Around 30,000 students demonstrated yesterday in the streets of Belgrade Shyësli hopes for a new beginning for Belgrade without Milošević Serbian information minister resigns Macedonia concerned by events in Serbia PAGE 6

Conflict continues between the different groups within the SP Students—the hope of democracy in Serbia Presidency: We will punish Tirana For the twentieth consecutive day, protests continue in the streets of Belgrade and Serbia’s main cities. One of the opposition leaders, Drashkoviqi, has stated that demonstrations by Serbian citizens will continue until the two conditions they have set are met: recognition of the election results wherever the opposition won, including Belgrade, and freedom of the press. Yesterday he also announced the formation of a shadow government, which will function if Millosheviqi is unwilling to meet the opposition’s demands. But in any case, the tone of these demonstrations is set by the students. The Serbian December protesters, around thirty thousand of them demonstrating ceaselessly in the streets of Belgrade, are greeted by Belgraders and followed with the most sincere enthusiasm by all citizens. Students are precisely the most credible element of the protest and, at the same time, the most visionary aspect of these unceasing demonstrations. Their participation in the democratic struggle against Millosheviqi’s dictatorial, communist and chauvinist regime is significant. Their participation is essential to hoping that these demonstrations will end with a result in favour of democracy in Serbia, and of peace and stability in the Balkans. Today they are the only element in the Serbian state capable of changing the regime’s temperament and the psychology fashioned by Millosheviqi against other peoples. A democracy born of students is a historic moment and an act directly connected with the future. No one but them can create a vision of Serbia that can be described differently from the image it has presented of itself: militaristic, chauvinist and communist. Their taking to the streets is a good sign for Serbia. Young people have more reason to build a country that can more readily be called a friend rather than an enemy. They can rebuild, or build, the psychology of the country and its people to the point where they seem normal in the Balkans. Thus the “gunpowder” peninsula would feel less alarmed, having shed a harsh sound that has continually come from its northeast. Serbs themselves would also feel more at ease in history, and the ancient peoples of the Balkans would have less reason to remember them as latecomers to lands they now inhabit. Nowhere has democracy been more suppressed than in Serbia, and nowhere has its arrival been more necessary. Students are the only ones who have so far not applied any method that could further strengthen the Serbian dictator Millosheviqi. Referring to an analysis of events in Serbia published yesterday in “Le Monde,” it is above all in the students that Europeans place their hope that Serbs, too, will experience democracy. Both Millosheviqi and the opposition have many points of convergence as soon as their political gaze crosses Serbia’s borders and turns to other nations, such as Albanians and Bosniaks. Everyone expects the students to release the accumulated weight of a failed history and to rid themselves of the instinct for war and hostility. Besides the now open conflict between the leadership and some of their grassroots organizations, such as those in Tirana, Lezhë, Korçë, etc., conflict has also erupted with the newspaper “ZP.” According to statements by some of its journalists, the arrival of Llambro Ruci as editor-in-chief means that “ZP” will become like “KJ.”

Press conference at the Democratic League of Kosovo HYDAJET HYSENI: Once again, while highly valuing the continuing commitment of representatives of the Republic of Albania and its new diplomacy to the Kosovo issue, we particularly welcome the clear and unequivocal positions of President Berisha and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tritan Shehu concerning the Kosovo issue. Recent events in Belgrade and Serbia’s other cities are being followed with great attention and interest in Kosovo. The enslaved people of Kosovo have viewed, and continue to view, with sympathy every effort toward genuine democratic change in Serbia; at the same time, they condemn every violation and infringement of individual and collective human rights wherever it occurs, particularly when directed against the right to vote and freedom of the press. The democratization of Serbia is inevitably [corrupt text: “of Serbia, but ...”]. The main criterion by which they assess events and political forces in Serbia is, and cannot but be, the translation into democratic or anti-democratic practice of the unresolved Kosovo issue. Genuine democratic movements also carry within themselves the necessary component of anti-chauvinism. Without a radical change in Serbian policy toward Kosovo, there can be no genuine democratization in Serbia and, consequently, no stability or prosperity for it. genuine democratic changes in Serbia and at the same time condemns wherever they may occur, especially when they are press. The democratization of Serbia in Kosovo is regarded not only as a major internal issue for Serbia and its democratic forces, but also as an important precondition for resolving the unresolved question of Kosovo and for the overall process of stabilizing and democratizing this part of Europe. The Albanians of Kosovo support the democratization of Kosovo and Kosovos. consequently, no stability or prosperity for it. The latest events in Serbia further increase the need not only for a vigilant, serious, and active stance by the democratic and national movement in Kosovo, and for a spirit of unity, coordination, and mobilization among everyone, but also for a more visible international presence in Kosovo and more active preventive engagement.

The connection of the newspaper’s shared telephone numbers was made possible after the presidents of the two journalists’ associations discussed the matter with the director of Telekom. The Journalists’ League and the Association of Professional Journalists asked the director, Rama, to intervene urgently to resolve the situation at “KJ” and restore telephone communication lines. The joint statement by the two journalists’ associations says that Telekom Director General Rama explained that the “KJ” phones had been disconnected because of a shortage of telephone lines. But Rama has managed to unblock “KJ.” Special equipment has been installed near the headquarters of the newspaper “KJ,” making it possible to connect two telephone lines to the newspaper’s existing numbers; the possibility of connecting another number is also being considered.

Yesterday, too, the clash continued between the Tirana leadership and the socialist rank and file in the capital. Yesterday, at the SP headquarters, the party leadership met to make a further change to the head of the SP in Tirana, Musa Ulqini. Attacks on the head socialist of this branch continued for around six hours. Ulqini was accused of having acted entirely on his own in everything he did at the meeting of the Tirana Steering Council. Most of the insults and abuse directed at Ulqini and the Tirana socialists came from Bufi, Brokaj and Islami. Arta X also vented her (political) instincts in the same manner. Arta X went even further, while Lush Përpali also thought this was a coup carried out by Ulqini. They swore they would take revenge on the capital’s socialist steering committee. The Tirana socialists, for their part, organized a meeting of their leaders, where they reiterated that the decision to annul the meeting of the Tirana Steering Committee had been a collective one. They repeated the demands in their report, which called for the resignation of the SP leadership, a review of the second congress and its decisions, and the convening of an extraordinary congress. It was also decided that the meeting would not be held on Saturday, as had been announced on Thursday, but would be postponed until Wednesday—considered enough time for the socialists of one clan to be better prepared than the other clan. Besides the now open conflict between the leadership and some of their grassroots organizations, such as those in Tirana, Lezhë, Korçë, etc., conflict has also erupted with the newspaper “ZP.” According to statements by some of its journalists, the arrival of Llambro Ruci as editor-in-chief means that “ZP” will become like “KJ.”

The SP leadership accused by its own journalists Every night, 3–4 members of our party’s leadership come to the newspaper’s editorial office to influence and control the newspaper’s entire content. The latest move shows that there is an attempt to bring the newspaper under even tighter control and put it at the political service of the group that supports the motion against the party chairman, Mr. Fatos Nano.

Statement by the journalists of the newspaper “Zëri i popullit” Mejdani: “You are hired hands at the newspaper” PAGE 3

An unanswerable historical test PAGE 3