- During the month of March: 39 murders, 59 firearm injuries, 32 death threats... - During the first 10 days of April: 13 murders, 20 injuries. - Two in Tirana, at the «Partizani» cinema: two murders. The terror of murder, the terror of violence, has spread all around our people, in the city and in the countryside. The figures above speak louder than words. If we were to add to them the figures for the 5 murders and 25 victims, the total would reach 74 people. Perhaps «some» justify this kind of criminality by calling it a «transitional» period, but the democracy that is coming to us with no small amount of hardship and sacrifice cannot coexist with crime, but with freedom of thought and action for the benefit of well-being and human rights. Strangely, in the face of this «human catastrophe», parliament is silent, the government is silent, Albanian Radio and Television is silent. They remain silent and do nothing about this highest degree of criminality, especially after the March 22 elections, as if to demonstrate that everything has been achieved. To tell the truth, now and then, in the silence, Radio and Television mutter something, but not everything. Do you know why? For the sole purpose of asserting the false democracy and calm that followed the PD’s seizure of power. Whereas in fact, we repeat: the bandits’ fear has been killed and, at the same time, the courage of the police and citizens has been killed. The most ordinary criminals seem to have taken control of organized crime—for murder, prostitution, for:.. I do not wish to go on or further tire the reader with the deeds of criminal elements. What citizens, mothers, fathers and children are saying loudly is one thing, and one thing only: - When will the democracy of the law arrive? I call on you, gentlemen deputies of both the governing majority and the opposition, to put your minds to establishing order at every level. And order is not established through rallies or criminal policy, when some shameless person, once arrested, gets out, when the state is made a laughingstock because friends intervene with «connections» at the expense of the law. Reconciliation cannot be achieved by seizing weapons for revenge. The hand of criminals is restrained by strict laws and, first and foremost, by their consistent enforcement. If you «tie up» a criminal hand and shortly afterwards «untie it» on the pretext that documents and witnesses are missing, instead of doing good you do harm, and in this way encourage criminality. It is up to parliament to pass a new law on who should and who should not carry weapons. It is every citizen’s duty to catch and report criminals. Together with the ... ri? Ra[t]oelevision, but not all of it [...]. Do you know why? For the sole reason of falsely affirming democracy and inventiveness after the PD took power. Whereas in fact they are repeating it: the fear of the bandits ordinary criminals make the law in broad daylight and in the middle of the night. The horror and shamelessness have driven them as far as gruesome mafia-style massacres, when a bastard educated by the countless films filling our television screens places dynamite in the middle of a bus, whose explosion injures seven people. The horror and irresponsibility go even further, when

Hardships are increasing all over Albania! The queues to obtain food have become exhausting and tiresome. Early in the morning, queues begin for bread, at the dairy shop, at the grocery store, etc. Sometimes whole days have to be spent at the grocery store asking for and trying to get some item from the rationed basket, such as sugar, oil, rice, etc. How is it that these foods are distributed late and irregularly? The food supplies for March have still not been received, when we are now almost halfway through April?! It is true that there are difficulties and shortages, but negligence, misappropriation and bureaucracy cannot be ruled out either. As a result, these phenomena cause exhaustion and great dissatisfaction among the people. It is worth noting that there are also concerns about the supply of meat! In the shops where it is sold, the seller, being half private and half state-owned, is playing games with state-owned goods. They treat this essential item as if it were theirs to profit from; that is, they do whatever they can to make as much profit as possible. It happens that the meat seller receives 8 kg of meat for the residents but puts only 2.5 kg up for sale; the rest, after being sorted out, goes to an «unknown» destination (to kebab-shop owners, the seller’s friends who have come by car from the districts). We believe that the financial police, having established what is happening during its inspection of this meat outlet (Pallatet 1 Maj), should also take action elsewhere to put a stop to the conduct of unscrupulous sellers. More effective and thorough inspections by the bodies specializing in this issue would stop the abusers and show those who play games with the people’s food where they belong. In my opinion, this hell that consumes the lives of Albanians must absolutely not be allowed to continue. P. GJ A GROUP OF PENSIONERS FROM TIRANA’S NO. 29 NEIGHBORHOOD

