Police detain, mistreat and bloody peaceful demonstrators. More than twenty arrested, three in comas and dozens slightly injured by police violence. Shikasi and special forces are ordered to load their weapons. Troops from the Greek company guard Nano’s villa A massive protest by the capital’s Democrats: Tens of thousands of demonstrators demand that Fatos Nano be driven out and political prisoners released NO BLOCKADES! RELEASE THE POLITICAL PRISONERS STOP POLITICAL IMPRISONMENT RELEASE THE POLITICAL PRISONERS

The DP protests against the police violence used last night against demonstrators Yesterday, p[state?] tens of thousands of Tirana citizens responded to the call of “Union for Democracy” by taking part in a powerful protest demonstration. Although the police authorities had granted permission for this rally to take place, on an order from the parties in power, as prescribed by law, they revoked the permit and deployed their herald—the state’s resources—to obstruct it by creating panic; but this did not prevent the demonstrators from protesting against Fatos Nano’s criminal clique and demanding the release of political prisoners. At 19:00, tens of thousands of Democrats poured in from all the streets of Tirana, surmounting the barriers guarded by police and other security forces. No incidents occurred during the rally, despite the provocateurs and SHIK agents whom Nano had planted to incite trouble. After the demonstration in “Skënderbej” Square, the Democrats marched toward the prime minister’s office to demonstrate their protest against the orders for political imprisonment and state violence. Police and special forces had surrounded the prime minister’s office and blocked all the roads leading to the block of the new apparatchiks and those leading to the television stations. As the protest was ending peacefully and calmly, armed plainclothes officers and police attacked the crowd, striking people with rubber truncheons and other hard objects, with the aim of causing a massacre among the unprotected and peaceful crowd. In this clash, several demonstrators were struck and bloodied; families and elderly people were beaten with truncheons, while many others were dragged along and tortured in the unlit alley leading to Nano’s villa. Some demonstrators were taken away in the many police vans, but the police were later forced to release them as a result of the mass protest. Meanwhile, the protesters committed no acts of violence against the police but continued to maintain their composure and protest peacefully. The Democratic Party of Albania thanks the tens of thousands of Tirana citizens who, through their peaceful protest, showed their determination to stop the surveillance being rapidly installed by Nano’s clique. It expresses its [po*ër?] to all those who were wounded, beaten, mistreated, injured, threatened, or arrested, and assures them that the path of protests against the new apparatchiks is the path to the victory of democracy and the end of the neocommunist dictatorship. The Democratic Party of Albania expresses its strong protest against the Nano clique, which bloodied Democrats in the streets of Tirana, and demands an end to its criminal violence and the use of its gangs against peaceful protesters. The Democratic Party of Albania reiterates that, despite the threats and blackmail coming from Nano’s criminal kitchen, it will not abandon the path of mass protests or the use of all democratic means until the political prisoners are released and the clique seeking to perpetuate in Albania its kingdom of crime, smuggling, corruption, and misery is overthrown. This demonstration once again proved that the victory of democratic forces in Albania and the restoration of the democratic processes that have been violently suppressed will come soon.

The chairman of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, and its deputy chairman, Genc Pollo, left for Germany yesterday. Their visit there is taking place following an invitation to Chairman Berisha and Deputy Chairman Pollo from Vaigel, Germany’s Minister of Finance and, at the same time, chairman of the CSU. During their stay in Germany, Berisha and Pollo will hold important meetings with senior German officials and leaders of center and right-wing parties.

The arrests of 6 former DP officials split the governing coalition The chairman of the PBDNJ, Vasil Melo, declared yesterday that he opposed the arrest of 6 former senior officials of the democratic government, stressing that there was no reason for them to be kept in prison. In an interview with one of the private television stations, Melo said that all those arrested, as public figures and politicians, should be tried while free and not kept in prison. Melo also dismissed the charge of “crimes against humanity” on which the former DP officials were arrested. The chairman of the PBDNJ, which is part of the governing coalition, said that the only crimes against humanity committed in Albania were those of Enver Hoxha’s communist dictatorship. Melo’s statement marks a major split in the governing coalition camp and signals that Nano’s attempts to bring back the era of political prisons in Albania may encounter opposition even within the left itself.

