This was stated yesterday at a press conference by the commander of the Multinational Force deployed in Albania, General Luciano Forlani. Press conference of the Multinational Force Command “ALBA” does not recognize the PS military committees “Our operations in the southern zones will be carried out only in cooperation with government authorities at the central and local level, as well as with competent persons, taking into account their recognized functions and duties.” This is what the commander of the Multinational Force deployed in Albania, General Luciano Forlani, declared yesterday at a press conference. In response to the continued interest of the journalists present, Forlani specified that there had not been and there will not be any contact with the Salvation Committees or with any other body not recognized by Albanian law. Page 2

The Albanian socialists’ departure from peace has begun even before the ink on the signed agreement has dried. Their departure was no different from that of the past 50 years of their rule. During that time, they had barbarically stolen peace from Albanians and every human right. The Socialists want to be outside peace immediately. This category had never existed in their fundamentalist concept. For them, social peace and human freedom are an exhausting torment. That is why they also attacked the democratic state with fire and steel. Even after the signing of 9 March. A wounded conscience and no signature in the peace at the President Berisha’s table gives rise to 28 March. The military committees of the south, the gangs, and the criminals with whom the socialist prime minister and one of his ministers boast that they are friends. Indeed, they continue with the OSCE negotiator’s visits and timetable in contacts in Albania, or those of the Council of Europe. The category of peace is outside Nano’s Marxist concept and that of his armed wing, which still seeks the presidency of the state, the source and the main pillar of peace and national balance. Nano and the PS do not in any way express the possibility of winning through these armed bandits. The concept of elections like in Bosnia or of regional support is a concept of war, from which the honest mass of Albanian socialists must distance itself. Departure from peace is a socialist luxury. The world should have no illusion about this. Nor does it. Therefore, the European conservatives, who make up the most serious political bloc in today’s Europe, warn that there cannot be elections with armed communists in Albania. For Albanian democrats, this constitutes a difficult but necessary obligation: to protect peace from the communists, from their committees, from the gangs. To protect the administration from the associates of these bandits. And most importantly, to preserve their faith in freedom, democracy and Europe — a faith that was not shaken even in the long night of communist rule, nor in the hours of terror of the mafia-communist uprising of the winter of 1997. We are a peaceful people, but the Socialists’ departure from peace nonetheless constitutes a threat to its future, to the future of Albanian democracy. Today it is the greatest danger threatening the free and fair elections of June, for which the Democratic Party and President Berisha are fully committed.

Chaos, violence, terror — the rails on which the Leninist train of the PS is rolling toward power

Page 3 Former Sigurims members of unit 326 at the head of the armed gangs

Socialists and their left-wing allies are insisting on a proportional law in the June elections. Their insistence in fact expresses and conceals panic and the foreboding of a complete defeat in the upcoming electoral battle. Their insistence has another reason as well. With this move, the Socialists seek to help, however slightly, some mini-parties or phantom parties that in all electoral contests over these 6 years have failed to obtain even 6 percent. The PS has never been interested in political stability in Albania, in the success of democratic reforms and the free-market economy; therefore it insists on such an electoral system, which opens the way and creates potential opportunities for continued political irreconcilability. Such a law would mean that the country’s fate and the future of the people remain in the hands of adventurers such as Ceka, Gjinushi, Kalakula, Lubonja, Kola and Gumeni. The careful accountants of the PS, after burning and training Albania while openly collaborating with Gjolek Malaj, Albert Shyti and Letër Zari and company, have also, with their heads, made the balance sheet of the bi-national, anti-national and criminal scrutiny that is the crushing defeat in the free elections of June. Certain that they will not threaten the 15 percent threshold, they are racking their brains to find new schemes of boycott or manipulation in the upcoming elections, including votes with the chairmen of their armed structures. They foresee their certain failure not only historically but also simply through their own cold and realistic calculations, and they have carried out these efforts as well as the lack of a constructive and credible alternative. In truth, since the day of its creation in 1941, the PS has often been born in constructiveness and democratic alternatives, and moved forward. Meanwhile, the PD is also determined for the country’s political stability, therefore it continually insists that a majoritarian law is more consistent and fruitful for Albania’s present and future, for the secure continuation of the processes begun after 22 March 1992. The PD’s determination to apply this system also in the June elections is supported by the fact that the majoritarian law proved, with two rounds, that it proposed is not dedicated to the French law and to the laws of the most advanced and consolidated democracies in Europe and beyond.

Expanded meeting in the leadership of the PD Branch in Elbasan Page 2 They support the PD, President Berisha and distance themselves from the former

From a well-informed source, it is learned that yesterday at midday Prime Minister Bashkim Fino requested an urgent meeting with the leaders of the “rebel” humor group Filip Çakuli, Koço Devole, and Agron Llakaj. They did not want to respond to this invitation, annoyed as they were by the presence of his advisers. But when he assured them that he would be alone, the leaders of the humor brigade raised their hands and set off with fiery steps. The prime minister’s invitation to have lunch together with them surprised everyone greatly. It is said that what frightened them even more was the great size of Fino’s ... and the financial loss they might suffer if they ended up in the fatal hands of peace. Knowing that they had been fed as children, the prime minister reassured them that he would pay himself, although he too did not appear to be in good financial condition after the collapse of the pyramid schemes. After having fed them with meats and treated them to a pie, Prime Minister Fino addressed them, asking them to open their eyes like a window when he asked them to mobilize the special forces of humor to carry out the arming of the rebels in southern Albania. Neither I nor Vukaj can carry out this mission — Fino had said sincerely. To tell the truth, we are not up to the arming of the hugjësman for now in humor. After their thoughts had been clarified and the leaders of the humor brigade had seen, they replied that they would give their answer once they also received the approval of ... women. SPOKESPERSON OF THE HUMOR BRIGADE

TIRANA, 23 April/ATSH/-The news of the turmoil that has engulfed our beautiful country has caused me great sorrow. You know how much I love Albania. I have visited it often and have sent my Sisters to bring the desired love and care for the poor. Now, with deep sorrow in my heart, I hear of lost lives and wounded people in violence. I understand the pain of those who lost money, but I ask you not to bring greater suffering to one another. Remember that God created you for something better: to love and to be loved. This is the meaning of life, which no suffering can take away from us. This man, this woman, that child is my brother, my sister, and I must love and care for them, just as God loves us. In order to be able to love one another, we must pray a great deal that the Lord will grant us a pure heart, and a pure heart can see God and our neighbors. If we do not have peace now, it is because we have forgotten how to see God in one another. If each one sees God in his neighbor, do you think we will need weapons and bombs? Mother is praying very much for all my dear people of Albania, so that everyone may learn to love to the point of pain and thus bring peace to the country and to every heart. Let us pray.