For the Minister responsible for unblocking local government Starting in January of this year, about five months after the 26 July elections for local government, a monthly allowance began to be paid to councillors in the country’s 36 districts, 44 municipalities and 313 communes. It ranges from 450 to 600 new lekë per month. Councillors who work in non-budgetary enterprises also receive an additional allowance of 100–200 new lekë for each meeting they attend. These allowances are paid on the basis of Article 58 of the law “On the Organization and Functioning of Local Government.” If we calculate the total number of councillors (not counting party membership here) in all the districts, municipalities and communes, it becomes clear that the expenses are not small. Quite the contrary. In the district of Lezhë alone, more than 31,000 new lekë are spent each month on the 23 district councillors and the councillors of its 9 communes and municipality. This allowance can be converted according to each councillor’s own calculations or pocketbook. At today’s prices, 2 kg could be turned into 2 kg of meat, 3 kg of cheese, Kruja and Cooper beers, or who knows what else. Something is striking about this, however… If they are so punctual in collecting the allowance to which they are entitled by law, how effective is their work? Or, more precisely, what would justify the effectiveness of their work, now that the allowance they receive also obliges them to deliver? As far as I know about the district of Lezhë, despite the imposition on many councillors and the willingness that exists among them, the paralysis of local government often renders their patriotic efforts ineffective. This is why, in other words, one can say “we have no say in anything”: there is inactivity and indifference in the councils, disregard at meetings, in the acts adopted, and in the functioning of the commissions established; councillors are not assigned duties; there is formalism and the use of the councillor’s mandate to pursue personal interests, etc., etc. The councillors’ allowance would be more justifiable if local government were not centralized in this way, having visibly departed from the basic principles of its organization and functioning, such as self-government and local autonomy. This unsatisfactory level of councillors’ activity and real contribution in the districts, municipalities and communes—despite the efforts of Socialist councillors everywhere to escape this vicious circle—is, among other things, also linked to the transplantation of councillors from the people’s councils of the monist period. Those councils were often merely backdrops, window dressing or mannequins approving the directives of the state party, with no real say in anything, except, as the saying goes in such cases, holding the keys to the straw. The issue is that, by becoming aware of the trust the people have placed in them (and, naturally, the material allowance as well), individual and collective efforts must be made to bring the work of district, municipal and communal councils up to the “level” it should reach, so that their powers are not squandered or administered by someone else who does not have that authority or right. They should not wait indefinitely for the promised decree to unblock local government, but should contribute to this themselves. The democratic law has provided a great deal for the work of the councils, whose members, as is known, are not officials and therefore must justify their role. Socialist councillors themselves should take a firmer, more insistent stance. How are more than 31 thousand lek spent? The council’s …? more than 31 thousand new lek per month. This service seems to cost more, as if it could be converted according to each council member’s personal calculations or pocket. At today’s prices, someone could convert it into 2 kg of meat, 3 kg of cheese, into «Kruja» beers, «Cooper»s, or who knows what. Something makes an impression: whether it catches the eye or not, the council members are very regular in collecting… This unsatisfactory level of involvement and real contribution by the council members to the countless problems that…

Protest by the Presidency of the Steering Committee of the Socialist Party of Tropojë, addressed to: the President of the Republic, Mr. Sali Berisha; and the Prime Minister of Albania, Mr. Aleksandër Meksi. Protest by the Presidency of the Steering Committee of the Socialist Party of Tropojë, addressed to: - The President of the Republic, Mr. Sali Berisha - The Prime Minister of Albania, Mr. Aleksandër Meksi The tragic death of Pal Zef Qokaj, a father of three children from Çerma e Tropojës, in the explosion and police gunfire in Fier, has stirred widespread indignation and anger in our district. Like the rest of the people, the members and supporters of the Socialist Party share this grief and anger, and we sign on their behalf to protest forcefully before you. The need to feed his children drove Pal to Fier, where he joined his brothers; the same fate could have befallen him elsewhere. But what happened there was no accident, nor merely the sort of thing that certain beings who look like people, dressed in power and uniform, do to innocent people, while criminals and the guilty walk around freely. Indeed, how could it be otherwise when many of those called police officers in the various forces of our police state have taken these positions precisely for such work or similar purposes? We do not personally know the perpetrators of the crime in Fier, but reality tells us not to expect anything better from those “cadres” or police officers drawn from the ranks of rally-goers, from among former convicts for theft, robbery and other ordinary crimes, whose principal credentials are participation in the “democratic revolution”—in the burning, looting, mining and destruction of objects built under communism—as well as criminal convictions and a forged school certificate. For people of this kind (who, unfortunately, are not found only in the police), the most impossible thing is to play the role of representatives of a state governed by law, or to entrust them with protecting the rights, freedom, security and order of the citizens of a democratic country. This is convincingly demonstrated not only by the cases already known in Dibër, Kastriot, Fier, Shkodër, etc., but also by hundreds of others across our country, where these state representatives act and prove themselves to be against the law. The terribly painful case of the late Pal Qokaj is one such example. This “story” told around here is not simply a joke about policemen, nor is it only about the police: “The first Monism took our livestock; this fool took our shepherds and dressed them as policemen,” while we were left without our young men once again. Gentlemen in power, stop the murderous hand and the illegal, anti-democratic actions of the thousands of such vindictive and primitive people whom you yourselves have raised to undeserved positions. The sooner you do this, the better for you, for Albania and for the nation. Tomorrow will be too late: the anger and curse of this entire poor people will fall upon you! Tropojë, doubly isolated and threatened, has many woes and problems, and has already shed enough blood for nothing. We have dug graves for the young men killed at the border over these past two years by Milošević’s Serbs. We do not want, and are determined not to allow, him or other Miloševićs to kill us inside our own state, which you call democratic. of the Tropojë district.

