The authorities take revenge and provoke the anticommunist city. The police station, municipality, banks, “Marin Barleti” library, and university are burned and destroyed. Citizens avert bloodshed . The government sets Shkodër ablaze. Coup d’état within the state. Nano sidelines Meidani and assumes presidential powers. On Sunday in Shkodër, what Interior Minister Neritan Ceka had warned about happened. He had begun preparing for such an event with his predictions, which at times directly and at other times indirectly did not fail. The criminal attack on the city of Shkodër will be remembered as the city’s St. Bartholomew’s Night: an attack on the city with the greatest traditions and democratic heritage, and the most violently abused city. The people of Shkodër themselves will remember it as the year 1967, when the city’s churches and mosques were closed or destroyed, or as the final mutilation and destruction of the city’s bazaar, one of the oldest and largest in the Balkans. All this happened to Albania’s emblematic city at the hands of the Socialist government, and more specifically, at the hands of Albania’s Interior Minister, Neritan Ceka. This minister’s irresponsibility and the current government’s hostility toward the anticommunist city are two points from which anyone can begin to understand what happened during Sunday afternoon and the night of March 22. The state against Shkodër. But this time it used the Inquisitorial scheme: eliminating the civic spirit of this city’s anticommunism. The division into two lines of what is, in fact, a single line was precisely the verdict behind this criminal act committed against the city’s important institutions. Yesterday, at a press conference, the DP said that before the SHIK building was destroyed, all the files and documents had been removed and hidden. This is a pre-emptive answer based on what he knew. But while that office was fortunate enough to receive the government’s attention—someone was certain it would be burned—the “Marin Barleti” library did not have that luck, nor did the savings banks or the city bank. None of these buildings was touched even during the most terrible days of the national rebellion. In those days nobody was guarding the library, the university, or the other buildings that were threatened, looted, or burned during the night of “Ceka and Havari.” Yet they were not burned or looted, even though some of those days were Sundays too. It took Ceka and Havari’s Sunday, Nano’s or Gjinushi’s Sunday, for Shkodër to be set on fire as never before. The Interior Minister’s statement that, in recognition of the good work he had done, the Director of the Shkodër Police would be appointed to another post cannot be explained any other way. The worst kind of conflict between a government and a people is when a government tries to erase a city. This time, people were not rounded up or supposedly locked in prison; Gjergj Fishta’s bones were scattered in the river, but they did not forget to arrest well-known people in Shkodër. But above all, this time they went berserk trying to remove the city’s emblem, its very identity. Let it remain anticommunist, stripped of this civilization and subjected to the thuggery that runs through Nano’s regime. An anticommunism without values has no value. This is where the “diversionists” come in, whom Minister Ceka brought from Montenegro. He handed them the police station, the special forces, the police officers, and the few weapons they had. A provocateur such as the Director of the Shkodër Police was appointed to this city for this scheme. No one could set fire to Shkodër more effectively and easily than a person who has no credibility in the city where he works, no support from anyone, and is generally despised by the citizens. The Socialist government is attacking Shkodër. It is attacking it openly, before everyone’s eyes. The Interior Minister must answer for why the situation in Shkodër was completely out of control and was allowed to deteriorate. Why, when he declared that the city was completely calm, did fires start and spread, and houses begin to burn? What does the Interior Minister call calm, and who was in control of Shkodër? What force did Ceka have to control the city? Who was in control, and what was happening throughout the night? Either those in charge are people from this system and have turned a blind eye. The state has condemned this city, one of the centers of civilization in this country, to its fate. All the worse when a city burns because of the government.

