At the invitation of the German parliament, a delegation of the People's Assembly of Albania, headed by its chairman, P. Arbnori, is to leave for the Federal Republic of Germany. The parliamentary Socialist group is represented in the delegation by the chairman of the Socialist Party of Albania, deputy Fatos Nano. During his stay in Germany, Fatos Nano will also hold several necessary working meetings. Press and Information Office of the Socialist Party

You remember, I believe, when the Socialist Party went out into the squares before the people in Tirana, Kuçovë, Berat, and then continued in many other districts of the country. On that occasion, Albanian Radio and Television hurried to announce a decision by its governing council, according to which TV would no longer broadcast the activities of political parties, but would deal with the country’s problems. It is obvious that this is an order from the party, so that the public will not learn about the meetings of PS deputies with the people. They are not to learn how they are received or seen off, what problems people raise, or what answers they are given. The possibilities: complete deafness. But word gets around. Not only through «Zëri i popullit», but also by word of mouth. Even if just one person has gone down to the bazaar, these days he has become a loudspeaker for the village. So even without radio and television, people learn how the Socialist Party stood by them, listened to their troubles, and why this antidemocratic government—which will be marked with disgrace in the history of Albania’s governments—must leave office. Nevertheless, the attempt to organize silence came to nothing, and the old, ready-made counter-rally scenario was taken up. One day, Mr. Tomor Dosti, this man with a kindly appearance, calm and composed, set off for Peshkopi. He gathered the leaders of his public-order party and assigned them the task of breaking up the rally with Fatos Nano. They promised they would do the impossible. A former prisoner undertook to shed blood. “I don’t care about my life,” he had reportedly said. Nevertheless, Dosti, being a shrewd man, had let him understand that if he did not care about his own life, the others cared even less. In Peshkopi the party and the police mobilized to the utmost and did all they could, but they gathered no more than 20 rally-goers, whom they set to shouting on the stadium steps. The people of the city, although under the weight of police terror, welcomed the Socialists with great affection; they did not leave them alone (as the democratic [??] urge them to do), but accompanied them throughout all the city’s streets. Thus the Peshkopi counter-rally failed, as did the one in Vlora a few days later. Then Selami decided to go out among the people himself. But first he gave

Yesterday, too, the PS parliamentary group continued the work begun earlier on preliminary preparations for discussion of the Constitution, which is expected to be brought before parliament by the Constitutional Commission. In their discussions, deputies Ylli Bufi, Ethem Ruka, Malak Lakrori, Kastriot Islami, Leontiev Çuci, Xhevat Lloshi, Sabit Broka, Fehmi Abdiu, Alfred Paloka, Mehmet Loci, Shaqir Yukaj and Namik Dokle addressed seriously and with concern the issues relating to the procedures for discussing and approving the Constitution. The procedure to be followed in approving the Constitution, the deputies stressed in their remarks, is by no means a merely formal matter; it is, in fact, a fundamental issue. This depends first and foremost on the position the Democratic majority will take on the matter. The Socialist deputies will do everything possible to ensure that democratic legal procedures are respected in approving the Constitution and that the Constitution itself meets the most advanced democratic standards. In their discussions, various deputies also presented the experience of different countries regarding the methods used to draft a constitution: through a Constituent Assembly, the existing Parliament, or other means. The advantages and shortcomings of each approach were analyzed, as were the specific conditions in which the Constitution is being approved in Albania. This in fact a fundamental issue that shows how far the rule of law and the recognized democratic norms followed by the democratic world in such cases will be respected. If the Constitution is approved in accordance with lawful and democratic procedures, it will be possible to have a Constitution above party politics, serving Albania and the consolidation of democracy. How far legal procedures will be respected— …democratic legal procedures, and the Constitution itself, should meet also cited the experience of different countries regarding the approaches used to draft a constitution: through a Constituent Assembly, through the existing Parliament, or by analyzed, as were the specific conditions under which the Constitution is being adopted in Albania. It is interesting to note that there were many alternative views on the issues discussed, which require more thorough debate, including the qualified opinions of the relevant specialists, who will be present during the discussions on the Constitution, which the Socialist parliamentary group will continue in the coming days. Correspondent of “Zëri i popullit”

