Albanian Eurosocialist Youth at the Second Congress

Amid the natural youthful enthusiasm of the Eurosocialists yesterday, the Second Congress of FRESSH was opened in the hall of the Opera and Ballet Theatre in the capital. Among the 600 delegates from all over Albania attending the Congress were also the leaders of PS-SH and its MPs, representatives of Albanian youth forums, as well as representatives of European youth forums. After the National Anthem was performed, the Second Congress of FRESSH was opened by its executive board member, Alban Zusi. “Our forum of Eurosocialists,” he stressed, among other things, “is the best-organized Albanian youth forum, the most solid, with clear democratic visions. In the period between the two congresses, our forum became one of the principal guarantors of left-wing values in Albania, and at the same time an important force for the concept of genuine pluralist democracy. FRESSH’s acceptance into international organizations is the clearest proof of its standing and role in Albanian pluralist life.” FRESSH Chairman Pandeli Majko presented a report on the forum’s activities on behalf of its executive board. Cheers and calls of support for the Socialist Party and comrade Fatos Nano rang out as Mrs. Rexhina Nano read the greeting that the P-SSH chairman and MP Fatos Nano sent to the Second Congress of FRESSH from Bënça prison. Mr. Xhorxh Ordner, representative of the Socialist International, in greeting the Congress, stressed, among other things, that they were calling for the immediate release of Fatos Nano. “We are in favor of cooperation with one another, and we hope that, alongside other activities, representatives of the Albanian Eurosocialists will also take part in the youth festival to be organized in Germany in 1996. We will continue our cooperation because we share the same demands. You do not lack strength or opportunities.” The delegates’ discussions continued afterward. The Chairman of FRESSH Shkodër, delegate Artan Hoxha, emphasized the forum’s reach and operation in this district, whose achievements clearly demonstrate Eurosocialist vitality, despite Berisha’s demagogic call: “Shkodra doesn’t want socialists.” Ervin Myftiu, the delegate from Lushnjë, emphasized, among other things, the space the Socialist Party’s program has created for FRESSH to fulfill young people’s interests. (Continued on page 3)