Shkodër’s prefect rejects the government’s irresponsible accusations Shkodër Prefect Ali Laçaj yesterday refuted Prime Minister Nano and said that the Albanian government attributes [this] to former Austrian Chancellor Franc Vranicki. At a meeting with the Democratic Party’s secretary-general, Ridvan Bode, and other DP leaders who had gone to Shkodër, Prefect Laçaj said that everything that had happened in the northern city had nothing to do with political forces. According to him, the serious events of Sunday and Monday had instead been provoked by the government’s recent actions, beginning with the appointment of Havari as police director. Laçaj is quoted as saying that Havari must never set foot in Shkodër again, stressing that his presence had been the fuse that ignited the drama in Shkodër. The prefect also stated that the government did not properly understand the situation in Shkodër, implying that it had acted recklessly. The statements by Shkodër Prefect Ali Laçaj refute the irresponsible statements of the government and the left-wing coalition, which seek to shift the heavy burden of their responsibility onto the opposition. At the same time, however, they also refute the so-called statements by former Austrian Chancellor Franc Vranicki, which were read out last night on state television. Considering that Nano’s tele-shame can fabricate anything, as it has done until now, it is hoped that what was broadcast last night in the 8:00 p.m. news bulletin as a statement by Vranicki is not true. If the former Austrian chancellor really said those things in a telephone conversation with Nano, this would seriously compromise the retired diplomat, not only in the present but especially in light of his six-year mission in Albania. If the former mediator of the international community in Albania thinks like Fatos Nano—that the opposition is a political-terrorist grouping—then Vranicki’s much-discussed neutrality during the past year is seriously called into question. This would mean that he had taken a highly questionable position and played a leading role in last year’s Albanian drama. We hope this is not true, but that, at best, it is ordinary disinformation by Albanian television, because at a time when the state’s representative in Shkodër [text unclear] and the government caused the turmoil by appointing Havari and provoking the anticommunist city in other ways, there is no way to explain the mediator Vranicki being more radical than Nano in his characterization of the Albanian opposition. A.Gj.

A government of violence cannot build a state governed by the rule of law The Democratic Party’s deputy chairman, Genc Pollo, has also reacted angrily to a decision by the Presidium of the People’s Assembly to put the issue of the Constitutional Court on the agenda with the aim of suspending it. It is today’s Haxhi Qamils in power who have launched an attack on a fully legitimate and very important institution such as the Constitutional Court. The Presidium of the People’s Assembly may decide the agenda for a plenary session, but under no circumstances may it suspend another institution such as the Constitutional Court, Pollo said. Only Haxhi Qamils can do such things. The Constitutional Court operates according to the law. The latest conflict between the Nano government and the Constitutional Court arose because of a law that was amended, but which the Constitutional Court naturally declared invalid. Pollo went on to say that, with OSCE’s constructive intervention, a basis for compromise was established, providing for a rotation of this court within a few weeks. The attack on the Constitutional Court shows once again that those who came to power unlawfully and through violence find it very difficult to build the rule of law and democracy. The conflict between Parliament and the Constitutional Court arose after Parliament made an amendment to the constitutional laws of the Republic of Albania. The law was annulled and deemed unconstitutional by this court because it constituted a serious infringement of citizens’ right to independence. The media has described such a law as anticapitalist and as seeking to give the state the right to seize or alter property and individuals’ assets, which is contrary to the human-rights charter concerning property.

Elbasan—Fighting at the army base Several masked and armed people attacked the army base in Elbasan on Sunday night. It was 12:30 at night when the first bursts of gunfire were directed at the base’s warehouses. The eight other guards and the officer on guard duty at the base were then forced to defend themselves and returned fire. In the dead of night, one of the guards told BD, we found ourselves in a tight spot. We would have abandoned the depots full of gunpowder and ammunition and fled if the tanks had not arrived after two hours of fighting. The two-hour exchange of fire between the two sides ended, according to the source, with no fatalities or significant material damage. The soldiers then patrolled throughout the night, not only the area around the army base but also along the national road. The attack on this base was carried out with the intention of stealing ammunition, gunpowder, and military equipment. The armed attackers had clearly planned their assault to take advantage of the darkness and the middle of the night, the source added. The soldiers’ patrols terrified nearby residents, making them fear a war that in fact engulfed the surrounding area for two hours. This was the high point that triggered panic and made it necessary to maintain readiness and reinforce the guards. In any case, the attack on this base, considered one of the largest in the country, even though it occurred during the unrest, led to tank patrols—a reminder of the state of emergency imposed in the country after the weapons depots exploded in Vlorë during the pyramid-scheme unrest. I. H.

In a statement published last night, the OSCE office in Tirana holds Prime Minister Fatos Nano responsible in connection with the events in Shkodër, which he described as political. The OSCE called it a public-order problem and urged political forces to distance themselves from acts of violence and terror, something Albanian political forces have done all along and for good reason. The Albanian government blamed the opposition for the events in Shkodër, while Havari had the police station in the hands of armed groups and fled on foot when he was at the entrance to the building. Political forces and the local authorities had asked the government to remove Havari from his post, but the government deliberately put him there in order to provoke the citizens and leave communication [unclear] or as an attack. In its statement, the OSCE office in Tirana does not blame political forces, thereby rejecting the government’s claims and accusations that [text ends].

Officers of the State Security Service and ATSH demand the arrest of the journalists ON PAGE 2

Photo: Armando BABANI Shkodër Prefecture during last month’s unrest