The American television network CNN reports PRISTINA, 21 February The American television network CNN, citing a report from Norway, announced last night that among the candidates nominated this year for the Nobel Peace Prize is the president of the Republic of Kosovo, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, reports the Kosovo Information Center. Furthermore, CNN’s report said that other candidates include former US President Jimmy Carter, the architect of the agreement for Bosnia, Richard Holbrooke, as well as other activists who have contributed to peace in the world.

President Berisha meets residents of Dibër The Democratic Party’s program offers an alternative for overcoming all difficulties, and together we will overcome them; we will accelerate enrichment and prosperity, and speed up growth in ... all the families that may have left their apartments in these schemes, place everyone without income on social assistance, and likewise speed up the privatization of the economy as a whole ... a handful of defeated chair-seekers who suggest a coalition government with the communists as the solution. Communism can never return. Therefore, on this occasion, I wish to warn these new adventurers, from a ... enrichment and prosperity, and speed up the growth of the well-being of every Albanian and Dibër family. I want to assure you that the Democratic Party, recognizing its own responsibility and the responsibility of citizens who put their money into fraudulent foundations and usury firms, will commit all its strength to compensating for these losses through rapid economic development. We pledge that within this year we will resolve all privatization problems, complete unfinished projects, provide loans to all put all those without income on social assistance, and likewise accelerate the privatization of the Albanian economy as a whole. I call on all lenders not to turn their economic demands into political demands, because while we are determined to address legitimate economic demands with every means at our disposal and to reduce losses and suffering, we are just as determined to reject political manipulation for nefarious purposes. “I express my deepest gratitude to you for this fraternal welcome,” said President Berisha, taking the floor before tens of thousands of citizens of Dibër who had come out to welcome the President to the city of Peshkopi. At this moment, more than anything else, this shows that you, democratic and freedom-loving citizens of Dibër, are determined to uphold democracy and its values. “I came here to you,” President Berisha said, “not for a rally, but to express my deepest gratitude for this hospitality. I came here to you, first and foremost, to express my most sincere solidarity with all the lenders of Dibër and, indeed, of Albania who have lost money in the fraudulent schemes. But I came here fully convinced that your wisdom and your democratic, freedom-loving feelings will not accept, and can never accept, turning the loss of a debt into a trap for Albanian democracy. I also came here aware that losing money is a painful loss. But freedom is that magical force with which we will achieve much more. difficulties, and together we will overcome them, accelerate well-being of every Albanian and Dibër family,” President Berisha said in his speech. “Once again, I wish to emphasize here before you that the Government, the President, Parliament, and all political forces bear undeniable responsibility for this fraud. But I believe that your wisdom makes it very clear to you that the difference between someone who makes a mistake and commits to correcting it and someone who does not acknowledge his mistake is the difference between an honest person and a dishonest one, between an honest person and a hypocrite; and these are the two principal positions being declared today among the political forces. all “Citizens of Dibër! While the Government and Parliament have committed themselves honestly and devotedly to resolving the problems that have arisen, other political forces—those who remain silent, who built the pyramid schemes and campaigned on them—have decided to try at all costs to turn the country into a graveyard of Albanian democracy. I assure you that I will bear witness. To achieve this aim, they organized barricades, violence, arson, and destruction, hoping in this way to bring down the government elected by free vote. But when they received the condemnation and curse of Albanian public opinion, they changed tactics. Today these adventurers and manipulators exploit the desperation of the unfortunate and seek to replace citizens’ legitimate and lawful economic demands with political demands. And finally, dear citizens of Dibër, they have gathered together a handful of defeated seat-seekers wish to warn these adventurers to stop the violence, because violence as their tool has failed completely, and they will face severe consequences under the law. Secondly, determined to reject political manipulation for nefarious purposes. The manipulators will bear the responsibility. Finally, to those who suggest a socialist government of salvation, I say here before you that their red dreams will never come true. We are and will remain a center-right party, without any compromise with the extreme left. “Once again, I thank you from the heart for this fraternal welcome, and I assure you that we will make the utmost efforts to emerge from this usury spiral completely and in good health. I assure you that the pace of development will be much faster than in the past four years, and that every day we will become better.”

