NATIONAL LIBRARY Tomorrow, December 17, at 12:00, all Tirana in Skanderbeg Square Protesting against neodictatorship CITIZENS OF TIRANA! The neodictatorship imposed by the governing coalition has turned into savage violence against the Democratic Party, its leaders, and the Albanian opposition. Political killings and imprisonments, mistreatment and violence against democrats have reached their peak. It is the duty of all Albanian democrats and, in particular, the citizens of Tirana, to protest forcefully by all democratic means and say “Stop!” to the political terror of the criminal gangs of the governing coalition now in power. CITIZENS OF TIRANA! The Democratic Party and “Union for Democracy” call on you: “Now or never”—let us protest to overthrow the neodictatorship of Majko’s continuity government. Everyone to the square on December 17 at 12:00 to protest against political crime.

The government has met not even 10% of the students’ demands. The strikers appeal to the prime minister for dialogue. The Ministry of Health against the students Dozens of students from Shkodër and other universities visit the hunger strikers. Thousands of Albanians stand with the students ON PAGE 2

By Astrit PATOZI At the height of the political crisis in the country, the left-wing coalition government is seeking to escape mounting pressure for its departure by once again trying to strike at the opposition. The Prosecutor’s Office, which has long deserved the epithet “political,” sought to indict opposition leader Sali Berisha, whom it accuses of being one of the organizers of the “coup d’état” of September 14. The summons, which arrived yesterday at the headquarters of the Democratic Party, is signed by ...

The decision to summon the chairman of the DP, Sali Berisha, as a defendant was made following an order issued by the leadership of the Socialist Party Special prosecutors seek to indict the opposition leader. The ridiculous accusations of a “coup d’état” return ON PAGE 3

The DP denounces the act of summoning Berisha to the Prosecutor’s Office Yesterday, the Political Prosecutor’s Office of Tirana’s neocommunist regime informed the chairman of the DP of Albania, Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha, in a letter signed by Political Prosecutor Himçi, that he must appear at the General Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, 18.12.1998, at 9:00, to be questioned as a defendant because, according to the letter, he is one of the organizers of the armed uprising of September 14, 1998. The Democratic Party of Albania denounces this act as the governing coalition’s blind political revenge. The coalition has plunged the country into a deep crisis and, following its crushing defeat on November 22, is desperate and entirely dominated by mafia clans; it thinks it can resolve the serious political crisis by further persecuting the Albanian opposition.