He is attempting to violate the constitutional law President of the Republic Sali Berisha openly revealed his antidemocratic aims concerning the Constitution at his meeting with two representatives of the Council of Europe on Saturday. He intends to violate the existing Constitutional Law. This is what was announced in the official statement concerning the meeting. According to this statement, the president assumed the role of apologist for the government’s and parliament’s positions to date on the constitutional issue. He said that “today we have, as constitutional laws, about 95 percent of the laws of a constitution.” This is one of the usual attempts by Albania’s leader to present the state of affairs in Albania to foreigners as rosy… In other words, you in democratic Europe, don’t worry, because things in Albania are going wonderfully! And this statement is made just one day after the attempts to provoke a second April 2 in Shkodër. Viewed against this overall backdrop, the 95 percent of constitutional laws we supposedly have today amount to zero when set against the flagrant violation not merely of human rights, but of the legitimacy of a political force representing half the Albanian electorate. While using the weapon of demagoguery with foreigners, this time the president does not hesitate to make baseless accusations openly against the political forces that rightly walked out of parliament in protest. He calls the failure of the relevant Commission to present the draft constitution to parliament on the appointed day “lawful and logical actions,” which the opposition allegedly used as a pretext to walk out of parliament. Thus the president openly deceives foreigners, believing that his is the only correct word. But what is most troubling in the president’s statements at the meeting with the representatives of the Council of Europe is his open intention to violate the existing Constitutional Law. He states explicitly: “After collecting comments and suggestions, the Constitutional Commission will submit the draft for approval to a Constituent Assembly, which will be proclaimed by a special decree of the President.” The question arises: What is this Constituent Assembly, and who gives the president the right to proclaim it? The above statement makes clear the intention to violate once again the present Constitutional Law. First, this law clearly states who approves the Constitution. Article 16, point 2, says: “The People’s Assembly has the following principal powers: It approves and amends the Constitution and laws…” Here, therefore, there is no room for any ambiguity or misinterpretation. This Constitutional Law is in force, and no one has the right to violate it, least of all the President of the Republic. Should the Constitution be approved by Parliament or by a Constituent Assembly? This issue has been and is being discussed. It may also be approved by the Assembly. But this must be done through constitutional channels, not at the president’s whim. Thus, in order to do such a thing—that is, to have the Constitution approved by the Constituent Assembly—the relevant article must first be repealed and a provision adopted that grants the Constituent Assembly the right to approve the Constitution. The president does not have the authority to decide by decree who will approve the Constitution. Article 28 of the same Constitutional Law currently in force, which sets out the president’s principal powers, states in point 19: The President “issues decrees of an individual nature and decisions.” Is a decree proclaiming a Constituent Assembly of an individual nature? If he were a little more modest, the president should say: “It is being considered that the Constitution be approved by the Constituent Assembly,” and not “it will be approved.” It is clear that we are dealing with a carefully worked-out strategy. Its author is the President of the Republic himself, not those demanding a Constitution. The failure to prepare the draft Constitution in time was deliberate. The special Constitutional Commission has likewise been deliberately sidelined from this work; through an illegal decree, the president is seeking to fill the hall with his party’s militants, an active section of the PD, in order to approve what the president and his sycophants call a Constitution. The president’s latest statements are fully in sync with Eduard Selami’s statements. Thus, in Tropojë [??], “we will approve the constitution even without the opposition.” This means that whenever parliamentary elections are held, the constitution of the Albanian state will change. This shows what responsibility political forces, associations and all Albanians bear today for the fate of the country’s future. The bells are ringing for those who have ears.

A question that needs no answer. - Petrit Kalakula’s rally-goers carry hooligan-style slogans in their hands. - The PD deputies join them in their hooliganism. A question that needs no answer. Was the Democratic Party rally in Tirana legal? ... - Petrit Kalakula’s rally-goers carry hooligan-style slogans in their hands. - The PD deputies join them in their hooliganism. On the afternoon of June 21, at 17:00, a rally was organized by the Tirana branch of the PD, whose chairman was the Minister of Agriculture, Petrit Kalakula. About a thousand rally-goers, together with Ministers Meksi and Edi, spent around 30 minutes once again demonstrating their hooliganism by shouting insulting slogans directed at the Socialist Party, its chairman Fatos Nano, and the entire Socialist electorate. Of course, everyone has the right to show publicly whether they are a hooligan or a cultured person. In this respect, the PD rally-goers showed what they are and whom they represent. After the rally, a citizen came to the newsroom and said that the PD rally had not been legal, because a written request had not been submitted at least three days beforehand, as the relevant article of the law stipulated. Taking this citizen’s testimony into account, and also verifying it against the authorized document—as we learned from the editor-in-chief of our newspaper, Mr. Ismail Basha, the Tirana police chief Mr. Tonin Vocaj, and the Minister of Public Order, Mr. Agron Musaraj—we decided to publish this response in «Zëri i Popullit». When asked whether the PD rally in Tirana had been legal, Mr. Tonin Vocaj, who heads the police station in Tirana, said that the rally had not been legal. Yes, it was illegal. - Could you provide us with the written request submitted by the Tirana PD (Mr. Tonin knows that the request states the number of participants and the slogans to be shouted) and the police’s written response? That was the second question, to which the police chief replied: - Go to the Democratic Party and get it. I won’t give it to you. - We have approached the competent authority, the deputy editor-in-chief of «Zëri i Popullit» continued the conversation, since we have been informed that permission for the rally was not obtained as required by law. - Even if permission was granted one day beforehand. The law provides for this in exceptional cases, the police chief replied. - Yes, that is within your authority, but it seems to me that in this particular case we are not dealing with an exceptional situation. But since you granted permission, can you tell us whether the slogans used at the rally had been approved? - The written slogans, yes, Tonin Vocaj replied. However, the television report clearly showed that even among the written slogans there were slanders and vile insults, which we do not believe could have been approved by the police chief—despite his refusing to answer the deputy editor-in-chief of our newspaper and saying that they had been submitted to Parliament and approved. «Zëri i popullit» correspondent.

