May 1, the day of trade-union protests against Nano ON PAGE 5

30 creditors, including 8 women, ended up in the cells ON PAGE 4

The Explosives Plant protests against the government ON PAGE 5

The opposition calls for Nano’s resignation and the formation of a technical government. Berisha in Parliament: Socialism, the order of those in government DP MPs vote in favor of Hajdaraga and Meta ON PAGE 3

The government’s No. 3 threatens DP MP Pal Dajçi Fino publicly displays the language of violence and hatred of the state that the communists are building in Albania. As the Kalashnikov Parliament votes him into the posts of deputy prime minister and minister of Local Government, Fino publicly threatens DP MP Pal Dajçi during a plenary session. The Democratic MP, explaining his vote against the appointment decree that Mejdan(i) issued for Fino, said, “We were voting for him so that he could get back to smuggling.” The government’s No. 3 reacted harshly and threateningly. “I’ll show you,” Fino said, explaining. An MP who was closer to the podium said he had heard Fino threaten Dajçi that he would use his bodyguards to shut him up. Thanks to the Kurbin MP’s cool-headedness, the incident did not escalate further. Meanwhile, the criminal majority, after preventing opposition MPs from expressing their position on the government reshuffle, also deprived them of the right to state their votes against it. Former Health Minister and DP MP Maksim Cikuli described the decision by Gjinushi and the majority as an open violation of the opposition’s fundamental right to speak in Parliament. For MP Hajdari, the majority’s decision was evidence that the climate is afraid of free speech. He then called on the ministers ousted by Nano to repeat in Parliament the statements they had made to the press. The DP MPs, who were almost unanimous in voting against the government reshuffle because they rejected the way Albania was being governed, made an exception only for two new names in the new cabinet. Defence Minister Luan Hajdaraga and Secretary of State for European Integration Ilir Meta received no “against” votes. Both of them are known as prominent anti-concessionists among senior PS officials, since Nano, from prison, declared them “Berisha’s dolphins.” A.K.

The chairman of the DP Parliamentary Group called on the Socialists to persuade Nano to leave ON PAGE 2

New Contact Group sanctions against the former Yugoslavia The six countries of the Contact Group for the former Yugoslavia decided yesterday to impose new sanctions on the Belgrade authorities, following an eight-hour meeting in Rome. “The Contact Group decided to impose new sanctions initially by freezing some assets, and then by taking measures concerning investments,” said Jacques Blanc, Director of Political Affairs at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the end of the meeting. The Contact Group also expressed support for the negotiation process, mentioning a number of initiatives that would allow the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to return to international institutions. The Contact Group expressed hope that dialogue with representatives of the Albanians of Kosovo would begin as soon as possible.

Economic assistance equal to 22 percent of the subsistence minimum ON PAGE 5

Nijazi Yrmeli was killed because he told his friends about the magnificent reception Gjirokastra gave Berisha ON PAGE 4

Laws are being violated; the faculty is being treated as personal property In the composition of the Senate of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, there is not a single lecturer with an academic title, professor or assistant professor; instead, the dean’s associates make up its membership. ON PAGE 7

Socialist MP accuses Nano of causing the government’s failure ON PAGE 2

All the election promises have exposed the current government ON PAGE 4

The trial court issues its decision on four defendants

Fatos Nano asked MPs to vote and declare that they would once again endure an unstable left-wing government, even though the new cabinet would remain a divided administration. Fatos Nano asked MPs to vote and declare that they would once again endure an unstable left-wing government, even though the new cabinet would remain a divided administration, detached from power, thoroughly politicized, regardless of the government’s unimaginable developments over a short period and regardless of what it has done against Kosovo. In his opening address to the Albanian Parliament, Nano told his people to ignore the poverty spreading at dizzying speed throughout the country, the absence of order, the state’s mismanagement of the return of pyramid-scheme money, massive government smuggling, and the degradation of all institutions, which are being gripped by the machinations of the state mafia—and to vote once again for his fourth government. The Albanian prime minister addressed his citizens as though they should consider it a great achievement that his new cabinet came entirely from the former Vlora-Gjirokastër operational zone, and ignore the clan warfare he had brought into the party. “The government he has led in a record period of just nine months...” Nano asked MPs to set aside their personal, regional, political and ideological prejudices and vote for the current government without any real conviction. He had expected the opposition to do the same when he chose the names for “Nano 3” and later made the changes for “Nano 4.” Nano’s request was a drawn-out reaffirmation before Parliament of the humiliating, fanatical criteria he had used to choose his staff for the government presiding over the agony of his deeply weakened rule. Only one Socialist MP had the courage to speak openly, although he remained a lone voice in a chorus of people eager to impose the same line. Politically protected to uphold what was in Nano’s interest, he stood alone. Meanwhile, at the time of the PS’s unification, beyond regional divisions, Berisha’s ministers.” On the day marking the complete failure of the coalition government’s nine months in office, Prime Minister Nano once again turned his guns on the opposition, making a desperate show in an effort to appear before at least the few people who might still be his fanatical supporters. This was the same man who, four months earlier, had berated his frightened ministers, saying he would no longer tolerate any of them presenting failures as “the same ones inherited from the Berisha era.” Now, five months later, many of the dismissed ministers and those still in the Nano 4 cabinet may have been surprised to see their boss, with the voice of a clique in Parliament, behave more ridiculously than when he should have been defending the left-wing coalition government against the opposition’s accusations and charges. In his speech to Parliament, Nano signaled a different style for the Albanian government, in his next administration, which has strengthened its hard-line and aggressive approach to governance. The fact that he presented the reshuffle as a plain revelation, when in reality the new appointments may be even uglier patches than the names it had before, needs little comment; but this was a major deception of the citizens of this country. Albanians cannot hope for better governance when, at the Ministry of the Interior, a pathological abnormality with delusions of grandeur is replaced by a former State Security agent with an inferiority complex. No one can expect any change at the Ministry of Defence when, instead of an Enverist accused of scheming, comes a man best known as a muddle-headed trigonometry teacher; or when a long-haired hippie in short trousers lands at the Ministry of Culture and, as soon as he steps into the office, starts threatening the secretaries instead of the female secretaries. Nano irresponsibly told the MPs and all Albanians that this was a historic moment in Parliament. A way out of the crisis will soon emerge. This, and his attempt to shift responsibility onto the opposition, are clear signs that Nano 4 will have a much shorter life than its predecessor. Trying to criminalize the opposition, Nano yesterday signaled a harsh, repressive move by his government against the Democratic Party and its allies in the days ahead. But the opposition is determined to stand up to this government. It declared yesterday in Parliament that there must be no retreat in the face of pressure from Fatos Nano’s government. Berisha, Pollo and others called for protests against the new government, involving civic, religious, political and ideological groups. Although Nano tried to impose restrictions on the democratic means the opposition has chosen in its political struggle, this government will face political risk from rallies. Those who came to power with guns will leave in disgrace, overcome by the anger of the Albanian people and by the opposition’s democratic organization of the protests. Astrit PATOZI