The hunger strikers are calling for our solidarity Let us gather today at 11:00 in front of the Azem Hajdari memorial The hunger strikers are calling for our solidarity Everyone, in support of the students Let us gather today at 11:00 in front of the Azem Hajdari memorial Let us all gather today to show our support for the students who are confining themselves in a hunger strike, after the government broke off and ignored dialogue with them. Their demands are just. All citizens of Tirana who stand with the students and their noble cause should gather at 11:00 in front of the memorial to the December Leader, Azem Hajdari, where a major rally will be held to protest the government’s stance toward the demands of university students. Today marks a full six days that our children, our brothers and sisters, have been facing hunger, and their health is worsening by the day. For its part, the government is treating the students’ demands with cynicism and, moreover, has used violence and intimidation against supporters of the strike in universities, dormitories and secondary schools. “Union for Democracy,” “League against Dictatorship” and the “December ’90” group invite all citizens of Tirana to show their continued support for the students.

Today is the sixth day of the students’ hunger strike. The health of the strikers is deteriorating, while solidarity with those confined is growing Pupils from the foreign-languages secondary school, who showed solidarity with the students, are brutally beaten and taken to the police station. Violence and arrests at the Faculty of Law as well Today is the sixth day of the students’ hunger strike. The health of the strikers is deteriorating, while solidarity with those confined is growing Handcuffs and violence against students and pupils Pupils from the foreign-languages secondary school, who showed solidarity with the students, are brutally beaten and taken to the police station. Violence and arrests at the Faculty of Law as well ON PAGE 2

History repeats itself. The student strike has sent those in power into a panic Students in Vlora and Elbasan are “ordered” to go home. Kastriot Islami did the same in 1991, when he was Minister of Education History repeats itself. The student strike has sent those in power into a panic The government closes the universities Students in Vlora and Elbasan are “ordered” to go home. Kastriot Islami did the same in 1991, when he was Minister of Education ON PAGE 5

By Sami NEZA Although Ramiz Alia’s jeans of 1990 have these days been replaced by Pandeli Majko’s radiators, students from all over Albania continue to be on a general strike. For six days, 120 students representing the country’s most important universities and faculties have been confined in a hunger strike, while the prime minister has turned a deaf ear to a generation whose help he had sought throughout his first day in office. The strikers are helping him after three months in which the status quo did not change, Azem Hajdari’s killers were not found, crime was not stopped, misery and poverty are choking the life out of people, and foreign investment has frozen hundreds and thousands of kilometres away from Albania. It would be better for Pandeli Majko to step down on the advice of young people than to serve as a façade for the government mafia, organized crime, thieves and criminals who have infiltrated the administration as well as the national roads and cities. He has no ability to act against such structures. The current government composition must be dismantled as dysfunctional and failed, bringing about a new form of governance for the country, outside criminal and mafia structures. In recent days, Albania has seen the largest strikes and protests throughout the country in eight years. Their democratic nature should not be mistaken for a lack of resolve on the part of those striking or protesting to remove the government. It must not become the practice in Albania for governments to be overthrown by force of arms. It is entirely normal for a government to leave office through strikes or even dialogue. And it is all the more normal for the government to leave because of the students. This would also be an additional guarantee that the next government and the new formula for governing the country would be more acceptable, enjoy greater support, and bring a fresh spirit of leadership. When the people of the future stand up, it is far more credible that change will be for the better than if the resignation of the Majko government were demanded by speedboat smugglers, pyramid schemes, thugs and thieves, as in March last year. What official propaganda has managed to do, among the small portion of Albanians who are now uninformed—those who can neither think privately nor write anything they might call a lie—and even among the informed, most of whom do not communicate with the official media, is create the impression that the Majko government is supported by a segment that is inactive in protests and strikes. In other words, Majko has so far managed to secure the support of 5 to 15 per cent of students who, more than supporters of Majko, are indifferent to Majko and his government. To justify the silence of more than 120 students on the grounds of inactivity, while they have been on hunger strike for 120 days, facing a hunger strike of 120 days with a broad reach from south to north, means that you are inactive. By tying your life span to this section of society, it is the same as putting the entire society in a noose and letting it suffocate without governance, turning Albanians into—or letting them suffocate under—the Majko government. Not only [unclear] its governance. The students’ hunger strike, described as a strike with only economic demands, is now on its sixth day. At best, the strike could be called economic only until the moment when the student strikers themselves were able to articulate the nature of the strike. But if today a journalist, a minister or the prime minister were to ask them what kind of strike this is, on the sixth day of hunger no one would be able to say whether it is for radiators or Majko’s “jeans,” or whether it is for the removal of Majko’s government. On the sixth day, the debate over the nature of the strike is over. They are now too weak to speak. They have put their lives on hunger strike. No radiator can be exchanged for the lives of 120 students. Indeed, now even the Majko government is a small price to pay.

All levels of schools suspended yesterday “Listen to and respect the students’ demands.” This is the appeal made yesterday by the teachers of Shkodër, who boycotted classes and have announced…

“Listen to and respect the students’ demands.” This is the appeal made yesterday by the teachers of Shkodër, who boycotted classes and have declared their strike indefinite, until the government fulfils its obligations toward education ON PAGE 5 The government’s stubbornness is driving students toward death. The strikers’ condition is under threat. 7 students are being treated in hospital and return to the strike Strikers: Majko, we will not back down! “The Prime Minister must intervene as soon as possible to stop police violence and accept dialogue with the students” ON PAGE 3

Mrs Topalli also invites left-wing MPs to join this group Today, a delegation of right-wing MPs with the student hunger strikers ON PAGE 3

Today, 93 days since the murder of the December Leader Every day that passes since the murder of Azem Hajdari, the symbol of democracy and pluralism, proves the involvement of Fatos Nano’s government and his successor in the crime that shook the entire Albanian world. The government’s continued silence and its failure, day after day, to bring to justice the criminals who took the life of the December Leader show Albanians that it has been and remains on the side of the murderers, who have names and identities but are untouched by those in power. Democrats and all Albanians who loved and honored Azem Hajdari can never tolerate Nano’s government: either it must catch the criminals and bring them to justice, or publicly declare that it itself committed the murder of Azem Hajdari.

A minister said that Mr. Pollo earns as much per month as 850 students, while the government says it has no money; it has multiplied its own salaries and those of its loyalists tenfold The DP calls on Albanians to show solidarity with the striking students ON PAGE 3

International solidarity with the students’ demands ON PAGE 2

Rilindja Demokratike once again without telephones The newspaper “RD” has been without telephone service for five days, following cooperation between the National Information Service and Albanian Telecom. The newspaper’s phone lines were cut off, not coincidentally, just as the students’ hunger strike began, creating major problems for the government. We once again call on Prime Minister Majko, SHIK chief Fatos Klosi, and Telecom director Dhimitër Rrati to stop this heavy-handed game with the opposition newspaper. After the stopping and blocking of “RD” newspaper issues and the systematic tapping of its phones, blocking all its telephone lines is a new way the government has found to make things difficult for the opposition press. If the government does not want to listen in on the phone calls, we will make Majko’s, Klosi’s, and Rrati’s mobile numbers available to all our readers who want to complain about this flagrant violation.

Gunfire again targets the blue uniforms ON PAGE 4

The commando soldier is declared innocent ON PAGE 4

Minarolli visits the political prisoner, chairman of the Legality Movement Party Spahiu explained that he was being held in prison because of the all-encompassing pressure exerted on the opposition to intimidate it: some are killed, beaten, or imprisoned; some have their immunity removed; others are pressured by telephone, and so on. ON PAGE 2

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