DESTRUCTION OF A MASTERPIECE - No decision condemning the destruction is being implemented - The local authorities (so many have been replaced that one can no longer remember which of them) have decided to cancel the allocation of 29 plots for construction in the museum zone. Not one has been canceled. On the contrary, 29 examples are flourishing on the body of the masterpiece. If you look for a site for a public institution in the city, you cannot find one. It has come to this! Illegal construction continues; more building plots continue to be allocated, while that will serve everyone for a long time, you cannot find one! The masterpiece is not only being disfigured, it is also being wounded and cut up, maimed and dwarfed. A more advanced example gathers and consumes it. [??] Limited imagination Among the various construction criteria, Gjirokastra has favored density and height. Many of the buildings going up—those built without permits, yes—are multi-storey. Along with disfiguring it, they are also killing its future. In cities like these, money can buy not only goods but even the air; here it buys the land on which the masterpiece stands, [??]. Entrepreneurs with money, but also ideas and taste, who love the masterpiece, must be encouraged for the long term. TIANAS DINO

IN THE MONIST PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY - The PD parliament passes a law that will make it even more ridiculous in the eyes of the people. - The five-day workweek law, so much vaunted by PD leaders, materializes as an amoral heap of contradictions. IN THE MONIST PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY Demagoguery and voluntarism - The PD parliament passes a law that will make it even more ridiculous in the eyes of the people. - The five-day workweek law, so much vaunted by PD leaders, materializes as an amoral heap of contradictions. - Although the law that has been passed is an empty collection, the PD orders the mass media to “propagandize” it widely. “The measures our parliament produces today are like those cotton tufts that the wind catches and throws wherever it likes.” So said one of the speakers who addressed the 12th Congress of Legaliteti. I think that the law “On the regulation of working and rest time,” passed by the monist PD parliament, belongs in this category too. Our public had been given time to become acquainted with the statements by the government and PD leaders that the five-day workweek would come into effect in Albania on July 1. According to the government’s latest statements, it would be 43, 44, or even 48 hours. The PD has also stumbled here: the five-day workweek has yet to appear in the law on regulating working and rest time. Under this law, the working week in Albania will be no shorter than 40 hours and no longer than 8 hours a day. The law has 27 articles which, in many cases, contradict one another. The Minister of Health says that an agreement between employees and employers may be made for a week beginning with a 40-hour week, while continuing with his statements that people will work 43, 44, and even 48 hours. In one particular case, the law refers to a six-day working week. Schools will work six days a week and have longer holidays at the end. The administration will also work six days, with different working hours on different days of the week, without exceeding 40 hours a week and 8 hours a day. The law also provides for work outside working hours, that is, what is called normal working time. (Continued on page 4)

JOINT STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMEN OF THE DISTRICT COUNCILS OF BERAT, KUÇOVË, FIER, TEPELENË, PËRMET, SKRAPAR, TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC, THE CHAIRMAN OF THE PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY, THE PRIME MINISTER, AND THE PRESS: «ZËRI POPULLIT», «ALEANCA», «KOHA JONË». At the joint meeting we organized, we discussed Council of Ministers Decision No. 248, dated 27.5.1993, “On certain measures to speed up the privatization of small and medium-sized enterprises.” We were all of one opinion: this decision does not give local government room to breathe, but subjects it to the dictates of people appointed by the Government itself. We agree that a district board should be established to speed up the privatization process, but its members should not be appointed by the Government. The latter should define the board’s powers, while its membership should be determined by a decision of the District Council. Appointees dominate the board, when elected representatives should dominate it. Why should people who are directly responsible for oversight functions (the head of the control section, the tax authorities) be on the board? Why are the heads of SHIK and Public Order, the Director of Education and the Director of Agriculture on the board? How involved are they in the procedures for privatizing enterprises? And why should the secretaries of district councils and members of municipal councils be on the board? Their appointment, without [??], is outside any powers established by law. Could it be that Government appointees (PD) constitute local government? The law “On the organization and functioning of local government” clearly states who is considered local government; therefore, the law would have to be changed to define as representatives of local government the head of SHIK, the head of Public Order, and the others you have appointed to the board. The composition of this board is clear to us. You have calculated how to include as many people appointed by the PD as possible. This is so true that the head of the privatization subcommittee—the most specialized person in the district—has not been included on the board. Is this an oversight or something else...? The decision does not clearly state who will chair the board. The first person listed is the head of the Privatization Agency in the district, and this should not be taken to mean that he is to chair the board as well. (Continued on page 2)