MINISTER KOPLIKU REFUSES TO GIVE AN INTERVIEW!... THE MINISTER, KOPLIKU, REFUSES TO GIVE AN INTERVIEW!... - The thieves proved more nimble than Colonel Stafa, a former border officer “specialized” some time ago in Canada - Yet another extraordinary event is added to the chronicle of criminal acts. In broad daylight, in the middle of Tirana and among dozens of passers-by, several armed thieves (even though the disarming of the population has been carried out?) managed to complete the robbery of the savings bank with complete success. The thieves proved more nimble than Colonel Safet Stafa, appointed director of the Public Order Directorate on the direct instruction of the President of the Republic after 22 March, even though he had never worked a single day in the police force before. The bank was robbed. The best thing would have been for such an act not to happen, since the police’s number-one duty is to prevent criminal acts and acts of violence. That is the perspective from which we must begin when judging and assessing the work of the public-order forces. We must also begin from this perspective even though the truth is not as they say. With the legitimate concern of informing the public about what is happening with crime, those who reported the bank robbery also approached the Minister of Public Order, Mr Bashkim Kopliku, requesting an interview. But he refused, leaving the following reply with his directorate: “All necessary measures have been taken to identify the culprits.” We all know that the minister has a lot of work, just as we know that he is not legally obliged to receive every journalist. But his stance in this particular case does not seem right to us, given that a few months ago he appeared on television twice in a row to tell people that order had been restored and that foreign investors in this country were investing in Albania because they were protected. People are sensitive to acts of violence and crime. The leaders of the public-order forces. This is also the perspective we must take when handing out medals. In saying this, we have absolutely no intention of disregarding the work the police forces have done throughout the difficult period of transition. On the contrary, we feel for the honest people serving in the police; we feel for the dignity of the weapon, which has been sullied and stained by corrupt former thieves or vagabonds. We call on its leading officers to be more realistic and responsible when making such statements, and less euphoric when boasting that order has been restored, because...

Beside the incapable «Holling» group are two lucky old dervishes of the «Albania» club (a symbol of the fiery spirit of the ancient Epicurus) and another, gloomy and threatening, as if emerging from the belly of the Middle Ages. It is the shadow of the Bazaar Tekke, destroyed 50 years ago. It is nothing but the specter of private property dressed in a religious mantle. This shadow keeps getting under our feet. In parliament, at gatherings of elders forgotten by the world, or among those who want to graze on green pastures. In some newspapers that remain unsold on the streets. Dozens of projects that have been launched fail to take shape, as if bewitched by these shadows. Finally, the laying of foundations for the 650 new apartments in Tirana by the former landowners, waving their title deeds, has been put on hold. Even the law is afraid of the shadow behind all this. The distribution of title deeds for the divided land is not progressing. Meanwhile, the government weaves and unweaves arguments like Penelope at her loom. This action keeps an entire village in limbo, giving courage to a handful of people who bare their teeth. There are those who, over a loss they suffered long ago, are ready to demolish a building. As if one were not enough, a party that received an exemplary lesson in every election is collecting illegal signatures, like Chichikov collecting dead souls. With this act, it seems to want to show why it was founded as a party. How long must this nightmare continue? The division of the land is an undeclared referendum, a living expression of the people’s will. The government alone refuses to take it into account. SH. M.

