The Nano government takes control of the Balkan cigarette-smuggling network ON PAGE 4 The Nano government takes control of the Balkan cigarette-smuggling network Ceka guards a mausoleum and the vessels of smuggling ON PAGE 4

The West increases pressure on the former communist rulers. It demands that freedoms for the opposition be guaranteed urgently Albania is praying today for Pjetër Arbnori, who is battling death in the intensive care ward, and for the ideals that led him to make the ultimate sacrifice. Arbnori’s health remained in a very critical condition until late last night, perhaps as critical as the freedoms and rights of Albanians, violated by former communist officials who came to power with the help of armed gangs. Pjetër Arbnori has with him today the blessing of all Albanians who have fought and continue to fight for the freedoms and rights denied by today’s rulers, who are leading the country toward a new dictatorship. The Mandela of Europe is suffering today on the 16th day of his hunger strike, because the administration installed by the former communists is trying to take the country back to the times of great hardship and suffering endured by Arbnori himself, as well as by all Albanians. Today he has the blessing of the majority of Albanians who respect free speech, one of the greatest achievements of democracy in Albania. This achievement was won by all Albanian Democrats in a struggle against the very same people who today are seeking to install a dictatorship like the one that persecuted Arbnori and hundreds of thousands of others. Pjetër Arbnori’s ultimate sacrifice now has massive and growing support, because of the importance of free speech to Albania’s violated democracy. The day before, the parliament of the Kalashnikovs had once again lived up to its name by passing a law that further restricts the opposition’s freedom of communication. With this arbitrary decision, the majority’s deputies, many of whom still reek of gunpowder, have made it clear that they fear the opposition’s voice and its communication with the people. They passed a bastard law, worthy only of a parliament of gangs, and just one day later the hunger striker was rushed by doctors to the intensive care ward. What has happened to Arbnori is, in fact, a symbol of the communist revanchism that is leading Albania toward a new dictatorship. Arbnori confined himself to a hunger strike so that the era of the persecutions he endured in the past would never return to this country. His concern has far-reaching implications, not only for Albania, where people are directly subjected to pressure from the installed regime, but also for the chancelleries of all other important Western countries. The West has followed all the events surrounding the Arbnori phenomenon with growing concern, increasing pressure on Tirana’s rulers, who are holding the freedoms and rights of all Albanians hostage. Especially over the past two days, the West has made clear to the government, in ultimative terms, that establishing a new dictatorship would have consequences for the country’s place in the international arena; the issue is the space for the opposition’s voice, the very cause for which Arbnori sacrificed himself. Countries such as France, Italy, Germany, Austria, and others have taken a firm position in support of Arbnori and his ideals, urging immediate action to put an end to the alarming revanchism, especially in recent days. The Arbnori phenomenon has increasingly prompted Western chancelleries to consider the state of human rights in Albania, with the European Union being urged to urgently send reports and a special mission to Albania. Most Albanians and Westerners stand with Arbnori, in support of his freedom of speech, so as not to allow the rulers to bring dictatorship back to Albania. The Mandela of Europe is battling death. Day 15 of the hunger strike in the intensive care ward. Doctors alarmed about the hunger striker’s health

Second night of protests in Tirana in support of Pjetër ...’s hunger strike Leader of the DP, Sali Berisha, speaking to journalists At 10:00 on the 15th day of the hunger strike by the DP hunger-striking MP, his health deteriorated to the point that his life was in danger. At that hour he fell into a coma, and Pjetër Arbnori ceased all communication with the people around him, his wife, Suzana, and his sister. 11:40. The Mandela of Europe, Pjetër Arbnori, ends up in

Arbnori’s hunger strike. Thousands of Tirana residents gather outside the DP headquarters 11:40. The Mandela of Europe, Pjetër Arbnori, is taken to the intensive care unit of the cardiology emergency department, where the doctors and staff of the unit rush into action to save the life of this man, who had chosen self-sacrifice as a protest against the rulers’ revanchism against freedom of speech in electronic media and beyond. ON PAGE 3

The government and the IMF do not sign the six-month agreement: “Let’s see in Brussels” ON PAGE 5

More terrorist acts in the capital. ON PAGE 4

The non-left-wing press is barred from many cities by the ruling-party gangs With another kind of seed in Parliament, the Socialists repealed the press law. Naturally, its action does not free the established authorities from the bullets they have fired at journalists. The bullets fired at Mujë Bupçapaj are still in his body. The bullets fired at Ali Ukaj took the journalist’s life. Threats and blackmail against opposition journalists and independent journalists have increased. The law is repealed and people say the press is free, but non-left-wing newspapers are barred by gangs of majority-party MPs from one third of the country. Before making laws, let the Kalashnikov Parliament first guarantee the distribution of the press and the safety of journalists from the established gang rule.

