— This is our question for you, Mr. Tomorr Malasi, as Chairman of the Executive Committee and representative of the DP — The balloon the opposition blew up to draw public attention after its ministers withdrew from the Government of National Stability grew very large. There was much talk about Prime Minister Ylli Bufi’s statement, even though the opposition has been demanding transparency through its press for a long time. What is more, you, Mr. Tomorr Malasi, hurried onto television to repeat once again that Ylli Bufi’s statement was supposedly to blame for the lack of bread in Tirana. The opposition newspapers, too, made a circus of this statement, to cover up your inability to lead and organise the government of the city of Tirana. The opposition has inflated the slogan “the Socialists hold power” even further, although it is well known that in Tirana and many other cities the Socialists are an insignificant minority in power. So the opposition holds power, but it suits its newspapers and parties to inflate this balloon. The people, however, see with their own eyes and are not fooled by such monstrous slogans. Go around the capital’s different neighbourhoods. Look at the endless queues for bread. People spend the whole day in line to get their daily bread. Scuffles break out in some places. Citizens go straight to the Student City, or to Kamza, to the Agricultural University, seeking to buy bread from the students and causing trouble for the staff and students alike. What is all this anarchy? Why is there such a great shortage of bread, among other things, when the Government of National Stability made its statement? Was Ylli Bufi speaking again? Or was it really a balloon you and your friends let loose to cover up your inability to govern the executive authority? Could you blame the Socialists again? But you were the first to distort the work of the authorities in order to purge Socialists from the management of Tirana’s enterprises, starting with the bakeries, simply because their managers were Socialists—while, apparently, the city’s bread supply was in order. You appeared on television and spoke about stabilising the water supply and improving the electricity supply. You mentioned the arrival of several transformers that would normalise the situation. But where is the stabilisation of this sector? Do you know that patients in hospitals are treated in the dark and have no heating? Do you know that at Tirana’s maternity hospital, in the maternity ward, children are born in the presence of doctors by the light of matches, and that families will spend their evenings as if in caves, by candlelight, without television, without any information, isolated from the country and the world in the most miserable way? All this while also putting up with the games of the power cuts, as if to mock the misfortune of people who are entirely helpless. Do you know that in many Tirana homes the kerosene lamp has returned, as in the country’s most backward areas just after liberation? Surely you know none of these, nor the other distressing facts about Tirana’s situation, starting with the bread shortage, since you have the nerve to appear on television and inflate balloons to cover up your inability to govern. Better attend to these matters, which fall on the people’s shoulders, instead of engaging in party propaganda.

THE DP IS DIVIDED — Clarification concerning a “Notice” published in RD — A notice from the Tirana branch of the DP concerning the latest issue of that branch’s newspaper, “Tribuna demokratike”, would not deserve even two lines in our newspaper if it were a matter of some accidental inaccuracy or a slip for which a responsible press always apologises. This is a more serious issue. As is known, the latest issue of “Tribuna demokratike” published, among other things, articles against two of the DP’s main leaders, Prez Gozaj and Gramoz Pashko. In its notice published in the latest issue of RD, the Tirana branch of this party says that issue 3 of “Tribuna demokratike” “was published without the authorisation and oversight of the Editorial Board”. The public cannot understand what kind of “oversight” is meant when they shout every day that censorship in the press has been buried once and for all(!) Doesn’t this resemble the monist party-state mentality that controlled every line and every article in the press? The notice in question also says that “some of the published materials are outside the DP line” and later adds, “we apologise to readers for the quality of this issue”. One thing is unclear: it is one thing to say that the party line has been departed from (as in the days of the party-state), and quite another to say that the articles were journalistically weak. We are convinced that this notice is a play on words, since it does not answer a question from the leadership of the Tirana branch of the DP: are these gentlemen opposed to the defamatory articles about P. Gozaj and G. Pashko, or do they approve of them, even if only half-heartedly? Everyone understands that this is not a matter of several members of the DP’s governing council being attacked on the basis of personal opinions; it is an attack on the reformist wing of this party, an attack that began with F. Cupi and continued with P. Zogaj, G. Pashko and even N. Ceka. No one in the Tirana branch of the DP has the courage to tell this attack to stop—not even the notice in question. This is an open split within the Democratic Party. The attempts made in the latest notice published in RD to paper over this rift are childish. Apparently, the extremist wing of the DP has still not decided to deal with the trouble it has brought upon itself. ANTAN ARAPI eurosocialist