. At this time of crisis, caused by the collapse of the pyramid schemes, the racist irresponsibility of swindlers and reckless people has awakened—people who, unfortunately, have never been absent from Albania. These contingents, faded by time but nevertheless still alive, come from the left-wing traitors who, as always, have operated counter to the course of Albanian life and to its detriment. Rarely has Albanian politics called for the replacement of financial fraud with political fraud. This fraud is so extensive that even Kura has come to be regarded by people as the president of ten parties. The man who stole the homes of political prisoners and their funds now wants to steal the Albanians’ pain as well. In the same vein is the dissident, embittered by his defeat, Fatos Lubonja, as is the translator Daut Gumeni, who has been declared prime minister in a government list originating from the Forum’s offices. Political fraud and oratory do not stop with these ignorant, blameless figures, whether because of their irresponsibility or because they are being misused. It extends through the political parties, starting with the Socialist Party and going as far as another party ... whose chairman was a man with a hoarse voice and a vocabulary consisting of two slogans. Dokle has created four catchphrases that he carries around to all the rallies, to make up somewhat for the deficiencies in his logical and political vocabulary, thinking that people have forgotten the 400 thousand dollars he stole a few years ago. Other leaders of the PS follow in his footsteps, not to mention Enver’s poet, Dritëro Agolli, whose aim is to keep Albanians in the shadow and the gloom of his doggerel. While Albanians are experiencing the pain of losing their money, Neritan Ceka gives a Serbian lesson before Socialist rally-goers, educating them just as they were educated fifty years ago in the mountains of Serbia, ubashtë. His party was sponsored by the Arkon pyramid scheme, and it is this party’s responsibility to return the money—which is no small amount—to the people of Selanecë. This cannot be justified by the coffees he drank with the Serbian ambassador in a bar on the outskirts of Tirana, nor by bringing him to soldiers’ rallies precisely to give such lessons, and not at all to address people’s problems. It is not honorable for Gjinushi to ask for his 25 thousand dollars in front of dozens of people who have lost even the little they had. He ought instead to acquire twice or three times as much moral integrity. He should show how much he was paid to appear before the crowds. At the very least, he should say how many sheikhs his father burned in Llap, Kosovo, together with the Serbs in 1945. When people are in trouble, they are inclined to listen to how those troubles might be resolved. They may also be inclined to follow someone who promises a solution, even when that promise does not actually offer a solution, and even when the proposed solution relies on falsehood. Whether people’s dignity is abused or exploited in such a way as to diminish it depends on one’s morals. Albania has not seen such shamelessness from political groupings for a long time—not among the hidden and the ugly things done to others. The Albanian left is accustomed, and its theory is, to building its politics on disgrace; but for this to happen on such a large scale among the people is specific to the Albanian left alone. Although they have conceived of this temporarily turbulent period as a time for deception, they will achieve nothing but their own disillusionment when confronted with the truth and the [unclear] of PD governance, leading to effective solutions for those who have lost their money. Ordinary swindlers have never been greater than the ground on which they built their fraud. Let all the extreme leftists, together with that sorry Forum, understand clearly that this ground is as vital as it is a boomerang for them. The period they have imagined as the breaking of the egg to [unclear] this country is a short interval that will bring every ill-omened scheme against the country and the Albanians to an end.

The Democratic Party’s program offers an alternative for overcoming all difficulties, and together we will overcome them; we will accelerate enrichment and prosperity, and speed up growth in

The Democratic Party’s program offers an alternative for overcoming all difficulties, and together we will overcome them; we will accelerate enrichment and prosperity, and speed up the growth of the well-being of every Albanian and Dibër family.

[Photograph of a crowd with banners; the text on the banners is partly illegible.] Photograph of citizens holding banners in Dibër.