. Eight months have passed since the local government elections. Socialist and Democratic officials are punished every day by the people and their problems; they feel powerless to solve them. Are they incapable? No! The people trusted them. Those elected are now under the weight of wounded pride (since they earn less than the heads of departments in subordinate enterprises), but are blocked by the central government. Following Deputy Zhulali’s visit to Bulqizë and the President’s officials’ meetings with mayors during recent visits to the south, the idea of unblocking local government has been gaining ground. But has it been unblocked? Which powers that had been taken away have been returned to the municipalities?… Let us look at some contradictions that are clearly visible today and show that local government continues to be blocked. Law 7572 on local government empowers the municipal council to establish joint enterprises with foreign firms (Article 14, point 20). The law on foreign investment provides that investments of up to 50,000 dollars fall within the competence of local government, whereas Council of Ministers Decision 442 of 10.10.92, which elaborates this law, gives the right to issue permits only to the district council. (Just try going into negotiations and explaining to the foreign investor how much authority the Municipality has.) The law on the local budget was passed in Parliament. From the outset, anyone can see that this is a mechanical exercise. X amount of funds is allocated, with exactly what they are to be used for specified. Where is the municipality’s room for freedom of action? Since we have no municipal property and do not levy taxes, we are obliged to use the funds where the allocations tell us to. The “decentralizing” maneuver involving the payment of education and culture employees in the city is part of this framework. The education directorate will manage the personnel, the education economic center will manage investments, while the municipality will be responsible for salaries, repairs and material equipment (!!!?) What are these half-measures? Do the gentlemen representing the Council of Ministers and the relevant ministry not send complete instructions? What is the municipality—a governing body or an economic enterprise?! It was said, and duties were assigned, that ministries should review the subordination of enterprises. But who listens?! Tepelenë Municipality has been given responsibility for ONLY NPN (all the departments involved in sewing workwear, with 20 people who were receiving assistance, had been privatized before coming under the Municipality). And the height of it is that ministries such as Agriculture and Food, Construction, etc., which know they have no enterprises subordinate to the municipality, ask us for information!!! Violations of the law and an attempt to burden the municipality with duties (not with local authority)—such meetings can only be organized by offices that exist today merely for appearances. Likewise, the Ministry of Justice wants the municipality to act as a courier, notifying the trainees appointed by the Democratic Party as judges and prosecutors to report to Durrës. How can power actually be unblocked? I think the problem is theoretically clear, but power is being kept blocked deliberately, to create tension among people and confuse them. Each ministry should set out concisely, within its own area, the duties and rights of municipalities. The relevant directorate for the Prime Minister should organize seminars for us, making use also of international experience in self-government (and what our colleagues learned in the USA), and establish the main areas of competence. Eight months have passed, and it is regrettable that not a single ministry specialist—let alone department heads—has come to learn about our offices and problems. We face numerous problems. In the city there are concerns about hygiene, public order, electricity, water, bread, etc. The issue has regrettably been vulgarized, as if municipalities want a monopoly over personnel. In the rule-of-law state we claim to be building, I think what matters more is personnel’s respect for the law than their appointment or dismissal according to political beliefs. In this regard, the failure of the government and ministries to issue decisions, instructions and regulations on the obligations of enterprises and their institutions toward the local authorities in the cities where they are headquartered and carry out all or part of their activities—regardless of the political affiliation of their personnel—is being disregarded. I raise this issue as a concerned citizen because of what happened in the case of Health on 19.3.93, when, at the twinning ceremony between the Tepelenë and Përmet hospitals and the hospital in Ioannina, the local government officials had received an invitation from the Greek side to attend the hospital in their own city (???) Today municipalities face numerous problems. They will always be in conflict with the central government’s tendency to centralize power. In this regard, I consider it appropriate to propose to my fellow mayors that we establish our own association, organized into sections according to the size of the towns. In this association we will address shared problems and adopt common platforms to make good on our commitments to voters. The association will also prevent sporadic efforts and unwarranted clashes that arise in relations with municipalities abroad. I think our concern is legitimate. Having also taken into account the views of many colleagues from municipalities at Tepelenë’s level, I would ask Parliament, the President and the Council of Ministers to unblock local government through legislation, so that each may lay a brick in the advancement of democracy on their own front. And … The comrades … [partly illegible] in Albania and expressed their willingness to cooperate and provide assistance in this regard from Greece. The two delegations then continued their meetings in working groups. “The projects for an Albanian-Greek bank will be made concrete; we will help develop Albanian agriculture by implementing an investment program through June 1994, and the transport agreement will soon be concluded, providing for the construction of two main roads in Albania by the Greek side,” Greece’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Cuderi, told journalists. She went on to promise … (Continued on page 4)

