Hundreds of vans carrying police officers, also brought in from the districts, surround the capital ON PAGE 6

State violence is provoking reactions even among the police ON PAGE 6

The government gathers bandits to repeat ’97 ON PAGE 6

The police, the SHIK agents and the special forces cannot stop the avalanche of Democrats. All of Albania is protesting. On Friday, a major rally in Tirana to bring about the final destruction of the criminal government. More than 100,000 citizens protest for three hours in the squares and streets of the capital. The authorities’ knees are shaking. The Prime Minister leaves with a huge motorcade several hours before the rally The rally photographs show banners: “DOWN WITH NANO”; “STOP THE POLIC...” More than 100,000 citizens protest for three hours in the squares and streets of the capital. The authorities’ knees are shaking. The Prime Minister leaves with a huge motorcade several hours before the rally

Yesterday, in Skanderbeg Square The opposition’s hour is striking Yesterday, Albanian Democrats showed Fatos Nano and the mafia clan governing the country that not a blade of grass remained on which to stand and hold on to their power, shaken to its foundations. The tens of thousands of protesters who filled the capital’s streets and squares were the clearest sign of the end for the new blocmen, who, after setting the country on fire last year, tried to restore the dictatorship and the era of political prisons in Albania. Fatos Nano left the capital several hours before the Democrats’ march began its route through Tirana. The beast who had not been tamed in the “Union for Democracy,” the prime minister, was seen leaving Kavaja Street accompanied by a large police escort. Just one day earlier, following the forceful protests by the capital’s residents against the new blocmen, he had moved his family out of Mehmet Shehu’s villa, where they had been staying for some time. Yesterday Tirana showed that the opposition is this country’s destiny and hope. The streets and squares, and Albania’s future, belong to it. Fatos Nano’s flight from the bloc and from the capital resembled that of a murderer fleeing the scene of a crime. Now he is not saved by the police, whose cordons crumble like cardboard before the crowds, nor by provocateurs who seek to incite protesters and create incidents, nor by the television screen used to frighten people into staying away from Democratic Party rallies. Tirana and all of Albania are with the opposition. Albanians are not afraid of the police, the batons and the prisons of this government, because they feel far more powerful than Nano’s regime. Tirana felt its centre threatened by a return to the past, by another bloodbath, and so everyone poured into the streets. Its protest, which is being repeated in all the other cities, signals the end of Fatos Nano in Albania. It was a Sunday evening of Fatos and his criminal associates, and of a past that had brought him to power, as well as of today’s power, transformed into crime. Yesterday’s rally in Tirana also showed the West where to look for Macbeth in the tragedy of the Albanians. Dan Everts and many Western diplomats witnessed a peaceful protest by people determined to distance themselves from all provocations—even though those, too, were not absent. Now they have, on one side, Fatos Nano, who kills, arrests in the middle of the night and imprisons Democrats, and, on the other, the opposition’s protests and indignation, and citizens who have never before turned out in such numbers in Albania since 1991. The contrast is so great that even a diplomat who might take the side of the West’s interests in smuggling and of Fatos Nano’s fear would find it extremely difficult to defend Albania’s discredited prime minister in Europe. Yesterday’s rally, and the political climate across the country more generally, show that the opposition’s hour has now struck. Nothing can stop the Democrats’ rising protest any longer; the release of political prisoners, their first objective, is therefore only a matter of hours or days. They have now forced the clique to retreat and Fatos Nano to flee the bloc and Tirana, swallowing in shame what he had said earlier—that he would make Gjnushi a blocman too. The opposition has brought back the season of protests and great ideals from 1991, because the political situation is much the same. Now it is possible to speak genuinely of a rebirth of democracy in Albania. But no one should forget that the flower of victory will bloom only when Fatos Nano and his clique have left power. Tirana spoke yesterday, and there is no occasion on which things have not gone as it wanted.

