- Bravo (!) to the Democratic Government’s (!) MEKSI’s new successes (!) - Albanians are the only nation with two closed Academies. This matter is not of great fundamental importance, but it is strikingly significant. Those whose fuse has blown do not care in the least that people say their fuse has blown! What matters is that the fuse has blown because of a harsh winter! On 9 February, a meeting of the Assembly of the Academy of Sciences of Albania was hastily convened, together with the directors and deputy directors of the scientific institutes belonging to the Academy’s system. At this meeting, a decision of the Meksi Government was read out, if we are not mistaken dated 29 January 1993 and signed by the Prime Minister himself, which “shall enter into force immediately, with the utmost urgency.” The decision had reached the Academy on 7 February at around 2:30 p.m.; and since Sunday came before it, the meeting could not be held any sooner than Tuesday at 12 noon. In brief, the decision provided for the suspension of the governing bodies of the Academy of Sciences and of the directors of scientific institutes who had held their posts for more than two years. In plain Albanian, this means: the Academy Assembly, its highest body, is suspended; in other words, the members and corresponding members of the Academy who represent our science are suspended—people such as Petraq Pilika, Hajredin Kumbaro, Mahir Domi, Shaban Demiraj, Mentor Përmeti, Ylli Popa, Petrit Gace, Aleks Buda, Bedri Dedja, Stefanac Pollo, Ismail Kadare, Selaudin Bekteshi, Bajram Preza and several others. The decision also immediately suspended the Academy’s foreign members, Rexhep Qosja, Idriz Ajeti, etc. The aforementioned decision had one precise point of an administrative nature. The Prime Minister would appoint three highly qualified scientific workers to take over the leadership of the Academy of Sciences, evidently considering himself the most super-qualified of all (!) They say (it may be gossip) that the head of this Meksi triumvirate will be a pupil of Arshi Pipa. A few questions were also asked at the meeting. Had any representative of the Academy been invited to the government meeting where this decision was made? No! Have the names of these highly qualified people who will take the reins of the Academy’s leadership been announced? No! The truth is that, at the beginning of 1992, the Assembly of the Academy of Sciences, after publicly declaring its support for the new democratic processes (as also evidenced by the Manifesto of 181 intellectuals in February 1992), and after adopting a new statute with profoundly democratic content, elected a five-member governing group. They asked to meet the President and the Prime Minister by letter, because they considered the suspension by the Meksi Government of the Academy’s new statute, which had been approved by the Ahmeti Government, to be entirely arbitrary. They sought an honest face-to-face discussion between our academics and the country’s two leading figures. Yes, but, surprisingly, neither of these two important figures had the courage to meet with a governing committee of the Academy elected democratically. The aforementioned decision of the Meksi Government contained another point as well. A working group appointed by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Committee for Science and Technology would submit, within the month

