Serbs attack Albania again Albanian military forces responded to the latest Serbian attack on the country’s northern border, making it possible for Milosheviç’s troops to withdraw ON PAGE 2

The train of life has crossed Italy to unload in the city of Kukës ON PAGE 5

By Ismail KADARE Some ominous predictions have been made about the end of the millennium, and yet what is happening these days in the Balkans surpasses every imagining. Right in the middle of Europe, one of its peoples is being barbarously destroyed by its neighbor. This destruction, which brings to mind the times of Genghis Khan, Hitler and Slaviç [?], is carried out by those classic methods: extermination, massacres, deportation. It is supported by a silent solidarity, which at times declares itself under the names Orthodox, Slavic or Communist, and at other times under other names as well. The whole world is witnessing the development of a new racism. Among some peoples who themselves have suffered from racism, among those who were called “Slavs” by the Romans—that is, slaves—revanchist processes of unprecedented scale are taking place. This recycling of crime, this desire of yesterday’s victim to take the place of the executioner, will create serious problems for modern civilization unless it is stopped energetically, even by force. It is perhaps no coincidence that this reappearance of national crime [?] is taking place in the Balkans, a narrow stage for the escalation of punishment for tragedy. The question of whether it can be civilized—in other words, the question “Can the Balkans be Europeanized?”, a question that may seem out of date today—is fundamental and urgent precisely today. The meaning of the war being waged today by the Atlantic Alliance, the armed wing of Western civilization, is connected precisely with this question. Of Europe’s four southern peninsulas, the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), the Apennine Peninsula (Italy), and the Balkan Peninsula have played a leading role in Europe’s fortunes. The first (the Iberian Peninsula) accomplished the greatest event of the centuries: the discovery of America; in other words, it achieved the doubling of the world. The second, the Apennine Peninsula, gave Europe Latin civilization; the third gave birth to Greek civilization, the foundation of the foundations of Western civilization. Meanwhile, the Balkan Peninsula is the one that has brought—and continues to bring—the greatest complications to the present age. It has brought and continues to bring the greatest complications to the present age. It seems as if it still demands compensation for the light it once gave the world, which the world, in its view, has forgotten. In truth, Europe has often forgotten or scorned the Balkans. It should have been the focus of its attention, especially during the five centuries of Ottoman occupation. It was the poets, led above all by George Byron, who remembered the ill fortune of the Greeks, Albanians, Romanians, and South Slavs, and sounded the alarm on their behalf. Meanwhile, a dark baggage was pushed aside, as if into deep pits, in the memories of these peoples. Isolated, separated from their mother continent, they fashioned all kinds of fantasies, myths, and legends, which they themselves began to believe; and not only that, they often declared them national programs. We must not forget that in this great peninsula, as if the mosaic of peoples with languages, religions, and cultures—so rich yet so different—were not enough, lie buried the ruins of three great empires: Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman. And it is known that there are periods when ruins play a significant role in the life of peoples. This explains why, after emerging from bondage, instead of rejoicing in the light of freedom and, in solidarity with one another, setting to work to repair the consequences of catastrophe, they often did the opposite: as if blinded, they attacked one another in the name of those phantoms to which each had some connection within itself. Thus they committed thousands of follies, for which they earned derogatory epithets and, not infrequently, the irritation of Europe and the whole world. The peoples of the Balkans invented and repeated many proverbs and maxims—this being a sign of reassurance that shows an unwillingness to engage seriously with a problem. Winston Churchill’s saying that “The Balkans produce more history than they can consume” is accurate and especially beautiful, but if Churchill, who spent so much energy defending Western civilization, had devoted not a few minutes but a few hours at Yalta to the fate of some Balkan peoples, many things would have been avoided much more easily long ago. Even today we suffer the excavations of the long trench [?] and the replacement of truth with the deliriums of forgetfulness and salon maxims. Even today many basic things are still not clear. It is not unhelpful to know, for example, that the most numerous people are the Romanians, and that the four most numerous peoples—the Romanians, Serbs, Albanians, and Bulgarians—are roughly the same size. The latter means, for example, that together they make up a considerable part of the Balkans; consequently, it can play the role of arbiter at a time when it is smaller than Romania. Disagreements extend across the whole perception of the Balkans. For some, it is a peninsula inhabited generally by Slavs, whereas in reality Slavs make up only a third of the 70 million Balkan inhabitants. This latter deception, propagated from time to time by the Slavs themselves, has served and continues to serve as justification for Russia’s right to intervene in the Balkans. To make the Slavic presence in the Balkans seem credible, it has been cunningly amalgamated with Orthodoxy and the Communist order. Thus, for people who have no time to delve into Balkan complexities, three concepts—Orthodoxy, Communism, and Slavism—have been mixed together to create a “geopolitical monster” like those found in fairy tales. Under such conditions, when deception triumphs over things that are visible and tangible, such as geography, political order, and religion, one can imagine what can be done with the “history” of great events and the great deceptions of Balkan history. It has been falsified in the most monstrous way, and published and supported by racist crime as well. Europe’s largest peninsula might not have been so burdened with darkness [?] had the birthplace of the mother continent been older.