Sisters and brothers, delegates to the Second Congress of FRESSH, Fellow Eurosocialists, On behalf of the PSSH, I greet you from prison and wish you success in your work! I am convinced that your Second Congress will further affirm the values of the Albanian Eurosocialists as bearers of the ideals of freedom, solidarity and humanism; as frontline fighters for the continuation and proper direction of democratic reforms in Albania; and as committed members of the PSSH, alongside other progressive political forces. The path of democratic progress for our society is more secure after the Albanian electorate gave a decisively negative response on November 6, 1994, to attempts to restore totalitarian structures and methods in the organization of the post-communist state. In honor of the historic victory of November 6 and the great contribution of the Eurosocialists to achieving it, I invite your Congress to cheer and solemnly pledge to protect Albania’s fragile democracy from every kind of contamination associated with the past! The path of democratic progress for Albanian society has become even more secure, and definitively irreversible, after the Council of Europe finally gave a decisively positive response to Albania’s membership in it, and after the serious political commitments that the Albanian authorities signed with the highest European officials to overcome the teething problems of our democracy and achieve the required standards. I also invite your Congress to cheer this victory, which is of historic importance for present and future generations of Albania, and likewise solemnly pledge to protect it through political, social and cultural initiatives that pave the way for Albania’s ever-broader inclusion in European civilization. We have the civic courage, from this Congress of Albanian Eurosocialists—who are linked to civilized Europe not only by their name but also by their outlook—to greet Sali Berisha and Miguel Angel Martinez as the highest-ranking official representatives of the parties to this “marriage” of Albania with Europe and, consequently, as those obliged to protect and develop it in the spirit of fulfilling reciprocal responsibilities. For our part, we will meet our obligations without wavering. In the same spirit, we greet the government and the entire Albanian opposition, who at last, contrary to the animosity they continue to cultivate in domestic public opinion and to the remnants of the 60-year anti-communist confrontation, managed to work together in the national interest of integrating Albania into Europe. All that remains is for this spirit of European civilization to prevail within the country, on the tracks of fair political competition, social peace and national reconciliation. We socialists will work tirelessly and without retreating toward this goal! The Socialist Party of Albania has been and remains consistent in the realistic political positions set out at its First Congress (May 10, 1992), to distance itself from the mistakes of the PPSH and to condemn the crimes of Enver Hoxha’s dictatorship. In this spirit, just as we signed the law on reconciliation for former political prisoners and the politically persecuted on 30.9.1991, as well as the other legal acts for their full rehabilitation, we lack neither the credibility nor the political commitment to defend today and in the future the interests of the persecuted, old and new, in accordance with the priorities accorded to disadvantaged groups in our program and with European human-rights standards. From these principled positions, we welcome the political act of the President of the Republic, who, in his constitutional capacity as representative of national unity, expressed the new political class’s regret and civil apology to the victims of communism and its crimes in Albania. This should have been done, and would have been done, as a political and institutional obligation by any official representative of the post-communist state in this country, from any political party. We say this with political responsibility and complete conviction, just as we are fully aware that it is fruitless and has a restraining effect on the democratic emancipation of Albanian society and on national reconciliation for such sublime acts to degenerate into demagoguery, without extending to an end to all concepts and practices of discrimination, even to the point of political apartheid against opponents by the current authorities, and all the more so when they serve as an alibi for being misused as a political weapon to neutralize or even politically eliminate the PSSH and the opposition as a whole, or to remove its most trusted representatives from political life through “legal” violence. the fragile Albanian [conscience?] from any kind of pollution associated with the past! Albanian Socialists, with the solemn commitment of their new dominant generations, represented at this FRESSH Congress, publicly declare that they have nothing in common with the crimes of the dictatorship; that they will fight for the rule of law to punish their perpetrators and deliver unquestionable justice to the victims; and that, at the same time, they will not allow anyone, in power or otherwise, to exploit this issue at their expense and to the detriment of national reconciliation and social peace. We say no to political persecu-tion and the crime of state power against the individual, both today and in the future! Eurosocialist peers! The ongoing developments in Albania and Europe, your place in the PSSH and in its international relations, and FRESSH’s membership in the International Union of Socialist Youth and the European Union of Young Socialists closely link the present and future of democratic reforms in our party and in Albanian society as a whole to the growth of your political, cultural, managerial, business and social commitment and contribution. On behalf of the PSSH, I invite you to undertake the responsibilities entrusted to you by this time with dedication and a sense of responsibility, and I assure you that at every step you will have my support as a brother in ideals and sacrifices! Thanking you for your unwavering solidarity, I send you my greetings, FATOS NANO Bënçë, 6 July 1995

…denounce the crimes of Enver Hoxha’s communist “legal” violence.

Dear comrades, Friends and guests, Members of the Eurosocialist Youth Forum, Three years have now passed since the First Congress of the Eurosocialist Youth Forum, and our organization has traveled a difficult road, achieving results that often speak for themselves. The Eurosocialist Youth Forum was born in the most difficult circumstances for the fortunes of the left in our country. As an active part of the Socialist Party, it demonstrated—and continues to demonstrate—growing progress, which many figures on the Albanian political scene now acknowledge. Through its constant coexistence with the rest of the Socialist Party, FRESSH has become one of the left’s most dynamic and strongest institutions. Although the building of democracy here has been an uncharted and unfamiliar path, the Eurosocialists have consolidated the important experience of the older generations. In this context, the Eurosocialist Youth Forum has given, and continues to give, particular importance to the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War. modern.

