THE SOCIALIST PARTY’S ALTERNATIVE: All Albanians should become owners Demagoguery or reality THE SOCIALIST PARTY’S ALTERNATIVE: All Albanians should become owners Demagoguery or reality — “I have one plot, you have none. We each have half a plot.” This paradox of averages is turned by politics into demagoguery. — My friend suddenly began talking to me about the properties his family had once owned in an area of Mat. With the same enthusiasm with which he had told me about being accepted into the Party of Labour and his transfer to Tirana. I had known this passion of his since he wrote about agrarian reform and the collectivization of livestock. Had the times changed, or had he changed? I do not want to prejudge him, for a calculating passion sprang from his whole being. The famous slogan “Socialism is calculation” is being clothed with flesh and blood by the market economy. Everyone fights for themselves. In this climate, the law on compensation for agricultural property was introduced in parliament. The propaganda has been such as to suggest that all Albanians will be satisfied. The truth is that many people have been carefully caught in this net; they wait without knowing what they are waiting for, especially those who have no means of livelihood. A large category consists of city dwellers who came from the countryside, like me or my friend. Each of them works out the figures separately, and the amounts come out large. In reality, if all Albanians were to benefit from compensation, they would be paying one another off. Thus, it is clear that there would be no need for compensation at all. It has been mathematically established that not all Albanians will benefit from compensation for property, and that they will not benefit equally. Agrarian reform benefited 70,000 owners and dispossessed another 19,000. The figures for the distribution of property make it look as though most people are owners, but this is merely an illusion caused by the extreme fragmentation of land in the countryside. One example: 35 percent ... Lushnjë, the breadbasket of Albania; in the mountainous areas, nearly 96 percent of peasants were owners of merely symbolic plots. This is undoubtedly a factor of lesser weight in drawing social conclusions in favor of this draft law and in supporting it in the name of social equality. The person from Devoll or Mat, Tepelena or Myzeqe who has moved to the city forgets that they have a house on someone else’s land, on another person’s property. Under the same law, they owe a debt to the former owner, who has raised the stakes and is waiting for the appropriate compensation. But in this case the game is unequal. Some hold a card numbered 4, while others hold the ace of spades. One hundred and six draft animals in Skrapar and Mat are not enough to compensate for one hearth’s worth of land in Tirana. This tangle also includes thousands of city dwellers who have “exchanged” plots with one another. Thousands of families in the countryside have already received what was due to them, legally or through taking the law into their own hands. This law does not concern these thousands at all. Thousands of families in the city are waiting to be compensated for former properties in the countryside. In doing their sums in advance, they have forgotten one small “remainder”: a dispute with their father, brother, sister or cousins, who may be on their land. Albanians will pay to compensate one another. Up to this point, there is some logic to it, and the idea of compensation is acceptable. Thousands of others, who were penniless until yesterday, will pay taxes to compensate others without ever benefiting themselves. Losers yesterday, and twice as much losers today. half a plot.” Politics turns this paradox of averages into demagoguery. Can all Albanians become owners under this law? This is demagoguery. The real path is different. Good, ël …learned, is estimated at 160,000 ha. Who will take responsibility for this now? For this inequality among citizens, Albanians must pay, according to calculations based on the projections in the report: 10,752,000,000 new lek, or more than the actual state-budget revenues for 1992, excluding foreign aid. This means that today’s citizens, in addition to the domestic debt of 23.3 billion lek—which is the projected state-budget deficit for 1993—must also be saddled with another burden of 10.7 billion lek, not counting the other burdens, to pay the outstanding domestic debt and compensation payments to former owners in cities, to former residents on land occupied by hydroelectric plants, railways, factories, industrial plants, and schools; the external debt of more than 500 million dollars, which hangs over us like the sword of Damocles. The motto of this draft law is plain to see: let me profit, and afterward, let the rest go to hell. After a deliberate reduction of real wages by more than 30–40 percent, and mass unemployment unprecedented even in the deepest economic crises of other countries, the prospects the current Government offers hundreds of thousands of unemployed people, tens of thousands of poor farmers, and other citizens waiting for even a glimmer of hope for the future are one burden after another being piled on. (Continued from page 2)

The law on property was sent to parliament so late that it seemed it would never be discussed. Indeed, there is information that last week, during preparations for the Assembly’s agenda, Mr. Pjetër instructed that this law be placed at the end, since its turn might come in three or four months. Not even three or four days had passed when Mr. Pjetër appeared before us with a different face. He insisted that the law on the return of property be placed urgently at the top of the agenda. This law was handed to the deputies and will be discussed this afternoon. What is this urgency? Why is the law on the return of property to be discussed before the Law on Compensation in Value for Former Owners of Agricultural Land? By discussing and adopting the Law on the Return of Property first, the right wing within the PD seeks to create a precedent to use with the other law, which, in the form presented, is fundamentally about compensation for the value of land, not its physical return. In other words, it seeks to please the forces opposed to the Land Law. To convince us that what we are saying is untrue, the Assembly Presidium has decided that discussion of this law—which, given its importance, is fundamental to the Constitution—will not be shown on television. “Former owners of agricultural land.” To make it not only acceptable but also more suitable for all sections of the population, under this draft law the right to compensation is extended not only to those expropriated by the agrarian reform, but to all former owners of agricultural land before the adoption of Law No. 108, dated 29.8.1945, “On Agrarian Reform.” More specifically, while the agrarian reform expropriated 19,355 families from a total of 119,496 hectares of land, the area of the co-