Comment following a TV report You may be surprised to learn how many viewers were left puzzled by the report TV broadcast a few days ago. The footage showed the warehouses of the canning factory in Shkodër filled with finished products. It reminded us of the market through a television report, but the report reached a different conclusion. There is no market for the products! Now let us continue with our comment. This factory, like many others of its kind, has fallen into a deep winter hibernation because of a lack of raw materials or technological difficulties. Although the finished goods have filled the warehouses of the enterprise in question, the workers are enjoying the fruits of the 80-percent erosion of the economy. One would think that the workers and the economy could not be content with this situation. But some managers understand the market economy as speculation at the expense of the state and the consumer. The question naturally arises: this enterprise, which neither produces nor sells, where does it get the money for wages? Leaf through a few pages of a finance book and you will learn that wages are not eligible for credit. That is what the books say, but circumstances have forced some concessions in this regard. Still, this applies to those industrial units that can only weather the downturn. Then, on this basis, the factory in question gets a loan for wages and, “logically”, the bank grants such a loan! In the TV report, the factory’s “aghefizëm” was cited as the reason for the lack of a market. Be more honest, gentlemen managers! Look at the market outlets and you will learn that the domestic market has opened its doors wide to you. The Ministry of Trade and Tourism says that demand is so great that there have been cases where the state reserve has had to be drawn on. They also say that complete information is lacking on the state of finished products held by various distributors. A notice in the press or on TV, or simply informing interested parties, would easily solve this problem. But it seems that another course of action lies behind the managers’ concern: there are also enterprises that are holding back inherited production while waiting for price liberalisation or to secure an export licence. Both cases amount to speculation. Another fact revealed by TV in its report is that some of the stored products have passed their expiry date. Gentlemen managers, are you not afraid that this will soon come to light? Does it not occur to you that you are provoking outright inflation? We are not such a rich people that we can accept charity from abroad and let our own products go to waste? SOKOL GRUDA

REPLY In the context of the election campaign, when the tone of press polemics rises markedly, you can expect anything—even resentment, sensationalism and manipulation. But as fellow journalists, we did not expect RD, in its latest issue, to publish an article like the one titled “ZP excluded from international aid”. This article struck us not merely because it is part of the electoral campaign launched by the Democratic Party with the slogan “If the SP wins the election, the world will not help Albania”, but because it seriously damages the cooperative relations that ought to exist among journalists as members of the same profession, regardless of their political opposition to one another. What, in a few words, did this article say? We quote: “A few weeks ago an American foundation drew up an aid programme for the Albanian press... The only daily newspaper, the organ of the SP, ‘The People’s Voice’, has been excluded from this programme.” The article goes on to stress: “The USA, through its embassy, has a major programme to help develop the Albanian press. The oldest newspaper has also been left out of this programme... the newspaper ‘The People’s Voice’.” We are convinced that we have heard such claims before. The truth is that a few months ago we saw a demand in the pages of RD asking why “The People’s Voice” should come out every day while their paper came out only twice a week. Then, as now, we were convinced that the conditions should be created for RD, the opposition’s first newspaper, to become a daily. But, in the interests of truth, it must be stressed that after this demand, which we consider legitimate, we also heard the call: “If the opposition takes power, ‘The People’s Voice’ will be banned from publication!” We had expected the democratic journalists at “Rilindja Demokratike” to distance themselves from such calls and the many others that spread lies. Now, with regret, we learn that it is becoming the mouthpiece of these calls. This is the only way we can understand RD’s article against “The People’s Voice” published in its latest issue. On this occasion, we can tell our colleagues at RD: regardless of whether it is up to you whether “The People’s Voice” is published, and regardless of whether it receives the American aid you call “international”, can a democratic society exist without a pluralist press? We believe that you, too, felt pain at the fact that the newspaper “Bashkimi”, the oldest publication of its kind in our country, which until a few days ago came out daily, will now be published twice a week. We also believe you felt pain, as we did, at the fact that most of its new newspapers will close, leaving people without work. By attributing these facts to “The People’s Voice”, you are openly taking an anti-democratic position. But we can tell you one thing: we have kept our newspaper going. “The People’s Voice” will continue to appear as it has until now, for the good of democracy in Albania. By way of clarification, we will tell you only this: from the very first day of its daily publication at the paper mill in Lezhë, “The People’s Voice” has been published with the help of international funds. From the European left alone. So enjoy the aid! Ç. BELA The Observer

