With 88 votes from the PD, 6 from the FSD, 2 from the PRD and 1 from the Republicans, the law on human rights is approved. Whom does a constitutional law serve if it cannot secure the approval of two opposition parties in parliament? On Tuesday evening, at around 9:30 p.m., after an endless marathon of discussions, the article-by-article discussion of the draft law “Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms” began. Tension in the chamber multiplied, as did the anxious presence of two PSD deputies, without whom the required number of 2 3 deputies could not be secured. For nearly 6 hours, with virtually no breaks, 42 articles of the draft constitutional law were approved. For nearly 10 days, the Presidium of Parliament did everything possible to bring all the majority deputies to Albania. Deputy Brozi was forced to interrupt a several-month training course in France and was flown directly into the parliamentary chamber. Surely tomorrow, in the humor of our variety shows, Mr. Brozi’s speech will also be mentioned: although somewhat ridiculous, symbolically it was parliament’s most expensive speech, because his speech—and therefore his vote in this case—cost a full 700 thousand old lekë. Most importantly, Mr. Pjetër was afraid to continue the session the next day, because the compromise reached with (Continued on page 4)

We highlight the fact: President Berisha distances himself from the Meksi government!... “Better late than never!” At last, President Berisha did what was expected. Indeed, it was late, but as the people say, better late than never. He publicly distanced himself from the incompetent Meksi government. And it was neither purposeless nor accidental that he did so in Poliçan. Because Poliçan bears witness to the total incompetence of the Meksi and Zhulali government. “Those who politicized your difficulties are charlatans,” he told the women of Poliçan in his speech before them on March 25, 1993. Hearing this democratic conclusion, “given democratically and wisely,” one’s mind immediately goes back to those days when the events in Poliçan took place. Remember the statement by the government spokesperson, which they say Mr. Meksi himself wrote by hand. - Didn’t Zëri i Popullit denounce them that very day? And, as if to mock the government, the radio and television that broadcast that provocative and wholly politicized statement (its authors, according to President Berisha, are charlatans) also broadcast the President’s words, which express his public distancing from the government. Nevertheless, we hope that God forbid they sue Zhulali and the group assembled in the Meksi cabinet, who could accuse you of public insult in connection with your office. You can justify yourself by the law, Mr. President, since under it you are not responsible for what you say. All right, but does Zhulali care? Didn’t he say at the parliamentary session where the events in Poliçan were discussed that the majority itself has the laws in its hands and, when the need arises, can add whatever it wants? Despite all this, we congratulate you on the truthfulness and sincerity of your statement.

Speech by MP Namil Dokle As the opposition, we are 100 times more interested in respect for human rights and freedoms. We are interested because it is the opposition and its members whose rights are violated most often: - Freedom of expression; - Personal freedom and security; - Criminal procedural guarantees; - The right to privacy and the dignity of the person; - The inviolability of the home and the confidentiality of correspondence; - The right to organize and assemble; - The right to work; - Freedom of association and the right to strike, as well as other rights in today’s international catalogue. The question arises: why are we, the opposition, specifically against the law in question? And the excerpts seem paradoxical. Anyone who knows Albanian realities well will understand that there is nothing paradoxical about it. But who drives young people away from Albania? Where will youth be driven by unemployment affecting 400 thousand people and an economy that is failing to recover? And yet our position is said to be paradoxical. Why? Because we demand: - That all decisions of the Council of Ministers that have violated parliamentary laws and completely blocked local government be repealed. - That Albania emerge from the crisis of totalitarianism and not be divided into losers and winners. - Demanding the country’s Constitution is not a paradox, but a guarantee that in Albania: - the distortion of institutions and their subordination to party-political control will come to an end; - all the necessary legal and institutional instruments and mechanisms will be created to guarantee, protect and realize human rights in Albania. - the sovereignty of parliament and of every deputy will be restored. - Let us not settle the scores of our fathers’ past, but work for our children’s tomorrow. Democracy can never become good if it is compared with dictatorship, much less if it takes dictatorship as its example. Democracy must be compared with itself and with the world’s finest democratic achievements. That is why we demand a Constitution and, together with it, along with the trunk, we would approve the law on human rights as the beautiful crown of this tree of democracy. We cannot agree to some people taking that crown and waving it for shade and coolness on hot days, while they have burned the trunk in winter. - guarantee that in Albania: - restored; Albania will be admitted to the Council of Europe and the free international community as a democratic constitutional republic. You see, gentlemen, that these demands are not only for us, but for everyone. You will not get a single vote against from us, but only a blank one, in the hope that Albania’s future will be written cleanly on that blank ballot, uninfected by old dictatorial diseases and immunized against new neo-dictatorial diseases. - The right to work; - as other rights in the international cata[?]logue. The question arises: why are they precisely “said to be” against the law in question?! And it seems paradoxical to [unclear][?]. is no paradox here. The bill itself may be pure gold, or pure tin. But today it is being thrown over a black cloak. And everyone knows that a cloak cannot be plated with either tin or gold. First of all, the cloak must be removed; underneath it, you will see that the most elementary human rights have been violated and are being violated—rights we need not list here, because they have been repeated several times. The revanchist history has reached such a pathological level that a National Guard officer guarding parliament, with the weapon given to him by the law of this parliament, threatens to kill the chairman of the opposition parliamentary group in front of dozens of deputies. One of the youngest deputies in parliament observed with sorrow that in Kosovo, many young people are being forced to leave their jobs and emigrate. But