Well-informed sources report that, starting on March 23 of this year, the questioning of Albanians who went to Germany as emigrants began. This process, which will continue until March 23, 1993, is intended to establish the reasons for leaving Albania: whether political or economic. Two centers have been opened for this purpose, one in the city of Lübeck and the other in Sindorf, where 300–400 Albanians are questioned every day. Twenty interpreters at each center, most of them Albanians from Kosovo, have been engaged in this process. The questioning has caused concern among Albanian emigrants in Germany and their families in Albania, since, under Article 16 of the German Constitution, only foreign nationals considered to be politically persecuted may obtain political asylum status. Refugees who entered the German Embassy in July 1990, when Albania was a one-party state, have obtained (or may obtain) this status under this category. Nevertheless, departures continued systematically after that date, even up to the present day. Exact figures are unavailable, but the number questioned suggests that there may currently be several tens of thousands of Albanians in Germany. Most of them, as soon as they set foot in the country, enter refugee camps claiming to be politically persecuted. However, during his recent visit to Bonn (from March 2 to 5, 1993), Foreign Minister Serreqi had occasion to emphasize that democracy has been established in Albania. (Continued on page 4)

— PS meeting in Durrës — To respond properly to the critical circumstances the country is going through, to the state of ordinary people during this period of transitional confusion and to their daily concerns, a meeting of this party’s branch was held. It once again stressed that the Meksi government’s year in office had been a failure. The above idea was expressed both in the report presented by the branch secretary, Mr. Zini Beqiri, and by many speakers. Gramoz Ruçi, deputy chairman of the General Governing Committee of the PS, also took part in the meeting. The Balli Kombëtar–Zogist forces, it was said at the meeting, along with others in coalition with them, are leading the country toward regression and extreme polarization. Sterile demagoguery has reached its peak. But the propaganda tricks are being exposed. The grand promises have not been fulfilled. The latest changes in the government cabinet are simply ... ... (text continues, cut off at the bottom edge) In Durrës, the PD has been in power for two years, and has been in complete control for more than 10 months. The people of Durrës know this, as well as the fact that the main enterprises, many of them national, have ceased operating. The number receiving assistance has exceeded 20,000. No jobs or vocational training courses have been provided for this large body of unemployed people. The state supports private initiative, but the issuing of licenses is politicized, as is the “Blue Bulletin” now circulating from health care to education. The humanitarian mission of the democratic state has fallen by the wayside. Can one feel safe when accidents are increasing and a young high-school student is stabbed in broad daylight, in the middle of the school auditorium? Will the police and local officials be able to protect our homes from being burgled, the meeting asked, when they cannot even protect the Municipality itself, which is repeatedly robbed? The municipality that is repeatedly robbed? The situation in the countryside is serious. Fifty-seven percent of health clinics have been destroyed. The reform has still not been completed, not only because of conflicts but also because land-title distribution is not progressing. The farmer feels insecure. He is burdened by expenses he cannot afford. Social tensions have likewise developed on the farms. Nobody knows what their future will be. Although a joint enterprise with the Italians has been established in Hamallaj, it has not yet begun operations. (Continued on page 3) …active, as well as regression and extreme polarization. Their wearing thin. in the Government cabinet are merely spectacular changes and nothing more. A radical change of this cabinet is one of the most democratic demands in a society that claims to be democratic. It is the demand of the young person seeking work and organized emigration, of the sick person seeking medicine, and of the honest citizen who cares about the country but watches it continue to be destroyed, while the state does not lay a single brick. It is a reasonable demand from an honest person whose rights are infringed, whose home is violated, and whose life is threatened. What is happening in Durrës, in qen-

On Sunday, a new newspaper was added to the Albanian press: “Dita Informacion.” The editorial staff of this independent newspaper consists of Shpëtim Nazarako, director, and Ilirian Zhupka, editor-in-chief. In its first leading article, entitled “Good luck,” the new newspaper states that it “has undertaken a difficult role, but one so necessary for the times we live in: providing truthful and impartial information.” In the first issue, the main place in the newspaper is given to the views of politicians from the country’s principal parties on the property issue. Also noteworthy, alongside greetings from distinguished figures in our culture, are articles by Prof. Dr. Kristo Frashëri, Arben Puto, Neshat Tozaj, and others. We wish this new newspaper good luck in the race of the Albanian pluralist press.

Peshkopi Thirteen children aged 2–8 from the “Skënderbeu” neighborhood kindergarten in the city of Peshkopi were urgently admitted to the infectious diseases ward of Peshkopi hospital on Thursday and Friday. The circumstances surrounding their admission involved poisoning. Several of the children were in serious condition, while the others were less severely affected. The children were brought in by the kindergarten director and educators, after they had eaten food prepared from imported ingredients. Under the care of pediatrician Uzrie Kalia and the ward’s other health-care staff, who stayed by the children’s beds day and night, the patients’ condition gradually improved, until all of them were discharged from hospital on Friday at noon and placed in the care of their families. No official public statement has yet been made about the causes of the poisoning.

As reported by the Athens News Agency, ANA, the spokesperson for the General Staff of Greece’s National Defence stated: “The fact that Greek Air Force officers are taking part in the crew of the AWACS aircraft stationed at the Aviano air base does not constitute an act of Greece’s participation in the air blockade operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”