- The documents lead us as far as the «Meksi» cabinet. But that is not the end. The threads of cooperation stretch even further. - Ilir Hoti and his bills of exchange: another branch leading to the heart of corruption. - The President of the Republic has still not made a statement!... Why is he silent? Corruption facing the law. This television series came to mind as I leafed through the endless pages of a dossier of documents a few days ago, proving the direct links between Hajdin Sejdia and today’s Democratic Party government officials. Some of them have been published. Many others await their turn and the right time. Public opinion is learning the truth and will learn it even better in the coming days, so that it can see who the real swindlers and speculators are, and thus recognize the faces of the authors of the corruption being discussed so much. The Socialist Party is accused in the most unscrupulous manner; its chairman and People’s Assembly deputy, Fatos Nano, is attacked in the most thuggish way, proving once again that thugs know no language game other than their own jargon. Smiling masks are changed on the bloated faces of mannequin-like people, as if this people were unable to distinguish thieves, swindlers, spies, and lickspittles. Faded relics of modern times! Do not think you have become more ... Let us inform you in greater detail about this other line of corruption as well. Let us continue. A document has been published, “signed by a certain Gazim Kalaja and Sami Karriqi, in which pressure is applied—even with a strike—solely to establish a joint bank with Hajdin Sejdia. This might be justified by the degree of their acquaintance. That is an acceptable argument, but why apply pressure by going on strike? What is all this insistence about? Or was it because they were ordered to do so? And, as the people say, the dog barks where it eats. But while the striking trade unionists «did not know the swindler Hajdin», we cannot say the same about the «Meksi» government, whose members had a particular knack for sniffing things out. It is not that they did not know Hajdin Sejdia; rather, they felt obliged to meet his demands because they had entered into his game. That is why they then helped him leave quietly for Switzerland, concocting a television stunt with handcuffs. “The comedy?... But the facts do not remain in ca- ...” Nor are Eduart Selami or Sali Berisha themselves exceptions. Ilir Hoti and those behind him... Some may think that Ilir Hoti’s inclusion in this article is incidental. It is not. The Sejdia–«Meksi» Cabinet line is only one of the hundreds of strands in the web of corruption, which remains unbroken only because the Democratic Party holds power and because the justice authorities are not allowed to work independently. But, fortunately for Albania and for the government officials themselves, this situation will not last long. But let us refer to the interpellation with Ilir Hoti. I think everyone noticed how faint the Governor’s voice was, how drawn his face looked. But something else about him also made an impression. He was not wearing the traditional suits he wears when he appears on television, because they reflect the fact that they were bought at a high price. He was not wearing on his finger the gold ring with the thick band ... Hoti. Because, to save himself, he would point out the real culprits. What I have said may indeed sound like the language of «RD», but it is not quite that, because it is not phrased as an order. Justice, the law, and public opinion It has been written and said thousands of times that a democratic state is a state governed by the rule of law. But how can there be a state governed by the rule of law without independent justice bodies? The newspapers themselves know. We are trying to convince the world of something that Albanians do not feel to be true. Because the justice authorities are the most insulted, the most discriminated against, and the most subjugated. I am not making distinctions by name, because, as representatives and defenders of the law, they are all the same to me. Certainly, there are guilty and corrupt people among them, blind soldiers and trainees with glaring eyes, but most are honest, aware of the law and their work. But what can they do?... Their children’s bread forces them to ... remain silent. But how long will they remain silent? How long will they be partners with those who do not know what the law is? It is up to them to decide, but they find themselves powerless to uphold the law and defend justice, few in number, unless they themselves violate it to such an extent that they will have to answer for it tomorrow. Leave the guilty without accomplices, and it will be easier to identify them when the rule of law truly prevails. As for those who give the orders, those protected by the offices they hold and not by their honesty, they need not worry. It is a