Other jurists outside the justice system ON PAGE 4

Terrorist act in the middle of the city ON PAGE 4

On the 21st day of VEFA’s hunger strike ON PAGE 5

Gjinushi’s decisions and Ceka’s orders are destroying the rule of law in Albania Hundreds of police officers from the Ministry of the Interior and SHIK officers surround the Constitutional Court. The police use force against its president, Rustem Gjata

US threatens in Tirana: Yugoslavia will answer for calling its existence as a state into question “Belgrade must enter into sincere, open, long-term negotiations with the aim of finding a solution to

The ruling left-wing coalition made it clear to Albanians yesterday that they are now dealing not only in reality but also formally with a police administration, in a country where even the last cell of the rule of law has been killed. Several contingents of police used violence to force the President of the Constitutional Court, an official who in any normal state enjoys greater legal immunity than the President of the Republic, out of his office. Yesterday, the police unleashed by Fatos Nano and Neritan Ceka also used force against opposition MPs, who had gone to Mr. Gjata’s aid in his final attempts to persuade this government to obey the laws at least once. This extremely serious incident, worthy only of countries ruled by military juntas, follows a wave of unprecedented attacks against the Constitutional Court and the justice system in general. Two days earlier, the parliament, acting in accordance with the rules, had lawfully dismissed the President of the Constitutional Court, Rustem Gjata, from office on the basis of constitutional laws, on the laughable accusation that he was a suspected UDB agent. While the body of basic constitutional laws legally specifies the grounds on which the President of the Constitutional Court may be dismissed, the committee MPs deemed a report manipulated by a state mission led by a man whose past has often been described as suspicious sufficient grounds to strike at the country’s most independent institution. The ease with which the governing coalition’s MPs raised their cards against their country’s Constitutional Court creates the frightening impression that Albania is returning to 1945, when MPs were hanged. But the ease with which they sent their armed police to force the head of the Constitutional Court, one of the state’s most important officials, out of his office is an alarm bell: nothing remains in this country to profane or violate, because everything has been trampled upon. Meanwhile, the government’s haste to empty the office of the head of the Constitutional Court before the parliament’s unconstitutional decision had even been formally notified reinforces the fact that Gjata’s dismissal was entirely arbitrary and had no legal basis; hence its protagonists, Nano and Gjinushi, rushed to remove him from office as quickly as possible. The citizens of this country may have lost their last hopes of being protected from harm that may come to them from the state, from crime, or from both together, as has happened in many cases, because justice has been executed. After months of successive attacks, the Albanian courts have come under the judgment of the government. What protection can citizens expect tomorrow if the police imprison, abuse, or even disappear them, when the President of the Constitutional Court is dismissed as if he were an ordinary employee of a municipal enterprise, and then police officers arrive without a warrant or written order and drag him out of his office? What can citizens or villagers expect when they are robbed, insulted, or assaulted by gangs of bandit police, when MPs are not allowed to enter their offices in the People’s Assembly building simply because they asked for an explanation of what was happening to the head of the Constitutional Court? Those who until yesterday never met with foreigners without mentioning the opposition’s absence from parliament have now used police to prevent Democratic Party MPs from carrying out their duties in the People’s Assembly building. Can Albanian citizens still expect justice from this state, where the Prosecutor General physically attacks the Court of Cassation, while the Minister of the Interior calls its members criminals? If the people at the highest institution in the justice system are told that the government will leave them nowhere to hide, while the state’s repressive mechanisms are set in motion and the Minister of the Interior orders the police to call them bandits, then there is no longer any need to fear the establishment of a dictatorship in this country, because dictatorship has already been established. The defiance with which government officials are trampling the laws of the country is deeply shocking. It is up to the opposition first and foremost, but also to the conscience of every Albanian, to put a stop to this unprecedented onslaught against all the values built after the fall of the dictatorship.

PD MPs analyze the grave situation in the country Yesterday, the Democratic Party Parliamentary Group discussed the grave situation in the country until late into the evening. Yesterday, the Democratic Party Parliamentary Group discussed the grave situation in the country until late into the evening, following the violence inflicted by the police on the President of the Constitutional Court and PD MPs on the premises of the People’s Assembly and the Constitutional Court. The PD Parliamentary Group has described the actions of the police state as completely unacceptable and consequential. The PD Parliamentary Group has extensively analyzed the situation that has arisen and the re-establishment of dictatorship in Albania, as well as the position it will take in this situation. Today at 12:00, the PD Parliamentary Group will make its position public in a statement at a press conference to be held at the Democratic Party headquarters.

Union for Democracy welcomes the position of the USA, President Clinton and the EU on Kosovo Berisha: “Nano assured Milošević in Crete that he would not recognize the parallel authority in Kosovo and that he was not advocating expanded autonomy for Kosovo” ON PAGE 3

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The Constitutional Court surrounded by police. On the right, Gjata is stopped by guards from entering the office