FEUILLETON «YOU’RE HAPPY WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW...» — A little «salt» in the government’s sweet dish — «ZP» is now like «The Jinx of Pojan»: it always says the opposite. «So don’t pay any attention to it. That’s what happened to it before, anyway. The people it criticized were promoted to positions of responsibility. Let alone now, when it is just starting out in the trade of opposition. We even have another major difficulty. Our libraries have been emptied of political literature, and, accustomed as we are to quotations, out of necessity we are turning to fiction. So, for the task we have taken on, «the art of governing», we are turning to Çajupi. Here is what he wrote 70 years ago, in place of a preface to Milo Duçi’s play: «...For most Albanians, politics is a very easy job, and I can assure you that, to earn your bread in this deceitful world, the easiest profession is to become a minister. You don’t need to know any job, any craft in depth. The minister of agriculture, for example, need not be able to distinguish onions from leeks; the minister of war need never have held a rifle in his hands..., the foreign minister need only know a priest or a hodja, and everything will always go well. In these last 3 or 4 years, Albania has managed to have more than 300 or 400 ministers, diplomats, outstanding deputies». As you may know, the place of Çajupi from which I took my name, Peçi, is half an hour away, above Labovë, the birthplace of today’s prime minister. The poet himself was born beyond the mountain, in Shqipër. As far as we know, he was not a member of the PS. Not only because it was founded in June 1991, but also because, generally speaking, the refuseniks are members and supporters of the Democratic Party. We have reason to say this, not to excuse the poet, but because he wrote as early as 1922. Had he been aware of it, former prime minister Nano could have read it too (he too is from Lunxhëria, the same region as today’s prime minister). Mr. Çarçani from Fushëbardha, across from Lunxhëria, could have read it too. Apparently the region has produced so many prime ministers that he has set his sights on Epirus of the North... When you read Çajupi’s journalism, it inevitably reminds you, by comparison, of some of today’s ministers. For example, let us take the Minister of Defense, Mr. Safet Zhulali, since he too is from this area, regardless of his «volunteer» service in the Northeastern zone. He may not have worn a military uniform, but this is the age of weapons and cannons; it is the age of democracy, of confrontations with the enemy. As for me, I remember when I finished school (of course, in the days of monism) and they summoned me to the Military Section. They told me I had been appointed slaughterhouse commander at the Brigade Headquarters. - Slaughterhouse commander, I said in amazement, shifting in my chair, but I’ve never slaughtered a chicken or a bird. In fact, whenever I happen to see someone slaughtering one, I turn my head away because I can’t bear it. - You’ve done military training, they told me. Go where you’re told. In the army there is only: «Yes, sir! At your command!»... Now that I see Mr. Safet, I understand him... Or take the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Kopliku. You don’t need to be an investigator, a lawyer, or a security operative; you can be completely «clean» professionally. It is enough to prove that you are an anti-communist. Is it really so difficult to catch the crypto-communists? Where could they hide...? Or take the Foreign Minister, Mr. Serreqi. Surely, as a doctor, he has made house calls and watched television on foreign stations. He was not entirely isolated in the isolationist past. That is all the world needs to know; the rest he knows himself... A friend of ours from the Drinos Valley, a local leader of the Agrarian Party, often repeats: «You’re happy when you don’t know.» I wish this happiness on some of today’s government officials too, when problems are tangled together like a ball of wool. Try to find the thread of it all, although it should not be forgotten that they have the valuable experience of peaceful, enthusiastic rallies.

