Sudja in court for the last time ON PAGE 6

A ship flying the Greek flag unloads smuggled cigarettes ON PAGE 6

Berisha: “The government’s strategy to hasten self-sacrifice will have catastrophic consequences.” Police violence is broadening the protest. Last night, thousands of Tirana citizens in the square against police terror

. Four Democratic Party opposition MPs on hunger strike continue to be treated by the state as if they were occupiers. A citizen, the chairman of a non-governmental association, was abducted by the secret police two days ago and ended up on the streets of Brogozhinë. Dozens of other citizens have been unlawfully detained in recent days, physically and psychologically mistreated in police stations, and held without official records or prior charges. A peaceful demonstrator was shot two days ago during a peaceful opposition protest and was made to disappear by the police for dozens of hours, with no whereabouts known. The opposition continues to be surveilled and treated just as it would be under a fascist regime. The actions of Nano’s police state resemble Hoxha’s actions when he took power in 1946. Dozens of other citizens continue to express serious concern about home invasions, illegal searches, and robberies committed by police forces, which operate as in a typical Latin American dictatorship and do not even draw up records of the searches they carry out. At a police station, secret police officers showed that they take orders directly from the opposition leader when they forcibly took the mobile phone from a detainee, who just two minutes earlier had informed Berisha about the detention of peaceful protesters. Over the past few days, the police have also threatened journalists who do not belong to the installed regime. The so-called organizations that defend human rights in Albania, as they promised President Kukuli, have remained silent, and by their silence are helping the campaign to install a dictatorship in the country. The true face of this Pinochet who has dug in his heels in Albania is also evident in government propaganda. For days, the ruling party’s official newspaper has been calling for political trials, using typically revolutionary language against the opposition and its leaders. The regime’s other newspapers, which call themselves independent, use their editorials to call for the oppression of the opposition to be condemned through the so-called enforcement of the laws. The state media, led by the official news agency, churn out false news and denigrating statements about the opposition every second. The Republic of Albania is thus turning into a banana republic. The continuation of the violent revolution that began at the start of the year, with the so-called acceptable elections, has not achieved its objectives through coming to power; instead, it seeks to eliminate the opposition entirely and install a façade pluralism in which the opposition praises the regime and echoes all its violent, arbitrary actions and departures from democracy. Under these circumstances, the real opposition must act before it is too late. Its political campaign to expose the banana republic that the Nano-cracy is installing must be accompanied by an intensification of concrete actions to stop the installation of political, economic, and social caricatures resembling the regimes of the 1960s in Latin American countries. Its responsibility in the face of this situation is such that no Albanian will excuse it for failing to fulfill this role. Shëmshi PEPOSHI

Efforts to remove the MPs continue . SHIK’s scenario on Monday. SHIK and the police draw up a plan to remove the hunger strikers from the place where they have been on hunger strike for four days. After the attempt to drag the MPs away with a cable failed, and partly thanks to the strikers’ determination, the Secret Service, in cooperation with sections of the police, has drawn up another plan to move them from the strike site. Neritan Ceka’s police and the State Security Service forces will lift the police cordon on Monday and allow citizens to carry out activities near the Italian Consulate. A considerable number of Secret Service personnel are planned to infiltrate the ranks of the citizens and provoke incidents with the striking MPs. The State Security agents will pose as citizens in front of the consulate gates and provoke the MPs with “public anger” over the time they have wasted in recent days without obtaining visas because the police have blocked the consulate. This will be the moment when the police intervene, supposedly to protect the MPs’ lives, and remove them from the place where they have been barricaded.

The police cordon is creating a diplomatic incident with Italy Berisha thanked the Italian Embassy’s consul, who had offered water to the striking MPs at midnight on Friday The leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, accused the government yesterday of trying to create a diplomatic incident with Italy. The unprecedented police cordon has also blocked the activities of the Italian Embassy for two days. The government is exploiting the hunger strike to cause a diplomatic incident, tainting it as in the time of Enver Hoxha, when the embassy was surrounded by successive police cordons after the Popa brothers entered it. Berisha repeated his demand that the government lift the police cordon, assuring that Democratic Party activists would take measures to create normal working conditions at the Italian Embassy, without the need for the thousands upon thousands of police officers who have been covering its doors for two days. Berisha took the opportunity to thank the Italian Embassy’s consul, who had offered water to the striking MPs at midnight on Friday. Although the police did not allow him to do so, Berisha expressed his gratitude for this humane act. Berisha said that for Europe, torturing citizens—and all the more so MPs—is unacceptable, as is being done by the communist rulers. A. K.

Monsignor Frano Ilia is laid to rest in the bosom of God The leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, and former Speaker of Parliament, Pjetër Arbnori, attended the funeral ceremony ON PAGE 2

Even in 20 years, the PS remains the heir to Enver Hoxha’s party ON PAGE 3

Yesterday, the fax number was blocked too For more than a week, all the telephone numbers of our editorial office have been blocked by Telekom without any explanation. Our newspaper has settled all its obligations to this institution, so there can be no pretext for blocking the editorial office’s numbers. Only political reasons remain—reasons that drove Socialist militants at Telekom to resume an information blockade against our newspaper, which opposes the Nanocracy. We say “resume” the suppression of information because this is not the first time our newspaper’s telephone numbers have been blocked. Telekom’s directors took the same action after the violent elections of 29 June. Now, for the second time, none of the telephone numbers is working. The information blackout that the current rulers are imposing on opposition activities in state institutions is now spreading to opposition newspapers as well. It is well known that censorship of free speech is the principal step in bringing down the neo-communist dictatorship. After a series of political murders, including the attack on our journalist Buçpapaj, and after the non-communist press was blocked in the south of the country, the communist rulers are now beginning a Telekom blockade. In any case, we will not let the directors of this institution block our editorial office’s telephone numbers, since it is their duty to restore them as soon as possible. As a newspaper, we are the first anti-communist publication in Albania; despite the violence and political assassination attempts carried out under the regime, we are determined to resist the Nanocracy and remain faithful to our mission of defending free speech.

Prison before the television Photo: A. Fusha

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

Inhuman conditions and a police cordon around the hunger strikers. Democratic Party MPs’ hunger strike enters its fourth day

The government was defeated on the first day of the strike Azem HAJDARI Nano has deceived Europe in Brussels Ylli VEJSIU Gjinushi came to power in a coup d’état Vili MINAROLLI Nano’s state has the face of Pinochet Shaban MEMIA