Telenano preaches terrorism against the Democrats Throughout yesterday, Telenano and the left-wing media broadcast a report claiming that terrorist acts would be carried out at the evening rally. Despite the negative publicity that Telenano and the left-wing media gave the rally, the effect was quite the opposite. The TV station, by trying to disrupt the rally, informed all the Democrats about it, while those Socialists who unfortunately believe the TV station stayed indoors, afraid of terrorism. The only terrorist act that took place was the beating of several demonstrators in front of Nano’s villa by Nano’s thugs. It is still unknown what other terrorist act the police or SHIK may have prepared against the Democrats, but in any case they are well aware that such an act will be met with the harshest punishment. The terrorism in Nano’s head is still going on. It has spread to all his associates, but it will remain confined to them.

Yesterday, in Skënderbej Square

Police mistreating peaceful protesters

General Armando Vinçani speaks about political arrests ON PAGE 2

American experts dismiss Rakipi ON PAGE 3

The Bank of Albania sounds the alarm ON PAGE 5

. The official [?] abrogation of the 9 March agreement by Fatos Nano and the Socialist Party constitutes the most negative development in the country. In fact, the agreement began to be violated the very next day, 29 June, one day after the elections—accepted for the time being—had ended, with the government’s political revenge beginning in the state administration, the army, police, SHIK, the courts, the prosecution service, and local and public administration. The breach of the political agreement by Nano’s Government, initiated by former President Berisha to restore stability, order and calm to the country, to make the pyramid firms’ accounts transparent, and to show Albanians where the money they had invested in pyramid schemes had gone, is and remains the main effort of Nano’s Cli[que?] government to keep the country as long as possible in a spiral of insecurity and lack of order and calm. The amnesty requested by the Socialists in March, approved by Parliament and made law, was thrown in the trash by Nano, who ordered it torn up and former officials and current opposition leaders imprisoned in order to destroy the opposition. The year of the communist revan[?] of Fatos Nano’s government, and the rapid restoration of the practices, methods and style of the dictatorship era in senior administration and the governance of the country, as well as the encouragement of crime and the mafia, brought grave consequences for the country as a whole. But his latest decision and the denunciation of the agreements by an official [?] voice on behalf of the government and the Socialist Party constitute the Cli[que?]’s last attempt to destabilize the country once again, as the former communists did in 1997 with gangs and organized crime, with the sole aim of restoring and bringing back the communist dictatorship in Albania. All these efforts by the power of gangs and crime, which seeks to rule the country without political pluralism or an opposition, through the launch of an anti-opposition campaign, its imprisonment and the physical elimination of opponents, are Nano and his Cli[que?]’s desperate attempts to destabilize the country. The imprisonment and provocation of every opposition diplo[?], the violence and terror inflicted on Albanians, and the encouragement of organized crime, trafficking and gangs to kidnap freely under the protection of the state and its highest officials are the efforts of the power and despotism of Enver’s bandits. By taking the step of imprisoning and destroying the opposition, the government that provokes Albanians—driven by its fear of the end that awaits it soon—is using every method and means to destabilize the country, the only way for them to flee after having stolen and plundered the Albanians. But the State Security’s dark plots are intended to dishearten them, because Albanians have now understood that Fatos Nano is seeking power and responsibility and is therefore inciting destabilization. The opposition, aware of the sinister aims of Nano’s Cli[que?], has for precisely this reason placed itself at the forefront of efforts to remove Fatos Nano’s Cli[que?] from power and free the country from a government of smuggling, organized crime and destabilization. The opposition and the Albanians will respond to Nano’s efforts to destabilize the country by showing him where he belongs and giving him what he deserves. His rejection of all the points of the 9 March National Reconciliation Agreement, and his attempt to bring the spectres of civil war back into Albanians’ lives once again, deserve exemplary punishment and his removal from power as soon as possible.

ON PAGE 2

The leading Austrian newspaper “Die Presse” publishes on Wednesday an article entitled: “After the arrest of the former ministers, unrest reigns in Tirana” ON PAGE 3 The leading Austrian newspaper “Die Presse” publishes on Wednesday an article entitled: “Once again, a very tense situation in Albania” “After the arrest of the former ministers, unrest reigns in Tirana” ON PAGE 3