Last Wednesday, the ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Tirana, Mr. Miroslav Palasz, held a press conference in the embassy hall. This was also broadcast by television. It was a constructive and open discussion between the ambassador and journalists. At this conference, not only was the forthcoming visit to Tirana by the Polish Foreign Minister, Mr. Andrej Olekowski, confirmed, but also the Polish government’s positive willingness to help Albania and cooperate with it on various programs. This naturally makes us happy and we welcome it, just as we consider Minister Olekowski’s visit itself important and hopeful of bearing fruit in relations between the two countries. But, as far as this is concerned, everything is in order. But we cannot understand [?] the television’s position at all: in the news on 19 October, after broadcasting the Polish ambassador’s press conference, it launches an attack on (Continued on page 2)

The people will say NO to deception, corruption, neomonism and personal power The PD-ist television, which calls itself Albanian, a loudspeaker in Berisha’s hands to manipulate the people’s true wishes. The door has been shut on the opposition. This is the kind of state the submitted draft seeks to enshrine. RALLY IN DURRËS In an atmosphere of unprecedented enthusiasm for events of this kind, the Socialist Party launched its campaign for the referendum on the constitution at the sports palace in the city of Durrës. Around two thousand members and supporters of the Socialist Party had filled the stands of the palace half an hour before the meeting began. For several minutes before the meeting began, the participants stood, shouting: “Socialist Party,” “Fatos Nano,” “No to the constitution,” “Durrës-Durrës,” “The Socialists will win.” With such enthusiastic chants, they welcomed into the hall the leaders of the SP: its deputy chairman, Dr. Servet Pëllumbi; deputy chairman and head of the parliamentary group Namik Dokle; and MPs Miri Hoti, Alfred Paloka and Moikom Zeqo. The chairman of the SP in the Durrës district, MP Bardhyl Agasi, who opened the meeting, said in his speech that today we are [text corrupted] and gave the floor to the deputy chairman of the Socialist Party, Dr. Servet Pëllumbi. “It is a pleasure that the Socialist Party is opening the campaign for the referendum on the Salinist constitution in the city of Durrës,” Servet Pëllumbi said at the beginning of his speech. In response to the continuous calls [text corrupted] that are slander. For [?] three years we have fought to draft and adopt a truly democratic constitution. For this, we left parliament in June of last year. We wanted a constitution for all Albanians and not a party constitution; therefore, we say ‘No’ to this draft constitution. This constitution gives the president 40 powers; therefore, we say ‘No’ to this constitution. We are for a true separation of for the true independence of the courts; therefore, we say no to this constitution. Discussion and adoption of the constitution should have been a cultured process of debate in parliament, an attentive dialogue informed by specialists’ judgments, and an achievement of consensus among the political forces. Instead, we see television spectacles such as the one Berisha puts on in Vlorë and Kavajë. He seeks the people’s consensus while dividing the people by categorizing them as “those who have given their word” and “those who have not.” The campaign for the constitution is being accompanied by slogans about the fight against communism, borrowed from the campaign of 22 March. But the people have not forgotten the promises of bushizëm on 22 the leaders of the SP: its deputy chair-\nman, Dr. Servet Pëllumbi; deputy\nchairman and head of the parlia-\nmentary group Namik Dokle; MPs\nMiri Hoti, Alfred Paloka and Moi-\nkom Zeqo. The chairman of the SP in the Durrës\ndistrict, MP Bardhyl Agasi, who opened\nthe meeting, said in his speech that today we have\ngathered at this rally to say “No” to Sali\nBerisha’s draft constitution, “No” to neo-dictatorship and personal\npower. The people do not want new kings and dictators;\nthey want the true democracy for which they rose up in December 1990.\nBerisha is seeking to deceive the people\nby getting them to say “Yes”\nto the constitution, but the people have\nwoken up from the disappointments of 22 March.\nThey do not want to put their fate\nto the test. To obtain the people’s “yes,”\nBerisha has gone out to carry on propaganda, supposedly\nin the name of the fiftieth anniversary of liberation. But\nin truth he is glorifying and decorating\ncollaborators of fascism.\nMany other parties have also risen\nagainst the constitution that legalizes Berisha’s personal power;\nthey are present at this meeting, represented\nin response to our invitation, including the PSD, PAD, PUK, etc. Then he\ngave hall’s repeated cries of “No to the constitution,” Servet Pëllumbi said that this “No” is support for the SP, and we will try to spread it throughout Albania. Drafting a constitution is a historic event in the life of a country, Servet Pëllumbi continued. Such events are great holidays for the people. We too would have welcomed this day if the constitution were being adopted according to the law; if consensus had been reached on it in parliament; if the people had been given enough time to learn about it, discuss it and make the necessary comments. But when we see that not one of these conditions has been respected, we say “No” to this draft constitution. The PD and Berisha accuse us of not wanting a constitution, of not wanting to join the Council of Europe. We tell the people that these are slanders. June not a party constitution. We gave our consent to be admitted to the Council of Europe, even though the present government unjustly imprisoned our party chairman, MP Fatos Nano, and has kept him in prison for 15 months. We are not the ones who obstructed the constitution; it is the PD. The draft constitution submitted for referendum violates the existing constitutional law, a violation that incriminates President Berisha alone. We have called for the legal procedures for adopting the Constitution to be respected. We therefore also compelled the Constitutional Court to suspend the referendum law as an unconstitutional law. We will continue to demand respect for democratic laws in the future as well, because we are a truly democratic party and are committed to the triumph of democracy. We consider the referendum that Berisha is holding in Vlorë and Kavajë unconstitutional. not forgotten the promises Bush made on 22 March. Instead of fulfilling those promises, the people saw an incapable government installed, one unable to solve their problems—a corrupt government, a government of fanatical party politicians. The anti-communist slogans used in this campaign are anachronistic and therefore ridiculous. They claim that the Socialists will bring back cooperatives, long queues and class warfare. This shows that they have no arguments in the political struggle. None of these things will return. We have said, and we say again, that there will be no going back. This is precisely because we do not want to return to the reminiscences of dictators and first secretaries; that is why we oppose this constitution. The SP says “No” to those nostalgic for personal power. (Continued on page 3)

Vote for Sali Berisha’s Constitution which, as he said, is firmly based on the kanun. The highlanders, surrounded by blood feuds and self-administered justice, are being asked to give their besa in order to vote in favor of the submitted draft. Blood feud and taking the law into one’s own hands A pledge of besa is being sought in order to vote in favor of the project that has been presented.

