Socialists find the enemy inside the party. Local leaders refuse to give up their posts The minister clashes with the delegation. Alimuçaj: Arapi is speculating, trying to inflame the creditors.

Albanians are beaten, dragged along, and the Albanian government plays dumb Yesterday what was not expected happened. The Italian state abused the weary foreigners. The magic sentence that gave hope to those trapped — “there will be no forced repatriation” — was blown away by the wind. Italian authorities brutally stormed the camps, while the men still trapped were asleep, the children perhaps in the arms of dreams. The crane arm tore off the doors and the police, dressed as if for special operations, whipped their batons. Neither the children’s cries, nor the parents’ pleas, nor the women’s protests lowered the rage of the police. Through violence, the Albanians, unprotected even by God (since the Government has left them at the mercy of fate), have nothing left but lament and curse. They deserved the bad treatment, because they stepped over death in the blood-soaked spring, fled and risked everything for a better life. The Albanian government remains silent. What would 5,000 Albanians with money have to do with the Italians? It is good that it does not stand up for them, but why does it not raise its voice against the violence used against its own citizens? The price at which the government seeks to secure aid must not trample on the dignity of its own citizens. The government complains about the “burnt land,” while emigrants are forcibly torn from the arms they cling to and escorted by police all the way to Rinas. This is the atmosphere, so funereal, that the Albanian public at large is experiencing. The Italian authorities, as can be seen, have decided to round off human tendencies and are taking it out on Albanians. Based on this fact, the officials have Continued on page 3

Page 6 Yesterday in Rinas. Repatriated by the Italian Government

We, the leaders of the Democratic Party, the Legality Movement Party, the Republican Party, the Balli Kombëtar Party, the Christian Democratic Party, the Albanian Democratic Union Party, and the Social Democratic Union Party, in response to the invitation of the Democratic Party, met to discuss the crisis created by the agreement of the Albanian Government with the Italian Government on the return of Albanian refugees. We express our deep indignation at the inhumane and irresponsible attitude of the Albanian Government toward its citizens who emigrated to Italy. The agreement signed for their collective return at a time when the majority of them do not even have the most basic conditions for living, and the deception that the Government is imposing on Albanian public opinion regarding the supposed international approval by the refugees themselves, clearly show that this Government not only lacks the will to protect its citizens, but also exploits their misery for political purposes. We call on the Italian Government, the legislators of the friendly country, the friendly Italian nation, to stop the collective expulsion of Albanians and to consider all possibilities for treating these five thousand refugees in the same way that it generously, humanely, and nobly treats hundreds and tens of others from around the world. We appeal to His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, a great friend of the Albanian nation, to use all his influence to ease and lessen the suffering of our five thousand compatriots and to stop their return to Albania. We invite all the municipalities and communes of the country, and the leaders directly together with the communes of the friendly country where our refugees are located, to show them hospitality rather than push them toward misery. The boycott of this round table by the governing parties is also yet another proof of the Albanian Government’s irresponsible act, its decision to return Albanian refugees. Our parties propose that a portion of the Italian financial aid for Albania be used for the system of returned refugees in Italy. Tirana, 3 December 1997

Begeja: The government should withdraw the agreement for the expulsion of refugees Dibër: We fought the war, the PD keeps the chairs Page 4 The sea kills two speedboat smugglers One ton of drugs a year to Greece The balance of tragedies in the Adriatic Page 7 The story of a missing child 250 Greeks take up arms in Albania Page 6 Kosovo appeals: the KLA cannot be ignored Page 13

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