Ambassadors dismissed by Milo are being replaced by party apparatchiks Around 25 Socialist Party apparatchiks will replace the ambassadors dismissed by Foreign Minister Milo. Some of the country’s most valuable people, who have made a name for themselves as distinguished Albanian diplomats, will be succeeded by people with no connection whatsoever to the country’s democratic life, nor to the diplomatic corps. Sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs report that most of them are party-school graduates, the only credential they can offer Western diplomacy and their counterparts in these countries. With this act, Foreign Minister Milo is committing his most anti-Albanian deed, creating the possibility of a new isolation of Albania by presenting the country as communist territory. The people he has gathered from the basements of the Socialist Party and its street clubs also constitute the most vulgar representation of a country that, more than any other, needs to be represented with dignity. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the minister down to the newly selected ambassadors, consists of people whose task is above all to sabotage Albania’s ties with Europe, so that later they can redirect them towards other countries, according to the tastes of the party school or of Minister Milo himself. The communist revanche in diplomacy also marks the breaking of one of the most organized pillars of the new Albanian state. With this decline, the country is now fully taking shape as unacceptable to the West, while the contours of Albania in 1974 are also emerging. No one in the West can accept that, instead of the academies of Vienna or Malta, Bonn or Washington, the Lapraka Party School should appear in the offices of Albanian embassies in the West.

The amended law on VAT, two days ago, was a shameless deception The Democratic Party declares that the amendment to the new RTSH law on judicial fines and the provision of information space for the opposition in the state media constitutes a shameless deception by today’s rulers. The law thus provides for equal conditions and a proportional allocation of airtime in accordance with election results. But the majority installed in the Kalashnikov Parliament rejected the amendment stipulating that two-thirds of the time allocated to changing the political representation of television programs be assigned to the ruling position and one-third to the opposition. It also rejected allocating airtime to political parties in proportion to their share of the vote in the last election, just as it refused to include the government in the definition of the ruling position and proposed excluding the President’s and Government’s representatives from the regulation of airtime, while considering parties that form the government to be opposition parties. As for the commitment to broadcast news about the activities of political parties, this commitment was already included in the current RTSH regulations. In practice, with yesterday’s law, the new rulers confirmed yet another legal narrowing of the information space available to the Albanian opposition.

The Democratic Party denounces the cynicism and hypocrisy with which the rulers are treating Arbnori’s great ordeal On the 15th day of the hunger strike, in the struggle against the rulers’ communist information terror, censorship, and restrictions on freedom of expression, Europe’s Mandela, Democratic Party MP Pjetër Arbnori, is fighting instead of being in the resuscitation ward of Tirana Hospital. Pjetër Arbnori, the great Albanian resister, is not sacrificing himself for a personal cause, but for a great ideal, one cherished by every citizen in Albania and throughout the world. Yesterday, the Kalashnikov Parliament, terrorized by the opposition’s free speech, rejected Arbnori’s amendment after discussions that made collective history, and formulated a farcical law that further narrows the information space for the Albanian opposition. The Democratic Party denounces the monstrous attitude, cynicism, and hypocrisy of the rulers as they respond to Arbnori’s great ordeal, which is also the ordeal of Albania. In protest at the authorities’ attitude toward the demands, and in full solidarity with MP Arbnori, the Democratic Party parliamentary group decided not to participate in the upcoming sessions of the People’s Assembly. The Democratic Party thanks all international institutions and the governments of Europe’s democratic countries for their solidarity with and support for MP Arbnori and the ideals he defends, and assures them that the Democratic Party will always remain an unwavering defender of democratic values in Albania.

Democrats of Tirana, men and women! Let us all gather today with a candle in hand in front of the Democratic Party headquarters at 19:00, to pray for the salvation of the Mandela of Europe, Pjetër Arbnori, whose life is in danger after he sacrificed himself in defense of the rights and freedoms of all Albanians, violated by today’s rulers.