Today, once again, everyone to “Skënderbej” Square The “League Against Dictatorship” is organizing a protest rally today, 26.09.1998, at 11:00, against the dictatorship that Fatos Nano’s criminal gang is seeking to impose in Albania. Every citizen of Tirana, as in 1990, can contribute to bringing down Fatos Nano’s clique by taking part in these non-violent protests, a clique that is inflicting new wounds on Albania and democracy every day through its betrayal and the gang he leads. Everyone to the square, to save Nano’s government.

The Prime Minister signs the dismissal of the Director General of Customs ON PAGE 7

The Prime Minister lines Meidani up. The President speaks out against a political solution, remaining a small soldier of the Socialist Party . Democrats in protest squares every day. Yesterday, thousands of demonstrators in Shkodër, Durrës, Kukës and Fushë-Krujë. Today, once again, it is Tirana’s turn.

The other leaders of the Socialist Party joined Nano’s goal of destroying Albania on this day as well. They gave Nano a mandate for another three months, not because they thought he would restore order, fight smuggling or do other things of that kind, but because Nano promised them that in three months he would destroy the opposition in Albania. Nano’s statements, made public in the media as well, showed this clearly, but his actions are even more telling. The Socialist Party chairman’s statement contains only accusations and threats against the opposition, not a word about the disastrous governance. Not only that, but Nano has made statements in which he called this government “the best that has ever governed Albania.” By adding to these statements the recent arrests, or the killings and terror in Shkodër, it is easy to understand what Nano received the mandate in the Socialist Party for. Under these circumstances, the so-called changes in the government are merely a farce and a crude attempt to cover up the other events. If this government is supposedly the best, then why does it need to change?! Everyone in Albania, including those who gave Nano the mandate, knows well that this government cannot fix anything. On June 29, Nano also made many promises and set many deadlines: weapons would be collected and order established within six months; this would be done in three months and that other thing in four. All Albanians know what came of it. Who can believe that in three months Nano will put right what he failed to do in his four governments and over a much longer period? Certainly no one. No one believes that changing a few names in Nano’s government will improve the situation. People holding important positions in this government have said so clearly in public. So why did Nano need this mandate at a time when not only Albanians, but the whole world, has crossed him off its lists? As mentioned above, Nano promised his followers that he would destroy the opposition, but that is not the only promise he made. Nano made his main promise to his bosses outside Albania. He promised that he would do now what he had failed to accomplish despite his previous efforts. The violent efforts, stopped at the southern borders, are what Millosheviçi wants, and someone else wants the total destruction of Albania at the southern borders; Nano has made, and is making, every effort to bring this about. Beginning with the arrest of everyone and then the killing of Azemi, Nano sought precisely to destroy Albania by inciting a civil war. When that did not happen, Nano’s efforts … Berisha and arrested dozens of other Democrats. At precisely the moment when the whole world is calling for political arrests to stop, warning him that this will destabilize Albania and the Balkans, Nano arrests the chairman of Legaliteti as well. Meanwhile, his gang, dressed as police officers, was then sent to Shkodër and, dressed in …, they kill and cut people down. The victims of this violence are not only Democrats. The people being threatened by this government are … the same as those of Millosheviçi. The violent arrests and terror cannot be accidental. Nor can the killing in Tirana of the Minister of Defence of the Kosovo government be accidental, precisely … then the SHIK … and so they are disarmed. Nano knows well what these actions bring about. He knows that none of these actions will lead either to destabilization or to the opposition’s downfall. He has seen that violence against Democrats has always brought only greater hatred and unrest, as happened after Azemi’s killing. Nano knows this well, and this is precisely what he seeks to bring about with these events. Here in Albania, as in Belgrade, and this is what Nano too seeks to do. But will Albanians … at a time when all Albanians cannot continue to become victims of the interests of their historic figures. Albanians can no longer be sacrificed forever to the aims of Millosheviçi, who plays everyone like Nano. And for the purpose that these actions should end in bloodshed, how will Nano be driven out of this country? E.PASOKA

The internationalization of the Albanian opposition’s demands and their inclusion in the documents of international institutions, Berisha emphasized, Nano censors the Council of Europe resolution and falsifies the statement of international institutions. Nano must be removed, since his scenarios aim at civil war

The Chairman of the Democratic Party, Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha, strongly condemned the assassination attempt against the writer, researcher, publicist and Member of Parliament, the prominent intellectual of the Republic of Kosovo, Sabri Hamidi, describing it as an act that demonstrates the escalation of anti-Albanian violence and terror in Kosovo. Condemning this terrorist act, Mr. Berisha wished Mr. Hamidi a speedy recovery. Photograph of a man at a table, speaking.