Three police vans are looking for the Chairman of the Tirana Democratic Party At midday yesterday, three police vans surrounded the apartment building where the Chairman of the Tirana Democratic Party, Dr. Rexhep Karapici, lives. A large group of police officers climbed the stairs and knocked on Karapici’s door for several minutes. Neither Rexhep Karapici nor any of his family members was at home when the police arrived. The officers kept knocking, frightening the neighbours, who asked them in alarm whom they were looking for, since there was nobody in the apartment. The police said they had a warrant from the Tirana Prosecutor’s Office to arrest Karapici, and left only after the neighbours had convinced them that nobody was home. Yesterday, throughout the day, the Chairman of the Tirana Democratic Party was at work at the Tirana DP headquarters. His neighbours informed him of the attempt to arrest him. Asked last night why the Prosecutor’s Office was looking for him with so many police vans, Mr Karapici said: “I cannot say anything specific, but in the current situation, when the government and Fatos Nano have launched an anti-terror campaign involving the political imprisonment of opponents and the terrorising of the opposition, with its complete elimination as the ultimate aim, anything is possible—arrest as well as political imprisonment.” The attempt to arrest the Chairman of the Tirana Democratic Party adds to the series of political imprisonments of opposition leaders.

Berisha receives the OSCE ambassador at DP headquarters The DP chairman said Democrats would demonstrate peacefully, but would not tolerate provocations. The DP chairman said Democrats would demonstrate peacefully, but would not tolerate provocations The Chairman of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, received the OSCE ambassador to Tirana, Daan Everts, yesterday at the DP headquarters, at the latter’s request. Berisha and Everts discussed the grave political situation in the country following the arrests and political imprisonment of six former senior DP officials, the absence of the rule of law in Albania, and the strengthening of the rule of law. Berisha said that the situation in the country had become critical because Fatos Nano had become the “heir of March 9,” which had taken him out of Bença prison and made him prime minister, and had secured amnesty for many of his close associates who had committed serious crimes. “That was the agreement of that time with Sali Nano in power,” Berisha said, “and now he is using that power to eliminate and imprison his political opponents,” adding ... ... that he was merely a product of the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies, had no respect for even the most basic rules of human freedoms and rights. Fatos Nano has twice cancelled opposition rallies, seriously violating citizens’ fundamental right to assemble, and this is further proof against him, Berisha said. Ambassador Everts said that the West was extremely concerned about the political situation in Albania and described the arrests of six former DP officials as an act typical of communist times. “We are following further developments in the situation with great interest and attention,” Everts said. Caption: The DP chairman also warned that if Fatos Nano provoked the rally and the Democrats, he would bear full responsibility for any situation that arose. ... the OSCE ambassador

Shkodër MPs meet the ambassadors of Austria and the United States At midday yesterday, the Vice-President of Parliament, Jozefina Topalli, and MP Pjetër Arbnori, together with Shkodër’s MPs, held meetings with Austria’s Ambassador, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, Arno Reidel, and the US Ambassador to Tirana, Mariza Lino. The representatives of Shkodër’s MPs said they were concerned about what is currently happening in the city of Shkodër. Topalli and Arbnori told the ambassadors that the Nano government was preparing a trap for Shkodër similar to the one in February. The representatives of Shkodër told the foreign representatives that the government had removed the SHIK branch, the Municipality and others from Shkodër, and had also arrested two DP activists late on Sunday. The MPs recalled that a few days ago, as part of this government trap, dynamite had been planted at the Orthodox church. The MPs stressed that the same elements had appeared in February, just as they are appearing now, and said this was a scenario to set Shkodër on fire again. The MPs from Shkodër said that the city’s democratic forces and its citizens were determined to defend Shkodër against such sinister scenarios. Ambassadors Reidel and Lino took note of the MPs’ concerns. They said they were learning for the first time about the facts presented, which were very worrying. They also noted the names of the two arrested citizens and said they would continue to follow the matter.

Visible text in the newspaper fragments at the bottom of the page: “... the amount resulting from the auction will be paid in lek ...”; “Such scenarios”; “... the sign of ...”; “... Nano from power. The protesters ...”; “... a provocation ... for the city.”