Police occupy Skënderbej Square. Customers: Our money is in Kuwait 30 thousand dollars lost were to be sent abroad. Xhaferri Gjeneral abandons the cashier Police occupy Skënderbej Square. Customers: Our money is in Kuwait 6,000 Vlora residents take over Flag Square 30 thousand dollars lost were to be sent abroad. Xhaferri Gjeneral abandons the cashier

Yesterday was marked by great sorrow and tension. It was expected in Tirana, but erupted in Vlora. Bad news is now coming from almost all the major Albanian urban centers. Revolt in Tirana, Vlora, Shkodër... elsewhere. People have lost money and are asking only for information. One more word, one more rumor has become a reason to prolong the difficult hours Albanians are enduring. These are hours filled with newspapers, foreign radio announcers who speak Albanian, and TV news. At last, the largest Albanian information institution has begun to speak. Perhaps it would have been better if it had not. In such cases, it would have been better to respect its Olympic calm. Yesterday, the reports on the Albanians’ protests were accompanied by opinions, not protests. Two utterly ordinary bit players had the luck yesterday to tell Albanians that this kind of usury, after all, is gambling. The two smart people selected by the TV network told us how they had once made money, while keeping in mind the risk of lo- loss. It is not known where our television colleague managed to find these winners. In the end, her successful investigation conveyed shamelessness and malice on a grand scale. You cannot tell people who have been left without a home that this game is gambling, when most of the usury firms have sponsored TV and state activities. It is not easy to shirk responsibility and bring out a jegj[e?] like Sudja to misread a statement saying that her scheme was a pyramid scheme and the Government was out of the picture. After all, the state gave Sudja the license to exchange money. The ordinary creditor had no reason to be afraid, since for four years or more Sudja was never inspected by the state and its institutions. Sudja was not bothered by the monitoring institutions; the uniformed authorities did not trouble her. What does a pyramid scheme mean to a worker who sells a one-room-and-kitchen home to buy a home with one more room? Today he is out on the street, without a roof over his head. Back then, no one guaranteed him or warned him that this game was a pyramid scheme, a failure, a fraud, with plenty of other [epithet[e?]] labels to follow. At that time, TV studios broadcast programs about the new type of Albanian capitalism, about the Balkan Taiwan, where pot-bellied businessmen told wonderful capitalist stories. Where capitalists thought of ordinary people according to the principle: when I have it by the sackful, I’ll give it out by the bagful. This television is losing all credibility and seems to think day after day that it is dealing with an audience that will accept anything or even live on air. air. Last Sunday, throughout the day’s programs, the lead story was that meat consumption in Vlora had apparently doubled. This opened every news program broadcast by Kombi, as if this were the most important event the Nation had experienced. What are television stations supposed to do—engage with the public, or what? For 24 hours. TV mocks the public, or what? For 24 hours. Real TV stations are so empty of news that they might as well shut down altogether or show some Western movie, because then they would have even more viewers. At the same time, this kind of TV treats an event that has truly shaken the whole country as if it were nothing. It is interesting to see the devotion of television personalities. Where do they get all this conviction, when it is known that they too have money in usury schemes? Apparently, their duplicity has remained a tradition over the years.

P. 2 Parties in Albania communicate as if from behind a wall P. 3 For technical reasons, the PRSH Statute will be published tomorrow

Last night, under the leadership of Prime Minister Aleksander Meksi, the Council of Ministers met. In order to avoid consequences, taking into account the pyramid-scheme nature of the Sude company and the preliminary information from the Transparency Commission concerning the other foundations, the Council of Ministers decided to set aside, for the benefit of citizens, the sum of 25.5 billion lekë deposited by the foundations in state banks, until the Transparency Commission makes its final determination as to whether or not they are pyramid schemes. The Government calls on the competent authorities not to allow mortgage transactions to be carried out by firms that are not settling their creditors’ claims.

Sabri Godo comments: The bull must be taken by the horns. The Government must protect citizens’ property Sudja in court today. Only 5 years in prison for thousands of defrauded depositors. 7 questions from “Republika” for those who swear by Sudja Company goes bankrupt; its factories are seized Pages 2, 3, 4, 5