(From a conversation with Bashkim Syku, chairman of the Executive Committee of the district People’s Council of Shkodër) The prolonged drought, particularly in our district, which is among those with the greatest excess consumption of electrical energy, has made it urgently necessary to take extraordinary measures to reduce its use, with the aim of meeting the established quotas and, if possible, making savings. \nImmediately after the Council of Ministers analyzed this problem and set important tasks for stricter use of electrical energy, broad, intensive and urgent activity began in Shkodër, with concrete tasks, first to gain a better understanding of the situation and, second, to find ways to make the measures for using this resource more economically effective.\nIn addition to the district task force, which will meet every day, yesterday work groups of the Executive Committee of the district People’s Council were also established. They will monitor compliance with the daily quota at enterprises, institutions and agricultural cooperatives. These quotas are 10 percent lower than before. We will exercise stricter control over machines and equipment running idle, their operating schedules, installed capacity in relation to production needs, and even the use of ovens and the lighting system.\nAt an expanded meeting held yesterday with the chairmen of the people’s councils of the united villages and city neighborhoods, directors of enterprises and institutions, chairmen of cooperatives, etc., the problem of electrical energy use was discussed with a sense of responsibility. It was decided that, under the direction of the heads of these bodies, the situation and use of electrical energy would be analyzed every day, and measures, ways and means would be identified to fulfill production, service and construction plans within the established daily electricity quotas.\nThe electric power and water-supply enterprise, in cooperation with the agricultural cooperatives, began work by taking better-considered and more effective technical and organizational measures to prevent individual users from wasting electrical energy. Measures to restrict its use were also established.\nThe municipal section attached to the district Executive Committee of the People’s Council, while operationally monitoring the use of electrical energy at enterprises, agricultural cooperatives and institutions, is, in accordance with the decisions in force, setting compensation measures for those who exceed their usage quotas and proposing them to the district task force for implementation.\nAgricultural economies began taking measures to irrigate crops by making better use of canals and other gravity-fed water sources, in order to save as much electrical energy as possible. Where this is impossible, motor pumps and other fuel-powered equipment are being used.\nWith the irrigation system brought into operation ahead of schedule to cope with the drought, the water authority’s daily electricity quota increased further in recent days, reaching an excess of 100,000 kilowatt-hours. Measures have now been taken to supply the water authority with the energy it needs to water the crops by taking this amount from enterprises in the industrial system, and to provide those enterprises with what they need as circumstances permit.\nMany of these measures are expected to become permanent, so that Shkodër will be among the districts that achieve electricity savings.\nThe results of this work are already becoming apparent. In just these two days, 55,000 kilowatt-hours less electrical energy were consumed than on previous days.\nRIFAT DAJTI\nprevious days. The goal is to irrigate 400 hectares of wheat during March. As for potatoes, 120 hectares have been planted so far out of the planned 153 hectares. The agricultural cooperatives of Geghysen and NB «Përparimi» are doing well in this task. There is, however, a significant lag at the Dragobia cooperative, which has the largest share of this crop in the district. Nevertheless, we are told that measures have been taken and work is being organized to speed things up and produce far more vegetables in the coming days. This year it will produce vegetables much earlier than in other years, both for the cooperative and for the city market. Work on vegetables is also better this year across the district. Wheat is looking good in this district. further. Also, work in the greenhouses in this district is progressing well. the district. Optimism is evident in the Tropojë district among livestock farmers and those working in this difficult sector, especially now, in the final stage of the lambing and kidding campaign, during which 75 percent of the small livestock have given birth. to install 8 second-hand units for the ent-ity illo- Under the decisions currently in force, compensation measures are being set for those who exceed the previously established usage quotas. As Hamdi Shpendi, an agronomist in the agriculture section of the district Executive Committee, tells us, agricultural enterprises are working at a rapid pace these days. The good weather is being put to good use for planting maize. About 15 percent of the planned area has been planted. The greenhouses have been planted with maize. These days, 120 hectares have been planted out of the planned total of 153 hectares. The agricultural cooperatives of Geghysen and the «Përparimi» state farm are doing well with this task. But there is a significant delay at the Dragobi the district. Vegetables have also been planted in this district. This year, vegetables will be ready and for the city market. At district level, too, better work is being done on vegetables this year. Livestock farmers and those working in this difficult sector in the Tropojë district are showing optimism, especially now, during the final phase of the campaign for the lambing of small livestock, of which 75 percent have given birth.

