Former police director Fadil Canaj recounts the links between senior government officials and crime ON PAGE 4

Documents emerge accusing the Minister of Finance of “Theft in collusion” ON PAGE 5

The Socialists killed and devastated southern Albania ON PAGE 7

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

Democrats will demonstrate today against violence and the persecution of the opposition, against the killings, arrests, beatings and imprisonment of members, leaders and supporters of the Democratic Party. The demonstration will take the form of a march, which is typical in cases where those in power resort to extreme violence. Adopting this form of protest is significant in presenting to Albanian and international public opinion the opposition’s dire situation under the extreme violence of the Socialist government and other segments of the current government. The DP’s departure from parliament has spurred resistance throughout the country. It is natural for Tirana to be the first to demonstrate the scope of this resistance, whose messages will spread to all the other cities, to re-form a greater resistance by all Democrats and other civilized forces in society against the further criminalization of the Albanian state. During a year of Socialist rule, dozens of Democrats have been killed and wounded, dozens more imprisoned, while hundreds have been held in police cells or beaten by Fatos Nano’s political police. The Democrats’ decision to separate themselves institutionally as well from the Socialists’ criminal, smuggling and corrupt government provides an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the mission of the opposition in a society that aspires to be democratic. The international community, and especially various international organizations, have not supported such a decision by the DP. But it should also be clear to everyone that it is not the international community’s duty to act as the opposition in any country. The West and various organizations maintain good relations even with countries where the Communists are still in power and human rights are increasingly problematic. It is in the nature of such entities not to contribute to a state’s life in an oppositional spirit, but through mutual relations, continually calling for institutional intervention and pointing to institutions as the means of verifying and resolving the country’s problems. As far as Albania is concerned, it is well known that every Western country takes into account the fact that the institutions of the Albanian government, including Parliament, are dysfunctional. Indeed, this is troubling, since on June 29 the elections were not recognized as fair and free by only 5 [unclear in source]. The report of the OSCE Committee in the American Senate concerning the autumn elections states verbatim that parliament does not reflect Albania’s real political landscape, thus leaving open the way for a rapid change in the composition of this parliament, which implies early elections. For months, the Democratic Party insisted on following European recommendations in order to achieve its goals in the service of democracy in the country. Even after the killing in Parliament, it returned there, applying the West’s logic for Albania and making concessions regarding what is called the role of the opposition in a country. During this period, high-profile killings and numerous violations of constitutional laws took place, while the government’s noose tightened further around the opposition. Parliament was often transformed into a tool serving the people’s power, recalling the Assembly of 1945, which coincided with the installation of Communism in power. International organizations and Western countries also concluded that there is no rule of law in Albania, that crime is at its most brutal, that smuggling generates up to 200 million dollars a year at the expense of ordinary Albanians, and that Albania ranks first in Europe and beyond in terms of corruption. In the face of such a party, the DP’s presence in Parliament—and its absence from the opposition—would be encouraging for this government, despite the many facts showing its discrimination against all Albanians. For a year, such a presence was ineffective, not because of the DP’s conformist stance, but because of the limit of the left-wing voting cards that have swamped Parliament. In this case, if such a stance did not serve the DP, it served the current government very well, which had the “kindness” to turn this participation not into democracy but into crime, not into prosperity but into smuggling, not into justice but into corruption. This entire picture is enough to make clear that the DP’s people needed to develop a more advanced strategy—not for the sake of the DP or simply because it is in opposition, but for the sake of the country, and even more for the sake of those who are watching and trying to understand the reason for this departure from power. Precisely in such a situation, no one should be missing from the opposition. The Albanian political spectrum has such an absence, but in any case the country’s future depends on the right people and politicians, while it is being freed from its own conduct precisely by this politics that is missing from the opposition and is always on the side of those in power. S. NEZA

Demirel - Berisha, a meeting between friends: “You prevented civil war in Albania”

The Democrats of Korça, Kolonjë, Devoll and Pogradec, and the families of Kolonjë’s political prisoners, protest against Nano’s police and smuggling regime “Free our brothers,” “Freedom for the political prisoners,” “Down with Nano’s regime” were the main slogans of the protest march organized yesterday by the Democrats ON PAGE 2

Three months after his execution by firing squad on the government’s orders Thousands of citizens of Fieri, carrying lit candles, ... the government demonstrated through the city’s streets in

Yesterday, the Berisha-Demirel meeting

Thousands of citizens of Fieri, with lit candles in their hands, at 8:00 p.m., in a memorial procession in honor of the martyr Bujar Suli, took over [as written: “pushtuan nga qeveria”] the streets of the city in a show of respect for the honest citizen of Levan and as a protest against the murderous government

The Democratic Party’s executive committee meets in the anti-communist city ON PAGE 2

The Socialist president is lying outright, presenting the positions of the government and the opposition on the Kosovo issue as unified ON PAGE 3

Sinister plan by the Nano government in the oil sector ON PAGE 5

The migrants who set out from Durrës by motorboat are put at risk after a breakdown in the Strait of Otranto The migrants said they had set off for Italy hoping to find work and had paid the motorboat’s operator 800,000 lire each for this terrible journey ON PAGE 4

Efforts by those in power to keep the right divided ON PAGE 3

The reaction of the PD press spokesperson The Democratic Party’s press spokesperson denounces as an act of political prostitution the fact that an editorial bearing the name of PD chairman Sali Berisha was published in the newspaper “Koha jonë,” while the journalist’s name was concealed. The spokesperson states that no such article from the Democratic Party had appeared in “Koha jonë”; rather, it was only the zeal of SHIK employees that allows them, under their new boss Fatos Klosi, to use themselves in this way, just as they were once used indiscriminately in Athens’ “Omonia” Square.