An end must be put to the anti-national policy of the government and the Albanian state media Senior Albanian officials encourage divisive elements within Kosovo’s political and military forces. State TV shuts its screen to Kosovo’s intellectuals and its most popular political figures ON PAGE 7

Bardhyl LONDO The anti-Albanian bomb has now exploded in Macedonia too. The Macedonian government demonstrated an openly antihumanitarian stance, contrary to all international rules, morals, and ethics. The cynicism of President Gligorov in his statement after the Albanians who had arrived from Kosovo were expelled in a direction we still did not know much about, apart from those who came to Albania, was just as cynical and bitter as Milošević’s bombs and reprisals. “Let us go to Albania,” declared the Macedonian head of state, “because that is their homeland.” What difference is there between this declaration by the head of a neighboring state and the cold-blooded cries of Arkan’s paramilitaries, who forcibly drove Kosovars from their homes into barbaric convoys, shouting, “Go to Albania, because that is where you belong!” This outcome of the terrible situation in which the Albanians expelled into Macedonia found themselves had, in a way, been foreshadowed. After being held for about a week at the border in a veritable disgrace for a state that claims it wants to integrate into Europe, those expelled from Kosovo were deceitfully and treacherously put on buses and sent away without being told where they were being taken, just like animals in the Nazi ghettos. The violation of fundamental human rights is blatant. People were used just like animals. Parents were separated from their children, husbands from wives, brothers from sisters, and all this happened after they had been left waiting for about a week without food or water, without bedding or blankets, people reduced by hunger and suffering, left unburied [?]. This is the true face of the Macedonian state. And all this is happening when about 40 percent of Macedonia’s population is Albanian, and when this population, like their brothers and sisters in Albania, were ready and able to take in their brothers and sisters forcibly expelled from their homes. No Albanian allowed the Macedonian police and soldiers’ buses to go to Strugë, Ohër, Kërçovë, Gostivar, etc., where the Albanians living there were waiting to shelter them. Instead of showing the warmth and hospitality that the Macedonian government should have offered a neighboring people struck by a misfortune we would wish on no one, it sent in military units and surrounded them as if they were dealing with an invading horde, even though most of them were women, children, and elderly people, belonging to a people that has not only never attacked foreigners but has always extended a hand of friendship and hospitality to them when they have gone through difficult times.

Families who have sheltered arrivals from Kosovo have received no humanitarian aid Mayor Brojka says, “The central government promised a fund of 2 million lekë, a fund that is insufficient for the 600,000 people in Tirana and the 26,000 arrivals from Kosovo, but so far the government has paid out not a single lek.” ON PAGE 7

Municipal officials in the districts complain — Nobody is helping us; the situation is dire Durrës—Children are sleeping in the streets. Fier complains to the government — We cannot feed the Kosovars with flour alone ON PAGE 5

Kavajë Municipality: Blankets and mattresses are in short supply ON PAGE 5

Associations and the Red Cross are helping Government: just 10 tons of flour for 12,000 arrivals ON PAGE 5

The government has still sent no tons of flour to Has ON PAGE 5

Tirana’s prefect orders Democratic families to throw out those who have arrived from Kosovo ON PAGE 7

Peanuts and cinnamon, duty-free, as aid for the Kosovars ON PAGE 7

Kukës: A Kosovar mother tries to calm her daughter

If you wish to contribute money for the exhausted children of Kosovo, you may deposit your donation into account number 34220/00/0376 at “Dardania Bank” in the name of the association: “The Children of Kosovo, Our Children”.

To help those expelled from Kosovo, the newspaper “Rilindja Demokratike” is making its pages available free of charge for various notices, such as requests and offers for accommodation, messages from those who have arrived from Kosovo for other members of their families, etc. You are welcome to visit the editorial office or contact us by calling the numbers provided: 303 29 and 323 55. THE EDITORIAL OFFICE