good thing that extradition agreements are also being signed; it would be even better if such an agreement were signed with the USA as well. The truth is that it cannot be drowned. If it was possible to count the coffees drunk over 50 years in Enver Hoxha’s house, the coffees of two years can be counted much more easily. Only it will not be the party that counts them, but the law and the genuine justice of a democratic state. LUAN M. RAMA aside from their jargon. Smiling masks change on the bloated faces of mannequin swindlers, spies, people with leprosy. Modern-day Mijëra! Do not think you have become wiser and more honest than you were, or than people know you to be now that you have each taken an armchair whose only part that belongs to you is your backside. You have remained the same people you were, to your own misfortune and even more so to the misfortune of the country and democracy. You brought Blerim Çela into Parliament and he read a report he had not prepared himself. Your business. But... You wanted to raise your eyebrows and instead gouged out your eyes. Because your ties with Hajdin Sejdin are older. A hero of memory. Remember the plates you emptied at the Valiast villa, just as you know that Hajdin Sejdia himself financed him. Nevertheless, you want documents. And we gave them to you. You pretend not to know. But the truth is that, along with the Valiast miners’ strike, Hajdin Sejdia and his friends also financed the steel-factory workers’ strike; on March 22, 1992, they were organized with Hajdin’s dollars, which in reality were the dollars of Albanians in Italy, where they spent a full 17 days. In the coming issues we will the man Hajdane Sejdajmë, but you see them as suspects and meet their demands because they had joined quietly for Switzerland, staging a television stunt with handcuffs on his hands. What a comedy?... But the facts do not remain in the Meksi cabinet! They go on to make the judgment less patient, and in the coming issues you will learn everything. For now, however, you will only learn. Because the Party is in command and today’s state is its servant. The Prosecutor’s Office is examining the material submitted by the State Audit. It is not bringing charges, even though Eduart Selami, together with his group, has spoken “about combing out the red mafia,” “about thieves by name,” “about dollar-stealers,” etc. “Mr Selami has turned out to be a good and cultured man, but I am obliged to remind him that a person can be called a thief or a robber only after being declared as such by the competent authority. We are addressing him as chairman because I think he has not yet lost his awareness and ability to find his bearings after the merry nights at the ‘Dajti’ hotel. The court is the only competent body that, under the law, has the right to try and declare a person guilty if that is what they turn out to be. Fatos Nano is no exception to this law, just as ... slandered ... their demands because they had joined his hands. What a comedy?... [The text in this column is partly illegible and interwoven with the continuation of neighboring columns.] is not bringing charges, even though Eduart Selami has spoken, together with his group, “about dollar-stealers,” etc.

In the intensive propaganda by today’s rulers and their servants to “explain” the corruption in the distribution of emergency aid by the Nano government, or by Fatos Nano himself, they make extensive use of expressions such as: «The hungry people», «the children of the hungry people», etc., etc. Do the current rulers truly feel sorry for the people and «the people’s children», or are they sorry for their power, which has long since developed irreparable cracks? It is likely to be the latter. Let us reason a little, relying on evidence. The people really were hungry during the Nano Government. The aid granted by the Italian government was also intended to alleviate this hunger. Why did the Democratic Party, as the opposition at the time, make no effort then to uncover the «corruption» it claims to be uncovering today? There are two possibilities. Either it viewed this aid jealously, as an obstacle to taking power in the March 31 elections, or it found no evidence—or did not want to find evidence—of the so-called corruption. In any case, at that time it was more interested in the power it was supposed to take than in the people who were suffering from hunger. Our people were still not full several months later. The July exodus proved this. The other aid granted by the Italian government, within the framework of assistance from the European Community, was once again an effort to alleviate our people’s hunger. But how was this free aid, amounting to 30 million dollars a month and continuing for months, received by the Democratic Party? At a meeting Prime Minister Ylli Bufi held with representatives of political parties on July 18, 1991, attended on behalf of