April 15, 1979. Everyone remembers the devastating earthquake that struck Northern Albania, and Shkodër and Lezhë in particular. Hundreds and hundreds of houses were destroyed. Thousands and thousands of people were left homeless. Dozens of human lives were lost. Millions and millions of lek went to waste. But no one lost heart or hope. Because all of Albania rose to its feet. Thousands of volunteers from Albania’s southern districts left their homes and went to help their brothers, because for them Albania is not only Sarandë or Korçë, not only Durrës or Kërçovë, but Albania is Albania in every inch of its territory. It was precisely fraternal unity that made it possible to overcome being half alive and half dead. We have all gone through many difficulties, and we must find a way to resolve them. play games with the people’s food where they belong. (Continued on page 2) brotherly toward one another. It was unity of faith and honor. It was unity of blood and pride. It was unity for survival. And so the traces of April 15, 1979, disappeared. The traces of the earthquake disappeared, but the traces of unity remain as a monument. They must never be allowed to disappear. Because in the days we are living through, we need them more than ever. The powerful tremors brought by the «earthquake» of democracy brought down the bureaucratic and profiteering structure of the monist system and the entire apparatus that sustained it. Let us forget that image by building a beautiful and enduring structure, a structure that welcomes all true and patriotic Albanians. Let us build a structure in which divisive ideas have no place. Go everywhere in the North and you will find traces of that colossal work that was done. The Albanians themselves did it, with their effort, their sweat, their honesty, for themselves. The whole South rose to help the North. I mention none of this out of sentimental romanticism. Nor out of nostalgia, nor to say, “what the socialist unity of our people under the leadership of the PPSH was capable of doing.” No! Such phrases have been written by some of my predecessors in this newspaper, who now belong to the pro-government press (or that of the former opposition). The reason I mention April 15, 1979, today is something else. The true unity of Albanians has never been based on ideology or dogma. In people’s lives, it has always been Albanian unity. (Continued on page 2)

Call: «Let us climb the mountains and hills...» I believe that all Albanians have by now experienced the effect of the slogan «Let us climb the mountains and hills...» that Enver Hoxha launched in the mid-1960s. Perhaps this will be one of those topics on which everyone will feel competent and qualified, not only to recall dozens and hundreds of facts about the abundance of natural resources, but also to draw the proper conclusions. In Kashnjet, in Lezhë, a large natural chestnut grove was barbarously destroyed in order to cultivate 10–15 hectares of new land, from which, in the best years, a har- (Continued on page 2)

Will we be half tomorrow too? We really are living through times when almost everything seems crippled. We ourselves have become half-people. Meanwhile, the state has become a half-state, and the law a half-law. Almost everyone feels half alive and half dead. A man in distress from Dibra came to the newspaper office. He had worked in geology for 38 years. Now he was out of work. The administrative directorate offices had given him two options for making a living: either he would continue to be paid 80 percent, or he would go on assistance. «How am I supposed to live on so little money when 8 children are waiting for me at home to feed them?» the poor man said. He had written several letters about this to the former president and had received no reply. Now he was going to begin another series of letters to the new president, «another half», as he put it. How are people supposed to get by? They go to the sales outlets to collect their rationed food, but it is never, as they say, «all there». The sellers are half private and half state-owned. They obtain the food at fixed prices and sell it at liberalized prices, like private traders. They do as they please. Even if you complain to the authorities, you cannot get anything resolved. The pluralist government has left its offices half «open». And what about the peasant? He, too, is in limbo. Some have received the title deed to their land; others are still waiting to «set their minds at ease». But even those (not all) who have received the title deed have a «shadow» hanging over them: the former owner. It is not known what the new parliamentarians will put forward. Before me is a young man named Halim, but in his passport he is registered as Kristo. Despair and the need to set out on the path of emigration forced him to change his name from Albanian to Greek. So that is how it is apparently meant to be. How are we to go on with all these halves? Half yesterday and half today; will I remain half tomorrow too? No, never—we will never think, we will never become what they are propagandizing, if we go on treating one another as we do, if we also have «half» parties, governments and parliament. (Continued on page 3)

