. Vlora, Tirana, Fieri, Lushnja, Gjirokastra, Elbasani... are cities in turmoil. The conflict between citizens and the state in these cities has often reached unimaginable heights. It is said that, to withstand popular anger, the state is recruiting mercenaries for pay from quieter areas of Albania. The mercenaries are accused daily (not only in the press) of using violence against demonstrators, journalists, students, and 15–18-year-old adolescents. The mercenaries are said generally to come from remote areas of the North, which the crowds think are connected to the country’s President. Reports from the South speak of areas entirely free of the police and state apparatus, which are much more concerned with exercising violence in Tirana and elsewhere. In reports by various correspondents, Vlora has been described as the freest city in the world, with no Berisha regime standing, no government offices open, and no law-enforcement agencies functioning. Vlora is in the hands of people armed to the teeth, ready to resist any attempt by the state to take control of the city. Vlora is thus on the brink of an evident civil conflict. It resembles the Bastille, fallen into the hands of the revolution and governed by the laws of the revolution. Gunfire, theft, and settling of scores are another picture of Vlora. Meanwhile, popular resentment in the southern areas has begun to be directed at a specific region of Albania, the North, and even more particularly at President Berisha’s birthplace. In fact, the people angered by their successive losses cannot be blamed much more. The uncontrolled influx of poor citizens from this region, their general takeover of the state’s coercive bodies, and the militancy of the DP are some of the reasons that have sown this kind of sentiment in Albania. After a short while, Albanians have begun asking one another where they are from. Certain kinds of connections have begun to provoke hostility, thanks to the state’s “king’s” malicious policy. Albanians, as in the darkest times of their history, have begun to divide into North and South. What the foolish government of the DP failed to achieve despite its efforts. The [unclear] that this kind of government is doing to Vlora, as if it had somehow been expelled, risks creating certain autonomous zones which, whatever dialect they speak, are severed parts of Albania.

The hunger-striking students: We are as good as dead. Don’t let the Government touch us! The treasure of Bashkim Driza is uncovered. VEFA: “I will repay the dollar bills, not the thousand-dollar bills”

Kill your fear. Don’t let Meksi force us out. 9 days of hunger strike at the University of Vlora. 17 students have ended up in hospital beds, while two others are being treated in the emergency room because they abandoned their fellow students. According to reports from Vlora, the condition of those barricaded in during the second week without food or fluids is deteriorating toward a fatal outcome. The medical team with the students barricaded inside has repeatedly sounded the alarm, urging them to abandon the strike, as the strikers’ health is approaching a critical danger. The students, their voices weakened and hoarse from lack of food and their infectious condition, have said: “We will not leave until the demands of the Albanians are met. We will sacrifice ourselves for Vlora, for Albania. The decision has become a necessity; the decision is yours.” P. 2

Violence again yesterday in Tirana, just a few meters from the Presidency Students and high-school pupils dispersed yesterday, and unrestrained violence was used to demonstrate their solidarity with the hunger strikers in Vlora. Students from the faculties of the University of Tirana gathered yesterday morning in front of the Corps building, following a call by the Student Protest Council. Thousands of high-school pupils flooded the streets of the capital, setting off arm in arm from their schoolyards toward the square in front of the University Corps. The high-school pupils, chanting “Vlora, Vlora” and “Away with fear,” marched past the faculty buildings, joining the students, who had begun classes, pushed along by the specter of “absence.” P. 2

Yesterday in Vlora Photo: A. Babani Yesterday in Vlora. Photo: A. Babani