Tirana’s students, as in Blessed December Photo: A. Baban

Yesterday, from the early morning hours, students from the country’s main high schools attempted to hold a protest near the center of Tirana. Armed plainclothes officers infiltrated their groups and beat the 16- and 17-year-old teenagers indiscriminately. The brutal intervention by the state’s shadowy elements against the boys and girls of Tirana’s high schools is not the first time this has happened. The DP state is extremely frightened by all kinds of protests, including those that may come from younger age groups. Its heartless savagery now spares no one. Although the leadership of the Albanian state has not stopped speaking out against violence in recent days, its henchmen have become commonplace—clearly, not spontaneously. Yesterday’s student rebellion was followed by students from UT, who suffered the same fate as the high-schoolers. The violence exercised against the youngest part of the Nation needs no Continued on p. 3

Procedure—Arbnori ignores the situation in Vlora Yesterday, at 17:00, when the session was opened by the Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Godo asked to speak on a point of procedure. The agenda presented by the Speaker of the Assembly, Pjetër Arbnori, included a number of items, among them Blirim Cela’s discussion of the findings of the inspection at the “Gjallica” company, but did not provide for any discussion of Vlora as a whole or of the students’ hunger strike. This prompted Mr. Godo to ask to speak on a point of procedure. The Republican chairman also requested that, given the particular importance of the session, it be broadcast live on television. But as soon as the Republican deputy began speaking, Godo was interrupted by the Speaker, who told him that the response was for a point of procedure. Mr. Godo retorted that he could not respond to something that the Speaker had not yet heard. The speech Mr. Godo began to deliver was as follows: “For three weeks, Vlora has been cut off from the rest of the country and from the Government. There is no need to speak at length about what Vlora has been, and is, to Albania. Another very grave thing is happening there: the ordeal of the 55 students who have completed 200 hours of their hunger strike. Their lives are hanging by a thread. I consider it essential that the issue of Vlora and the students’ hunger strike be discussed in this session, removing every Continued on p. 3

“Republika” gives you the numbers of the VEFA contracts that mature today, 28 February, p. 6 as well as the “SIVA” creditors’ repayment schedule for March 1997, p. 3

“REPUBLIKA” newspaper, “Sami Frashëri” Street, near “Petro Nini Luarasi” High School, Tirana, Account No. BTK 986/110 Tel/Fax 259 88 Tel. 230 90