Threats and blackmail against Ymer Yzeiri, chairman of BSPSH in Vlora ON PAGE 4

Ceka turns Tirana back to the time of Ramiz Alia. Hundreds of police officers and special forces have not let anyone go to the hunger strikers. The television station’s directors should resign. A barricade of Kalashnikovs around the television station Berisha at a press conference: This is “Popa 2” The state puts the MPs on hunger strike. This is the second time in two months that opposition MPs have been forced by the state to choose the most extreme form of protest, a hunger strike, to confront the Nano-turnaround that has engulfed every sector of the Albanian state. It is unprecedented even in less developed countries for a state to force its own parliamentarians to resort to self-sacrifice. Such a state deserves fewer days [in power], for the sake of extending democracy’s life in the country. The Nano–Gjingji–Meidani clique brings to mind the dictatorships of Latin America, and the functioning of the state under their leadership is a model of violence and repression against anyone who thinks differently. Now, before the Albanian public, four Democratic Party MPs are confined in a hunger strike: Azem Hajdari, leader of the Right [wing], chairman of the Parliamentary Group for Defense, who was targeted in an assassination attempt one month ago by the bandits running the Albanian state today, has four wounds on his body that have still not healed. The other is Prof. Dr. Ylli Vejsiu, former deputy chairman of the Academy of Sciences, now organizational secretary for Media, and Dr. Shaban Memia, former lecturer at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, now the DP secretary for Tirana. The place where they are on hunger strike is surrounded on all sides by police. In the shamelessness of this state, Interior Minister Çeka has ordered that neither the press nor their relatives be allowed to communicate with the hunger strikers. Large police forces have been deployed on every road leading to the RTV building, while in the afternoon Guard forces were also added, which is completely contrary to the law. Moreover, behind them is Albanian television, whose corridors are filled with former Sigurimi agents and party workers who investigate anyone attempting to go and speak with the hunger strikers. Such a scene brings to mind the occupation of the Italian Embassy, when the Popa family barricaded themselves inside. It is a great misfortune for today’s Albanian government that such events are being repeated even after the overthrow of the dictatorship. The hunger strikers have declared an indefinite hunger strike. They are waiting for the Arbnori amendment to be acted upon; the amendment and RTV [text unclear]. It is a disgrace to RTV’s directors that they have shut the screen to the Albanian opposition and its alternatives, forcing opposition MPs to barricade themselves at the doors of this institution. These are the same directors who, together with senior parliamentary and state authorities, forced MP Arbnori to go on hunger strike a month ago. These are the same directors who have turned the only Albanian screen into a symbol of darkness, a symbolic and moral threat to Albanians. If they have even a shred of self-respect left, they should resign and make way, if not for professionals, then at least for people who are a little less communist than they are.

The state puts the MPs on hunger strike.

The state sets its repressive mechanisms in motion Albanian police brutally pulled with a cable one of the cars in which the four PD MPs—Hajdari, Vejsiu, Minarolli and Memia—are staging their hunger strike. After this, they also began pulling the car belonging to former President Berisha, which he had made available to the hunger strikers because of the harsh conditions in which they are continuing their strike. To prevent this action by the police, MPs Minarolli and Vejsiu came out

The hunger-striking MPs speak to RD (The materials were secretly taken from Ceka’s police) The hunger-striking MPs speak to RD (The materials were secretly taken from Ceka’s police) The strike will continue until the tripartite agreement is signed

Azem Hajdari:

Vili Minarolli:

The parties’ political round table is being sabotaged by the ruling Clique. The government must meet the conditions for the strike The fate of the Round Table is in the hands of police officer Pashk Tusha

When a police officer attempted to tow the car of the hunger-striking MPs, MP Shaban Memia remained lying in front of it in a puddle of water. He and Hajdari stood on one side of the car, while Minarolli and Vesiu were on the other side so that the car could not be towed from either side.

