This blank page is to protest once again against the unprecedented terror against right-wing Albania, which for half a month has been prevented at gunpoint by the gangs of today's rulers from reaching its readers in southern Albania

our newspaper and this blank page to once again commemorate the wild destroyers of the newspaper “Rilindja Demokratike” who are out of control in trying to block the road to the free press! All of this is now clear to both domestic and international opinion! In the days that follow! Albania is entirely covered by armed gangs! Supported by weapons and money taken from army depots, and instead of fighting to restore constitutional order they are fighting to block Albanians’ road to freedom! The whole world is now amazed by the fact that Albania in 1997 is presented in this way as a country occupied by armed gangs! In southern Albania, gangs dressed in police uniforms (municipal and secret police) are terrorizing ordinary citizens, while the last throes of the communists have taken control of the entire south of the country... In Gjirokastër 7 anti-communists have been killed while trying to enter the city! In Përmet two more were killed! In Delvinë a young democrat was killed! In Sarandë the press was drowned in blood! In Tepelenë a senior delegate of the PD was killed! Everywhere in the south of the country people are being kept hidden or killed by order of those who today hold the power in Tirana. The violence of the government gangs has reached such proportions that citizens are taking extreme self-defense measures. In Pogradec a polling-station commissioner was killed. Telephone lines have been cut in Delvinë, and the police refuse to allow right-wing figures to return to the south. On the Kakavijë-Gjirokastër road entire populations armed like in the Middle Ages have set up regular ambushes for anyone who goes on the right side. People who had no connection whatsoever to politics have also been killed simply because they were thought to belong to the “north”! This is the Albania that now lies under the Albanian sky. And this bloody picture, almost on the eve of the 29 June elections, speaks for itself about the reasons why the communists are ready to use all means to stay in power. Even at the cost of the blood of their Albanian anti-communist compatriots. Dozens are the public accusations, supported by concrete facts, against the Nano government that it is not only playing no role in maintaining order in Albania, but on the contrary is using the secret police (as under communism), disguised in military uniforms, to execute political opponents! This is further confirmed and explained in an article by the “Washington Post” dated 17 June 1997. According to this article, "...[?] the Albanian secret services are suspected of possessing several thousand trained men, identified by rented vehicles, who spy on and kill the enemies of the new government, according to people with close ties to the Interior Minister." Later, however, the judiciary called it a story of no value. But now the same Albanian president and former communist head of the country are asking hundreds of thousands of Italians to leave as soon as possible and return as frightened people... According to an Italian television station based in Rome, “Avvenimenti”, the anti-terrorism guard team of the Albanian secret service is guarding the office of Prime Minister Fatos Nano and Usin. French and black uniforms, on which certain identifying marks appear to be concealed, such as “municipal police” and “rapid intervention”, have drawn the attention of Western correspondents visiting the country. Now foreign journalists are able to report that throughout the last days there have been explosive blasts and automatic gunfire in all the cities of the south of the country." Meanwhile, an article in “Newsweek” dated 16 June is quoted: “Albanians are ready to kill their brother for a little Kosovo [?].” “This country has reached civil war,” say some Germans who had been in Albania, “Where are the Albanians going?” “Po [word illegible][?] No, ideology does not make them like that.” The German newspaper “Berliner Kurier” makes a [word illegible][?] about the terror after the elections of [word illegible][?] and shows how the clothing of the “Albanian terrorists” and the “uniforms of the country” are reinforced in order to achieve such a [word illegible][?]. “Albania is [word illegible][?] not only not a tragedy, but also a [word illegible][?],” the newspaper notes. Or likewise [word illegible][?] not only nationalism aims at American allies [word illegible][?] but to kill communists and [word illegible][?] others. “The [word illegible][?]” thinks that the situation is not [word illegible][?] but a [word illegible][?] of tyranny. “This best shows [word illegible][?] the defense of chaos,” it is [word illegible][?]. Bardh Frroku -RILINDJA DEMOKRATIKE