Fourteen hours before the law on human rights and freedoms was approved by the right-wing majority of the Albanian Parliament, the Tirana police, acting on the order of the capital’s Municipality and without the approval or procedures of the district prosecutor’s office, carried out a brutal operation against the persecuted people who did not want this housing scheme that had been implemented. Under these circumstances, several intellectual families, for example that of Mr. Limoz Dizdari, did not agree to move into the house that had been forcibly assigned. Their belongings were left behind during the brutal operation carried out by the authorities at the homes of dozens of respected intellectuals, such as Prof. Alfred Uçi, the well-known composer Limoz Dizdari, and others, while other families were forcibly moved in to be housed. We learn that one of Prime Minister Meksi’s advisers intervened by telephone with the Tirana Municipality, describing the actions of the police and the Municipality as a “violation of legality.” We also learn that families of persecuted people who did not want this ugly scheme have been forcibly moved into some homes. Under these circumstances, several intellectual families, such as that of Mr. Limoz Dizdari and some others, refused Their belongings have been left at the mercy of fate in the corridors. Respectable families, guilty of nothing and with no legal grounds, have been thrown out into the streets. This is the guarantee our Parliament provides with the law it approved at midnight on March 30 for the protection of human rights and freedoms. We will endeavor to inform public opinion in greater detail in the future about these flagrant cases of fascist violation of human rights and freedoms. - Repeal reactionary Article 24 I, which has given free rein to individual and collective political vendettas and to the flourishing of incompetence and nepotism. - Repeal the laws that violate workers’ trade union rights to defend themselves. - Put an end to police violence against the peaceful and democratic activities of trade unions. - Treat all Albanians equally, equally free and equally responsible for the fate of democracy.

I am 45 years old, my son is 22, and I also have a 70-year-old father. I am between two generations: one belongs to the younger generation, the other to the generation gone by. I belong to the middle generation. I lived through the monist past and today I am living through pluralist democracy. My son has become what he has become through everything that was built in Albania over the past 50 years. My father, who lived through both the time of Zog and the time of Enver, does the opposite: he rejects the time of Zog and values the time he lived through. I don’t think I am in a difficult position. Ask my son? I can’t disappoint him because he is my son. Disappoint my father? I can’t, because he is my father, especially since he is elderly and has lived through the years of that era, with so much centralization that it ultimately ended in bankruptcy. And, taken to the extreme, it all boomeranged. And the boomerang overturned the overcentralized economy and opened the way for a free market economy. And that was a good thing. But now, Albania, how are you? What kind of economy do you have? What kind of economy are we building? Privatization? Good! Privatization is essential. But privatization alone? And in the economy, everything was collective, social property. Private property disappeared without a trace. It went as far as absurdity, even to the removal of fences in the countryside(!) Logic accepts it, but the coercive state imposed it. Today: is everything privatized private? Nothing social? Nothing state-owned? But what is the economy like in the rest of the world? The world recognizes and respects pluralism in politics and ideology, but also in the economy. It fosters competition in politics, ideas and thought, but also among different forms of ownership. This is how development and social and economic progress have come about and continue to come about; otherwise... One-sidedness and extremism, whether in politics or in the economy, harm society and turn it backward. In these two years, Albania has done well in the political sphere by moving from a monist state to a pluralist one; in the economic sphere, it has practically gone backward. According to specialists at the Ministry of Finance, the market economy cannot even be measured against 1989, when Albania had declined in every sector and the centralized economy had reached its end. Yet the decline over these two years is in fact deeper; it is ruinous and destructive, falling to zero, and even below, into a negative zero. Who bears responsibility for this? They say the politicians are in the lead, those who, with the theory of popu- (Continued on page 3) In this situation, wondering whom to offend and whom to appease, many questions have arisen—and keep arising—in my mind, and I find it difficult to answer them. So, with good intentions, I offer my opinion to the public, and let each person think and judge as they understand and wish. The people of Mirdita are renowned for their work in agriculture and livestock farming, and later in trade and crafts as well. Europe knew the Pirustae as some of the finest metalworkers. But what has happened in Mirdita today? A man from Mirdita, two men from Mirdita told me, is losing his profession and forgetting industrial work. The mines, plants and factories in Mirdita are of great, vital importance, just as the word “land” is in Myzeqe. Who benefits from Mirdita having no workshops? The people’s song is well known: “In three palms of land, the finest Albania...” The Middle Ages killed work. But the Renaissance brought life back because it set work in motion. It is a fact that even in the years after the country’s liberation from the Nazi-Fascists, people devoted themselves to work. Reconstruction began of everything the war had destroyed. People worked, sweating and toiling. But how much more[?] [...built] in Albania over the past 50 years. The father, who lived through both Zogu’s time and Enver’s time, does the opposite: he rejects Zogu’s time and values the time he lived through. I, meanwhile, find myself in a difficult position. Should I upset my son? I cannot, because he is my son. Should I upset my father? I cannot, because he is my father, and besides, he is elderly and has only a few years left.

