THE FORMER COOPERATIVE BUILDINGS HAVE BECOME CLUBS, THE OWNERS ARE MILLIONAIRES, THE FARMERS STILL HAVEN’T RECEIVED THEIR MONEY
National wealth is still being destroyed by poor, immature and corrupt administration. Here, for example, is what is being done with the assets of the former cooperatives.
Let us not examine everything; let us take just one fact that councilor Agamemnon Pashko brought to the attention of the Gjirokastër district council. In the former high-type cooperative of Lower Dropull, 61 buildings have been sold to individuals (what buildings! And at what prices, in this time of transition and corruption). They have put the premises into operation and made millions from them, but the private owners of today still have not paid the former cooperative members for their workdays and sweat. Is there any logic to this? The allocation criteria were based only on anarchy and trickery, but can’t even the money in the bank account be administered and distributed to ordinary people?! What a state, what a state! Eleven million new lekë have been calculated as the proceeds of the former cooperatives of Gjirokastër; they sit there waiting, the legal and economic entities no longer exist and are no longer recognized, the money remains locked away, and people toil here or in emigration. And let us not forget something else: that money is now ten times less valuable than when it was earned through the cooperative members’ blood and toil. Society today will give each former cooperative member only one tenth of the income he contributed. “I’ll take the 1,500 former members of our cooperative and come demonstrate outside the district council,” said the councilor who raised this issue.
Are we still going to demand sacrifices and hardship from the countryside and the farmer?!
THANAS DINO
A model of assistance from the Ministry of Justice
On May 12, Sarandë court bailiff Ziso Papajani was in Qesarat village on business.
The next morning, at 8 o’clock, the court president put Minister of Justice Mr. Çela’s order No. 19 before him. In implementation of the reform, this order immediately places the experienced bailiff on assistance duty. It is dated May 6, says the person receiving assistance; that day the minister was in Sarandë, the staff were waiting for him for a meeting and he did not come—how did it reach [the court] to be signed in Tirana? And what could the court president say: she did not know the reasons, she knew that the minister had encroached on her authority.
The order arrived and had to be implemented. The disheartened bailiff says:
“I have never been a communist, I am a member of a minority, I read ‘Zëri i Popullit’ and sympathize with the PS; I do not obey the PD’s blue card or the security branch.”
Saranditi
Law on the privatization of health services
YESTERDAY IN THE PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY
PD deputy and doctor Kauri calls for the law to protect local doctors from competition by foreign doctors.
PD deputy Z. Gina calls it shameful that doctors are asking for this.
For almost the entire Thursday morning, parliament discussed a law on the privatization of health services. Several deputies, including Dokle of the PS and Apostoli of the PSD, insisted that the types of health services for which people would be served for a fee, as well as the amount of the fee, be specified by law. Doctor Ali Spahija and Health Minister Tritan Shehu opposed these ideas to the end.
When it was put to a vote for the second time, Apostoli’s proposal won, supported by the Socialist group, the PAD group and a few individual PD deputies.
During the debate, deputy Kauri expressed concern that this law risked allowing all kinds of foreign doctors to pour into Albania and take the Albanian doctors’ clientele.
PD deputy Z. Gina reacted against this position, calling it shameless. After this, Mrs. Kauri was seen leaving the chamber. Deputy Laço then supported deputy Kauri. “Don’t think that the best doctors will come to Albania,” he said, “the dregs will come. With their idiotic diagnosis, the doctors from ‘Pelikan’,” Laço continued, “killed one of the best journalists of ‘ALTERNATIVES SD’.”
Durrës risks being left without a cinema
PD members were overcome with concern for the people’s democracy
This is true. The owners of both cinemas in the city of Durrës have turned out to be PD members.
The PD deputy Mira Kauri will take the “Iliria” cinema, or the deputy with a shelter, as many citizens now nickname her.
The “14 Nëntori” cinema will be taken by Agim Haveriku, a member of the PD district council, or, as many citizens call him, “Mark Shaljgjati.”
Employees of both cinemas have been given notice to vacate them.
So far there is no information on whether PD deputy Mira Kauri and PD member Agim Haveriku have joined the hunger strike organized by the Ballisto-Zogist association “Ownership with Justice.”
