Partnership or vassalage? At the last press conference, President Berisha wished everyone a good year and invited them to “partnership in democracy.” In a serious sense, this statement should have drawn more of the Albanian public’s attention than the President’s evasions, given how polarized the country has been over the last two years, when the words “partner” and “partnership” have been among the rarest in the political vocabulary. The President, then, put forward a new idea, not previously heard. According to the Dictionary of the Albanian Language, the word “partner” means someone who takes part together with someone or several others in a common activity. The English dictionary (Hornby), in addition to the above meaning, gives the word partner another meaning as well: someone who dances with someone, who plays tennis, chess, or another game with someone, etc. Believing that neither the President of the Republic nor the left in Albania today have time for dancing, nor for gambling or tennis games, it must be assumed that the President’s invitation to partnership has meaning only in its political sense. However, the President’s declaration about partnership with the left makes no impact on public opinion. This fact should worry the President himself. When his words do not have an effect, that means that something is wrong with what he says or what he does. For example, people may not believe what the President says, because he has said the same things before and has not implemented them. Why would the President have said something that, as I say every day, is a “matter of relations” or not? Yet only a few days later, people saw the opposition leader in jail. Then people ask: why should we believe the President anymore? The President, therefore, must take into account the fact that his words are no longer taken seriously by most Albanians. This is a matter that concerns the President himself. Meanwhile, on our side we have the right to return once more to the invitation for partnership with the left, hoping that through our reasoning we can clarify, however little, some reasons why the President’s invitation had no resonance at all in public opinion. First of all, it should be asked here who the left is in Albania today and who the left is according to the President. In our view, the left as a political party is represented by the PS with 26 percent of the seats in Parliament and more than 50 percent of the seats in local government. This party is now an uncontested reality inside and outside the country. The July 30 demonstration in Tirana showed that, within one day, several thousand people responded to its call. (Continued on page 4)

- 7 new members in one day - With a trembling heart, we take the courage to inform you of some unpleasant things from the first days of the New Year, things with a familiar name, admissions, but of unprecedented scale and intensity, showing how this breed of the PS feels, which our anathemas cannot replace. On January 4, a veteran activist, who had not been a member of the PPSH, but joined the PS, Muço Karagjozi, as he is called, went to the PS offices to wish a Happy New Year and said: “I came to offer greetings, but I will tell you something else.” He took four of his own documents and that same day his organization, as of the night before, had new members. Also on January 4, admissions were made in the village of Lazarat, in the Gjirokastër area. On January 5, a new member was also admitted in Valare, a village opposite the city. Who knows what is happening in the remote villages, where indoctrination does not shine, since we have no news from there. We inform you that you should be careful about these rates. Five days have not gone by well of 1994, and there have already been 7 admissions. It is enough to put your hands on your head if you use the other calculation: the first four days of the year were holidays, as established by the government rules, so that means that in one day there must have been 7 admissions. Oh dear, the people are all slipping away from us, day by day, how are we going to keep them? Forgive us for the hardship we are also passing on to you, but we want to share it together, just as we have shared chairs and property. After all, we did not warn you for nothing. Best wishes and greetings. Gjirokastër, 5. 1. 1994. PD - Gjirokastra resident.

KORÇË Strike of drivers on the Korçë-Maliq route On January 5, 1994, hundreds of townspeople and villagers had gathered at the Korçë-Maliq route station, to go to work. But the buses did not open their doors. Why? Because all the tolls above 6—7 thousand old lekes had been raised. So, if until December 31, 1993, the fare for each bus was 8 thousand new lekes, this year it goes up to 50—60 thousand new lekes, depending on the route the bus is to take; for this reason, as a sign of protest, the drivers of this line closed the doors. Some announcement that this will not continue like this. In the last days of the year and at the beginning of this year, the official propaganda boomed loudly about wage increases. But it did not say a single word about how much the citizen would have to pay in taxes. ERGET CENOLLI

NATIONAL LIBRARY TIRANA Who will have the most expensive item They say that once, on New Year's Eve, Ahmed Zogu gathered the ministers and they celebrated together; after some merrymaking, someone proposed holding a contest to see who would have the most expensive item, which until then he had not shown to anyone. One by one they all began to show off their possessions. At one point everyone, including His Majesty himself, was stunned in place; Fejzi Alizoti took from his inner pocket a very beautiful watch, entirely made of gold. They all started asking him where he had found it, but Alizoti would not say. At last, the king himself asked him. The minister, somewhat displeased with the king, replied: “Your Majesty! Forgive me, but I will tell you the plain truth: the king’s money and the people’s blood never run out. Now find out for yourself where I found this watch.” M. VARFI