Speech by MP Ethem Ruka Great eras cannot be undone even by the strongest social upheavals. They are periods in which new phenomena emerge as a result of upheavals in social, economic, spiritual and other relations; periods when scholars are granted temporary glory, often for revenge or corruption; periods of optimism and confusion, periods of a jungle of clashes[?] and alternatives, periods in which everything seeks to find its true place. Fierce debates need not frighten us; they are experiences that each of us passes through, and they are a guarantee that the democratic process is moving forward. By their very nature, all those who bring democracy to an end will remain [unclear]. Albanians are experiencing a process of great [unclear]... It is quite natural that in these periods there should be clashes of mentalities, clashes between generations, clashes between social strata and layers, and psychological clashes, even within a single individual, regardless of political beliefs. In this climate of transformation, egotists, moderate conservatives, liberals, extremists, political acrobats, altruists and sycophants come to the fore. Reality can neither be embellished nor should it be disfigured. It is as it presents itself to us and must be accepted as it really is. Naturally, quite a few people, including many members of parliament from the governing side, perceive this reality. Some people seem to have come from “Marshi” and are carrying out astonishing archaeological excavations, even though they themselves have become fossils. Some gave lessons in megalomania, as if in the left-hand section of the classroom the pupils had been left behind and deserved to be told, “Shame on you.” (Continued on page 3)

For ten days in a row, our Democrats tried to convince the opposition and the people that human rights are respected and protected in Albania. To achieve this, they took out of their mouths and released into the parliamentary chamber hundreds of snakes, hyenas, monsters, donkeys, mice, toads, spiders, dinosaurs, cannibals, etc., etc. Millions of lek were spent gathering DP deputies from wherever they were[?]. President Berisha endured all that thunderous rain (he even said he had caught a cold) and went to Dropull himself to fu- (Continued on page 4)

Discussion by deputy Maqo Lakrori The bill presented, compared with the corresponding European and American versions (at least as far as I know them), seems good to me. In my opinion, with some adjustments, it can be further improved to give even more room, in our circumstances, to the conce[?]pts of fundamental human freedoms and rights. For us Albanians, these concepts are not new in essence; nevertheless, their scope has evolved and they are (Continued on page 4)

As the newspaper «Koha Jonë» reported in yesterday’s issue, in the context of the authorities’ ongoing pressure on this newspaper, specifically following the arrest of editor-in-chief Aleksandër Frangaj and the restriction on director Nikollë Lesi from moving freely, this newsroom announced major changes to its staff in order to withstand the attacks and ensure that the newspaper continued to appear regularly and at the proper standard. Deputy Azem Hajdari was appointed chairman of the publishing council; the well-known lawyer Genc Pollo was appointed director; N[?]gela and the established journalist Frok Cupl were appointed editor-in-chief. These changes are temporary, until its former managers are free to continue their work normally. Mr. Hajdari’s initiative to defend press freedom, which is being violated by the current authorities, is commendable. However, as chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Defence, we suggest that Mr. Hajdari use all his authority and powers to verify the report about the movement of tanks, over which editor-in-chief Frangaj is accused. Accurate verification of the report by Mr. Hajdari would enhance his reputation and make it possible to release Mr. Frangaj, who has repeatedly[?] stated that the tanks passed toward the north.

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