of the Democratic Party, is signed by Agim Tirana, one of the signatories of that dreadful statement by the Tirana prosecutors, in which Berisha was attacked in terms much harsher than those used by Hoxha’s dictatorship against its political opponents. In any case, in this story prosecutor Tirana is merely a cog, just as the Prosecutor’s Office itself has become a blind instrument of the former communists’ political power since the June 29 elections. Prime Minister Majko, who climbed into the prime minister’s chair declaring that under his government there would no longer be prisons for politicians and journalists, will be responsible for all the consequences of further inflaming the political climate in the country. He can share the responsibility with whomever he likes—with Medainin, Gjinushi, Klosi, or even Daan Evert—if he lacks the backbone to bear it himself, but that cannot possibly save him from punishment, which may be much harsher than that of his predecessor Fatos Nano. By reviving the ridiculous accusations of “organizing an armed uprising” against the chairman of the Democratic Party, the government may be trying to shift attention somewhat away from the students’ hunger strike and the perennial demand to find Azem Hajdari’s killers, and onto Berisha’s fate. It seems they thought that by putting pressure on the main opposition party they would dampen the spirit of protest in the country and perhaps soften the frightening impact of the students’ hunger strike. In fact, exactly the opposite will happen—not only because the democrats will not for a moment accept the return of political trials to the justice system, but also because this will pour gasoline on the fire that the government and the protests across Albania have ignited. By indicting opposition leader Sali Berisha, this government can never achieve the desired peace with the students on hunger strike, since one of their demands is the release of political prisoners. The revival of the ridiculous accusations against Berisha and his indictment by the government’s prosecutors reminds everyone once again that the students are right in their demand, which Musa Ulqini dismissively rejected the day before. On the other hand, the hundreds of thousands of Albanians who are on strike and protesting against this government, and who have finally demonstrated their dissatisfaction by massively rejecting the constitution on November 22, will under no circumstances tolerate the return of political trials and prisons to the country. Those who calculated that they would gain political advantage by baring their teeth at the opposition—as their only way to preserve their power—were doomed from the moment they conceived the idea of striking at Sali Berisha. Pandeli Majko and Rexhep Meidani do not need to hear ministers’ or advisers’ predictions about the possible consequences of playing with fire, because this action is explicitly contrary to the first such precedent in Albania. They need only remember the reactions to the arrest of six Democratic Party officials in August this year, and then the events that followed the murder of the December Leader, Azem Hajdari, to draw the proper conclusions. Pandeli Majko knows from the well-known experience of Fatos Nano, who left Albania for several days to hide after the bloody events of September 14. He should consult his memory, because he cannot make the same mistake Fatos Nano made: after the arrests of Shamata, Çela, Zhumalli, and the others, Nano tried to portray himself as innocent when he saw that he was taking with him the will of the democratic regime. The precedents of dangerous games with the opposition in Albania, governed by former communists since June 29, are not only meaningful but also recent enough to refresh the memory of the Prime Minister or the President of the Republic. Perhaps this matters to them far more than the positions of Euro-Atlantic institutions, which have explicitly demanded that the pressure exerted on the opposition leader be eased. There have been repeated statements from the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and the European Parliament, all calling on the government to resume political dialogue with the opposition and stop every action against it. By ignoring these statements, the government of Majko, Meidani, and Gjinushi has finally decided to return to the years of dictatorship and persecute the opposition at a time that is especially unsuitable for it, when it finds itself surrounded by protests from Albanians across the country. This new front that Majko and his government have opened against the opposition will only further motivate the democrats, students, and all free citizens of the country to defend themselves against a government seeking to install a neodictatorship.

Instead of dialogue, the government offers violence to the hunger strikers Erion Hysen Çumani, Valentin Zef Preçi, Gentian Estref Trenova and Shkëlzen Sali Berisha were arrested in the early hours of the morning, on the road opposite the Faculty, and not at the building’s entrance ON PAGE 2 Yesterday, opposition MPs with the hunger strikers

Secondary schools in Vlora show solidarity with the students and the hunger strike ON PAGE 2

Today, 94 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 of the former communists, which leaves the killers of the December Leader free and untried, reminds Albanians that they have been and remain on the side of the murderers, whose identities are known but who are not touched by those in power. Democrats and all Albanians who loved and honored Azem Hajdari cannot under any circumstances tolerate this fact. The government must either capture the criminals and bring them to justice, or publicly declare that it itself carried out the murder of Azem Hajdari.

At the Democratic Party headquarters, the National Council of the Democratic Party will meet on Thursday, December 17, at 3:00 p.m. The meeting will review the political situation in the country and make the relevant decisions to counter the authorities’ growing violence against the opposition, and in particular the Democratic Party and its leadership.

The head of the “Asim Vokshi” union is dismissed from his job ON PAGE 7

Fear of the strike spreading on a mass scale ON PAGE 2

Pandeli Majko continues to insist on the dismissal of Fatos Klosi, head of the National Intelligence Service, while Majko’s motives seem to have more to do with dominating this institution and controlling the service through a person of his own choosing. ON PAGE 7

On Wednesday, December 16, 1998, at 11:00 a.m., a large rally will be held in front of the Democratic Party’s central headquarters to protest the government’s stance toward the demands of university students and to support the just strike of the students confined in the hunger strike. On Wednesday, a full seven days will have passed during which our children, our brothers and sisters, have faced hunger, and their health has continued to deteriorate. For its part, the government is dismissing the students’ demands with cynicism and, moreover, has used violence and intimidation against supporters of the strike in universities, dormitories and secondary schools. Everyone to the DP headquarters on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m.!