However, the distribution of firewood is delayed Some time ago and for several consecutive days, our newspaper published a notice from the director of the fuel enterprise in Tirana, stating that the price of kerosene would not increase and that firewood would not be delayed by more than three days from the time the invoice was issued. However, this deadline for the distribution of firewood is not being respected. Someone will ask on what basis you say this. Here is a fact: Yesterday, around 12 noon, we received a phone call from the family of Llazar Kuka, a resident of “Budi” Street, building 6/1, apartment 7, here in Tirana. He told us that since December 1, 1993 he had issued an invoice for firewood and up to today, January 5, 1994, they still had not been delivered. The invoice was issued in the offices of the enterprise directorate. So, as can be seen, the deadline for the distribution of firewood in the capital is not being observed by the enterprise in question. On the phone they told us that the invoice had also been issued to several other residents of this housing block and they still had not received their firewood. Since we are talking about fuel, let us also say a few words about the problematic supply of firewood and kerosene, although in recent times these supplies have been getting much worse. The situation is almost the same. People stand in queues for days to get the 20 liters of kerosene that the authorities have set. But those above should keep in mind that with 1,000 liters of kerosene distributed per day in a unit, only 50 people can get it, while there are many more people in line and not everyone manages to get any, and they are forced to come back again tomorrow and perhaps the day after tomorrow and then, with difficulty, get some. We mean: is it really impossible for this quantity of supply in a unit to be even larger and for people to be able to get it and finish the matter within the day? It seems to us this could be regulated, because, as they say, there is plenty of kerosene, but the supply is failing. K. B.

- Interview with academic Rexhep Qose given to the newspaper «Bujku» I THINK I HAVE NOT YET FINISHED, AND I DO NOT THINK I WILL FINISH MY WORK YET - Interview with academic Rexhep Qose given to the newspaper «Bujku» Question: In the parliamentary elections in Kosovo, you did not run as a candidate. Since then more than a year has passed. The Parliament was not constituted, with the explanation that an armed conflict with Serbia was not desired. The elected Parliament remained in exile and on December 4 its four-year mandate, for which it had been elected, expired. Where does the current mandate stand? You and all the bodies elected by this Assembly and by the government of Kosovo. It all seems somewhat absurd, after all, the deputies of the Parliament of Kosovo are being discussed. The largest party at a press conference for the media reportedly said that the media had long since occupied only assessments and positions. It is difficult to understand the changes for Albanian society itself and our reflection. What could be the causes of such a situation? The parliamentary and presidential elections have not been completed in order to be established; indeed Parliament was “not allowed” for one billion reasons, as it had made perfectly clear that its constitution would not allow the Serbian occupying regime. The elections were held to preserve our movement and even to keep it in one party, indeed in a narrow group of “leaders,” and then to remain dependent on the needs of different states, which also secure a certain supply and interest and the people, who are already ruled by a level of authority. One says: “as if it were not enough to explain our own deception and exhaustion.” We have a parliament for which we pay, and because we pay for it no one else here has another parliament. We have some ministers in exile, we have 4-5 ministers here. In truth “we have no parliament at all, neither one nor here.” But we play parliament, we play power and we play state. We play in Kosovo and the people play along. I can justify the deputies as a whole, but the chairman himself [cannot] speak about such matters without first setting out some principles, norms, universal legal and moral laws, without which they seek salvation in the foreign world, even though here they have elected their representatives and legitimized them. So, does someone among these boys have the right to demand that the representatives for whom he voted, who continued to live together under Serbian rule, be brought to court and judged for “collaborationism” with the occupier and for capitulation before the occupier? Can this be said of every Albanian in Kosovo? No. Then let it be understood that they are not obliged, in the act of the mark[t?] of the popular elections, to surrender the sovereignty of the people; therefore they are not subject to political accountability, to which the elected are subject, since the trust of the people has not been invested in them. The situation in Kosovo has remained unchanged when one person, in surprise, falls into a group and is taken on to work. I address them according to you, in the internal and external plan, that the solution of the Kosovo issue be delayed? They give a clear answer, some say: “For what you present, you must reform the institutions in whose name we come, while others do not extend support through broader autonomy. Our press, therefore, and also «Bujku», in a series of cases, has created the impression in our opinion that the Republic has been awakened, that Kosovo is a matter for everyone, but people have still not shown this recognition in any state. In its diplomatic conduct, even Albania has revoked the recognition of the Republic of Kosovo granted two years ago. But that cannot be a reason for us to go backwards. Politics is about winning the rights with the support of your people. And that is not achieved with your own means. How did you frame the division of spheres of interest in the Balkans? In this context the war in Croatia, in Bosnia, the American military presence in (Continued on page 3)

“Albanian businesspeople and bankruptcy”