The fate of Meksi and the motion supporters after the election of the President People wake up beside the counters. The cashiers chew gum. The bank is not handing out money.

The State facing Vlora The students of the University of Vlora are continuing their hunger strike. This outstanding act of courage is being followed with concern by all Albanian public opinion. Public concern is only natural, because a hunger strike, as an extreme form of civic protest, is only one step away from self-sacrifice. And yet the state remains silent. None of the senior officials has taken the trouble to comment seriously on what is happening in the lecture halls of the Ismail Qemali University of Vlora. It seems as though those in power have become insensitive. And yet, six years ago, it was three hunger strikes in a row that, alongside popular demonstrations, brought down three communist governments one after another. The hunger strikes by the Valias workers, UT students, and former political persecutées dealt the decisive blow to the Çarçani government and the two Nano governments. They were the foundation on which the PD victory of 1992 was built. But the PD quickly forgot the sublime sacrifice of the hunger strikers. Its government found very effective ways to silence every protest of this kind quickly and without a fuss. The hunger strikes by former property owners in 1993 and by former political prisoners in ’94 were brutally broken up by the police with rubber truncheons and tear gas. But can the state use the same methods against the students of Vlora? It seems impossible. Not only the strikers’ determination to continue the strike until all their demands are met, but also the strong support they are receiving from the citizens of Vlora, is the surest guarantee that the state will be unable to use its instruments of violence. In this way, the regime facing Vlora has been stripped of its repressive power. It is compelled to engage in an open battle of nerves with the students. And in this heated situation, the initiative of the University of Gjirokastra to send its representatives to join the hunger strike in Vlora marks a new and highly dramatic escalation of the protest. What will happen if all the universities of Albania do the same? Today’s state leaders may have forgotten that peaceful forms of struggle were once what brought them to power. But the people do not forget. They are convinced that the hungry students will challenge the well-fed regime.

GODO — I warn those in power: Be careful with the boys and girls of Vlora! P. 3 Vlora, 2000 will stir Albanians into action P. 4 Berisha in Greece on the eve of the end of his term P. 5 Lushnja reacts: “Kempes is waiting for the championship to begin”! P. 6

Medi Belortaja R.K. The PD in the great clash

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