Urgent meeting in the Government. “This killing is a tragic act, and we ask citizens to cooperate by giving evidence about the incident” DP: The killer is the former chief of the criminal police. They fled in three cars with Vlora license plates. The criminals left the murder weapons in the street . Bodyguard dies, another wounded. Urgent meeting in the Government. “This killing is a tragic act, and we ask citizens to cooperate by giving evidence about the incident” DP: The killer is the former chief of the criminal police. They fled in three cars with Vlora license plates. The criminals left the murder weapons in the street. TIRANA - A burst of Kalashnikov fire and muffled pistol shots brought Azem Hajdari and two of his bodyguards down last night. They had just come out of a café near the DP headquarters when a car with Vlora plates stopped right in front of them, and then gunfire thundered in the darkness. A moment later, tires screeched, and three people lay bloodied on the sidewalk. Within minutes, Hajdari and his two men were taken to hospital, but it was all in vain. The doctors could do nothing for the DP man, who died shortly before reaching the hospital. No one could imagine that such a thing might happen. On pages 2–3, page 2–3 Ambush at 21:20. Gunmen with Kalashnikovs shoot the deputy as he is coming down the steps of the building Terror at the headquarters of the Democratic Party. Dozens gather in front of the building: “Give us weapons” The lifeless body of Azem Hajdari last night at the Military Hospital (Photo: Hektor Pustina)

“They killed us at our own doorstep, but we will stand firm to the end” TIRANA - “Nano killed Azem.” Berisha and the DP have accused Fatos Nano of instigating the murder of Azem Hajdari. The Democratic deputy died yesterday evening after an assassination attempt against him in front of the Democratic Party headquarters, and one of his bodyguards also died with him. Another was wounded and is hospitalized in the surgery ward of the Military Hospital in the capital. According to initial information from the DP, a burst of Kalashnikov fire was unleashed on Azem, and the bullets struck him in the chest. Just a few minutes later, Hajdari died. According to the Democratic Party, the killer is called Jaho Salihi, chief of the Tropoja Police Commissariat, Jaho Salihi, who emerged from a car with Vlora plates, VL 0667, and after the crime sped away in the direction of the Ministry of the Interior in the car used to commit the crime. “The Democratic Party declares that the murder was organized by Albania’s prime minister, Fatos Nano.” Grief and tension late last night at the press conference. Berisha: “Azem told me when he was wounded back then: ‘It is a pleasure to die for you.’” On page 2

On page 3 Shock among Albanian politicians

The story from the December ’90 student to the politician TIRANA - Azem Hajdari appeared on the Albanian political scene at a turning point in history, just as Albania was leaving communist dictatorship behind. On the night of December 8, 1990, the 28-year-old philosophy student led the first student protest against the regime, and later became one of the principal figures in Albania’s pluralist politics. The leader of the student protests was born in Bajram Curri in 1962, the town where he was a member of parliament in the current parliamentary legislature. The first protest, which began on the evening of December 8 in building number 14 in the student city, marked the beginning of the political actions that toppled the 50-year dictatorship. Hajdari was one of the principal figures. On page 3