Judges in panic: who will be dismissed in the name of “secrecy” ON PAGE 4

Today, a large rally in central Tirana Today, on 12. 2. 1999, a grand rally is being organized in “Skënderbej” Square to protest against the government, which continues to conceal the killers of Azem Hajdari, the hero of democracy and tribune of Albanian nationalism. Today, on 12 February 1998, five months will have passed since the day the ruling clique killed the hero of December ’90, the hero of Albanian pluralism, Azem Hajdari. Everyone in the square to defend pluralism, everyone in the square to restore democracy to Albania, everyone in the square against the government that protects Azem’s killers, against the government of misery. Brothers and sisters, today, on 12.2.1999, at 12.00, all together in “Skënderbej” Square.

“Income tax” gathers the local and foreign business community. Businesspeople write to Majko about the law The law is unconstitutional and, if implemented, all enterprises will close, and only hidden activities may survive—those that have not paid taxes so far and will continue not to pay them.

By Sami NEZA In Rambouillet, it has still not been clearly established whether the leaders and monitors of the conference believe there should be peace in Kosovo or freedom in Kosovo. The statements made so far by the conference leaders have made the text of the agreement clear to the public; according to advisers to both sides, it must change in substance. The Serbian changes aim to reduce Kosovo’s degree of self-government, while the Albanian changes aim to increase this degree of governance. The truth is that a percentage of the agreement had already been accepted by Prishtina and Beograd, while another percentage of it will bear Rambouillet’s seal, or will be different; another part is also different... The most important part of the agreement is also different, and it is from this that the distance between Kosovo and Beograd is built. Depending on its scope, Kosovo will have peace, which is a much smaller reward than freedom, even if at a more modest price, or Kosovo will have the freedom it seeks, for which work has been done since 1913, when, in another Rambouillet, at another time, in other circumstances, Albania was partitioned. So far, it seems the greatest confusion lies in the narrow timeframe in which the Rambouillet conference has been placed. The statements coming from its leaders give the impression that Kosovo’s problem has existed only for 11 months, forgetting that Kosovo is an Albanian and Balkan problem, just as much as it is a European problem, from the day Albania was established as an Albanian state. By addressing Kosovo’s problem within this strange time interval, serious mistakes can be made that lead to prolonging the conference and producing vague decisions from it. It also seems that the decisions may require some public gesture to remind public opinion that Kosovo has been occupied by the Serbs and that such an occupation was ended under conditions that were by no means favorable to the Albanian nation. Instead of such a gesture being made by the Albanians, who have ample historical occasions to do so for Kosovo, it is made by two Serbian representatives, who arrive in Rambouillet dressed in the guise of moderate anti-Milošević figures, while beneath their robes they carry the Orthodox fundamentalism they want to cultivate in a land that, at present, in the past, ten years ago, before the 14th century, and long before that, has neither had nor possesses any substance to nourish or sustain such a profound religious foundation. History would serve Rambouillet not to confuse things, as the history of the Balkans is considered to do, but to explain them. In Kosovo’s case, it is clear, beyond comment, and filled with resources of great value for a conference seeking just decisions. No conference leader, much less the delegations, still less other alliances and regions, can claim authority over the history of Kosovo and the Albanian nation in the Balkans. In recent days, the European allies and Serbia, the state and its diplomacy, have been intermediaries in the actions of Greek Foreign Minister Pangalos, a fierce anti-Albanian fighter; meanwhile, if they give the Rambouillet conference a positive impetus, they do so also with anti-national aims. This case, too, confirms the way in which the Serbs seek to falsify the history of the events at Rambouillet through religious fascism and the use of the Orthodox arsenal against a solution to the Kosovo problem. Rambouillet must unblock these instruments that remain in the Serbian ideology and thus provide a true picture of it.

