Major fires and hundreds of victims in Lushnje, Berat and Gramsh. Police officers and MPs are beaten. Today, large rallies in Tirana, Vlorë, Korçë, Sarandë. The opposition boycotts Berisha The deputy prime minister is held hostage and mistreated in Lushnje. Blows with iron rods to the head. Berisha does not release Xhaferri

What was expected has now happened. Patience has run out and, two weeks after the start of the first protests, no one wants to carry on their shoulders the burden of humiliation, deception, theft, arrogance, corruption and vulgarity. Thousands upon thousands of outraged citizens, as never before, have taken to the streets in the cities of Albania, chanting slogans such as “down with the thieves”, “Down with Berisha!”, “We want our money”, and so on. It is a legitimate counterresponse, one that clearly expresses the state of mind of the Albanian nation and a historic turning point on Albania’s road toward the definitive establishment of democracy, the rule of law and a market economy. Demonstrations and popular protests are more than legitimate acts; they are rights that Albanians have now also won on paper. At last, after three years, Albanians have “snatched back” this right that belonged to them because the regime did not allow it. They have now come out, and the great nervous tension, the extreme indignation, the resentment accumulated year after year, is now exploding, going beyond the limits of civilized protest. As reported, public buildings have been burned in Lushnje; in Berat, according to telephone reports, demonstrators set fire to the Municipality, the prefecture and the police station. Meanwhile, other reports speak of victims on both sides; the deputy prime minister and chairman of the PD, Tritan Shehu, has even been held hostage. It must be noted that we are Albanians and that is how we will behave. But Albanian public opinion has the right to reject this denigrating statement. The people are never to blame. They have had enough, and they react. It is their right to gather, to block roads, to raise slogans, to demand. But at the same time, it is up to all of us to remind one another that we must not fall into the philosophy of the current regime, which recognizes only the truncheon. Violence is unacceptable; demonstrations must be peaceful. There should be no justification for this. Let us salute the emergence of those police officers from Lushnje who removed their helmets in a gesture of solidarity with the people, and let us give them weapons instead. Albania today is in a turning-point situation and resembles the beginnings of democratic processes. But this time we must not allow what happened then, when faceless provocateurs burned Albania and killed Albanians. The national wealth belongs to everyone and not to five or ten PD leaders. Acts of violence serve only those who do not want solutions to the problems, those who would like to drag Albania into civil war. But Albanians do not want that. They are exercising their right to show this thieving government that patience has run out and that a solution and the return of the stolen assets must be found at any cost. These protests are showing the thieves in power and all Albanian politicians that this road always ends like this. These demonstrations show that we are not some cheap maneuver and that political solutions must be made urgently. Peaceful protests, civilized demonstrations, will show the entire political class, government or opposition, that this situation is not one for calculations, but for taking responsibility. The solution, the way the situation has escalated, cannot be fixed by changing leaders or by the same governments, but through political unity in the national interest. Violence happened, but it must not continue. The more we lose, the more we lose. Peaceful protest is vital for democracy, and consequently for the people who seek the fulfillment of hopes trampled underfoot. VLADIMIR PRELA

The chairman of the PD at the moment of the attack in the Lushnje stadium Photo: G. Shkullaku

What happened yesterday to Tritan Shehu is undoubtedly unacceptable and criminal, and it is not enough to say that the PD reaped what it sowed. In this context, regardless of the physical and moral pain, Shehu should have told the truth about the violence he witnessed with his own eyes. Then all the foreign radios were broadcasting minute by minute news about Mr. Shehu’s fate, not forgetting to give details about his forcible detention in the changing rooms of the Lushnje stadium, while Mr. Shehu himself astonished Albanians with his words on TV. The high-ranking Albanian official was treated yesterday in a manner incompatible with the most elementary norms. He was mistreated by the protesters and was forced to remain in one of the stadium’s rooms. When one looks at this scandalous incident, witnessed by several thousand demonstrators and by all the rest of us through the radio, it shows very little respect for himself and for the position he holds. The deputy prime minister said on TV that he “had a conversation with his friends from Lushnje.” But if the leader of the PD calls beating, humiliation and even urine being poured in one’s face a friendship, then there is also serious reason to doubt his judgment, as well as the morning meetings he holds with his great friend Sali Berisha. Even after what happened to him, this man has the courage and strength to remain in the politics of Sali Berisha, the man who for nearly eight hours refused to exchange his close collaborator for Xhaferri, especially when for those eight hours no one knew whether Tritan was still alive or not. Even after this disgrace, Tritan forgives Berisha for the fact that Berisha appeared on state television and said nothing about him or about his release. During those hours of terror, the foreign minister must finally have realized how much Berisha values him... K.J

The abrupt collapse of the pyramid system within a few days, as well as the front [?] of the company “Gjiallica”, have sent shivers through President Berisha, who yesterday used Meksi to test the pulse of the two largest Albanian companies, “VEFA” and “Kamberi”. Knowing Alimuçaj’s strength as a “state within the state”, the prime minister approved all of “VEFA”’s requests so that the bank would not block the line of his activity. Likewise, “Kamberi” has also secured support and no obstruction from the banks; it seems that Alimuçaj’s threat that “with a few words I can also get Meksi and Berisha” has shaken the very foundations of the presidency.