MEASURES: - The Albanian state legalizes drug addicts. The first three are on the brink of death. FATE: - Do not take this road, because not even the doctors can save you. THE STATE’S MESSAGE: - God bless you. MEASURES: - The Albanian state legalizes drug addicts. The first three are on the brink of death. FATE: - Do not take this road, because not even the doctors can save you. THE STATE’S MESSAGE: - God bless you. Having been confronted with a new reality—the reality of drugs—for no more than three years, Albania has taken a step that countries such as Germany, Italy, Switzerland and France have hesitated to take: treating drug addicts with drugs provided by the state. Thus, in Albania there is no talk at all of therapy for drug users, but only of treating them until they die. A quick examination of the medical records is enough to convince you that those who have started down this road will never get off it. In other words, doctors are superfluous. File number 938, belonging to patient A. M., begins with treatment of 4 ampoules of pethidine a day and continues to rise, reaching 30 ampoules a day. The same thing happens with other “patients.” The patient in file 459 receives 22 ampoules a day, a figure that has been increasing. One consequence of this perhaps unique phenomenon, in which the dose is increased by the bearers of white coats—the doctors—is the case in file 616, whose treatment consists of 70 ampoules of pethidine a day. Now caught between two images, Albania is revealing another new reality, another painful reality: DRUGS. But while many international organizations portray it as a drug-transit country, Albanian institutions and official circles give Albania what may be an even more painful image: that of a drug-consuming country. Tirana University Hospital Center has now become the first and only place receiving these patients. A few months ago, the press reported that a 21-year-old man had died in this center’s Emergency Department after taking an overdose of narcotics. Since then, four young residents of Tirana are currently in the rooms of this Center’s psychiatric clinic. But… “According to the information we have, there are more than two thousand users of drugs, mainly light drugs such as pethidine, in Tirana alone,” specialists at the Center told the newspaper on Sunday. All you need to do is listen and observe the clinic premises for one night, and everything is exactly as described. The psychiatric patients and these drug addicts are alike, the specialists say. But that is not all. The way these people admitted—or, more accurately, registered—at the clinic are treated is unique. In violation of every kind of regulation, patients are given 30, 40, 70 ampoules of pethidine and syringes, and they do what they used to do on the street, in bars, luxury venues, under the Lana Bridge, etc. In other words, the clinic is no different from the street. “There isn’t a part of their bodies that hasn’t been pierced; they are dying,” says one of the informants who works with them. The only one of these four who has undergone a different treatment—the one widely used for drug addicts in European clinics—has moved beyond the danger of a slow loss of life, but has still not left his addiction to the poison behind. “I kept him isolated, gradually reducing his pethidine dosage until he had gone five days without taking any,” says the informant who treated him. “This is the only way these young people can be saved,” the specialists say, “and helped to get away from drugs.” But where can this approach be put into practice? There are doctors, and even nurses, who provide this kind of therapy, but suitable institutions are lacking. The Minister of Health is also aware of the problem. But what has he done? It seems he has left everything in the hands of some environmental and youth associations, which raise awareness of the problem but have no means of fighting it. The only one with that capacity is the state, which, unfortunately, remains silent—or, through its institutions, has done precisely the opposite: legalized drug addicts. Specialists in this field told us that it has become essential to establish a dedicated institute for the rehabilitation of drug addicts. So what are we waiting for? Will this institute perhaps be established only when government officials, members of parliament and doctors discover that their children are taking drugs? TEDI ÇELA 95 to 22 ampoules a day; it is good that the number has been increasing. A is increased by the carriers of white coats—the doctors—is also the case of patient file 616, who is being treated with 70 ampoules of pethidine a day and is now suffering from thrombosis, awaiting the last day of his life. But what are the doctors doing? Or are they too...? The case of file 679, belonging to a nurse at the University Hospital Centre where drug addicts are treated, although the only one where «therapy» is being administered through private initiative, makes you accept the claims of the staff at this centre that there are also doctors whose hands tremble. So, we ourselves are the source; the doctors say, according to psychiatric staff in Tirana. A. DALIPI Since then, four young residents of Tirana are currently staying in the rooms of this Centre’s are more than two thousand users of soft drugs in Tirana alone, mainly pethidine,» specialists from this Centre told the newspaper on Sunday. You only have to spend one night observing the clinic’s premises to see that this is exactly the case. As darkness falls, these boys and girls arrive, and, in crisis, demand the drug to satisfy their craving, threatening us. “It isn’t the threat but the serious condition they are in that frightens us,” says one of the clinic’s nurses. On Sunday evening we witnessed such scenes ourselves. The painful fact became even more so when we learned from trembling lips that the person was studying medicine. But soft drugs are not the only ones consumed in Albania, particularly in Tirana. Every day, the use of hard drugs—cocaine, heroin—is also confirmed among people, invariably young. At the Psychiatric Clinic they told us: Patients in serious condition have also come in and told us that they had taken cocaine. Faced with this situation, the only institution «tasked» with treating these patients—the Psychiatric Clinic—is unprepared and unable to cope with the situation. «They cannot be treated here»