ALBANA DURRESI
Questions to our 11 officeholders
To Mr. Ruli
1. Can inflation fall without an increase in production?
2. What does Albania produce more of today: taxes, levies, or lies?
To Mr. Kalakula
1. Can grain be produced and production increased without mecha-
Questions to our 11 officeholders
To Mr. Zhulali
1. What did the party think about your qualifications? Will you take a three-month course, or will a party higher school be opened for incapable leaders?
2. How many pages of your notebook have you filled with lies about Polçan?
Or have you torn them up?
2. With the efforts you have made in the field of hygiene, you have brought filth into every household; try bringing in lice too, since you’re a flea without a brother. When do you plan to do that?
3. Sewage has inundated our cities. Will you do something about it, or should we complain to Mr. Meksi?
To the fertilizer minister, Mr. Uka
ARBNORI: incapable of representing Parliament
At the end of the morning session, deputy Perikli Teta, on behalf of the PAD parliamentary group, which the PD still refuses to recognize as such, read a statement.
It denounced the position taken by Pjetër Arbnori.
(Continued on page 4)
The second anniversary of the society for the fallen of the Albanian Nation is commemorated
«The Patriotic Society for the Fallen Fighters of the Albanian Nation, on the occasion of the second anniversary of its founding, organized a gathering yesterday in Tirana with activists, supporters, and members of the families of martyrs from all the districts of the country, as well as from Kosovo and other Albanian regions. The commemorative address was delivered by the Society’s chairman, Resul Bedo, who spoke about the Society’s activities over the past two years and set out several tasks for further revitalizing its work. During this period, it has spread widely throughout the nation, in the districts and in Kosovo, in the Albanian regions of Macedonia and Montenegro, and further afield, as well as in the Diaspora. Several participants spoke at the gathering, praising the Society’s work and expressing their willingness to provide the necessary support so that the Association’s activities may be further revitalized. On this occasion, recitations were given by the artist Lazër Filipi and the student Mimoza Lleshi. At the conclusion, Hali Katana, secretary of the Tirana Branch, read a letter of solidarity addressed to Adem Demaçi and the other intellectuals on hunger strike in Prishtina, which the meeting approved unanimously.
Coming to the aid of their colleagues at RD
- Dear colleagues, why so confused? This isn’t how the party wants you -
Yesterday, two people argued at sales point N for newspapers in the capital. They argued because one of them said: RD has published President Berisha’s speech in Zvezde twice.
- Provocateur, the other threatened. This never happened even in Enver Hoxha’s time, when the cult of the individual was rampant. Then, looking at the newspaper, he changed tack: What do you know about democracy, and especially about the speeches of presidents in a democracy? They are so profound and so useful that reading them ten times is hardly enough. ‘Do you think we should read only the million Qurans that the King of Saudi Arabia gave us as a gift? Do you know that without joining the League of Islamic Countries—which is the President’s achievement—we wouldn’t even have the Qurans?’
That the first one was a downright provocateur became clear a little later, when television also kept the President “glued” to its small screen all day long. Later, as the day drew to a close, a rumor spread that recordings and videotapes of the President’s speeches would be made (fewer of the latter) and distributed free of charge. The rumor was confirmed when someone else said that a contest had even been announced for this purpose; indeed, he had seen two company representatives he knew hurrying to take advantage of the opportunity.
Internal sources within the DP and the Presidency state that until the Institute of Democratic Studies is established—which will publish Comrade Sali Berisha’s works, “Reports and Speeches,” specifically—the people will be educated in this transitional way.
CAN WE TRUST?
SALI AND THE GOVERNMENT
«The PD is a serious political force which, during the election campaign before March 31 and later, presented its own program to the Albanian electorate, a program that received very broad approval».
This program in the field of agriculture also envisaged not collecting taxes from the peasants for 2–3 years.
I think that so far it has proved to be a political force that keeps its word. It has not deceived and will not deceive».
From Sali Berisha’s speech in Zvëzdë
RD 26.93
P. 1
OR THE GOVERNMENT OF SALI
«The land tax will be introduced from the middle of 1993.»
From the letter that the Albanian government sent to Mr. Kamdesy, published in the magazine «Tribuna Ekonomike» No. 2 (14), 1993, p. 4.
