The history of the rebellion, from Fatos Nano to Zani Çaushi In upcoming issues you will read: - How Vlora Municipality was burned down and who the arsonists were; - The mysterious murder of Artur Rustem[it?]; - Where Gramoz Ruçi had his wartime headquarters; - What the gangs’ war plan was; - Why there was a radio transmitter worth 26,000 dollars at Sabit Bokaj’s villa; - Who destroyed the Pashaliman naval base; - Who the first politicians to set foot in Vlora before the rebellion were; - All the names of the hunger-strike students and their activists, etc. RD FREE The complete list of the death committee members. No one was there by chance. What role did they play in organizing the massacres, and where are they now?

The complete list of the death committee members. No one was there by chance. What role did they play in organizing the massacres, and where are they now? . What is the shadow of the death committees in the Prime Minister’s Office? The Foreign Ministry responds. Who are those rewarded after 29 June? What duties did the Brokajs have? SPECIAL FEATURE ON PAGE 5. This photograph, published for the first time, is further evidence of the shocking drama that would engulf all of Vlora just a few days later. Police officers defending themselves desperately, and historical red-eyed gunmen shooting at them as if they had been at each other’s throats for hundreds of years. Who executed these people, and who were the protagonists who would later order the endless killings and burnings, when the whole city was engulfed in the flames of the rebellion, whose ashes are still burning

In Malësi e Madhe, Kavajë, Elbasan, Gramsh, Lushnjë, Delvinë, Librazhd, Peqin and partly in Tirana, teachers stopped teaching for an hour. The healthcare system was paralyzed for an hour. Oil workers are heading toward a general strike. On 26 May, a major protest by the Independent Trade Unions Yesterday, teachers, doctors and oil workers across the country suspended work to express their dissatisfaction with the Nano government ON PAGE 4

Numerous strikes were recorded yesterday throughout Albania. For the first time in the country’s history of pluralism, so many people have not been seen leaving work at the same hour, across different professions and throughout the country. The number of strikers yesterday exceeded thousands, and their demands go no further than living conditions, wages, prices and the urgent need for a government. So people’s lives are being played with in this country—with the most fundamental things, and with the very people who are fundamental to Albanian society. Those who went on strike yesterday were teachers and doctors. Two of the most important professions, closely connected to each of our lives, are also among the most endangered in Rexhep Meidani’s “civil society from top to bottom” and Fatos Nano’s “multidimensional society” stretching from the Prime Minister’s Office to the Rogner. While their fundamental interests and those of their professions have been affected, and they are alone in serving us all, the interests of the rest of society have been crushed. Albpetroli has begun a strike and is warning that it will intensify, precisely because of the danger of being left without bread, food, security and government. The unions of Blera Kande and [those] alone on the city streets are seeking solutions, but there are no solutions because there is a government only in the Prime Minister’s Office. Beyond that, it evaporates like dew. The country’s independent unions have announced a general strike for 26 May, to put pressure on the government, which is giving and wants to show [unclear]. This large number of strikes and the [unclear] number of strikers is a sign that the government has lost touch with everyone else. It is unclear what it is doing, and it still seems not to understand that it should leave. A government that provokes more and more strikes every day may provoke even worse things. But are there also things missing? In Albania, so many things are missing that strikes are present even when they are not declared. Around 200,000 unemployed people are on their daily strike, as are thousands of small traders being driven out by the hundreds of trucks kept away by the government. Thousands of people go to the market every day and remember how quickly the kilos they put on during the five years of Democratic government are coming off. Many people dressed in “second-hand” clothes cannot afford to buy the same things, or even food, because there is no “second-hand” food—just as it became clear yesterday that there are no “second-hand” teachers or “second-hand” doctors either. People have come to understand that only Albanian government officials are the only ones who have “second-hand” roads at their disposal. While thousands are left on the streets without aid, bread, wages or means, Albanian government officials have no other concern than cheap goods, or roads with [unclear]. The strikes that appeared yesterday and those that will re-emerge in the coming days will once again leave children without school, the sick without care, oil fields without work, mines out of operation, traders without sales and shops without customers. All we will be left with are the air conditioners in our government officials’ offices, and the officials themselves, who are always the same and do not know whom they work for—except when their mobile phones ring so they can weave some customs or police-checkpoint scheme. Even in this situation, they are capable of thinking that they are ministers, and of taking people’s humiliation all the way to the end. S.NEZA

Viktor Muçi: I invited the police officers into my home for coffee, but they brutally beat me ON PAGE 2

Prodi expresses the international community’s concern about post-rebellion Albania ON PAGE 3

The physical liquidation scheme targeting the opposition continues. Two Democratic activists wounded Robert Muçeni: They shot me twice because I am the brother of the chairman of the PD branch in Përmet ON PAGE 3

PD: The President and the Prime Minister seek to destroy the CEC President Mejdani’s threat to exclude PD representatives from the Central Electoral Commission is both scandalous and laughable. Laughable, because he takes issue with a formal delay of 16 hours, while he himself delayed the calling of these elections for 6 months, invoking the constitutional law. Laughable, because the Presidency’s request to PD to submit candidates for members of the Central Electoral Commission was unlawful in its content, and was made at a time when the law had not yet been passed by parliament. We have stated that the Nano government’s amendment to the law on the CEC violates the permanence of this institution, which was insistently demanded by international bodies such as the Council of Europe and the OSCE, as well as many other organizations, as far back as 1996, in written documents. This was agreed at the round table of political parties held between the 1996 parliamentary and local elections. We note that IFES (International Foundation of Electoral Systems) has also strongly criticized the amendment to the law. We are also opposed because the small parties no longer enjoy the degree of representation on the CEC that they had in all previous elections. These concerns were made clear to the representative of the President of the Republic, Mr. Gumeni, on 14.05.1998 by the Parties of the Union for Democracy and the other opposition parties—observations he accepted as valid and said he would pass on. It is scandalous that Mr. Mejdani’s response to these concerns is a threat to exclude PD. It is his constitutional duty to act when institutions and their foundations are undermined. Instead of returning the law to parliament, Mr. Mejdani is carrying through the work begun by Nano and openly attacking PD by declaring that it will be excluded. Moreover, the Presidency, in its old style, is spreading disinformation in the private media, claiming that PD has supposedly submitted its list and will therefore be represented in the electoral institutions. The measures taken by Nano and Mejdani to destroy this institution are what are obstructing PD’s participation in the CEC.

On Saturday, a large rally in Skënderbej Square Citizens of Tirana On Saturday, May 23, 1998, at 18:30, in Skënderbej Square, “Union for Democracy,” the trade unions and the associations supporting this political grouping will hold a large rally to protest: - Against political killings and the government’s campaign to eliminate the opposition. - Against the misery and poverty brought about by the left-wing coalition government. - Against the runaway rise in prices. - Against the increase in taxes that is destroying business and trade. - Against government officials’ smuggling. - Against the government’s deception about increases in wages and pensions and their indexation. - Against the deception over the return of money lost in pyramid schemes. Brothers and sisters, The left-wing coalition government has plunged the country into a deep economic, political, social, psychological and moral crisis, which is worsening every day. Let us all gather in Skënderbej Square on Saturday, May 23, at 6:30 p.m., to stand up for the future of our country and your families! Tomorrow will be too late “UNION FOR DEMOCRACY”

The streets under the rule of masked men After handing over 43 million lekë, the masked men threatened another money changer from Korça, who was lucky to escape being robbed by them when a van from Elbasan arrived ON PAGE 7