The Union for Democracy denounces the escalation of the government’s violence against the opposition. Murder, torture and abuse of Democratic Party activists. Nano is just like Noriega . In Saranda, Edmond Zisi, a Democratic Party member, was suffocated in the cells of the police station. Bardhyl Krasniqi and his three brothers were beaten and mistreated in the station courtyard by the Cakran gang boss. Genc Katroshi, a Democratic Party member, was killed in mysterious circumstances. State Security units planted explosives at the home of Frrok Gjini, deputy mayor of Vau i Dejës. ON PAGE 3

Berisha: If the Constitutional Court is undermined, the opposition will respond forcefully, with all the means by which freedom is defended Skënder Gjinushi with Foto Cami at a party event

The Socialist government is intensifying its attacks on the Democratic Party and its structures by every means. Yesterday, at a press conference, the political group Union for Democracy made three statements concerning the attacks on and brutalization of several Democratic Party leaders, members and supporters in the districts. Within a period of three days, the police have beaten and killed a Democratic Party member in Saranda, brutalized three Democratic Party supporters in Fier, while unidentified individuals have thrown dynamite into the home of the deputy mayor of Vau i Dejës, causing extensive damage to the house and to the official vehicle he used. Such repression of the Democratic Party and its people, sanctioned behind the scenes by those in power and the Ministry of the Interior, has not been seen since 1991, when security agents killed, disappeared and massacred dozens of Democrats. The situation is similar in all the autumn confrontations; this time, the state seems ever more deeply involved in attacking the opposition. It appears that Albania has embarked on a political course reminiscent of the banana republics. If Albania escaped such a fate even in its most difficult days, the government that came to power with the help of gangs is institutionalizing political murder and persecution. It is not known what response Interior Minister Neritan Ceka can give in these cases, or how Prime Minister Fatos Nano can justify them. The iron hand of power against the opposition is a warning that Albanians’ freedoms are being shackled, particularly the freedom that is most sacred to democracy: political freedom. The banana-republic model served up by Nano and the ruling party is a direct consequence of the way this government came to lead the country. But it is also a consequence of its temporary nature. In the short time available to them—the term of bullets and gangs—they are trying to subjugate their political opponents through persecution and through the criminal destruction of the infrastructure of communist institutions and the rights enshrined in constitutional provisions. The violence against the opposition, first unleashed in the temple of politics, Parliament, and then extended to the opposition press and media and down to the grassroots of the Democratic Party, is their latest attempt to prolong their temporary rule for as long as possible. In this way, the Socialist government is trying to bring back to Albania precisely those vices of dictatorship that were inherited from Hoxha’s old dictatorship and are also found in modern dictatorships. In this way, the government is trying to leave the Albanian people to one of the most destructive forms of rule: political crime. The gangs dressed in the trappings of power are now firmly established in reality. The Albanian police have become their refuge, as well as a refuge for irresponsibility and hostility toward the opposition and anyone who thinks differently. They now also have their own political formation, the Socialist Party, and a legalized military wing embodied in a Ministry of the Interior or a National Intelligence Service. The danger is present. The persecution and brutalization of the opposition and its destruction are only the beginning. Albania is more threatened than ever by the logic of cascading violence, the cloak of gangs and corrupt, smuggling officials. For Democrats, this is the moment to stand firm. No one in Europe can accept a banana republic any longer.