DIFFICULT TRANSITION It is becoming quite clear that inte-[r]est in movements in the direction ... For every villager ... of Peshkopi in the district ... is in conflict, a ... within itself, ... and desperate phenomenon ... economic, the cost of ... uninterrupted. Liberalization ... in pri... with contra... the dismantling of the administrative stru..., the slow numbness leading to the complete paralysis of all the people’s productive spheres of activity, brought about a dreadful fall in prices and, alongside this, in the value of incomes in lekë available for provisions. Let us speak in figures: 1 kg of meat cost 80–90 lekë for the Eid al-Adha delivery, 1 kg of sugar 40–50 lekë, 1 kg of powdered milk 38 lekë (whereas the ration of 1 tonilit in 1951 was 90 gr per person), 1 kg of pr[]he 6–8 lekë, 1 kg of [..] 250–350 lekë, etc. And ... The villager, with no source of income, struggles with himself to find financial resources to keep body and soul together. Thus, in recent months an unprecedented exodus of livestock toward Dibra e Madhe has begun, by entirely illegal routes. Cows are sold for 300–400 German marks; a horse or mule has fetched as much as 1,000 marks. Dear reader, calculate at the rate of 1 mark to 50 lekë on the private currency market how much these animals cost you. This exodus involves many kinds of domestic animals, dairy cattle, etc., which pass every day between the two Dibras. This phenomenon has caused prices in the domestic market to rise at a terrifying rate, as well as impoverishing the market in meat, food products and livestock products. It is impoverishing and destroying entire breeds, reducing their genetic reproductive capacity and thereby encouraging the total destruction, also in the future, of genetically rich and productive livestock. This movement, uncontrolled by the financial police, has given rise to numerous thefts from private herds, further aggravating an already highly problematic situation and causing great discontent. Under these circumstances, people’s basic interests are being trampled by heartless and unscrupulous profiteers, by the failure of local and central state bodies and all their levers to enforce laws and regulations. Everything is moving spontaneously and chaotically, with no legal restrictions. Sadly, a similar movement can be seen in land ownership, where conflicts have reached the height of the most dangerous tensions. Brother threatens brother, neighbor threatens neighbor, clan threatens clan. In some villages in this district, the former owners of land from before 1946 have built their houses in the middle of apple plantations or fields, and secretly hire people as laborers to work for a laughably low daily wage. Other residents of Peshkopi or Bulqizë are seeking plots and land in the villages. Some demand their property to the point of physical confrontation or the demolition of houses already built, throwing families out simply because the houses stand on their land. It seems that some have lost their humanity and sense of reason. These, too, are phenomena that have now become commonplace. (Continued on page 3)

The President of the Republic, Mr. Sali Berisha, by decree no. 166, dated 13. 4. 1992, on the proposal of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Mr. Aleksandër Meksi, today appointed the new Council of Ministers, composed as follows: 1. - Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Agriculture and Food, Rexhep Uka of PD. 2. - Public Order, Bashkim Kopliku of PD. 3. - Secretary General, Vullnet Ademi of PSD. 4. - Minister of Finance and Economy, Genc Ruli of PD. 5. - Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alfred Serreqi of PD. 6. - Minister of Justice, Kudret Çela, Independent Intellectual. 7. - Minister of Industry, Mineral Resources and Energy, Abdy[l] Xhaja, Independent Intellectual. 8. - Minister of Trade and Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries, Artan Hoxha of PD. 9. - Minister of Defense, Safet Zhulali of PD. 10. - Minister of Transport and Communications, Fatos Bitincka of PR. 11. - Minister of Construction, Housing and Territorial Planning, Ilir Manushi of PD. 12. - Minister of Health and Environmental Protection, Tritan Shehu of PD. 13. - Minister of Education, Ylli Vejsiu of PD. 14. - Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Dhimitër Anagnosti of PD. 15. - Minister of Tourism, Osman Shehu of PD. 16. - Minister of Labor, Emigration, Social Support and Political Persecutees, Dashnor Shehi of PD. 17. - Chairman of the Committee for Science and Technology, Maksim Kononi of PD. 18. - Chairman of the Control Commission ... PRESS OFFICE AND ... AT THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE Tirana, 13. 4. 1992