CHECK THE REGISTRATION ON THE LISTS Yesterday reports came in that in various parts of the city of Shkodër, some of the people appointed to register voters, while carrying out this duty, address citizens with the following words: “Would you like us to register you to vote in the Referendum? Do you want to vote, because there are also those who do not want to vote at all...” This is not being done out of naivety; it has a specific purpose. And the purpose is clear: to keep the number of people registered on the lists as low as possible, since they must be excluded from the final calculation of the result. We emphasize that registration is not done according to wishes, but according to the law. Following this report, we remind you: check the voter registration lists now, at the very outset. INFORMATION

The consensus he asks of the people is something he lost during two and a half years in power. Consensus is achieved by competing alternatives—not through the PD’s crude attacks. We all saw the President of the Republic in several television programs during his visit to the villages and towns of the Kavajë district, where he had been an MP in the elections of 22 March 1992. We all remember the election campaign before the 22 March elections too, when, behind Sali Berisha, chairman of the Democratic Party, came an [unintelligible] with a larger organization and a [unintelligible] fog, without much tact. Indeed, at that time [text corrupted]. Albania had [text corrupted] a discourse about the need for a democratic [text corrupted]. He appeared before the people with a program that [text corrupted]. These are the reasons why Sali [text corrupted] the PD victory in the 22 March elections; they did not regard it as a process of transforming Albanian society from dictatorship to democracy. Seen in Kavajë, Sali Berisha appeared before us, now in the role of President, as like the Sali Berisha of three years ago as two drops of water. Seeking, as in the past, to draw people to his side, he delivered pathetic speeches, playing on words at every turn and thinking that in this way he had secured the people’s support for the draft Constitution. Taking advantage of the office of President, he shouted at the people about how they should behave; in fact, he also undertook diversionary acts, such as tightly shaking the hand of a Democratic [text corrupted] and visiting the home of a Socialist opposition supporter—is that the first time? ... [Text corrupted] anyone, all the more so the President of the Republic. But if our fellow Albanian says: “My house is open to you; I’ll lay the table for you as a guest!” After the so-called besa that Sali Berisha asked for in Vlorë, he now presents himself as if he were seeking everyone’s consensus, irrespective of political convictions, for the Constitution, because it is supposedly good for everyone, and [text corrupted]. But people have real doubts, grounded in what lies behind these beautiful words with which the president [text corrupted] them. The consensus he is asking for from the people of Kavajë was lost during the two and a half years of PD rule, bit by bit, and was lost precisely because of its government’s many mistakes. Where will Berisha find the consensus of 400,000 unemployed people who do not know how to provide bread for their children? In fine words! But people cannot feed themselves on words. How can people give Berisha their consensus when, on the very day the president gave a speech at the opening of the university in Vlorë, our refugees drowned on the shores of Italy? They are mothers’ sons, and they and thousands of others dreamed of a democratic Albania; they dreamed of entering Europe with dignity, but they are going clandestinely and being dashed against the face of the sea. And there are not 10 or 100, but several hundred thousand Albanians who today live the life of refugees. In these “victories,” does Sali Berisha expect to win the consensus of the people of Kavajë or Vlorë? Sali Berisha talks a great deal about freedom and even about the Constitution, which he presents as his own work; he calls it the Constitution of freedom. But what freedoms are we [Continued on page 3]

WE SING OUT: The former communist President calls on us to vote for FREEDOM He asks for besa upon besa to justify the illegality of adopting the Draft Constitution, so that tomorrow we may all be co-perpetrators and fellow sufferers. Albania’s former communist president is trying to regain his former charisma and the image he had on 22 March 1992. SALI BERISHA is trying to recreate the dimensions he had two years ago. To this end he went to Vlorë and climbed as far as Vranisht, stopping in Sinaballë, Rrogozhinë, Synej, Kavajë and Durrës. But the effort is doomed from the outset. False enthusiasm and “co” euphoria, the dramatic and irreparable characteristics of communists, have no way of expressing anything other than [text corrupted] in Sali Berisha too, who is the product of the same [text corrupted] and spent 25 years as a Communist Party militant. Enver Hoxha cultivated the former peasant from Tropojë, who today leads Albania, and taught him the [text corrupted] of power; to remain in the elite at any cost, he is capable of doing anything. Not for Albania’s interests, nor for the good of the people and democracy, but only for his own interests and those of the clan he represents, [text corrupted] the sponsors who put him where he is today. Sali Berisha, in violation of all laws and constitutional ethics, bypasses Parliament—the sole representative of the people’s will, the supreme legislative body—which he reduces to zero, and serves the people a draft Constitution that is nothing other than his latest mistake; he is preparing to drive the final nail into the coffin, thereby bringing Albanian democracy to its end. Honest Albanians, regardless of [text omitted/corrupted]... LUAN M. RAMA (Continued on page 3)