Unable to play the role of the “Aesopian,” the utterly unmistakable truth emerges: “the homeland,” unable to understand what is happening in Albania, and searching for “substance” to fill its own void, sends [text unclear]. A visionary for the present and the future, Mr. Berisha has now decided to hold aloft the banner of the struggle against Marxism, demonstrating to all domestic and foreign opinion that he has turned completely into a figure whom time has left behind. And this is a fact for a people when this [unclear] has taken root and cannot be uprooted from the head of the head of state. Berisha returns to this thesis, thinking—and deceiving himself—that the people will supposedly believe him. But he should know very well how much the Albanian people and electorate believe him. The campaign for the referendum and the disastrous defeats it suffered are the clearest indication of the decline in his credibility and that of the government he leads. The rise in the reputation of the SP, which he calls “Marxist leadership”; the invitation to visit and the talks its leaders held only a few days ago with leading figures of European organizations—this was the ring in which Mr. Berisha received a fatal blow. It was this blow that caused him to lose his ideological balance even further. Berisha would very much like the SP to have the class struggle at the center of its program; for the SP to oppose pluralism, the privatization of the economy, democratic processes, human rights, democratic dialogue, European democracy, and so on. In the absence of these things, Mr. Berisha is displeased to see that the SP is a very serious political force, capable of engaging competently in dialogue at any kind of table, dignified in its ideal of integration into Europe without any deals, forever detached from the past and refreshed throughout its structures so as to establish the fresh air of democracy in Albania. Mr. Berisha has become a figure whom time has left behind, since he has openly come out and preached division among Albanians, supposedly in defense of democracy. But alongside the failures that have beset this people, there are also wonders that this same people have historically accomplished throughout the history of this country, from beyond its great borders. Berisha is not a man. Berisha is not distinguished by opening prisons to release people under [unclear] conditions, nor by his policy of presenting Balkan [unclear] as “pro-Greek and pro-Serbian”; but he must understand that neither this nor anyone seeking to act using the means and mechanisms of [unclear] will save him. Matters have reached the point where events have escalated so far that, at a government meeting, at the request of the PDSH, Berisha asked the PD to support a referendum… He is now asking this of his own party, which until yesterday he kept under his “heel,” but which no longer obeys him. Berisha pleaded with them: “Please, don’t abandon me!” This seems to show that Berishian reform and policy have not only failed to deliver what Albanians dreamed of, but have also disappointed his own party. Otherwise, how can one understand Berisha himself begging the PD to support the reform introduced by Berisha? There are the failures in the economy, the setbacks and lack of direction in foreign policy, the corruption in which leading figures of the current government have been implicated, and so on. He has made no statement about the very serious accusations against the Minister of Defense, which were discussed by the PD council, yet he has been kept in that post by Berisha’s own hand. Mr. President, neither the opposition nor the SP is to blame for all these failures. But, lacking a serious commitment to self-criticism [text unclear], you seek to wash your hands of the evil by warning of the “danger” of Marxism in Albania and claiming that the SP is carrying it. It is a lack of will to develop to keep this old, archaic and [unclear] record before you and keep trying to play it when nobody is listening. LUMIR KETA

Among European socialists, the French have always stood out for one particular trait: they debate a great deal, quarrel fiercely, and finally, just when everyone thinks a split is coming, they unite. Apart from Bernard Tapie, a left-wing radical, Lionel Jospin, former leader of this party in the early eighties, had also expressed a willingness to run within the Socialist Party. The refusal, after the former head of the executive of the European Community had put forward his reasons, was a major loss for the PSF. It even seemed to cause trauma. No one else had the [unclear] to compete with Delors’s “style.” For a while, the country’s press had been speaking in the language of [unclear] about the French socialists, who were wandering in search of their “challenger”; meanwhile, their favorite had emerged: the quarrel—