It has been six months since the Bulqiza district council began its work. The first council endorsed through the people’s vote. A good hope for a good future. But someone is trying to kill this hope. For some time now, arms have been sounding behind this council’s back, seeking to topple and seize it. Their mania for having all the power has driven these inexperienced political swindlers to turn Bulqiza into a laboratory where experiments in political, economic and psychological criminality are carried out. Terror that kills with a smile, shamefully. It kills the future, the youth and the people’s democracy, the intelligentsia. It extinguishes trust and understanding. To put it plainly, Bulqiza is now caught between two winters. The harsher, more treacherous, more deceitful and more cowardly one is the PD’s revanchist political winter. Who organized the Bulqiza miners’ strike? The culprits have finally come out into the open. The masks would one day be torn off. The truth about Bulqiza came out naked. The conjectures and rumors spread by the parties, the government and television never went beyond conjecture and rumor. The people, a jewel, had stated the truth long ago. But, regrettably, they did not want to accept it. It is terrifying to lose faith in your own people; it is dangerous. Fortunately, this loss of faith is temporary. Someone will stand by them. Someone of their own blood and flesh. The wicked abandon the people and play with their misfortune. The truth: Was the Bulqiza miners’ strike organized solely by the PD? The aim: To remove the socialists from the local governing bodies. The pretext: “Disorder in the leadership” (the PD members must have all the power). The result: Thousands of tons of chrome lost to the economy. Thousands of workers without wages. Destruction, destabilization, chaos, fear, distrust. What comes next: A motion of no confidence in the chairman of the Bulqiza district council. The future: The scenarios are ready. The PD is far-sighted. 2. An unwanted beginning for... For about a month, the first meeting of the district council was postponed and postponed again. The reason? The PD members absolutely had to be put in charge, even though the people’s vote had left them fewer in number than the socialists. Dozens of telegrams to the government, the Prime Minister and the President. Why was Bulqiza being left without executive bodies? Why all this waiting, this murderous silence? For days on end, eyes turned toward Qafa e Buallit and the sky. Waiting only for a government representative. The law requires it—this miserable law, violated and trampled whenever the PD members feel like it. Nevertheless, the socialists took the lead. For the first time, Bulqiza would be governed by its own sons. By its own sons, its own intellectuals. The era of importing bosses had passed. People seemed to regain the calm they had lost during the transition; they had their own elected representatives at the helm. They needed to work, persevere, struggle, make an effort and go without sleep so that calm could finally give way to justice and sincerity. None of this was ever lacking. Trips back and forth to the capital. Efforts to give Bulqiza at least a little of themselves. Countless letters, official communications and telegrams. Something was wrong. The ministers shrugged. The Prime Minister said: These are the possibilities we have. Believing, as intellectuals, in the difficulties of the moment of transition and reform, we agreed with everything in a humane, Albanian spirit, never believing the truth of the PD leader’s statement: Wherever the socialists win, we will not help them. 3. Miners in quotation marks. 11 January 1933. The PD councilors’ group submits a motion of no confidence in the district council chairman. Of course, everyone has the right to express an opinion about anything: shortcomings and failings in the work of the chairman and his staff, provided everything is substantiated by the truth and the law. They call for an extraordinary meeting of the district council to consider an unlawful motion with five points, the basis of an absurdity. - It is claimed that the situation in Bulqiza was artificially worsened by the district council leaders, who took no preventive measures to stop the strike of the “miners.” First: “It is dishonest to call all those people miners in quotation marks when, led by ordinary criminals from the PD, they were driven into a dead end and went nearly two months without their daily bread. Since, apparently, they were not miners, why did not a single ton of chrome come out of the ground? Why did two of the largest enterprises in our country fall silent for two months? Where were the miners? What did you gentlemen do for them? 4. To what extent did the government fulfill its promises to the workers? Second: What measures could the district council chairman and the council take when all the demands were directed at the government? Television reported on the situation as it turned into chaos. They tried to put the district chairman, together with the mayor, in the dock at the meeting of 15 October 1992, in front of the workers, Gazim Kalaja and the government’s deputy-ministerial team. When they appeared openly before the people and the union representatives, the real blame was assigned to those responsible—and that was the government. Gazim Kalaja fumed and pounded his fist on the table in front of the government representatives, from whom he demanded that the requests be met at all costs. It is truly regrettable, and enough to make one throw up one’s hands, that all those promises made there were never fulfilled. Apart from the food ration and assistance in the form of powdered milk and potatoes, the rest remain in our notebooks. “80 people will go abroad as emigrants; draw up the lists and send them to me in Tirana.” That is all the deputy-

We have always spoken of Korçë as a cradle of culture, knowledge and progress. The present times have devalued many epithets and euphoric overtones; nevertheless, at the heart of these descriptions, something unquestionably still belongs to Korçë. The true intellectuals of Korçë acknowledge this and wish for it. This conviction brings them together; it stands above every division. Teachers, without a doubt, were—and still are—the most sensitive part of the intellectual community. It must be said that Korçë’s teachers, in town and countryside alike, regardless of their political beliefs and passions, have together shouldered the heavy burden of education. Perhaps the Korçë district is among the few where the educational process, despite the great difficulties and shortages, has managed to proceed more or less normally. But what is undermining the working climate within the schools, the smooth running of the educational process, that sense of solidarity and mutual understanding, and the way people support one another so that shortages of textbooks, curricula and teaching materials are felt less? And so, above the inspiring passions of the intellectuals’ work— — ALI SINANI (Continued on page 3)

WASHINGTON, 11 February — State Department spokesperson Ricard Buçer stressed at a press conference that the USA has not changed its position on Kosovo, as set out by former President Bush, who warned Serbia that it would also use military force if the conflicts in Kosovo were to expand. The State Department will treat very seriously any action that would destabilize the situation in that region, inhabited mainly by Albanians, Buçer reiterated, setting out the position of the new US administration. The press statement also notes that leaders of the Albanian community in Kosovo have again pointed to the possibility of conflicts spreading throughout the Balkans; it is therefore necessary to reiterate the possible consequences for Serbia, which is increasing its forces in Kosovo. (ATSH)