- While they wave around old pistols brought out of chests from the Turkish era - According to a specific clause, documents concerning the privatization of properties are kept for at least one year (1). After a year, anything you want can be done with these documents identifying millions. They can be destroyed, burned, or made to disappear in the most sophisticated ways. In this way, the government officials of the PD legalize corruption. They are telling those who will acquire property, “Do whatever you like, because after one year (they expect to still be in power), the traces of the transactions will disappear by law.” Those in power are working hard for themselves. The decisions (which are legal) are so mysterious that their shadow (as in the case of privatization) causes nothing but distress for the unprotected. They watch what is going on and therefore ask: How can documents of such great importance be kept for only one year, when these very officials are waving around property deeds brought out of old chests from the Turkish era? A. Ç.

. Hysni Myftar Hyka, chairman of the district’s Independent Trade Union, has been arrested for selling detonator caps to various people. This announcement was made on television on 16. 6. 1993. The main PD leaders in the district were genuinely alarmed: “We need ammunition”—and it blew up in their hands. This was not supposed to happen to them. The matter became the subject of rumors and, on 17. 6. 1993, he was released, apparently on orders from above, from Spahia or Dosti, who had come to speak “face to face” with the people of Tropojë. At 23:00 on that same day… Hysen Osmani, Jakup Hoxha and Nezir Nekshiqi have been and are the main leaders of this enterprise. Their family connections in Tropojë with Sabah Jemishtë and Hysni Hyka are well known. As head of the district’s Independent Trade Union, Hysni Hyka helped these gentlemen reach the heights of power in the district and in the PD, manipulating the trade-union movement. All of them… have divided and betrayed the interests of the workers, and have turned into watchdogs for a thoroughly corrupt regime and its officials in Tropojë. We had heard about the trade in detonator caps and suspected that its source was those who administered them. Mr. Hysni tried to silence us by presenting himself as the standard-bearer against corruption in the district, but as we understand it, he was merely giving warning so the tracks could be covered. It seems the thieving officials are now eating one another over the biggest piece. Which of these nepotistic clans, clothed in all the power of the district, set a trap for Hysni Hyka? What connection does the division of the profits from selling the detonator caps have with Hysa Osmani, Jakup Hoxha and Sabah Jemishtë? What other thefts will this group expose? Let’s wait.

For the second time, journalist Aleksandër Frangaj of the newspaper “Koha Jonë” appeared yesterday at 9 o’clock before the Court of Appeal based in Shkodër, since, as is known, criminal proceedings have been brought against him for disseminating false information that causes panic. “Koha Jonë” appeared yesterday at 9 o’clock before the Court of Appeal based in Shkodër, since, as is known, criminal proceedings have been brought against him for disseminating false information that causes panic. After the case was dismissed by the trial court in Lezhë, the General Prosecutor’s Office added the charge of disclosing state secrets and sent the file to be accepted by the Court of Appeal in Shkodër. The panel of this court, composed of Maliq Memçaj as presiding judge and Mërgim Dragusha and Tatjana Laçi as members, waited more than an hour for the accused Aleksandër Frangaj’s lawyer, Spartak Ngjela. Because the lawyer did not appear, for reasons that are unknown, they decided to postpone the trial until 8 July at 10 o’clock. Journalist Frangaj agreed with this decision.