— By Pandeli Majko, Deputy Chairman of the Eurosocialist Forum — Looking back at the circumstances and the efforts made to establish democracy resolutely in Albania, I think that the association of young Albanian Eurosocialists will be nothing other than their natural continuation. It will serve politics and society by helping them understand that, after the turbulence that accompanies every upheaval, things are now beginning to fall into place. The overthrow of the dictatorship and the establishment of stability in all areas are, first and foremost, an achievement of Albanian youth. Albanian Eurosocialists bring a political perspective on the country that does not assume that the SP’s policy is keeping them in reserve for “bad days”. They come as young people who still bear fresh traces of the former dictatorship on their skin. Together with their fellow students who have joined other parties, they will now be in the front ranks against every kind of diktat, whatever its colour. Communism in Albania, regardless of what journalists may say, did not exist to the extent claimed theoretically today. It was presented as an alternative that was, in practice, not understood by the first “communist” rulers themselves; they merely idealised Stalin and the USSR. The embrace of communist ideas also arose as a result of the failure to accept an advanced democratic theory in feudal Albania. Communism promised Albanians and their society, divided by extreme poverty and wealth, an equality that people in general so greatly dreamed of. Albania is a country in which communist laws and structures have existed. Change here cannot be brought about by the force of the masses or by political colours that serve them. It requires a process of its own, in which even the words and theories of a president with a communist past—like many party leaders in Albania—would neither explain nor slow it down, since it is the ordinary people themselves who bear this legacy. That is why the ordinary people of Albania themselves feel that the time has come to change it. In these difficult times, Albanian politics, pursued since the establishment of pluralism, continues to preserve the mistakes of the past. Once, everyone was shut out; today, the doors are opened to everyone. Albanian politics still wanders around Europe and the world in search of friends and allies. The idea seems to be ingrained that only we need others, and it has been forgotten that history makes it clear who needs whom and whose friendship belongs to whom. If a deep economic crisis did not prevail alongside the political crisis, Albania’s transition problems would be much simpler, and the country would have taken on the characteristics of a country quickly emerging from the path of internal development. The Albanian opposition is now in a serious crisis of ideology and trust. The latter has reached its height with the opposition ministers’ departure from the Government of Stability, which also marked the rise of the extreme democratic wing, now firmly crystallised within the DP. To overcome the current crisis, Sal Berisha’s wing, known for its speculative manoeuvres, is considering the possibility of joining the National-Democratic Party or other right-wing parties. But this would trigger a new crisis within the opposition, since the PR and PSD would then have to reconsider their positions. The extremist wing’s victory over the reformist wing was greatly facilitated by the departure from the DP’s political stage of its deputy chairman, Nertan Ceka, who had argued some time ago that he should not be at the head of the Democratic Party. This not only changed the blocs within the DP, where elements of Nertan Ceka’s standard were achieving ... (To be continued on page 3)

The President of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, Doctor Bujar Bukoshi, and Doctor Abdyl Krasniqi, a member of the LDK Central Council, were received at the headquarters of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Austria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Alois Mock. The President of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, Doctor Bujar Bukoshi, and Doctor Abdyl Krasniqi, a member of the LDK Central Council, were received at the headquarters of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Austria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Alois Mock, with whom they held a lengthy discussion. The discussion focused on the current situation in Kosovo and on possible solutions to the problem of Kosovo and the Albanians in the former Yugoslavia. Among other things, Dr. Bukoshi informed Mr. Alois Mock about the strengthening and consolidation of the Government of Kosovo and, on its behalf, asked the Austrian Government to recognise the Republic of Kosovo as a sovereign and independent state, and to assist and increase all the Europeans in those ... Mr. Alois Mock expressed his thanks and satisfaction at receiving direct and authentic information about the situation in Kosovo and said that Austria would activate the CSCE mechanisms and other mechanisms, using every means at its disposal, to resolve this problem. He expressed satisfaction with the current situation regarding law and order in Kosovo, especially in the field of human and national rights, and stressed that Austria has always insisted that Kosovo is a crisis area and requires a fair legal solution. Dr. Bujar Bukoshi also visited the Embassy of the Republic of Albania in Vienna, where he was received by the chargé d’affaires, Mr. Zef Mazli. On this occasion, a fraternal conversation took place, during which Albania’s diplomatic engagement was discussed.

A few days ago, a notice was broadcast on television in the section “From the life of political parties and associations” about the holding of the Conference of the Democratic Party at the Agricultural University. Among other things, it stated that at the Agricultural University of Tirana the only political force was supposedly the Democratic Party, while the other forces were operating illegally. Gentlemen! You know the truth very well, but deception to misinform public opinion is in your nature. Do not forget that the university community has eyes and ears, and statements like these bring only anti-democratic humour and psychological tension. On the other hand, what is this monist stance of yours about there being “only one political force” at the University? We are now in an era of pluralism. Everyone knows that the Socialist Party organisation at the University consists of several dozen lecturers and assistants. It is the University’s most serious, most qualified and best-organised force. We remind you that the Socialist Party organisation is accustomed to respecting the laws, but it does not operate illegally, as you claim. It has never taken it upon itself to violate the laws of the state governing the university, but has held its activities outside the institutions, even though dozens of students have recently joined its ranks, including some of the University’s most successful students. The students of the Eurosocialist Youth Forum at the University are among them. Hundreds of young people have gathered around this forum, their hearts full of patriotism, democratic and scientific culture, and socialist ideals. They have thrown themselves heart and soul into their studies, rather than boycotting and abandoning them for political purposes and party interests, while, as everyone knows, some of the gentlemen’s “brave lads” of Azem take part in the activities you organise only under pressure and threats. And how could it be otherwise! Mr. Alois Mock expressed his thanks and satisfaction for receiving direct and authentic information about the situation in Kosovo and said that Austria would use every means at its disposal to activate the CSCE mechanisms and other mechanisms to resolve this problem. He expressed satisfaction with the current situation regarding law and order in Kosovo, especially in the field of human and national rights, and stressed that Austria has always insisted that Kosovo is a crisis area and requires a fair legal solution. Dr. Bujar Bukoshi also visited the Embassy of the Republic of Albania in Vienna, where he was received by the chargé d’affaires, Mr. Zef Mazli. On this occasion, a fraternal conversation took place, during which Albania’s diplomatic engagement was discussed.