Tomorrow, attacks against the youth organization of the eurosocialists would indeed be the naive jealousy of uncultured people; this would not amount to anything important enough to consider. These attacks seem to draw their inspiration from deeper sources, from the mediocre and corrupt politicians in power who, in order to preserve their seats, want no kind of reform or renewal in Albanian society, but use every means to fan extremism and rejoice when it takes hold. The complex of losing their careers makes them understand injustice more clearly than free political competition without atavistic prejudices: it means the end of their power. Thus, instead of making them rejoice—as RD reports—they issued some very serious eurosocialist statements at their second national meeting, saying that their path leads westward, and that they themselves are the strongest guarantee that Albanian society will not turn back. This is a serious declaration made by representatives of an organization that constitutes a considerable part of the Socialist Party’s membership, a party to which the people will soon entrust the governance of the country. The eurosocialists are the clearest evidence that, with the Socialist Party governing the country, Albania will move from its last-place position outside Europe and join the real pace of development of advanced countries. Through their activities in Albania and their dignified representation abroad, the eurosocialists do this, among other things. They are the only organization admitted to the Socialist International of the countries of the European Community, a forum that accepts only members from developed countries. THOMA GELÇI (Continued on page 4)

KAVAJË: Berisha’s government shows its true face - 40 eurosocialists from Rrogozhinë who took part in the second national meeting held at the Palace of Congresses in Tirana end up at the Kavajë police station - - 9 Forum leaders are held in cells - As the bus was travelling from Tirana to Rrogozhinë with the eurosocialists of this region, who had attended the Second National Meeting of Albanian eurosocialists held on Sunday, January 15, at the Palace of Congresses, it was pursued by the police. At the entrance to the city of Kavajë it was subjected to a strict police inspection and then taken to the Kavajë police station, for no reason and without any justification. Just after they had passed the place called “Mali i Rodit” and were heading towards Kavajë, a white “WOLKSVAGEN” car began following them. It contained road patrol inspector Avni Çorumi, together with his police driver, and they stopped the bus at the entrance to the city of Kavajë. The passengers were then ordered to go to the police station. The eurosocialists and their leaders tried in vain to reason with the police officers, because the heads of this body in Kavajë do not understand this language. They understand only violence and the rubber truncheon; they understand breaking the law and violating citizens’ rights and freedoms. Otherwise, there is no way to explain why, at the entrance to the station, the eurosocialists were placed under the watch of 10–15 armed policemen and subjected to a barrage of pointed questions by the head of the public-order branch, Lulezim Sollaku, who applied pressure and even violence against them, for example against the Rrogozhinë eurosocialist forum chairman Afrim Sula, Arben Methasani, Afrim Kaplani, and others. But the evidence of violence did not end there. The selection of the “most dangerous” began here, as Chief Lulezim singled out some of them and kept nine representatives at the station, half-confined in cells, beginning with the FRESSH chairman, Mexhit Sula, Artur Koci, Arben Kaplan, Behar Duzha, Arben Methasani, Fatos Dedej and Andrea Andoni, Afrim Kaplani. The other young people were released after being fined between one thousand and three thousand new lekë. The bus driver was also fined 1,200 new lekë, and the station impounded the bus itself, leaving the young people to walk the 17-kilometre route in the middle of the night. After this incident, the chairman of the Socialist Party for the Rrogozhinë region and a member of the Council of this Kavajë region asked the chairman of the Council to expedite his efforts to resolve the problem, but to no avail. There is, of course, no guarantee that this action was taken at the behest of certain police officials of the Kavajë district. Berisha’s government turns a blind eye, thereby helping create a situation in which lawlessness and criminality make the law. The President of the Republic has previously stressed the identification, verification and punishment of crime and criminals. Yet they do not act, because the state is occupied with fabricating and setting the political coordinates of the regime, not with crime. This is also borne out by the police violence and terror inflicted on the eurosocialists, who were threatened by the police for having a photograph of Fatos Nano on the bus and because they oppose the current government of the country. This threat has plunged Albania into a crossroads and rampant corruption. The Presidium of the Socialist Party of the Rrogozhinë Region.