The President of the Republic is searching for his true position as president. He intends and is trying to rise above the framework of the program and positions of the party that brought him to this post, and to become a representative and defender of the ideals and interests of the broad masses of the people. This is the main impression one gets when reading his recent speech to the National Council of the DP. The new ideas in the speech, which we have not encountered in him before and which even contradict some of his previous opinions and positions, reinforce this impression. And if this search for a new position is sincere and ongoing, hope grows that the president will finally find the place that is his due in our pluralist society, becoming a factor for balance, development and democracy. Those enamored of polemics, the president’s sycophants, and perhaps the president himself will not be satisfied with the term “search.” “Why still searching? The president found his position long ago!” they may say. The events of these nine months at the top of the state pyramid have shown many times that his activities have been harmed considerably by his excessive ties to the party he represents. And these are harms to society caused not by the mistaken position of a mayor of a municipality with five villages, but by the institution of the President of the Republic. For many people, it is still unclear whose main concern it was to amend the articles of the Constitutional Law immediately after Ramiz Alia’s resignation: the concern of the person waiting to receive the president’s “crown,” or that of the party he was leading up to that time? We are referring to the additional article that allowed the President of the Republic to remain in the party leadership (with the exception of the post of its chairman). This article was changed thanks to the result of the 22 March elections, in which the DP won more than two-thirds. With a different composition of parliament, such an amendment might not have been made, because the Constitutional Law is not some flimsy thing where vegetable prices can change after one evening of scarcity. In any case, the mentality that inspired these changes was that of the party-state, which seeks to monopolize everything in society and in which the president recognizes only his own party as legitimate. The election result thus becomes a boomerang for the winner. It is precisely in the concern to remain in the leadership of the Party that the new president’s “first sin” lies. From there begin the obstacles and difficulties in finding, in good time, the position that is his due in Albanian pluralist society. Unfortunately, the fruits of this mentality, of this “first sin,” were often evident in the President’s words and positions. His speeches have not lacked scornful and contemptuous expressions about the opposition party, describing it as a conservative, reactionary, backward, almost hostile force that is not even worth considering, and so on. These blasphemies continued at full intensity until 26 July, when it became clear that the people did not share this view of the Socialist Party. After that date, the anathemas and attacks became more restrained. But then another “demon” appeared on the Albanian political scene: the group of motionists. And the President of the Republic, carrying the heavy burden of the Party on his back, was forced to go as far as Konispol to convince the voters of that area that their MP and his fellow motionists were not democrats but careerists, traitors, crypto-communists, Ramiz Alia loyalists, social-communists, security-agency agents whose files would be opened, and so on. These actions, then, were not fitting for the head of state or a democrat. The same thing happened after the creation of the Democratic Alliance Party. The ink on the pages of RD, bearing some of the most insulting epithets in the Albanian language, has not yet faded. And these things did not happen without the inspiration and permission of the person who is in fact at the head of the DP. The unprincipled attack on the Democratic Alliance was not an attack on a party, but on the multiparty system in Albania. It recalled the terms used by Ramiz Alia in the speech he delivered at the former apparatus of the Central Committee of the PPSH, as soon as pluralism was proclaimed—a speech that was not published in the press, but was discussed only at secret party-organization meetings. Nevertheless, because this speech hastened the shift toward political pluralism even among PPSH members, Ramiz Alia became the target of much criticism and numerous attacks from the opposition of that time. It is precisely for this reason that the new president must no longer be allowed to curse and obstruct the process of political reorganization of Albanian society. It is clear what responsibility many such people bear toward a new political force under conditions of political pluralism. I mention these moments from (Continued on page 2)

TIRANA THEY ROBBED BULGARIAN DRIVERS

The Opera and Ballet Theatre is presenting the ballet «Lola» by composer S.V. Vasilje[n?]ko tonight at 18:00. Choreography by Agron Aliaj, set design by Genc Shkodrani. In the leading roles: Ermira Fili, Altin Kaftira, Artur Ostreci, Ledia Qosja, Arben Kuçaj, Jer[?]asim Popi, Dionis Romano. Conductor: Rifat Teqja. Correspondent of «Zëri i Popullit» in Durrës.