— The second volume of the book “What Kosovars Say and What They Demand” has been published — These days, the second volume of the book “What Kosovars Say and What They Demand” has come off the press in Albanian and English. \nThese days, What They Demand” has come off the press in Albanian and English. It brings together the latest materials published in the Yugoslav and foreign press, in which the most prominent representatives of Kosovo Albanian public opinion explain and substantiate the harsh reality of this province while also suggesting ways to resolve the crisis.\nAlthough the book is not a chronicle of events in Kosovo, page after page it reveals the breadth and seriousness of this problem, and the plight of Albanians who are beaten, imprisoned and killed, whose national traditions and culture are denied, and even whose basic right to live is withheld. The book shows how Kosovo’s autonomy is being dismantled step by step, how a colossal repressive apparatus has replaced political life in the province, eliminating every democratic element and destroying the entire cultural and educational life of Albanians in Yugoslavia. All this is unfolding in a bleak economic reality that is worsening day by day as Serbia’s colonization plan is implemented and its policy of segregation and discrimination against Albanians is pursued.\nThe book is divided into four thematic chapters. The first, entitled “For Democracy, Against Violence,” contains the main current views and demands of Albanians in Yugoslavia concerning the solution to the Kosovo problem. These demands are best expressed in the declaration signed by at least 400,000 people, as well as in statements, interviews and articles by prominent intellectuals and public figures such as Ibrahim Rugova, Veton Surroi, Zekeria Cana, Idriz Ajeti, Jusuf Buxhovic, Shkëlzen Malqi, Isuf Berisha, etc., calling for democracy and free solutions, the lifting of the state of emergency, an end to political trials and the release of political prisoners. The materials published in this volume make it clear that the movement of the Albanian people in Kosovo is neither separatist nor terrorist, as Serbia officially labels it, but a profoundly peaceful movement which, through dialogue, seeks to ensure that Albanians living in their own territories in Yugoslavia enjoy the same national and social rights and the same democratic freedoms that the Yugoslav constitution guarantees to all other citizens of that country.\nContrary to the propaganda tricks of the Greater Serbs, the volume makes clear that the Albanians of Kosovo support peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding among nations and nationalities; they support Yugoslavia’s development along the path of democracy and progress, equality and justice for all. In this context, indeed as the fundamental prerequisite, they see a way to overcome the crisis, because it is a fact, as the book emphasizes, that Kosovo always comes to the fore at decisive moments in the struggle for power in Yugoslavia.\nThis is because those forces, as Jusuf Ferizi, Ali Alaj and Muhamed Mjeku state, oppose the process of democratization and the creation of Kosovo alternatives, exploiting the stereotyped slogan of separatism and nationalism in order to paralyze and even disqualify the Albanian nationality and exclude it from these processes.\nWhile Kosovars demand that Kosovo, too, have its equal place in the democratic federation of the nations and nationalities of Yugoslavia, the Greater Serbs flagrantly violate human rights and have placed the entire province under their direct occupation. As Prof. Sali Kabashi puts it, “this is an anomaly of the century, where any resistance or legitimate demand by Albanians is suppressed by force, with tear gas, weapons and truncheons. Irrationality in matters that are entirely lawful, in rightful demands which in no respect advocate violence.”\nKosovo has entered a new phase of the crisis, with consequences more tragic for its inhabitants—and not only for them, but also more broadly. This situation is described most fully in the writings of Hysni Bytyçi, Rustem Berisha, Dr. Lush Gjergji, Bajram Kabashi, Sebahate Manxuka, Jeton Luma, Xhemail Mustafa, Ymer Avdiu, etc., which\n(Continued on page 4)

Early spring, it seems, has come prematurely; in the Tropojë district, too, it is dictating a new pace for organizing work. On the one hand, the good weather is being used to speed up work on corn, vegetables, etc., and to ensure good results in livestock farming; on the other, the prolonged drought and lack of rainfall call for the immediate irrigation of the wheat, which is green and sparse in this area at this time...

Yesterday, the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Agriculture of Albania, Pali Miska, concluded his official and friendly visit to Egypt and departed for the Homeland. He was seen off by the First Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Abdel El Baltagy, and other officials.\nDuring his stay in Egypt, he visited various agricultural and livestock-farming research centers, art and cultural centers, as well as the city of Ismailia, where he was received by the city’s governor, Dr. Abdel Moneim Emara.\nBefore leaving the city, Comrade Pali Miska gave an interview to journalists from the press and radio-television of Italy, Port Said and Suez, in which he said: The visit to Egypt was a particular pleasure for the Albanian delegation. Everywhere we felt the friendship and respect that the Egyptian people have for the Albanian people. In our meetings with President Hosni Mubarak, the Chairman of the People’s Assembly, Dr. Refat El Magoub, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Ahmed Esmad Abdel Meguid, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Jusuf Vali, and other Egyptian personalities, it was once again made clear that the traditional ties between Albania and Egypt are growing ever stronger and that new avenues of cooperation and development of relations are opening between the two countries, for our mutual benefit and in the interests of our peoples, peace and understanding. Every opportunity exists to move further toward more intensive cooperation in the political and economic fields and in science and culture. In our discussions with our Egyptian friends, valuable views were exchanged and prospects opened up for agricultural and livestock cooperation between Albania and Egypt, for increasing contacts between the parliaments, etc. (ATA)

