Along “Dëshmorët e Kombit” Boulevard “Bashkimi për Demokraci” will organize a march in Tirana on Thursday, 16 July, at 19:30, from “Skënderbej” Square to “Nënë Tereza” Square to protest against the killings, persecution and imprisonment of opposition members.

The PD parliamentary group backs the resolution of the National Council ON PAGE 3

Malaj and Ceka draw their weapons. Clan warfare erupts in the governing coalition Malaj: “Ceka has been smuggling oil. The Prosecutor’s Office should have arrested him. I informed SHIK about this.” Ceka: “Malaj has blocked the report of Division 21. He is in the smuggling file and must answer for the robberies.” Malaj: “Ceka has been smuggling oil. The Prosecutor’s Office should have arrested him. I informed SHIK about this.” Ceka: “Malaj has blocked the report of Division 21. He is in the smuggling file and must answer for the robberies.” ON PAGE 2

Brussels: Nano Government = corruption, crime and failure to enforce the law ON PAGE 5

The Prosecutor’s Office says it has received no request from parliament to lift the MPs’ immunity. The Prime Minister is trying to divert attention from smuggling Several times in succession, the request to lift the immunity of PD parliamentarians has gone back and forth between parliament and the Prosecutor General’s Office. Just two days ago, it had been decided that the MPs’ mandates would be discussed. Berisha, Demi and Memia—but at the last moment the agenda was changed again. For this reason, MP Lesi asked that the agenda be maintained, but Gjinushi pretended not to know; nevertheless, he did not object to the MP. ON PAGE 3

Berisha on the meeting with Turkish President Demirel The Democratic Party chairman, Sali Berisha, said yesterday that he was looking forward with great pleasure to meeting the President of Turkey, Sulejman Demirel. He spoke to reporters about his long-standing affection for Turkey’s number one, stressing that Demirel is a close friend of his. At the working breakfast he will have today with President Demirel, Berisha said, “We will discuss all the problems.” During the period when Berisha served as President of the Republic of Albania, Demirel visited Albania twice before. During that time, Albanian-Turkish relations saw significant developments, becoming a model for regional cooperation. President Demirel arrived in Albania yesterday for a two-day visit. On the first day of his stay in Albania, he held meetings with the highest state authorities and representatives of parliamentary parties, and paid his respects at the Cemetery of the Martyrs of the Homeland. A.K

The National Intelligence Service in Fier is teeming with State Security officers ON PAGE 4

Berisha, Demi and Memia are ready to answer to justice. “I have never given guarantees to anyone, and I am not asking for guarantees” I do not claim any kind of immunity for myself in the face of any testimony, fact, document, law or decree that conflicts with the constitutional laws, the opposition leader declared ON PAGE 3

The minister, the chief customs official and tax chief Ahmetaj “visit” smuggling Malaj, the Finance Minister, in the role of driver, and the much-discussed Bleta, the chief customs official, in the front passenger seat of the off-road vehicle, have made their third trip in five days to the Qafë Thanë customs point. Along with the two aforementioned friends, the director of the Finance Ministry’s Tax Department, Ahmetaj, was at the wheel of another vehicle, a “Ford.” On Sunday, the journey by the minister, Bleta and Ahmetaj came to a stop... ON PAGE 5

Corruption and smuggling have engulfed all state institutions It is not known for certain whether the Director General of Customs, Gëzim Bleta, and several other officials are being investigated, as the General Prosecutor’s Office claims, or whether this is just empty noise intended to divert attention from the more dangerous phenomenon of government-backed smuggling? ON PAGE 4

The Kavaja Democratic Party assembly meets ON PAGE 2 They demolished one set of pyramids and put up others Millions siphoned off under the name “Ojq” ON PAGE 7

Yesterday, Turkish President Demirel and PD vice-chairman Pollo

Albanian Democrats today face, more than ever, the challenge of standing firm and surviving, as the only chance to return the country to the values denied by the return to power of communist barbarism. The firm and unequivocal decision of the National Council to make a final break with the parliament or government of crime and smuggling is as dignified and noble as it is delicate, because it increases every Democrat’s historic responsibility to fulfil the mission of being in opposition. Democrats throughout Albania have applauded the decision of their Albanian leader, demonstrating a high degree of political responsibility in keeping with the extremely grave situation the entire country is going through, in which the opposition has consistently been the hardest hit. But support for an important political decision alone is an inadequate gesture for getting the country out of the deep crisis into which it has been plunged by the rule of gangs and crime, and does little to move toward the necessary solutions—the only salvation for Albania, which is slowly falling into the clutches of Fatos Nano’s neo-dictatorship. Democrats throughout the country today have a mission: to stand unwaveringly against a regime that is, first and foremost, threatening the elimination of all opposition sentiment in the country. The arrests and [of] Democratic Party sympathizers, wherever they may be—from the central headquarters to the most remote village, where roads and telephones are lacking—seem to be met with their courage and determination as committed opposition members, in defiance of the Machiavellian violence and terror wielded by those in power against the opposition. Bullets, violence and threats against any ordinary member of the Democratic Party or the opposition in general must be felt as blows against each of us, and our response must be the same. If PD MPs are shot at in parliament, in the street or while carrying out their mission; if Democratic activists are killed, tortured, arrested and denied the right to a lawyer, as in the time of the dictatorship; and if we do not respond using the means and paths we chose back in 1991, that means our turn will come very soon. The Democratic Party left parliament to fill the squares with active resistance to the regime, the most deeply entrenched and corrupt on the continent. Its MPs left a hall still charged with energy and still smelling of gunpowder from March of last year, to make a definitive break with what, for a year and over the years, has proved to be a government hostile to at least half of Albanians. Democrats left parliament to focus the attention of Albanians and the international community more strongly on political crime, corruption, smuggling, drug trafficking and all the other evils brought upon the country by Fatos Nano and his friends in power. The Democratic Party could not remain in the same room and at the same table with those who have turned its leading figures, activists and supporters into shooting targets, treating them just as Hoxha’s regime treated the condemned and imprisoned. If this government has made the physical liquidation of political opponents part of its system, it is the Democrats’ mission to resist this regime by every means of active resistance, as it turns Albania back toward the darkest years in its history. If Democrats do not stand by one another when our brothers and sisters are killed, assaulted, arrested and humiliated solely because they are in opposition, their support for the National Council’s correct decision will have no real value. By standing together, Albanian Democrats will minimize the terror and mounting pressure being brought to bear on them by a government rapidly moving toward neo-dictatorship. The steadfastness of each and every one of them is, in this way, the salvation not only of the Democratic Party and the opposition in general, but also the liberation of the country from the new demons of evil, who never pause their machinery. The Democrats’ resistance is a necessary link in stopping looting, smuggling, drug trafficking and the other evils flourishing thanks to the government’s extreme collusion with the corrupt continent. If the World Bank, the European parliamentary troika, the EU and the West’s most important institutions have condemned Nano’s regime as a generator of crime and corruption, the opposition is obliged to shorten this regime’s days and restore normality to the country. By defending, first and foremost, themselves, one another and the institutions of the state of the opposition, Democrats will find it easier to carry out their historic mission of overthrowing Fatos Nano’s neo-dictatorship, which in a short time has placed Albania in the book of black records.