Crime and smuggling in Albania ON PAGE 4

The DP MP is convinced that the trial of Mazreku will collapse ON PAGE 4

Dissatisfied students boycott classes ON PAGE 4

Lush Përpali is driven out of Puka. The government and state media invent strikebreakers. An escalation of protest methods is warned of The local government strike swept across all of Albania yesterday. All the communes and municipalities in the country demonstrated yesterday their incompatibility with the central government, the communist revanchism of this government, the blocking of funds for local government, and the removal from office of a considerable number of local officials, including 450 secretaries of this administration. Local officials also protested the violence used against them by Socialist Party gangs, as well as the provocations and threats made against them by groups linked to the current government in order to facilitate dismissals. Nevertheless, yesterday Deputy Prime Minister Bashkim Fino once again provoked local government, threatening it with a political solution to the problem and also with an administrative solution. With naïve ideas, natural to him, he harshly attacked the local administration strike while seeking to misinform the public about its scope. He lied when he said that the strike was only in Tirana, with the malicious aim of undermining its credibility, while, using poor vocabulary and logic, he tried to abuse the unresolved problems that, during the day [?] of the people, have existed since the new government was formed and are its responsibility. This government halted funding for local government and for the investments it was supposed to make. It also reduced its powers, unlawfully delegating them either to the prefect’s institutions or to the central government. For four months, this government has made every effort to eliminate any possibility or scope for local government to exercise financial, fiscal and decision-making autonomy. All this has been done to paralyze the power of local government by concentrating all powers in the hands of the central government, with the sole aim of reducing the effectiveness of local government, since it is mainly run by the DP. The order to remove 450 local secretaries from their posts came from the government, where Fino has a seat, and is contrary to all laws. Nobody knows better than the Deputy Prime Minister himself that the strike was not confined to Tirana: yesterday he found the offices closed in Gjirokastër, while the secretary of labor, Lush Përpali, found the door of Puka’s municipal building closed. Local officials there drove him out, refusing even to meet with him. Despite Nano’s claims and their wishes for the strike to fail, it had an extraordinary reach, and the government is expected to feel its effects. If the government speaks in the language used last night by Deputy Prime Minister Bashkim Fino, I do not know [the rest of the source text is unclear], Albania will see more such strikes, with demands that escalate further. The central government is obliged to cooperate with local government and to respect its independence. Government sabotage of its work must end, as must communist revanchism, threats, attacks and the dismissal of local government employees. Through yesterday’s strike, local government demonstrated its determination to remain as close as possible to the people and their concerns, and to resolve them as well and as quickly as possible, regardless of the wishes of the Nano government. The Albanian government should do nothing to destabilize local government, which, through strikes, is asserting its ability to remain as close as possible to the people’s concerns and problems.

Berisha: From Crete, we recognize only the betrayal of the Albanian prime minister Insistence on the presence of a third party in the talks

MUNICIPALITY OF TIRANA

Disappointment, failure, isolation, betrayal in the first 100 days of the former communists’ government The Democratic Party repeats its call for new elections The Government’s resignation, a solution for Albania ON PAGE 3

Governmental fog. The chief controller “dismisses” the accusations the government has made against the Company ON PAGE 5

Nano again accuses VEFA of illegal transfers of money Some light shed on the government’s game. The head of government’s statement overturns the “understanding” between VEFA and the government

In Kraków and Lisbon I asked Gligorov to recognize the University of Tetovo The former President presented documents from the meeting between him and President Gligorov that expose Nano’s deception ON PAGE 3

The DP and PR will cooperate against the communist revanche The chairman of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, yesterday congratulated Mr. Fatmir Mehdiu on his election as chairman of the Republican Party. In his congratulatory message, Berisha expressed his conviction that this cooperation between the two parties would continue to take new positive steps in the future to shorten the period of rule by the former communists, who came to power by force on June 29. Reminding Republicans and Democrats that they are equally threatened by the opposition’s sweeping political, institutional and administrative aggression, Berisha believes that the two parties will cooperate in forming the opposition, defending freedoms and human rights, protecting democratic institutions and safeguarding national interests. While acknowledging the PR’s role in restoring the rule of law, the leader of the DP expresses his belief that, in cooperation with Mehdiu, this party will play an even more active role by pursuing political activity against the communist revanche.

Yesterday, in front of Tirana City Hall

Districts, municipalities and communes across Albania on strike: “Nanokratura must halt its revanchism”

Insistence on the presence of a third party in the talks demonstrates to Milošević that Kosovo is not an internal matter of Serbia. This is also guaranteed by the Helsinki and Lisbon acts ON PAGE 3

…of the all-encompassing political, institutional and administrative pressure on the opposition, the opposition and in defending freedoms and human rights, democratic institutions, and national interests. Meanwhile, recognizing leader of the PD activity against the communist revenge campaign.