Wall between the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior ON PAGE 4

Government cigarette smuggling continues ON PAGE 4

Judicial investigation into the political assailant concludes ON PAGE 4

Government officials have taken 72 million dollars from fuel, 16 million dollars a month from tobacco and 15 million dollars from coffee. The staggering figure for smuggling exceeds by far the total amount of wages and pensions Albanians receive in a year. With the stolen money, around 65,000 jobs could have been created The Democratic Party denounces government smuggling. A state-pyramid racket involving tobacco, coffee, fuel and alcoholic beverages. The state budget ends up in the pockets of government officials

. Today the Democratic Party marks seven years since its founding. The act of establishing this party marked the beginning of political pluralism in Albania, after 50 years of dictatorship. The DP’s entry onto the Albanian political scene also established the definitive break with dictatorship, overthrowing it and opening a new path for Albanians and Albania: the path of democracy and the market economy. It put an end once and for all to the ordeal of suffering and persecution of Albanians, making the first political attempt to bring the country into Europe, precisely where the dictator and the communist dictatorship had unjustly removed it for five consecutive decades. As a party that emerged from the December student movement, it represented the aspirations and vision of Albania’s youngest generation, reflecting the most modern level of Albanian thought. The anti-communist movement that swept across all of Albania created the real foundation for this party, giving it the stature of a European party and making it the sole support of the Albanian people in the battle against poverty, violence and persecu- persecution. Throughout its seven years, the DP was in power for five years, demonstrating the necessity of this party being at the forefront of democratic reforms in the country and Albania’s integration into Europe. Its strategy and integration program, developed over these seven years, laid the foundations of capitalism in the country, developed and prepared the market economy for launch, fostered private business, returned properties to their rightful owners, rapidly privatized the economy, secured foreign investment in Albania amounting to nearly 2 billion dollars, liberated and inspired Albanians’ creative and productive thinking, secured its integration into the international community, secured Albania’s membership in the Council of Europe and began negotiations for accession to the European Union. But it is a misfortune for Albania that today, seven years later, the Democratic Party is in the same position as on the day it was founded. Once again it is confronting neo-dictatorship, as in the December days, and facing the brutality of a power entrenched in every level. The DP faces more than in ’90 the brutality of gangs and gangsters embedded in the police and secret services, and the backward conduct once again introduced into the state apparatus. It faces the persecutors of Albanians and democracy, a smuggling-ridden and irresponsible state, and those who threaten the fate of the Albanian nation and Albania. Today the Democratic Party is pursued at gunpoint by former communists returned to power, accompanied by an official propaganda campaign against it. It has been struck by bullets countless times, beginning with its leading figures and extending to its activists and supporters across the country. Just in the past week, one DP member was killed by the police, while three others were brutalized; the leader of the December Movement was wounded by a bullet in Parliament by a Socialist criminal, while during the election campaign an attempt was made to kill its leader, Sali Berisha. Despite the armed communist rebellion directed against the DP throughout all its structures, today it is stronger than ever. Faced with a mafia-like, smuggling and criminal government, Albanians are increasingly seeing that the DP’s alternative is the alternative of their revival, of returning to the prosperous life of the DP’s democracy, and of removing as soon as possible a government that is responsible for poverty and the Socialists’ misrule.

The new State Security takes control of the major trafficking routes Secret contingents of SHIK will replace Çeka’s uniformed police officers in intercepting and escorting cigarette shipments, as well as packages of “deadly powder.” Sophisticated equipment to assist the “pilots” of smuggling ON PAGE 3

The opposition and PBDNJ comment on Nano’s statement about the Italian prosecutors Godo: Nano must have lost his mind Laço: Nano should resign Bushati: He is 80 years behind Melo: Nano is irresponsible ON PAGE 2 The opposition and PBDNJ comment on Nano’s statement about the Italian prosecutors Nano’s resignation demanded Godo: Nano must have lost his mind Laço: Nano should resign Bushati: He is 80 years behind Melo: Nano is irresponsible ON PAGE 2 Berisha, Bode and Karamitro at yesterday’s press conference