Mr. Gjonaj has now become known throughout Albania, perhaps even in Europe, for the historic decision he delivered as the judge in the criminal case concerning the events of April 2, 1991, in the city of Shkodër. The decision made at the end of last year deserves to enter world jurisprudence for its uniqueness in the administration of justice. It is known that Mr. Gjonaj took on this case when he was a member of the Supreme Court (today—the Court of Cassation). After the elections of March 22, he was removed as a member of this high judicial body and sent to Shkodër as an ordinary judge. Nevertheless, he was not deprived of the right to once again preside over the panel of judges hearing the people charged with the murders of the 4 martyrs of democracy. The general objections to the issuing of the decisions are now known to everyone. In conclusion: Mr. Qazim Gjonaj was once again elected a member of the High Council of Justice for his contribution to resolving this complicated problem. Now Mr. Gjonaj judges not only ordinary people but also judges, prosecutors, and investigators. THE OBSERVER

Reply The article entitled “The Greek district chairman, Kalidhopulli, issues visas,” by a perennial anonymous writer, was published in the newspaper «Republika» on February 4, 1993. The anonymous writer in question, enraged because he appears nowhere on the list of Gjirokastër intellectuals, for the simple reason that he is not an intellectual, attacks the chairman of the Gjirokastër District Council, Mr. Sokrat Kalidhopulli, in a vulgar manner. We wish to inform misinformed readers that it is true that, at the proposal of the district cultural section, the Greek Embassy was asked to facilitate the issuance of visas for around 10 directors of cultural and artistic institutions in the district (that is, not simply intellectuals). They will (Continued on page 2)

About a year ago, when the twin-city agreement was established between the city of Lezhë and Ancona, the Italian representatives’ schedule was quite full and not at all touristy, even though they were visiting for the first time. They stayed only one night and returned, within 24 hours, to their many important private and public duties. The same is true of the highest-ranking officials who visit our country. Things are quite different with our own officials. I have the impression that they have far too much free time; all ... and ... for every kind of celebration that comes along, regardless of its importance or representation; and they are “the first to make demands...” That is precisely what happened with the officials in Lezhë. The municipality of Agrigento in Sicily is organizing its 38th folklore festival for the Mediterranean in February. And, for the first time, a folk ensemble from Albania is taking part in such an event. The well-known «Çiftelia» ensemble from Lezhë had the good fortune to represent the country; it is going abroad for the first time. In my opinion, this is a fully deserved reward for the folk artists of Lezhë for their many years of contribution to documenting, creating, and performing the folkloric heritage of this region. But what is surprising is that the ensemble—one must say, reduced and not fully represented, since it is missing well-known names such as KUJTIM DASHI (Continued on page 3)

Although the law on the salaries of prosecutors and judges entered into force on February 1, 1992, it was unnecessary for the judicial justice bodies—the Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation, and the General Prosecutor’s Office. The law, albeit belatedly, was passed by those three bodies, particularly by those working in the prosecutor’s offices and courts. This is because the judicial bodies, of their own accord and in their own financial interest, had settled these matters in good time. Since November 1992... Compared with those elected officials who work in the districts. Thanks to their initiative, they say, this unlawful change in salaries was also carried out on orders from above. From November 1 of last year through February 1 of this year, a full three months’ worth of salaries have been taken improperly by the judicial justice bodies. It is most commonplace for people in the justice system to break the law, for that is what has happened. We cannot understand how thousands of lekë in salaries unsupported by legal acts can be justified! Could it be, Mr. President, that in order to restore the honor of employees working in the highest judicial bodies, you will send this law back for the addition of one very small phrase, stated verbatim: “the law shall have retroactive effect”? In this matter, Mr. Blerim Çela will have to deal with the people who make the laws, apply them when it suits their pockets, and also break them. GJYKIM ÇUNI

On February 10, 1993, a meeting of the League of Journalists of Albania was held. The leadership once again resumed [its work]. The League cooperates with all journalists in Albania on the basis of professional criteria. On February 10, 1993, a meeting of the League of Journalists of Albania was held. The leadership once again resumed [its work]. The League cooperates with all journalists in Albania on the basis of professional criteria, regardless of their beliefs and affilia- (Continued on page 3)

USA have not

The Theatre of Opera and Ballet is holding auditions for violin, viola, and cello positions. Candidates must register with the secretariat of this institution. Candidates must have completed higher education with a grade of 10 in their specialties and present a program of their choice. In addition, the committee will assign a compulsory program from the performance repertoire, as well as sight-reading. The auditions will take place on Friday, February 19, 1993, at 10:30. The Management of the Theatre of Opera and Ballet.