the Democratic Party by Messrs. Azem Hajdari and Eduard Selami, the latter offered only statements or objections regarding the aid granted by Italy. Azem Hajdari: «We will ... ... allow, given our poverty, Italian soldiers to come here and possibly harass our sisters. If you do not remove them immediately, we will throw them into the sea. And 1920 will look like a flower». More or less, Mr. Hajdari was saying what E. Hoxha had said long ago: «We may even eat grass, but we will not extend our hand to anyone». After Prime Minister Bufi explained that in other countries too, emergency aid is distributed through advance military reports, Mr. Eduard Selami, who at that time followed Azem Hajdari like a pet, stated with an admirable position (or political naivety): «The Italian government did not help the Democratic Party in the March 31 election campaign». Once again the question arises: Does the Democratic Party feel sorry for the hungry people, or for the power that has not yet fully taken root? It is hard to believe that it feels sorry for the people. Otherwise, it would not have thrown a fit over Italian aid. It is hard to believe that the government cared about power either in the Government of Stability at the time, where it had nearly half the ministers, along with its allies. It cared about only one thing: «Why didn’t they take all the power on March 31?» To this day, the people are still not full. Indeed, they mutter to themselves because they cannot get by on today’s wages, today’s welfare assistance, today’s unemployment, and today’s liberalized prices. Even though today’s rulers know this reality, and even though Mr. Selami tries to argue the opposite at press conferences and in other statements, they are suffering deeply. They are suffering from the crisis of power. They try to ease this pain by not talking about the people’s hunger today, but by telling them about yesterday’s and the day before yesterday’s hunger. They seek imaginary culprits to cover up their own faults. ALTIN ÇOBA

An «ambassador», or embassy official posing as an ambassador, has often been found chatting with troubled Albanians. What is the poor «ambassador» to do, His Excellency of the smiles with a few degrees?! For the serious-minded, it has become a reflex: with a boys’-gang vocabulary, acting not quite openly, but more openly and understandably than during the mysterious meetings... What he was plotting at the recent meeting in Vlora (in the empty square) is known even to those who had dressed him in a black suit and a wig. How low diplomacy has fallen, represented by such people! But this «ambassador» should know that they will very soon take his wig off; what a former «person» deputy said will soon come to pass [partly illegible]. PYTRIT JONI

We have been informed from Switzerland that these days a strange man who came from Tirana has been seen there. He is trying at all costs to meet Mr. Hajdin Sejdiën. The arrival of this mysterious man has aroused many suspicions and rumors. Some took him to be a person sent by someone with ill intentions toward Sejdi. Others say he was sent on a special mission by the Democratic Government to ask Hajdin Sejdi that, just as this government helped him escape from Albania without a scratch, he should now help the Government remove the noose from its neck. Rezidenti

On the basis of Government Order No. 2320, dated 4. 9. 1992, followed by another order from the Municipality of the city of Tirana, the association of political prisoners and persecuted people has been installed in a separate building at the «Urgjencën e besantit». This association has a full 12 offices and a 200-seat hall. Alongside it (that is, inside the building) have also been accommodated the Association of Pensioners of Albania, the Albania–America Friendship Association, and the Albania–Russia Friendship Association. The latter were admitted on the basis of requests bearing numbers 2920 and 3038, dated 7. 9. 1992, made by the Tirana Municipality. But the chairman of the Association of Political Prisoners and Persecuted People, Mr. Kurt Kola, has his own «government». He has decided to throw the three associations mentioned above out onto the street, using threats as his most «democratic» tool. Since he has not managed to achieve his aim through notices and warnings, on May 18 he decided to put a threat on four offices, warning that they must never open again. All three associations are currently without offices because «the ogre» Kola has no intention of giving them up. The heads of the offices occupied by Mr. Kurt have complained to the Government and the Municipality, but so far they have received the response: «We will deal with resolving the problem». But Kurt Kola does not care, since, as we said, he has a «government» of his own and does not want to know anything about laws in a country where there is no one to enforce them. DRITAN PRISHTA