The diplomatic corps and the people of December boycott the Anti-December farce The loneliness of Meidani and Nano, surrounded only by installed government officials, underscored the great farce staged by the gang regime to seize something from the historic December of 1990 . The entire diplomatic corps accredited in Albania and the well-known figures of December boycotted President Meidani’s celebration yesterday, not going to the Presidency to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the establishment of pluralism together with Albanian government officials. President Meidani was surrounded yesterday only by yesterday’s and today’s persecutors, government officials involved in smuggling, and former State Security spies. Not a single foreign diplomat came to this presidential farce to celebrate with people who had not only opposed the ideals of December 1990, but had trampled those ideals in the most cruel and criminal way in 1997, when they burned and destroyed Albania. But everyone was absent from the hall—all the people of December, except for two or three of today’s officials, who have long shown that they stood in the students’ ranks in 1990–1991. The loneliness of Meidani and Nano was the best response that the December activists themselves and foreign diplomats in Albania gave to the officials’ farce of trying to claim a part of the historic December of 1990. Meidani’s failed celebration and the officials’ isolation proved once again that those who gathered yesterday at the Presidency have been and remain anti-December—the ongoing scourge of this country since 1944. A.GJ.

PD: We warned of the danger Albina Karamitro blames the government’s policy, which raised bank interest rates while attracting citizens’ savings only in quantity, not in value ON PAGE 5 PD: We warned of the danger The lek tumbles, deposits collapse Albina Karamitro blames the government’s policy, which raised bank interest rates while attracting citizens’ savings only in quantity, not in value ON PAGE 5

Education’s Morava: The government decides, not the ministry The Nano cabinet bears responsibility for the price increases, meagre scholarships and poor living conditions Education’s Morava: The government decides, not the ministry Ruka: Students should abandon their schools The Nano cabinet bears responsibility for the price increases, meagre scholarships and poor living conditions

Dokle’s bodyguard in the hands of Elbasan police He also faces charges for the murder of the guardsmen in Cërrik Dokle’s bodyguard in the hands of Elbasan police Much-wanted Roland Xhepexhiu detained He also faces charges for the murder of the guardsmen in Cërrik Elbasan police arrested the much-wanted man from Cërrik, Roland Xhepexhiu, in the afternoon on Wednesday while he was travelling from Gramsh to Cërrik. He was one of the leading figures in the shocking events in Cërrik, where five guardsmen were killed. During the days of unrest, Xhepexhiu was known as one of the sworn supporters of the PS. During the election campaign of June 29, he accompanied Namik Dokle to Gramsh while armed. He was the armed escort of Fatos Nano and Rexhep Meidani. Xhepexhiu, the man who secured the votes for Albania’s current president, ended up in detention after trying to deceive the police by presenting himself as a student. At the time of his detention, police found on him a fake passport issued by the Elbasan police station. According to a police source, after extensive questioning, he said that the passport had been given to him by the PS chairman in Cërrik, Llazar Bici, and another Socialist, Met Bozi. An arrest warrant was immediately sought for Xhepexhiu, who faces a mountain of charges. The prosecution file contains the charges against him, as well as numerous statements and reports submitted by various citizens concerning crimes he committed and the gang he led during the unrest. Z.L.

The government continues its offensive against the Court ON PAGE 2 The government continues its offensive against the Court Kononomi: Gjinushi’s statements are irresponsible ON PAGE 2

The general of the southern gangs, Arben Imami, a subordinate of Nano, Gramoz Pashko, and a repentant corruption offender, Genc Ruli, were presented as the ideals of the December protesters of ’90 Last night, state television held a commemoration of December, with President Meidani in attendance. It put on screen the generals and subordinates of Nano, his collaborators in smuggling. The state screen tried to humiliate it with the face of Arben Imami, commander of the gangs in Gjirokastër and Sarandë, Gramoz Pashko, the man who sold out December to give the prime minister his shoes, and Genc Ruli, the anti-December figure penalized for corruption by the democratic government. These people’s feelings have no power to feel the celebration of all Albanians. Each of these people knows clearly that December is elsewhere—not in the faces chosen to humiliate it, not in the offices where Fatos Nano is, and not among Rexhep Meidani’s clients.