PD statement concerning the hunger strike by four of its MPs: In support On Thursday evening, at around 23:00, four MPs from the Democratic Party, after contacting the management of RTVSH, began a hunger strike in front of the Albanian Radio and Television building. After 35 days of peaceful protests, entirely censored by television, following a series of information manipulations targeting both the Democratic Party and the other right-wing parties, and 50 days after Parliament approved the “Arbnori Amendment,” under which political parties are guaranteed the right to present their positions and activities on television for a designated period in keeping with the results of the latest elections, Prof. Dr. Ylli Vesiu, former Deputy Chairman of the Academy of Sciences and currently the PD’s Organizational Secretary and an MP; Azem Hajdari, leader of the December 1990 Movement, against whom the current regime attempted an assassination in the Albanian Parliament; Vili Minarolli, former diplomat, former Ambassador in Belgrade, former director of a department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and currently the PD’s Secretary for Public Relations and an MP; and Shaban Memia, Professor of Biological Sciences and a PD MP, after an unspecified period of confusion, gave prior notice to Albanian television and decided to begin a hunger strike. The place where they are staying in front of the RTV building is surrounded by hundreds of police officers, SHIK forces, armored police vehicles and other cars. Their family members are not allowed to meet them. The hunger-striking MPs are being kept in complete isolation from the press and other media outlets, which are being prevented from contacting them. Several journalists and photojournalists who tried to approach them have been mistreated by the police. Such a blockade of this area was imposed only when the three Popa brothers, protesting against Hoxha’s regime, barricaded themselves inside the Italian embassy. The area is now witnessing a similar situation, on a much larger scale. At 02:00 in the morning, masked police forces attacked the hunger strikers, forcibly taking away the bananas they were using as cover in the pickup truck where they are staging their strike. They have not been allowed to receive water or medication. We emphasize that MP Hajdan is receiving treatment for the bullet wounds he sustained in Parliament, while MPs Minarolli and Vesiu are receiving medical treatment after suffering from chronic illnesses.

Civilian officers threaten journalists and insult the hunger-striking MPs The police authorities continue tapping the phone of PD leader Sali Berisha

Fatos Klosi’s State Security service and the police are indiscriminately tapping the telephone of Sali Berisha, leader of the Democratic Party. The many facts made public continue to reinforce this. In full view of the police commissioner, a peaceful protester telephoned opposition leader Sali Berisha and informed him of the detention of peaceful protesters at the Democratic Party rally outside the television station. Not even five minutes had passed when Fatos Klosi’s plainclothes officers and Albert Dervishi’s police officers went down to the cell and demanded Dilaver Kotomi’s mobile phone. Kotomi denied having a phone, but the agents of violence and political crime made it clear that they had already identified him in the wiretaps as having a mobile phone, saying that they “didn’t give a damn!” The tapping of Dr. Berisha’s phone is joined by this flagrant fact, which definitively proves that the Clique in power operates just like Enver Hoxha.

Greece brings Albania and Serbia closer in Crete Greek Foreign Minister Pangalos said on Friday in Athens that he considers a high-level meeting between Albania’s Prime Minister Fatos Nano and the president of what remains of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milošević, at the Crete summit to be very likely. The authorities have made no official announcement about the possibility of such a meeting, but the official news agency published an article on Friday implying that such a possibility existed and stating: “Albania and Serbia, two historical, unavoidable neighbors, with Kosovo in between.”

Members and supporters of the DP, citizens of Tirana! Let us all protest together today at 18:30 against Nano’s police regime, which uses violence against the opposition, in support of the four MPs on hunger strike. LET US ALL PROTEST! Today at 18:30.

On Monday, 27 October 1997, at 10:00, the National Council of the PDSH will meet at the Palace of Pioneers in Tirana, with the following agenda: 1. Election of the party leadership and officials 2. Cooperation within the framework of “Union for Democracy”

The wives of the striking MPs write to all international institutions ON PAGE 2