2 (14), 1993, p. 4,
WHO IS THE DECEIVED PARTY IN THIS CASE, KAMDESYA OR THE PEASANTRY?
MANXHUR VARFI
Albania: democracy kept on life support
Albanian political and economic crisis through foreign eyes
With this headline, the well-known French newspaper «Le Figaro», on March 31, 1993, a newspaper known as right-wing and representative of the big bourgeoisie, publishes an article by its special correspondent Filippe Gelie, which, despite some inaccurate facts or one-sided statements it cites, essentially presents a truthful picture of Albania’s economic and political crisis a month and a half ago.
A. K
Sunk in economic catastrophe after forty-six years of communist dictatorship, Albania had for two years been surviving on a continual transfusion (blood supply). Without the help of the international community and the solidarity of emigrants, it would have become nothing more than Europe’s third bridgehead.
«We are the only country in Europe that has nothing going on except cigarette smuggling; Sabri Godo, chairman of the Albanian Republican Party, casts an unforgiving glance at the wretched unemployed who drag themselves along the streets of Tirana. The anger of this sixty-four-year-old writer cannot bear it: the [text unclear], the distribution networks no longer existed, markets were emptying, and Unicef had to launch a program to combat undernourishment («sous-alimentation»), a program of the kind used for Ethiopia.
LAUGHABLE PROGRESS
Two years later, some progress can be felt more clearly. Food is no longer entirely absent, even though prices are barely affordable. Small-scale trade has regained its rights: if you look around and ask, you can now find six or seven shops in Tirana selling satellite dishes for receiving satellite channels. «Since 1990, Albanians have bought more clothes, refrigerators, and washing machines than during the previous twenty years.» Invanov, President of the Republic Sali Berisha. In the land of the Enverists, the car fleet does not exceed 2,000 vehicles: 2,000 entered the country in the last year.
Abundance? We are still a long way from it. The industrial landscape remains entirely in ruins, unemployment strikes like (Continued on page 3)
To Mr. Kalakula
2. Can Albania produce more today—taxes, duties, and output increased without machinery, fertilizer, or water?
2. Will the land really be divided?
3. What do you intend to do next year: add more tractors or more donkeys for working the land?
Mr. Shebi, Minister of Unemployment
1. How much do you intend to increase unemployment this year?
And illegal emigration?
To Mr. Meksi
1. How far have you got with signing agreements with the world? When you blamed the first governments, what do you and the people gain?
3. Will there be any more price increases for necessities such as drinking water and medicines?
4. After you finish traveling around the world, will you be able to send the govern-
To Mr. Musaraj
1. As a neighbor we have had, I’ll ask you just one question: Why are you in such a hurry to give inaccurate information, or have you been ordered to do so from above?
Minister of Education
1. Do you think that next year teaching in kindergarten will be done through lectures, as in the first grades this year, or will you extend it all the way to the nursery?
2. Do you think teachers’ salaries should be reduced or abolished altogether, since they have got used to singing for nothing, like birds?
To Mr. Tritan Shehu
1. Until now you’ve pretended to be the Minister of Health, and also of Environmental Protection; are you going to be one for real at all?
Deputy Minister Mr. Uka
1. What instructions have you prepared for local government—will you block it or block it completely?
To Mr. Kopliku
1. We greet you as minister of heating and order, since you put the old folks away and locked us inside at lunchtime because of the insecurity. We don’t know what you had in mind, whether you still have the heating job, or whether you are going to add senators?
2. What does the reform say—will it proceed without you being reformed?
To the First Secretary of the KQPD, Comrade Sali Berisha
1. Have you planned any other changes in the Government?
2. What does democracy say—will it be free with Article 24-1 or?...
ENVER ÇAKAJ
ANNOUNCEMENT
On Saturday, 5 June 1993, at 17:00, an announcement is to be made in front of the Pogradec city stadium about holding a peaceful rally to protest the government’s measures to place the burden of the economic crisis on the backs of the impoverished strata of the population.
The rally will also be attended and addressed by the chairman of the PS, Comrade Vatos Nano, and a group of socialist deputies.
Members and supporters of the Socialist Party, young and old trade unionists, Euro-socialists, workers from workplaces and production facilities, administration employees, the unemployed, self-employed private citizens, pensioners, and other citizens are invited to attend.
Steering Committee of the PS of Pogradec District