Yesterday the Parliamentary Committee on Mandates and Immunity met to consider the Prosecutor General’s request to lift the immunity of MPs Rudi and Uka. When we asked the MP who had just emerged from the meeting, the committee’s chairman, Fehmi Abdiu, said that the Committee’s members had decided to hear the two MPs and the Prosecutor General before reaching a final conclusion on his request. Other sources within the Parliamentary Committee on Mandates and Immunity said that some MPs had decided to ask the Prosecutor General’s Office for the document substantiating the allegations made in the request to lift the MPs’ immunity. If so, observers say, the Mandates Committee, composed mostly of PD MPs, is attempting to prolong this matter indefinitely. This also runs counter to the powers of the Parliamentary Committee on Mandates and Immunity, whose task is not to investigate and deliver a verdict on the MPs’ guilt or innocence, but to examine the legal basis of the Prosecutor’s request. Other observers say this is an attempt by the PD to make the proceedings more thoroughly transparent, in order to ensure that neither side has time to carry out checks against the two MPs. What leads one to doubt and indicate which version is correct? What is clear is that this parliament will not deal with the Prosecutor General’s request. Correspondent of “Zëri i Popullit”

Dibër: Dynamite planted on the safe of the commercial bank The door was broken down and then dynamite was placed on the safe in the office of the commercial bank branch in Selishtë. The dynamite blast destroyed and seriously damaged the doors, walls and office equipment, but failed to open the safe, which, we are told at the commercial bank branch in Peshkopi, contained no lekë. The explosion also shattered the social-assistance payment lists, assistance that is the sole source of income for a large part of the village. A. ASHKU.

Shkodër: Father and son killed at the same time The incident that occurred on Sunday morning in the village of Kukël, in the municipality of Barbullush, was as tragic as it was heartbreaking. At around 21:00, Dedë and Nikoll Begeja, father and son, were shot with an automatic weapon and killed. According to the information available so far, a disagreement over livestock between the Begeja family and another neighbouring family is thought to have been the cause of the murder. The killer managed to flee in an unknown direction. Police say they are working to identify and apprehend him. Another murder took place in this village a week ago; its motive is said to have been a land dispute. Correspondent of “Zëri i Popullit”

VLORË: HOW WILL THE PD FIGHT CORRUPTION? Property claims by former owners, both lawful and unlawful, are taking on the proportions of an anti-socialist organization in Vlorë. They are trying to take everything, and are taking it. Both legally and illegally. With and without authentic documents. This is further increasing social tension in Vlorë. The local authorities, as always, are supporting the former owners and helping them. Recently, the problem of privatizing bread shops has been added to the other problems. Vlorë faces the same concern as the bread sellers in Tirana. When the retail shops were privatized, almost all their employees became owners of the premises and of some state-owned shops. Bread sellers, like everyone else, paid the ten-percent share with the aim of becoming owners of the shops where they had worked for many years. The government decided that bread shops should not be privatized among the employees, because this could create irregularities in supplying the population with bread. But what is happening with them now? Believing the bread sellers, they say that when the state shops beneath the apartment buildings were privatized and taken over by their employees, Vlorë’s officials turned their eyes— (Continued on page 2)