Yesterday morning in Tirana, the National Seminar on the fight against cancer, organized by the Institute of Oncology in cooperation with the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization, successfully concluded its work. At the working sessions held from March 27 until today, topics were presented and discussions held on the organization and management of cancer control programs, including planning, monitoring and evaluation at national and district levels; public information requirements concerning this disease; training for oncologists and general practitioners; monitoring risks, including all types of cancer; early detection; organizing and managing screening programs based on the primary-care system of outpatient services and hospitals; and treatment, follow-up and special care for patients, etc. In the presentations and conclusions delivered by experts from and our specialists, the value of this seminar was highlighted. It will serve to raise cancer control and the fight against cancer in our country to a higher level. Alongside practical aspects, scientific issues of general value were also addressed in order to advance the work carried out so far in combating this disease. The foreign experts also praised the achievements made in our country in providing oncological medical care—the basis for the diagnosis, treatment, follow-up and terminal care of patients—and shared their experience of the work and fight against this disease undertaken by the World Health Organization for Europe and the medical institutions of their countries. (ATSH)

Yesterday, the 27th national Spartakiad of Enver’s pioneers opened at the «Qemal Stafa» Enver’s Pioneers Holiday Home on the beach at Durrës. More than 1,800 Enver’s pioneers from all districts of the country will compete in several sports, including football, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, chess, athletics, etc. They proceed to the finals of this Spartakiad after the con- (Continued on page 3)

Along the irregular shoreline of Prespa, nine villages are lined up: Cerja, Zaroshka, Leshkovë, Pusteci, Shulini, Gollomboçi, Gorica e Vogël, Gorica e Madhë, Bezmishti. Among them, Pusteci, for example, is a rock; there is a church. One of the oldest, dating from the 14th century. Its wall paintings are genuine works of art. It is only a few miles from the shore. Could it have been like this from early on, ever since the church was built? Some time ago someone had noticed that «the walls are reflected in the waters», like a footpath. Then someone had come, surely from the shore, ...[?] Life goes on in these villages. We find and remember an old problem; so much is happening to the lake, ...[?] words, some older, others more recent and even quite new—for example, Gorica e Vogël, which appears astonishingly beautiful. Nevertheless, Pusteci itself is considered not to have been here in its present form. Opposite it is a small island, Maligradi. On outside, some roots and fragments of walls. The school principal, Lefteri Male, says this is Staro Selo. Could this have been today’s Pusteci? Perhaps. One thing is more certain: the waters have covered inhabited areas. At some point they took an entire village (perhaps even several villages), and what remains here of it is something valuable, even if in ruins. Just as they are also turning over the embankments here and there along the shore, where we found three brigades from Shulini preparing a whole tract of land for beans. The beauty of Prespa. A few years ago, a foreign visitor wrote that it is a rare jewel in the Balkans. We are glad of this observation, but that traveller was not the first foreigner to say so. They have cherished it for ages, generation after generation. And they have lived with it. In Zaroshkë they tell us something about Sterjo Spasse. (How often they speak of their son! Anyone would be fortunate to leave behind such goodwill.) One day the writer was caught by the shepherds, who said they liked it when he waited for the sunrise not down in the village but high up in the mountains. So he had travelled at night, and morning found him at an altitude of over 2,000 metres, on the summit of Mali i Thatë. He was astonished. The lake basin looked entirely like a sun. A breathtaking beauty. The writer later said that no literature could express it. And that is not all. Life is so vast that the arts of all ages together cannot encompass it. Perhaps above everything else rises the will to face life. For beauty is accompanied by— one, which is creating a problem. We feel this even as far as the springs of Zve-dë on the other side of the mountain, in the Devoll plain, where things have changed greatly and some springs have dried up completely. What is happening to the lake on this scale is unprecedented. But the retreat of the waters has exposed Shulini preparing a whole tract of land for beans. (Continued on page 3)

(Photo: Meksi Xhufka)

\nIn a letter to the editorial office, citizen Lefter Kostëdhima of Durrës expresses the wish that the Laç park run a bus twice a day from the train station in Laç to the town center, since many travelers are elderly, ill or women with children and cannot manage the distance.\nDilaver Kapllani, from Gramsh, also thinks that bus services should coordinate their schedules. For example, it would be good for buses leaving Përmet for Berat and Ballsh to wait for those arriving from the villages, such as Pe-trani, etc. The resident of Bilisht, Idriz Isaku, raises the same concern in his letter. • Brigadier R. Kora at the Lukovë agricultural enterprise believes that if the sugar used to feed bees were the same kind used by the food industry—that is, 2.2 lek per kilogram—the country’s economy would benefit, saving foreign currency, while the cooperative and the brigades engaged in this work would also gain.

The 27th Spartakiad opened