– The demand for the government’s resignation remains on the agenda today. Even the most fanatical “Democrats” have understood that the present government is unadulterated monism – At its meeting on 9 April, the Presidency of the General Steering Committee of the Socialist Party analyzed the current political situation in our country and approved its program of action for the future. The report and discussions showed that the current political situation continues to be complex. Albanian society remains polarized; through its antidemocratic actions to eliminate the opposition step by step, the DP is the main factor destabilizing Albanian political life. Its program is increasingly openly unfolding as the revanchism of those overthrown in 1944. It is therefore becoming unacceptable to the broad masses of the people. The DP is primarily responsible for the intensification of political struggle, for campaigns to purge socialists and other opposition members from the state administration, for the artificial increase in welfare assistance, and for undermining the spirit of interparty cooperation. The economic situation is also worsening. The country is gripped by a profound economic crisis, whose fundamental indicator is the continuing decline in social production across almost all indicators. Unemployment is increasing at a galloping rate. It is estimated at around 40 percent of the working-age population in the state sector; prices have reached Swiss levels, while real wages have fallen nearly threefold compared with three years ago. This economic situation is a direct consequence of the incompetence of the state administration, dominated by the DP from the center down to the local level. The reforms required by the political and economic transition are essential when they serve national rather than party purposes, as is happening here at present, where they have been turned into the settling of old scores. Although the government is considered a coalition of the DP, PSD and PR, in essence and in practice it is monist, a blind tool of the party-state. The recent changes in the Government, made under pressure from the legitimate demands of other political forces, are wholly insufficient to change the course of governance. The “arguments” put forward about supposedly broadening its base with “non-party” ministers provide no guarantee of fundamental changes in the future. On the other hand, placing people already known for their revanchist aspirations at the head of Agriculture and Food and Public Order demonstrates their subservience to the DP’s Balli. In this way, the DP leadership, the President and the Prime Minister are becoming drivers of new political and social tensions in our country. In light of the above, the Presidency emphasized the need for political action to establish the foundations of genuine democracy, to ensure real respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms of every citizen without party distinctions, and to build a state governed by the rule of law. In this context, the PS parliamentary group, in cooperation with groups from other parties as well, will persistently demand the implementation of that draft Constitution of the Republic of Albania. Convinced that the current government team is unable to change the course of governance, the Presidency believes that It would be more opportune, for the good of the people and of the DP itself, for the Government to resign than to make the “patch-ups” of recent times. Changing the way the country is governed and preparing it to move toward early parliamentary elections are essential objectives arising from the political situation our country is going through. For nearly a year, the electorate has given … (Continued on page 4)

Religious activities For Catholic believers, this was Holy Week. In Shkodër, the week’s activities began on Thursday. At 10 o’clock, the services at the cathedral church were presided over by His Excellency, the Apostolic Nuncio in Albania, Ivan Dias. Also that day, the Apostolic Nuncio celebrated two Masses, one before noon and the other at 18:00. During the first Mass, the blessing of the oils was also performed. At the second Mass, the Apostolic Nuncio held the ceremony of washing the feet of 12 seminarians, commemorating Jesus Christ washing the feet of the 12 Apostles at the Last Supper. On Friday at 15:00, …

For a year we have been waiting by the television screen for our deputy Agim Çupi to speak, because we have many hardships and problems. But in vain. He did not speak. When we were in the room—whether he was in the Parliament chamber or not—he suddenly appeared on the screen, reading a speech that others had prepared for him and that contained not a single word about our problems. From beginning to end, our esteemed deputy spoke in his speech about Deputy Namik Dokle’s meeting and the activities of the PS, completely distorting reality. Esteemed Deputy! We socialists waited for you for a whole year, hoping you would gather us together and say a few words to us, but in vain. We waited for you to speak in Parliament about our problems, but supposedly you got the job done. We waited for you to speak again with Lamë e Madhe, Makuçuli and Martanesh about meeting with your voters, but you did not manage to do so; you were blocked. You could not go everywhere, because you had not allowed any of the promises to be fulfilled. So it is not our fault that we waited for you and you did not respond. Is it Namik Dokle’s fault that he came and was received very well by the people of the town of Burrel, or is it the fault of you and your colleagues, who disappointed the people? It is not Namik Dokle’s fault that he spoke clearly and well about today’s reality, which the people endure; it is the fault of your representatives, who urged them to respond with insults. Esteemed Deputy, Namik Dokle neither is, nor [unintelligible] to you [?], but on the contrary, two or three months before he began going around your constituency, they tried to … [partly illegible] the speech of … [partly illegible] The 7,500 workers from Mat who are receiving assistance accuse you; the landless and unsupported village accuses you; education and health care, which are being destroyed, accuse you; the apartment blocks accuse you, since when you were director two years ago you brought them up to the third floor, and today the Democrats have taken them over and turned them into private homes. Mr. Deputy—you made a mistake by reading that speech prepared for you by a pseudo-democrat, whose varnish has now worn off: it was untrue, it was slander, it was fabrication. You are from Mat; at least you know who works at the district council. You know very well that it is not the socialists who head the control, privatization and finance sections, or those in charge of the cadastre, urban planning, trade and so on. You know very well that of the 48 people in the administration, only 12 are PS members, and all of them have higher education; they are among the best officials, young people without the complexes of the past. You lied to the voters when you declared that the PS had removed all the directors and put PD members and supporters on assistance. Of the 15 enterprises and institutions that were subordinate to the district, only two directors have been dismissed; indeed, you know very well that one of them had held that position for 20 years and, regardless of where he stood politically, could no longer do the job. Not a single PD member or supporter has been put on assistance. We had thought you a man of stature, but not a slanderer and a cheat. You have now shown yourself to be one too. God willing, it is not in your character, but you should not become a pistol in other people’s hands, firing whenever it suits their interests. From a group of … in … [name/continuation cut off]