that is taking shape in Albania. Despite the distortions the dictatorship inflicted on these values in our country, they endured and demonstrated solid dignity. The Eurosocialists are proud to continue the tradition of a movement that roused Albania’s youth to liberate the country from the Nazi-Fascist occupiers and their collaborators. The values of social democracy that we defend are also rooted in our history, which is an inseparable part of European history. The communist order established in Albania after the Second World War, as part of an unfortunate Eastern process, dashed the dreams of many people. Instead of a more prosperous society, a privileged bureaucracy was created, which stifled every political and economic freedom through diktat. December 1990 and the student movement brought the drama of communism in Albania to an end. The arrival of democracy in our country, despite the desire of the youth who initiated it for consensus and tolerance, took shape amid outbursts of hostility, which in no[r] few cases took violent forms and

Dear comrades, I would like to extend my very best wishes on the occasion of your Congress and send you my warmest fraternal greetings. As you know, I was in Albania as part of a delegation last year. This visit, as well as all the other fraternal and constructive forms of cooperation we have had since then, has strengthened my conviction that FRESSH is not only a powerful and professionally organized youth organization, and not only a good partner at the international political level, but is also much more than that: a very important and necessary link for Albania’s political, economic and cultural development in the future. I am sure that at your Congress you will make decisions to continue along the path begun in recent years and find the motivation for the political struggle ahead. I am also sure that, with the tremendous energy you possess, you will accomplish what you have aspired to and worked for. And if you continue on this path, I can say that the time will come when your party will come to power on the basis of social democracy and put an end to this period of political and social destabilization. There is no doubt that under these circumstances, Fatos Nano and Alia will have been released from prison, and all Albanian prisons will have been emptied of the persecuted and imprisoned. Once again, my very best wishes for your Congress. Fraternally, CHARLY DELFS. DELFS.

The Tirana Court’s ruling is overturned and declared unlawful. — I thank you all, all the friends, all the comrades whom I have always felt by my side, and you journalists as well. I thank you for objectively reporting all my efforts. Thank you very much. With these words, in the presence of journalists from the press, who had gathered to cover the events, at 14:45 the first President of pluralist Albania, Ramiz Alia, after taking leave of the prison staff, passed through the gates of Tirana Prison and became a free citizen. This was made possible by yesterday’s decision of the Court of Appeal, announced at 12:00 by the presiding judge, Mr. Rrahman Qinani, after hearing the statements of defence lawyer Mr. Kleanth Koçi, the Ministry of Justice expert at the Prison Directorate, Mr. Sokol Ndreu, and the prosecutor in the case, Mr. Sokol Paruca, in the presence of … (Continued on page 3)

Shkodër Successful police operation — Two people wanted for murder are arrested. — Two of the people on the most-wanted list for committing murder ended up yesterday in the detention rooms of the Department of Internal Affairs. Information sourced from the district police reports that this was achieved with the capture of Lazër Pali and Zef Pjetri, who had been sought because they are accused of being responsible for three of the murders committed over the past two or three years. Two of these are said to be attributed to Lurrë Pali. The information says they were captured in the remote mountainous area of Shllak, where they also lived. This was achieved following a police operation carried out at 04:00 yesterday. Weapons were also found during the search of their homes at the time. This operation shows that if the internal affairs authorities make a determined effort, all those who have committed crimes of this kind can be handed over to the justice authorities. And their number is not insignificant. Correspondent of «Zëri i popullit»

Malësi e Madhe Not enough judges to form a trial panel — Since June 16, hearings in criminal cases have been suspended, thereby extending the deadlines. — Hearings in criminal cases have been suspended because there are not enough judges to form a three-person trial panel. Under an amendment passed by Parliament, beginning on June 16 criminal cases in district courts must be heard by three judges. Thus, since that date, the judges’ assistance [sic] consists of the composition of the trial panel for the hearing of such cases. However, the Malësi e Madhe District Court has only two judges. One judge is therefore missing to form the trial panel. Around 30 cases awaiting trial have consequently been held up; the deadline has now passed, and they cannot be heard until the minimum staffing of this court is filled. According to the law, the appointments of judges … (Continued on page 4)

GOOD LUCK AND SUCCESS TO THE SECOND CONGRESS OF THE ALBANIAN EUROSOCIALISTS!