The day before yesterday at midday, several people robbed the drivers of the Bulgarian vehicle TIR-C 8718 TK on Tirana’s central boulevard. The vehicle had arrived for trade. The robbers took four passports and 100 US dollars. We are also reporting this news for public-order officers, and for Colonel Safet Stafa, who, being so busy with office work, has no idea what is going on all around the capital. Perhaps he is beginning to realize that the newspaper «Zëri i Popullit» tells the truth as it is. A. Ç

- Rexhep Qosja is absent - Pjetër Arbnori arrives late On Saturday, 30 January 1993, the Assembly of Independent Albanian Intellectuals met, bringing together a large number of scholars from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, etc. Two things at this important gathering made an impression on us: First, the absence of Prof. Rexhep Qosja was conspicuous. There may be various reasons, but it seems to us that the excessive and unwarranted gossip about his name in the Albanian press in recent days was the decisive cause. Second, while all the distinguished intellectuals who had «come on foot» were in the hall at the scheduled time, Mr. Pjetër Arbnori, chairman of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, despite arriving by car, joined the gathering late, after the lectures had begun. In any case, this caused no disturbance in the hall. Something will change only during the editing of the news report, when it is broadcast on TV. Thus, every trace of misunderstanding will be erased. The gentlemen in power have time, and yet they still need to learn good manners and professionalism in their work. Correspondent of «Zëri i Popullit»

WITHOUT A BUDGET FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ITS UNBLOCKING CANNOT BE ACHIEVED - No sign of the unblocking of local government. - The Government is still not submitting the 1993 draft budget to Parliament. - But will the local government budgets be submitted? - Will the districts, municipalities and communes have their own budgets? The DP’s promises The DP’s electoral platform (RD newspaper, 22 February 1992, Chapter 10. Incentives for regional development): «We support stimulating the economic development of every individual area without harming the interests of the country as a whole. Special laws will be enacted to ensure independence in local budgets, so that the residents of the areas themselves are informed about the fulfilment of their demands...» «We believe that we can achieve immediate transformation by reorganizing local budgets, initially at district level and at commune and village level. The local population itself will determine what it needs and will oversee the local authorities in meeting those needs. This will increase the effectiveness of local government, democracy and harmony in the development of the entire country, from which everyone will benefit...» The promises of the DP government The programme of Mr. Meksi’s government «I consider that we will propose that Parliament take into consideration the request to redefine the role and responsibilities of local bodies, including fiscal matters...» Fulfilment of the promises made Article 23 of the law on the 1992 budget says: The Council of Ministers shall, by 15 August 1992, allocate the budgets of the districts ... and of the Municipality of Tirana (As for ... ... a word about the budgets of the other municipalities and communes—our aim—for which a joint budget was submitted and approved by presidential decree. The Council of Ministers is charged with setting the criteria for allocating the budgets of municipalities and communes. Continuing with the promises Five days before the law in question was approved, specifically on 22 July 1992, by Decree No. 266 (although Parliament was in session), the President of the Republic issued the decree «On the drafting and implementation of the state budget of the Republic of Albania». Article 41 states, among other things: «Within the first six months of 1992, the Council of Ministers shall submit to the People’s Assembly a draft supplement to the budget law on the allocation of revenues and expenditures among the levels of the state budget and the relations between them. After discussion in Parliament, in October 1992, Parliament made several amendments to this decree, which the President promulgated on 13 October 1992 by Decree No. 320. The following amendment was made to Article 41, which we are discussing: «The deadline of within the second half of 1992 was replaced by within October 1992...». Thus, it was stipulated (by law) that by the end of October the 1993 budget was to be submitted to Parliament, including the revenues and expenditures of the budgets of municipalities and communes. This is also in accordance with Article 13 of this law, which, regarding this procedure, requires: «...No later than the end of October. The budget is submitted to the People’s Assembly. What is the reality? What has been written above needs no comment. To this day, local government has no budget, and therefore cannot function. In this way, the central government continues to centralize powers. The democratic society and rule-of-law state that we want to build cannot function like this. Who is responsible? - Responsibility for failing to implement the laws passed by Parliament lies with the Presidium of the People’s Assembly itself, the Government, the Ministry of Fi- (Continued on page 4)

- Rexhep Qosja is absent - Pjetër Arbnori arrives late

Son: - Mom, what are we having for dinner tonight? Mother: - Fried potatoes; I’m frying them now. Son: - And the fish, who’s going to eat it? Mother: - What fish, my son? Where’s the fish? Son: - I can smell the fish frying. Mother: - That’s the smell of American oil. Americans eat the fish; we eat the smell of the oil.