Pollo and Arb­nori at Çela’s house (above) and Zhulali’s house (below)

PD accuses the political prosecution of postponing Spahia’s trial ON PAGE 3 The Prime Minister responds negatively to PD’s request Majko backs the gang

US warns it will bomb Serbian facilities The Chairman of the PDSH, Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha, welcomed the statement by the Secretary of State, Ms. Albright, in which she announced the bombing of Serbian facilities if the Serbs in Rambouillet do not sign the agreement. This is, Berisha stressed, the only way to stop the war in Kosovo, the great humanitarian catastrophe, and to implement the agreement, whose draft constitutes a serious basis for a temporary three-year solution to the

Serbs and Albanians divide the international community over the key issues in the talks – The agreement takes Serbia out of Kosovo, but not Kosovo out of Serbia. – If NATO has decided not to bomb, then the Albanians may be declared responsible for the failure of the talks in order to justify inaction By Mero BAZE, Rambuje ON PAGE 3

The Prime Minister responds negatively to the PD’s request Majko finds no occasion to distance himself from the inspiration he gave this caste of dictatorship prosecutors when he took power from Nano, standing before the Kalashnikov-wielding deputies and declaring that “he would punish the perpetrators of the September 14 coup d’état.” Without making a statement, Majko supports the latest act by the Political Prosecutor’s Office and Fatos Klosi’s SHIK to bring the opposition’s activities, and especially those of its leader, under control. ON PAGE 3

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The Albanian chief of police has appointed the PS’s nominees to head road traffic ON PAGE 4

Today, 153 days since the murder of the December Leader Every day that passes since the murder of Azem Hajdari, the symbol of democracy and pluralism, proves the involvement of Fatos Nano’s government and its successor in the crime that shocked the entire Albanian world. The governments of the former communists, which leave free and undisturbed the criminals who took the life of the December Leader, show Albanians that they have been and remain on the side of the killers, who have names of their own but are untouched by those in power. Democrats and all Albanians who loved and honored Azem Hajdari cannot tolerate this fact under any circumstances. The government must either capture the criminals and bring them to justice, or publicly declare that it itself committed the murder of Azem Hajdari.

Condolence message from PD chairman Berisha to President Rugova, the KLA General Staff, and the parents and families of the martyrs of Reçak Today, with deep sorrow, mourning, tears and bitter grief, you covered with cold earth on the hill near the village of Reçak the bodies of your beloved children, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers, massacred by the barbarians. Today, all Albanians in Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and the diaspora have joined you in mourning, pain, weeping and profound grief. But I am certain that today your pain has also been shared by all civilized people in Europe and around the world, who cannot accept the massacre and barbarity, the extermination of innocent people simply because they belong to another nation. But today the whole world, without exception, saw all the ugliness of the barbarians who kill and massacre innocent people, mutilate bodies and hold the dead hostage—a compelling piece of evidence of a primitive nationalism nurtured in the darkest faculties of human instinct. The barbarians who cut short the lives of your loved ones, removed their organs and severed their limbs according to their sub-human code did nothing to extinguish the light of the souls of your loved ones. Thus, today you laid your dearest people in the cold earth, but the crest of your village will remain, for the entire Albanian nation, an enduring monument to our martyrs. Tonight, the mutilated bodies of your dearest people lie beneath your village’s frozen hill, but their souls rest in our national flag, in the warm nests of your hearts and the hearts of millions of Albanians. They rest, and will continue to rest, in the nest of the spirit of all those who feel themselves to be Albanian, as a light of the freedom and future that Albanians deserve. Nothing can compensate for the loss of your loved ones, but I believe the greatest consolation for you and for every Albanian lies in the radiant call of their souls: Let us be together, so that together we may stand against the barbarians who want to exterminate our national being piece by piece. Today you laid the massacred bodies of your dearest people in the cold soil of Reçak. But their souls stand as a radiant call in Rambuje and in all the great chancelleries of the world. They call on the civilized world not to give in to barbarity, but to inflict upon the barbarians the punishment they deserve. Eternal honor to the martyrs of Reçak. The martyrs of Reçak and all those who fell for freedom invite us, through their sublime sacrifice, not to forget that the greatest wisdom of the individual and of a civilized nation is to avoid war when it can be avoided; likewise, the greatest wisdom of the individual is to unite and wage war when it cannot be avoided, and to win it before the barbarians exterminate them piece by piece.

of the State Department, Mrs. Ollbrajt, in which she announced the bombing of Serbian targets if the Serbs in Rambuje do not sign the agreement. This, Berisha stresses, is great human catastrophe, and to implement the agreement, whose plan the Kosovo problem. Surveillance of Berisha undermines dialogue Majko is a prime minister who is obeyed neither by SHIK, nor by the prosecutor’s office, nor by the police, nor by his cabinet subordinates ON PAGE 3

Pollo and Arb­nori at Çela’s house (above) and Zhulali’s house (below)