began his visit to Israel Yesterday at 11:00 a.m. (local time), the President of the Republic of Albania, Mr. Sali Berisha, Mrs. Berisha and the government delegation accompanying him arrived at Tel Aviv airport. From there, President Berisha headed to Jerusalem. At 12:00 noon the official welcome ceremony for President Berisha took place in Jerusalem. Present were the President of Israel, Vajsman, Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Barak, etc. Greeting President Berisha, President Vajsman described his visit as a historic event, taking place in a very important period for Israel and the Middle East. It is our chance, he stressed, to improve relations that had remained forgotten until 1990. The Israeli people never forget that during a difficult period of the Second World War they found protection and true hospitality among Albanians. I, he said, assure you and everyone of very valuable future cooperation and partnership for Israel and Albania. For his part, President Berisha, after thanking his host for the welcome and hospitality, praised the support and encouragement Israel has given Albania during the democratic processes. The Albanian people and Israel have always been and will remain friends, and they have a future of cooperation ahead, he stressed. He then congratulated them on the success of the Pristina–Belgrade dialogue process as the path toward an acceptable solution to the Kosovo issue. The Israeli Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, told President Berisha that his visit comes at the right time to promote relations which are of particular importance; he said that we value not only the traditional friendly ties, but also the tireless efforts to consolidate democracy in Albania, the favorable economic indicators, and the tolerant spirit of the Albanians. He expressed the readiness of the Israeli government to take relations further. Prime Minister Peres also touched on the peace process in the Middle East, where Israel is engaged in a series of talks with its neighbors, which are progressing positively; in this context, Peres also praised the fact that Albania supported dialogue for the solution of the Kosovo issue. Later, Berisha and Peres signed the agreement for the promotion and protection of mutual investments as well as the agreement for training courses for various sectors. In honor of President Berisha's visit, Prime Minister Shimon Peres hosted a lunch. Prime Minister Shimon Peres, in an interview given to Albanian television, praised Albania's achievements and the role of President Berisha, calling him a successful man of reform. President Berisha visits the Israeli Knesset At 12:30 p.m. President Berisha held a working meeting with Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and Mr. Peres described President Berisha's visit as a historic event for our two peoples and countries. Our peoples, President Berisha stressed, are bound by feelings of traditional friendship and cooperation; the relations between our two countries are steadily advancing, he said. Giving a comprehensive overview, President Berisha briefly presented Albania's achievements in implementing economic reforms. He said that the Albanian government is showing special care for cooperation with foreign partners and, in this context, we will greatly value your encouragement of Israeli investors. This visit brought about very positive cooperation and coordination between the two countries. At 4:00 p.m. (local time), Israeli television connected live with the Albanian parliament and the ceremony of raising the Albanian national flag was broadcast in full in the Albanian language. The speaker of parliament, Vajs, in a meeting in his office with President Berisha, and in the conversation between Berisha and Vajs, expressed his conviction about cooperating in parliamentary matters. President Berisha invited the Speaker of the Israeli Parliament to visit Albania. After the visit to the Knesset, President Berisha and the delegation accompanying him visited the museum in Jerusalem, and climbed the Tower of David.

In Parliament, the draft law on elections The People’s Assembly resumed its work in the final session of this legislature (the XIII), and in his opening speech, the chairman of the presidium, Mr. Pjetër Arbnori, proposed that the deputies approve the program of work of the People’s Assembly for the period ahead until the month of March, when the four-year parliamentary mandate ends. During this period, the work calendar will include the review of the draft law on the banking system in the Republic of Albania, on the Bank of Albania, the draft law on free zones, as well as a series of international agreements and other laws. Arbnori, the government has acknowledged that it will send this session to parliament and the draft laws to be submitted that must be completed in this legislature: the civil servant status, the civil procedure code, which is nearing completion, and the law on elections for local government. The hottest point of yesterday’s discussion was the issue of the electoral law, which is scheduled to be discussed within this week. Opposition deputies objected to including in the agenda the discussion of the variant proposed by the PD parliamentary group for this law, insisting on the variant proposed by the round table of 13 political parties. Arbnori stated that the revised draft election law takes into account the basic demands of the 13 parties that the threshold for parliamentary groups’ right to enter parliament should not be raised to 4 percent, as well as a small correction in favor of the majority system. According to this variant, 115 deputies will be elected in constituencies and 25 will be elected from party lists. After both variants were put to a vote, it was decided to discuss the variant proposed by the PD parliamentary group; at the proposal of the chairman of this group, Ali Spahia, the law will pass on Thursday in plenary session. Yesterday’s plenary session took place in a tense atmosphere, where exchanges, insults and even threats were not lacking.