The smuggling government under accusation Prime Minister Nano, his deputy Fino, Minister Malaj and several other ministers have now been identified as regional smugglers in Brussels’ files. The blacklists of smugglers, not [??] by the international monitoring institutions in Brussels, such as Division 21 and Division 28, also include some very interesting Albanians. They are interesting not because they engage in smuggling, but for the simple reason that they are the highest-ranking state officials in poor Albania. Saranda, Vlora, Shkodra and other ports in the country have definitively become smuggling ports. Nothing catches the eye in our ports except ships bringing cigarettes, fuel and other expensive goods. Five months of government without a single pack of cigarettes being seized; five months in which thousands upon thousands of tonnes of kerosene have apparently disappeared through customs, while kerosene is nowhere to be found on the market—this is the situation to which the state-smuggling mafia has reduced the country. The daily press has carried startling reports about the involvement of the highest-ranking government officials in the smuggling network, sourced from Brussels and Division 28. The second group of government smugglers has been linked to a share of the smuggling carried out by officials. Greece, the country from which the smuggled goods depart; Albania, the transit country; and Montenegro, the destination country, perhaps with destinations beyond the region, together make up the north–south route along which the state-run smuggling phenomenon spreads. The Albanian Council of Ministers of smugglers, made up of Nano, Fino, Malaj and others, does not even discriminate among the goods they bring in, including L & M and Bond cigarettes. [??] These smugglers also deal in coffee and fuel smuggling. The official responses expected shortly from Brussels will naturally put a black mark on the country and the Albanian state in the international arena, while also pointing the finger at the Albanian government officials who are smugglers.

The latest deception of Nano-diplomacy On the eve of his departure for Moscow, the Foreign Ministry announced that Minister Milo would make an official visit to Vienna on Monday, where he would meet his Austrian counterpart, Schüssel, and other government officials. However, Austrian diplomatic sources appear to contradict Mr. Milo’s official version. According to them, Tirana’s Foreign Ministry has often requested official meetings when the minister was in transit in Vienna, but the Austrian side did not agree. On his return from Moscow, during his transit stay in Vienna, Mr. Milo will have a very brief courtesy meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Schüssel.

MP Azem Hajdari speaks about his successful visit to the USA My visit to the USA served to explain to the Albanian diaspora as a whole what happened as a result of the disguised Marxist movement, which managed to burn down municipalities, communes, prefectures, etc., and to diminish Albania’s dignity by turning the country back by years. ON PAGE 2

The Bufi strategy and the poor living conditions of copper, ferrochrome and coal miners have mobilized unionists “We will wait until December 20; if the government does not sit down at the table with us, an indefinite general strike will begin.” ON PAGE 5

A Greek ship unloads cigarettes in Divjakë The unloading was carried out using a military speedboat, while the goods were escorted by police cars and off-road vehicles brought from Tirana. Ceka’s visit to Greece was not about aid for the police, but about establishing links with Greek smugglers. After his return from Athens, a Greek ship anchored in Divjakë, where it unloaded thousands of cartons of cigarettes over a day and a half; according to police sources, these were for the Ministry of the Interior. The cargo was unloaded using a military speedboat, while the trucks loaded with cigarettes were escorted not only by the Lushnje chief smugglers, Katana, but also by Ministry of the Interior off-road vehicles brought from Tirana. This was the Greek ship’s second visit to the coastal areas of Kavaja and Lushnje. A few days earlier, it had unloaded at Spille beach, where the same people had been involved because of the smuggled cigarette cargo. Witnesses from Divjakë told the newspaper “RD” that the noise of the vehicles, accompanied by police cars and off-road vehicles, disturbed the quiet of Sunday night, while travel was more restricted the following day.

Local television shows the anti-government protest in full Shkodra’s local television station TV1 broadcast the major protest by the citizens of Shkodra against Prime Minister Nano and President Meidani on Monday. The station showed footage of citizens chanting “Freedom, democracy,” “Down with Fatos Nano,” “Down with the criminals and smugglers,” and other insulting slogans shouted after the ceremony at Luigj Gurakuqi University. In an interview given to the station, Prime Minister Nano said he had not expected to find Shkodra in this state, implying that he was surprised by the powerful protest against him. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Shkodra district council, Lorenc Mosi, told “Kontakt” radio: “We were surprised by the arrival of these government representatives, because they had not informed anyone in the local government beforehand.” Mr. Mosi confirmed that citizens had shouted slogans “against communism, in support of Sali Berisha, and other slogans.” The footage from Shkodra’s local television was also reported once again by Nano’s television station, which, rather than include it in its report on the visit of senior government officials to Shkodra, censored it in its other news bulletins, broadcasting it only at 20:00.

Conflict intensifies between the Constitutional Court and the speaker of the gang-run Parliament

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