At the latest meeting of the Tirana branch of the Democratic Party, there was an extensive debate about whether or not the files of former collaborators of the State Security Service should be opened. Arguing that the implication of many PD politicians and members of parliament in these files was the work of the State Security Service, which had manipulated them in order to discredit the PD as a political force in the eyes of the people, it was decided that the files should not be opened. A draft law is to be drawn up to authorize the sealing of the Archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for 50–100 years, and Parliament is to act immediately to… …Republic President Sali Berisha, at a press conference after returning from Switzerland, declared unequivocally that politicians’ files would definitely be opened. The Speaker of Parliament, Pjetër Arbnori, has also spoken to the press in favor of opening the files. So who is preventing such a thing? Given that this issue is being exploited for an unprincipled political struggle, to the point that even the highest-ranking state figures have been wiretapped, isn’t this an opportunity for the President himself to launch a legislative initiative, as he did with the Law «On Human Freedoms and Rights»? Chairman of the Parliamentary Presidium…

Some time ago, at a rally organized by the trade unions in the Sports Palace in the city of Korçë, there was a group of rally-goers who were trying to disrupt the meeting. Among them was the head of SHIK. Everyone knew him; he stood there, and people watched him directing things with his eyes and a lever. When he saw he couldn’t do anything, he left the hall. Some others also came out after him from inside the arena… … saying he was drunk. Others said he always behaved that way. The hall knew him then, too: he was one of the five new owners of the bakery, a former prisoner to whom Ilir Manushi had sold the bakery together with the former chairman of the city committee, now head of SHIK. Precisely the man who left the hall. But he is to head the privatization board. They don’t call this “seeing”… Make it graphic.

Voices claiming to be close to Minister of Defense Safet Zhulali describe his frequent visits abroad as visits by Albania’s No. 2, judging by the importance of what was achieved in talks with senior military officials and its bearing on Albania’s future. In this context, they say that foreign military personnel will soon be stationed at strategic points in our territory, near air and naval military bases. They will deal with technical issues concerning the readiness of military equipment, supplies, and so on. They even set a deadline: before the end of this year. We do not wish to comment on these claims, since Mr. Zhulali’s interviews do not confirm that any concrete agreement has been reached. But, logically, we would like to analyze some facts published and confirmed by officials of the Ministry of Defense. Following statements that Albanian military bases and airfields would be made available to international forces for military operations against Serbia, and that foreign military aircraft would be allowed to cross our airspace, confirmation of the above claims would mean that today’s rulers have reached the limit of their concessions. If certain alliances are formed and strengthened for the benefit of the Albanian nation, that is not only a good thing, but would also stand as a concrete achievement of the Democratic Government. But the monopolization of ultimatums by a group of rulers, and the lack of transparency not only toward the public but also toward the Albanian Parliament, which is empowered to ratify agreements, leads one to think that everything we have mentioned may be being traded away merely to legitimize the current government’s positions. We hope that is not the case. Especially now, on the eve of the adoption of the constitution, the question of Albania joining military alliances; making foreign troops and military bases available on its territory; permitting the stationing of foreign troops or their military equipment in Albania; and the participation of our Armed Forces in military operations beyond the country’s borders—these are issues that concern not only the preservation of territorial integrity but Albania’s sovereignty directly. They must, without fail, be submitted to the judgment of the entire Albanian people. Only the people should be able to decide how much these affairs may cost the Homeland, and let the people deliver their verdict on them in a referendum. This is the only message we wish to convey through this article.

Kandri is one of the gentler and more fertile villages in the valley of the Black Drin, in the Dibra region. Its lands …

For the second time, journalist Aleksandër Frangaj of the newspaper “Koha Jonë” appeared yesterday at 9 o’clock

A problem for elementary-school mathematics - A contest in which parliamentary mathematicians are also invited to take part - Kandri is one of the gentler and more fertile villages in the valley of the Black Drin, in the Dibra region. Its lands … After the land was divided according to the familiar principle, «each to his own», the landholding of the villagers of Kandërrt is calculated as follows: - Families with no land: 58. - Families with up to one dynym of land: 68. - Families with up to 15 dynym of land: 10. - Families with up to 1200 dynym of land: 1 (one). Contest participants are asked: How can anyone live in this village? The contest winners are guaranteed a free trip along the roads of this village in Dibra. Deputy winners (especially mathematician and urban deputies) are guaranteed the right to remain deputies for another legislative term without an election.