The draft law on electoral matters, just like the electoral campaign itself, is not an act of the feverish struggle that sits atop the power, government and decision-making apparatus by placing the attributes of the last four years in the hands of a particular political force. The start of the electoral campaign is an event that should surprise no one, therefore not even the socialists. The moments now or of power celebration are no longer something that all Albanians should see as normal moments, and not as periods of destabilization, periods of political confusion or rude behavior of this kind, a picture that has been seen at the edges of the socialists in recent days. The new draft law presented in the Democratic Party version will come into force according to democratic procedures. It does not deny the values of the existing version nor does it suspend them; on the contrary, it is a draft law that generously harmonizes the political interests of the ruling representative force with those of the opposition. When people voted on 22 March, they were convinced that there had to be a state with stable functions, so they voted for a four-year period, and neither the laws approved by parliament nor the people themselves in their consciousness thought about reducing the level of interest until they themselves, depending on their preferences, can repeat it or change it. And in the People’s Assembly the draft law of the 13 parties did not win in the vote. Naturally, for those who made this draft law, it is not a victory. But they were opposed and lost through the vote. Whenever they have lost, they have lost in this way. That is what they deserved four years ago and they cannot increase their winning weight as in the election period. To be before defeat means you have won it. The nervousness of the socialists is unnatural for the level Albanian society has reached. The reason lies not so much in the draft law as in their tendency to oppose every legal initiative that comes from the other side of politics. They have been against almost all the fundamental laws dealt with by the Albanian parliament. Starting with the law on human rights and up to the latest law. The essence of this opposition is not the reason of being in opposition, but that they have always shown themselves not as an alternative or as competitors among alternatives. All this opposition can be justified by a sense of importance and by merit, even by itself, as to what order they represent in this case. It is enough to quickly go through the composition of their leadership, the candidates they have presented at the top of the lists, as well as their alternatives covered with a social cloak, to understand that the past lives in this political force with all its dimensions. When Kastriot Islami wrote his pamphlet against the President and the Draft Law on Elections, when he decided to call for a referendum for the salvation of democracy, it seems he should think that this is not the time when the rifles had the democracy of the vitesas at the end of the parliament bell and of him. The attributes of a people through democratic voting cannot be replaced by irresponsibility and socialist irresponsibility. The Democratic Party already holds power. It does not live and does not behave as before. It respects power because it respects democracy and the citizens who entrusted it with this attribute. The method of the oppressed in power and of inferior political forces is a tendency toward a coup d’état. In the conditions of a formed democracy, the democratic government would exercise its power within the limits allowed by democracy. Today's power went beyond that and drowned social issues. Even if a reflection of newspapers like Islami tries to transform its illness onto the masses. Socialist Albania is covering an electoral campaign that is a great lack of political civilization in opposition conditions. Their display of disrespect for democratic laws is yet another sign that they find it easy to misuse power as well.

A parliamentary commission will be set up to clarify the political-financial scandal that has broken out in the Albanian and foreign press concerning Serbian subsidies for the newspaper Koha Jonë and the Socialist Party. The chairman of the parliamentary mass-media commission, Uran Butka, who made this proposal to parliament, said that parliament should take into consideration the published request of the Association of Journalists of Albania for the creation of a temporary parliamentary commission to verify these public accusations and determine whether they are true, as well as to ensure the normal work of press workers, who over this issue have been placed in the background and subjected to provocations arranged by those accused. A few days ago, the newspapers RD and Albania had published information obtained from the press and information office of Pietro Zanoni in Italy, in which it was reported that the secret services of Serbia had financed deputies and the leadership of the PS as well as the newspaper “Koha jonë”. Butka proposed the PD candidates for the parliamentary commission, which would be composed of 5 members: Roland Tafili, Fadil Çepele and Luan Skuqi.

Today in Strasbourg : Talks on Albania’s association with the EU Immediately after Albania’s membership in the Council of Europe, it was France which, as it held the current EU presidency, responded positively to Albania’s request to start talks on reaching an association agreement with the EU. French Prime Minister Alain Jure assured Albania of the support of the French government in reaching the agreement. A few days earlier, Italy, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, expressed the same position in favor of reaching an association agreement between Albania and the EU. Italy’s Foreign Minister, Susanna Anjeli, at her meeting in Strasbourg, praised the start of talks between Albania and the EU as one of the basic priorities of European policy toward Albania. Albania is particularly interested, and the EU’s care for it must be completely special, declared Ms. Anjeli at the meeting, expressing her conviction that the negotiations for reaching the association agreement would begin within a short time. Meanwhile, today, just a few days after Ms. Anjeli’s arrival, the government delegation from Albania will depart for Strasbourg for talks on reaching the association agreement with the EU. Favorable economic indicators as well as political stability in Albania are two of the main factors that have prompted the EU to begin discussions on Albania’s further integration into the new European security architecture. Albania’s growing trade, just like the trade of all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the European Union, is seen by Western analysts as a necessity for guaranteeing the security and stability of Europe. Yes, let us emphasize that this is a process that will move forward only in stages. B.KASMI

IRA survey -For politicians such as Ceka, Gjinushi and Imami, a large percentage of people answer: “We do not know them at all” -The generals of the dead armies take revenge by attacking the Republican Institute p.3

On 5 February The PDSH National Council will meet Yesterday afternoon, the leadership of the PDSH decided that on 5.02.1996 the meeting of the PDSH National Council would be convened with the following agenda: “Preparation for the Third Ordinary National Congress of the PDSH”. PDSH spokesperson

Zannoni refutes “KJ” “I have not been manipulated by anyone” I am sorry that someone is trying to mislead my information I get my information from inside the PS p.3