Beja and Arbnori visit the families of the murdered policemen. The people of Mallakastër know the criminals and their ties to ministers in the Nano government Islam released one of the killers a week ago. The gang boss was Nano’s bodyguard during the election campaign ON PAGE 3

Brutal police violence against the jurists’ hunger strike. Kondi leads the operation Gangs in power escalate the violence The regime installed by Fatos Nano is honest and true to its police and the former SHIK security agents of Fatos Klosi, demonstrating that it is determined to finally destroy the independence of the judiciary in Albania. The Minister of Justice, Thimio Kondi, known as a fraudster in the June 29 elections, led yesterday’s police operation to mistreat and forcibly remove the jurists on hunger strike from the building of the Tirana District Court. The judges, among the most protected people in a democratic society, were kicked and dragged along the ground by Ceka’s police officers and by plainclothes former security agents of Fatos Klosi. Meanwhile, the brutal police violence did not spare the journalist from “Rilindja Demokratike” or the photojournalist from the newspaper “Albania,” whose camera film was seized, while the press interested in the jurists’ hunger strike was prevented by police from entering the court premises. Following the violation of constitutional laws, the increasingly harsh assault on the structures of the judicial system, and the precedents set by Gjingjushi’s parliament against the Constitutional Court, yesterday’s events represent a new escalation of the state’s police pressure on the justice system in the country. If senior American official Malloi declared several weeks ago that there is no rule of law in Albania, given the latest deterioration of the situation, she would have no choice but to say that a brutal police dictatorship has been definitively established in this country. But what can one expect from a government whose Minister of Justice leads police officers as they beat and drag judges along the ground—judges who, even before this incident, had been insulted and threatened by the revanchist laws passed by the parliamentary majority of the gangs. The fact that such an event took place on a Sunday alone is a major appeal to Albanians and the international community. Meanwhile, the defiance of Fatos Nano’s regime no longer differs from the savagery of the harsh dictatorship Albania endured for 50 years. All this is happening at the same time as the clear ties between senior government officials and the criminal gangs that are once again killing and terrorizing people in many Albanian cities are being exposed. The Ballsh massacre, in which three policemen tragically lost their lives, is a direct accusation against Ceka and Islam, who in the past two weeks have ordered the release of two of the killers. One of the criminals who massacred the policemen from Mallakastër served as a bodyguard carrying two light machine guns for Fatos Nano when the latter was in Patos during the June 29 election campaign. Kastriot Islami’s absence from the funeral ceremony for the Ballsh policemen is proof of his involvement with the criminal gang that helped him win on June 29. Meanwhile, one of the victims’ close relatives told the media that the government of the poor would never be able to catch the criminals, because Minister Ceka supports them. He threw in the president of the gang government’s face the fact that the Interior Minister had released one of the Ballsh killers from prison just two weeks earlier. This government, which is sending policemen themselves into the hands of gangs, hiding criminals’ names because they were in line with it on June 29, and dragging and degrading judges in public, is a great evil for all Albanians. For precisely this reason, at all Democratic Party meetings with voters, new elections are being urgently demanded, to finally remove from power this criminal clique that is bringing all the values Albanians achieved after their first historic victory over communism in 1992 into ruin. 70 policemen use violence against 12 judges who had begun a hunger strike inside the Tirana court. Eight of the judges are taken to Police Station No. 2. An RD journalist is also mistreated. Pollo, Hajdari and Memia stand with the strikers in support of their demands ON PAGE 3

Durrës rises up for new elections

Albanian television fabricates Berisha’s statements The statement by the Socialist Party broadcast yesterday in the evening news on Albanian television, according to which Berisha called on people at today’s press conference not to surrender their weapons “because we will need them to come to power,” is a shameless and immoral fabrication by the former Albanian communists. In Durrës and everywhere else, Berisha stated that: -The DP is against politicizing the issue of disarming the population. -The DP believes that all weapons should be registered and that a law should determine what kinds of weapons citizens may keep inside their homes, as in Switzerland or the USA. -After that, a special fund should be set up to begin collecting weapons in exchange for a symbolic payment. With these shameless slanders, the former communists wish to further heighten tensions in the country.