—the quarrel. leader of this party, had also said he was willing to run. Many activists supported Jacques Lang, the youngest and most promising socialist in the PSF. In France, Lang is known as the Minister of Culture most adored by artists. But these were not the only candidates; its current first secretary, Henri Emmanuelli, had also declared himself a potential candidate. On January 13, “France-Soir” wrote: The battle of the three continues in the PS. On January 24 (Tuesday), chaos turned into a quarrel. Henri Emmanuelli declared before a meeting of the party’s central committee: “If the socialists do not sup- (Continued on page 3)

Yesterday in Reçicë, Tetovo, in the presence of thousands of Albanians, the beginning of the academic year of the University in the Albanian Language of Tetovo was solemnly inaugurated. In addition to 520 students, lecturers and ordinary citizens, representatives of KSBË from the USA, UNPROFOR, representatives of Albanian political parties in Macedonia, from Kosovo, members of the Macedonian parliament, and others had come to take part in the ceremony. The rector of this University, Prof. Dr. Padu Sulejmani, said in his speech inaugurating the academic year that he would have wished the academic year at the University of Tetovo to begin under more normal conditions. Although the year began late, the teaching staff is prepared to make up for lost time through great commitment and joint effort. The well-known Macedonian dissident Mihajlo Mihajllov, according to press sources from Tetovo, said, among other things, that by opening this university the Albanians had demonstrated great political maturity and taken a natural step toward achieving their aims. Former congressman of Albanian origin Xhozef DioGuardi attended from the USA.

The international Contact Group decided to propose the partial lifting of sanctions against Serbia, a decision whose proposal is also known to have been endorsed by US President Bill Clinton. But it seems that this proposal by the international Contact Group has not been welcomed in Kosovo, because it does not link the lifting of these sanctions to the [text cut off]— (Continued on page 4)

In the lead article of the newspaper RD dated 14.2.1995, the anonymous author, whose conduct often angered Eduard Selam at his press conference that day, made an important admission: «In July 1992, the PD suffered a significant loss in the local elections». It took three years for the PD to admit once again, without shame, through an anonymous author, that it had suffered a significant loss in the 1992 local elections. Having within its ranks, right up to its leadership, a considerable number of people who, during these three years in power, pushed the PD to the brink of corruption, gravely tarnishing the beautiful and ever-popular name «Democratic Party», the practical mentality of «democracy», of unlawful manipulation and misuse of election results has become an organic part of the psychology and political conduct of the PD leaders. Quite openly they... (Continued on page 2)

Not only the 27 members of parliament who signed the motion of no confidence in Mr. Arbnori as Chairman of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, but perhaps many others at yesterday’s parliamentary session, were convinced that the motion concerning the head of parliament had become all too clearly necessary. Why? Yesterday, Mr. Pjetër failed to stop systematically violating Parliament’s rules by refusing to place on the agenda the motion filed by MPs from the parliamentary parties, who were calling for an immediate vote on it (!). MP Imami took the floor and asked why the interpellations with the Minister of Foreign Affairs were not being held, to establish the truth of the Security Council’s findings concerning the entry of the embargo into the former Yugoslavia from the Albanian side, and of the Minister of Finance concerning the misuse of the referendum. He drew attention to the deadlines, which had to be strictly observed. After him, MP Teta «explained» the debate on behalf of Mr. Pjetër, calling for the request for a motion of no confidence in the Chairman of the People’s Assembly to be put on the agenda. But, prepared for such an attack, Mr. Arbnori immediately replied that there was no right to a motion of no confidence against the Chairman of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly. As if to divert attention from Mr. Arbnori, MPs Minga and Hajdari intervened one after the other, one asking for a postponement of a legislative amendment and the other for the budget interpellation to be placed on the agenda as before. Rejecting Mr. Pjetër’s argument, MP Arbnori stated that in parliamentary life around the world, everyone from the President down to the lowest levels is subject to motions, describing this as a proper legal and democratic procedure. But, besides that, Abdyn added, putting it on the agenda is also in your honour, Mr. Pjetër; you should do so immediately. But even this second appeal did not «move» Mr. Arbnori, who reiterated that he was following the rules. «You were not elected for a fixed term,» MP Peshkopia told Arbnori. «The political balance in Parliament has changed, so you should present your claim immediately.» Afterwards, for several minutes, a «heated discussion» took place about the matter of the signature between Mr. Arbnori and MP Memia, who was very concerned that one of the files was being delayed in Parliament. The rejection of this motion and the brief explanations given by MP Baleta when he took the floor—this is a reason for many to submit them.