- feuilleton - Dear Police! Madam Justice! Dear Police! Madam Justice! I felt a special pleasure when I saw Mr Çiço on the small screen, after an absence that had seemed centuries long, and I sincerely expressed my satisfaction at the fulfilment of those demands made from Tirana prison. I take this opportunity to congratulate the new generals of public order, specially appointed by the president, who will doubtless provide guarantees and command respect among wrongdoers so that they do not commit misdeeds. On this occasion, I, as an honourable citizen, have the honour of reminding you that, in terms of the number of generals, we were the poorest country in Europe and Africa. For reasons of secrecy, I will not reveal the true number of generals, which is increasing day by day, nor the new number of penal… and I am afraid of the laws. I also wish to thank Mr Qamli Dervish and Mr Kamdnes, with whose help, and that of the FNSH, the number of our generals increased by 12 percent compared with 1991, when we had only one general. I take this opportunity to point out my view that we Albanians have suffered from civilian generals, who knew nothing at all about military matters, let alone the police. Apparently, the wrongdoers and those still not discovered by the newly changed police knew this fact and took advantage of it, bringing shame on us and on the civilians, while you are left to pay to maintain order. An acquaintance of mine, who never touches alcohol, told me that the wrongdoers had managed it: they waited until the civilian generals fell asleep, then, using the tunnels from inside the prison, they carried out their operation and escaped. Gentlemen, you should know that those wrongdoers inside had done nothing grand, except gain their freedom. And what they lacked, they found. They know that some generals are unfit for their general’s duties. They may bite the honourable President who made them generals; they are not to blame for the fact that they were hit, and the only other thing they may be is not generals. By way of reminder: one of the generals, promoted shortly ago because of his political connections, performed his duties exemplarily as commander of a crawling platoon. And as you know, we have had no fires in Tirana, despite the fact that, as the honourable Deputy Prime Minister informed us, we have had the poorest occurrence of fires in the last hundred years; even the raging fire that started in a poor man’s pipe almost consumed the whole neighbourhood, u (Continued on page 2)

“Burning funds” has become the ruling party’s most original topic in television announcements, in an attempt to justify the serious abuses of corrupt officials. The officials of Devoll also justify such actions. In 1993, the council of this district, as far as is known, spent around 18 million old lekë, thereby burning through the fund provided by the government for public investment. Someone apparently remembered that the chairmen of Devoll’s communes needed a car of the times. So a “Benz” car was bought for each of them. In 1994, as a result of the disorder and clashes within their ranks, they left around 11 million from the same fund unused. The year ended, and those lekë were burned as well, at a time when roads and other public facilities in Pllish were in a disgraceful state. Another matter concerns the two million lekë given by the Zhulat commission for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of liberation. The mayor, Besnik Diko, stated that about 350 thousand old lekë had been spent on the anniversary celebrations, while the district council’s finance receipts show a figure nearly twice as high. The explanation is that this was a manoeuvre ordered from above to pay a former employee of the council whose position had been eliminated. The officials of Devoll forget that nobody has the right to carry out such manoeuvres. But that is not all. They also seem to have forgotten that the fund was not only for banquets and festivities under the guise of the 50th anniversary of liberation, but also for restoring the buses, memorials and symbols of the national liberation war—which were not spared here in Devoll either. Muharrem Meko

GJIROKASTËR: Three employees publicly denounce the privatization board By preparing property inventories, the privatization boards also exert public influence over the privatization of those properties. According to a document, it is alleged that assets belonging to NTSH were transferred together with an auction and given to a farmer from Zhukat, a family of former communists, but advertised as formerly politically persecuted. He is the son of Ediar Kapo, an employee in the district branch of the privatization agency. Of the four warehouses where he had worked for 10 years, Maksim Kajullari chose one food warehouse and prepared the documents for its privatization.

With evident hope for an improvement in the political climate, the branch of the Albania-Greece Friendship Association began the year of friendship 1995 on Monday with the event “We Begin ’95”. Members, activists, public figures and other guests attended in the banquet hall of the “Çajupi” hotel. Meanwhile, the city’s mayor, Bashkim Fino, ... The association’s chairman, Stefan Arsenj, recalled the previous year’s activities and presented their plans for the newly begun year. The Greek consul in Gjirokastër, Mr Vasil Vornova, also spoke. Citing an idea from the daily press concerning the Cadastre, he said ...

Toll: 1,131 dead, 822 others missing, and 3,970 injured. At least 1,131 people are dead, 822 others are missing and 3,970 injured: this is the toll from a powerful earthquake that struck this morning the central Japanese island, generally known as Rrjeti, according to reports by Rrjeti and DPA citing the Japanese government’s chief spokesperson. The earthquake, which had an intensity of