Rexhina and her daughter arouse Nexhmije Hoxha’s envy. The Nano family’s new address: Paris 6, “Rue Du Dragon,” No. 42, near Boulevard Saint Germain Rexhina Nano has been living for some time in Paris, in an extremely luxurious villa that even Nexhmije Hoxha would have envied during the years of the dictatorship, when she went on holiday to France. Together with her daughter, Elona Nano, who has been in the French capital for some time to receive treatment for drug addiction, the prime minister’s wife is thought to be spending enormous sums to “survive” in the West. The “Nano princesses” have settled in one of Paris’s most luxurious districts, Paris 6, at 42 Rue du Dragon, near Boulevard Saint-Germain, in one of the most expensive parts of Paris. As we have reported before, the prime minister’s daughter left for Paris immediately after a serious incident with a Tirana police patrol, which stopped her after finding her with cocaine in her hands. A student at the “Sami Frashëri” school in Tirana, the prime minister’s daughter had become known at school as a regular drug user and dealer. To cover up the scandal, Nano immediately sent his daughter to France, together with his wife. But while a parent’s concern to help his daughter break away from drugs is understandable, the prime minister should explain where Rexhina gets the money to pay for the luxury villa where she is staying with her daughter. This is all the more relevant given that a person close to the Socialist Party described the prime minister’s family as having financial difficulties, because Rexhina is unemployed. To reassure all the staff serving Nano in the so-called independent house, who are concerned about the prime minister’s income, we are telling them that Fatos Nano has taken good care of himself, his family and his friends. One need only recall the expensive lunches and dinners he eats at the Rogner and elsewhere, as well as the payment for the luxury villa in Paris where his wife and daughter live, the latter undergoing drug rehabilitation. a.r.

A high dose of alcohol puts the Prime Minister’s life at risk The front end of the government Mercedes is badly damaged Prime Minister Fatos Nano miraculously escaped yesterday from an accident in his car at Rinas Airport that could have cost him his life, while the front end of his government Mercedes was badly damaged in the collision. Nano was driving the car himself, on one of his usual snobbish drives, when it collided with the curb on the grounds of Rinas Airport. The cause of the collision is believed to have been excessive alcohol consumption, one of the most prominent vices of the Albanian Prime Minister. Eyewitnesses traveling to Rinas yesterday said they had seen Nano throwing whiskey bottles out of the car window along the road, while driving the car himself. Heavy drinking and driving the government car himself are two of Nano’s best-known hobbies, which the press has written about repeatedly. Nano’s drivers and bodyguards, who travel with him constantly, are very worried—not so much about the Prime Minister’s life as about their own, which is threatened by losing control after the Albanian Prime Minister’s latest orgies. The press reports every day on Nano’s usual visits to the Rogner, as well as to Tirana’s many different venues. Mainly in the company of Malaj, Islami and Fino, he consumes large quantities of alcohol, usually whiskey or other expensive drinks. a.r.

The opposition calls for the government’s resignation and new elections Albanians demand the restoration of democracy. The international community supports freedom, one of whose pillars is elections ON PAGE 3

Winning prizes in the Tele-Bingo Kombëtare drawing of December 21, 1997 For this drawing, 80 series, from 1 to 80, had been put on sale. The ticket winning the LINJA prize worth 5,000 lek was No. 2739. The ticket winning the MINI-BINGO prize worth 30,000 lek was No. 1377. The ticket winning the STAR-BINGO prize worth 400,000 lek was No. 1377, series No. 33. The ticket winning the MAGIC-BINGO prize worth 700,000 lek was No. 1377, series No. 28. The ticket winning the TELE-BINGO prize worth 3,000,000 lek was No. 1377, series No. 47. The company announces that for next week it has put another 120 series on sale, from series 81 to 200. CENTRAL OFFICE OF TELE-BINGOS KOMBËTARE PALACE OF CULTURE, TIRANA