– Visit to Sarandë by Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Cudru – Albania views relations with Greece as a priority, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania Arjan Starova declared at the opening of the talks of the Albanian-Greek mixed commission. The intensification of contacts between senior representatives of our two states has undoubtedly contributed to this new development in relations, the statement went on to note. Ms. Cuderu, Greece’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, emphasized the good relations between Greece and Albania, the positive influence of the Greek minority in this regard, and that of Albanian emigrants in Greece. Ms. Cuderu went on to emphasize the need to complete the legal framework for Greek investments in Albania and expressed Greece’s willingness to cooperate and provide assistance in this regard. promise … [continuation cut off] (Continued on page 4)

DECLARATION–PETITION of the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Albania Addressed to: – The Presidency of the People’s Assembly, Mr. P. Arbnori. – Parliamentary groups; gentlemen A. Spahia, N. Dokle, T Laco, A. Imami, K. Makarjadhi, M. Çeliku; – The Council of Ministers, Mr. A. Meksi – The President of the Republic, Mr. S. Berisha. – RTV, ATSH, the leading newspapers. TIRANA – It is not fully based on the theoretical and scientific understanding of the sources of the right of ownership over agricultural land; – This draft law does not link compensation for former owners to the way in which they acquired ownership of the relevant land. We demand that these shortcomings be corrected: 1. The state must acknowledge its obligation to compensate the entire rural population. The peasantry was the most sacrificed part of our society during the period of totalitarianism. The state secured from it the greatest financial accumulation, which was also invested in the construction of industrial, energy and communications facilities, drainage and irrigation works, and in subsidizing unprofitable industrial and agricultural enterprises, etc. As the owner of these works, the state is deeply indebted to the peasantry. We believe and demand that the state recognize this debt as an obligation to compensate them and repay it. We demand that the law establish an assessment of national wealth and compensation for the entire rural population for the share of national wealth due to it in accordance with its contribution to creating that wealth over the past 50 years. 2. The draft law “On compensation in value for former owners of agricultural land” must be fully based on the concep- (Continued on page 4) youth, A. Spahia, N. Dokle, T. Lanco, A. Imami, K. Makardaj, M. Çeliku; - The Council of Ministers, Mr. A. Meksi - The President of the Republic, Mr. S. Berisha. - RTV, ATSH, the major newspapers. TIRANA Dear Sirs, The draft law «On compensation in value to former owners of agricultural land», submitted by the Government to the People’s Assembly for approval, concerns the rights and interests of all former peasants and of their present and future generations. The Union of Agricultural Cooperators of Albania, as an organization that protects the rights and interests of the peasantry, is obliged under its legal statute to express its opinion on this draft law. We support the fundamental idea of compensating former owners with bonds, rather than returning agricultural land to them as it was before the 1946 agrarian reform. We welcome and strongly support this position of the Government, expressed by President Berisha and embodied in this draft law. However, we believe that this draft law has a number of shortcomings: - It does not recognize the state’s obligation to compensate the entire peasant population (Continued on page 4)

On 13.4.1993, the Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations, in cooperation with UNDP, is organizing a seminar on the topic «Participation of foreign investment in Albania and its promotion». On the days when the seminar is held, the morning sessions will begin at 9:00 and the afternoon sessions at 16:30. The lecturers will be Mr. Stuart Diamond and Mr. Rana Singh. The seminar will be held at the Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation. Lawyers, directors of private and state enterprises, business specialists: you are invited to attend. Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation

wishes Catholic believers and everyone else: HAPPY EASTER!