The six PD political prisoners denounce the latest arrests made by the Nano clique The six political prisoners of Fatos Nano’s government condemn, with deep indignation, the arrest of the Legalist leader, Ekrem Spahiu, as well as Colonel Sali Shehu, and condemn the arrests of free press figures, the journalists Ilir Zhilla and Alfons Zeneli, considering their arrest one of the attempts being made by the current government to install a new dictatorship in Albania. The arrests that have begun under the absurd charge of armed insurrection are just as fabricated and are directed against the opposition, just as our imprisonment under the charge of crimes against humanity was. Fatos Nano and his clan seek to isolate and eliminate the Albanian opposition, something they will never achieve. The resistance of the Democrats and of all civilian Albanians will lead to the failure of the sinister plans Fatos Nano has laid for Albania and the Albanians. From political prison Halli SHAMATA, Blerim ÇELA, Safet ZHULALI, Bujar RAMA, Sokol MULOSMANI and Kreshnik LUZHA

Leni Fisher offers condolences to the Hajdari family Letter addressed to Mr. Genc Pollo Chairman of the Democratic Group People’s Assembly Tirana, Albania Dear Chairman, Deeply saddened by the killing of Mr. Azem Hajdari, I am sending you an expression of my profound condolences. Please convey my sincere condolences to Mrs. Hajdari, her family, and colleagues in the Democratic Party. Yours sincerely, Leni FISHER

“Bashkimi për Demokraci” denounces the killing of Ahmet Krasniqi, Minister of Defense of the Government of Kosovo , about which the Albanian government maintained silence for 24 hours, as a political terrorist act and a severe blow to the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo. “Bashkimi për Demokraci” expresses its suspicion that behind the killing of Mr. Krasniqi lies cooperation between the Albanian secret service, the Serbian secret service, and the governments of these two countries. Our suspicion stems, first, from the fact that Fatos Nano has attacked President Ibrahim Rugova on the one hand, while monopolizing the trafficking and administration of Kosovo on the other, leaving it in the hands of those who, through ideological cooperation with Milošević, support the Serbo-Slav presence in Kosovo behind the scenes. Second, for some time the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Kosovo had been residing in the home of the chief of the National Intelligence Service’s counterterrorism unit, officer Shyqyri Toska. Third, according to the incontrovertible evidence we have, the house where Mr. Krasniqi lived was searched two days before his execution, without any explanation and without any authorization. This search, and particularly the violence used in carrying out the scenario of Mr. Krasniqi’s killing. Fourth, Mr. Krasniqi’s bodyguards had been disarmed several days earlier; likewise, they had also been disarmed 24 hours before the killing by police at a checkpoint while returning from Kukës. Fifth, his execution took place at a checkpoint set up near the house where he lived, by masked men who, as a rule, have been in Albania serving the government; moreover, the type of mask used to kill Mr. Krasniqi is officially held by SHIK personnel. Finally, a few days ago “Bashkimi për Demokraci” denounced the fact that Nano’s masked gangs are equipped with two firearms, one registered and one unregistered, with which they commit crimes, and that they are instructed to leave them on the road—as will also happen with the Kalashnikov with which Mr. Hajdari was killed. Before washing its hands of this heinous crime, the Albanian government must answer the questions: Why was the Minister of Defense of Kosovo disarmed at a time when thousands of Albanians carry weapons without permits? Why were his guards disarmed, why was his home searched, what is the significance of the search of the home of SHIK’s most trusted man, officer Sh. Toska, and who set up the checkpoint with masked men near the latter’s house, where the killing took place?

They asked him at the meeting of the Socialist Party’s Steering Committee. The journalists asked him too: Where were you on September 14? The angry Prime Minister replied: “Please, don’t violate my private life?!” This was also published in yesterday’s “ZP”. So Fatos Nano himself says that an official working day, such as that one, counts as private life. In other words, the Prime Minister considers the office personal, and the same goes for the Government. Put differently, the Prime Minister of Albania does not deal with running the Government, but with his own private affairs. All the more so on hot days like September 14. And when the head of government declares that even on the day when, according to him, a coup d’état took place, “he was dealing with his private affairs,” one can imagine just how private his life is and how ordinary his work is. The journalists left it at that, taking him to be someone who had neglected his work, but the Deputy Prime Minister declared a little later that “Fatos Nano had no reason to lose so many positions.”

The internationalization of the Albanian opposition’s demands and their inclusion in the documents of international institutions, Berisha emphasized, is an obligation for Albanians: they must rise up in peaceful protests to prevail over the strategy of violence and terror that the government is using to prolong its days in power is an obligation for Albanians: they must rise up in peaceful protests to prevail over the strategy of violence and terror that the government is using to prolong its days in power. ON PAGE 3