ACCORDING TO THE BBC Albanian Health Minister Tritan Shehu has announced that around 60 tons of medicines left in stock, worth more than two million dollars, must be buried because their expiration date has passed, BBS reported on June 17. Most of the medicines, now expired, were brought to Albania during 1992. There was a real boom in donations from charitable associations and individuals from many countries around the world, who sent medicines, in most cases without any knowledge of the country’s needs and shortages. The quantity of some medicines brought in, says Anastas Dado, the distribution manager at the Tirana Supply Enterprise, was 10 to 20 times greater than the capacity to use them; many were antibiotics with an expiration period of around six months. Over the last two years, a considerable quantity of medicines has also been brought by the mission «Pharmacists Without Bor- (Continued on page 2)

YESTERDAY IN SHKODËR: AN ATTEMPT AT A STATE CRIME The Socialists cannot allow the forces of darkness to organize a new April 2 - The police state organizes illegality and unlawful hooligan behavior to obstruct the normal and lawful activity of a party - In the last 24 hours, Eduart Selami, Pietër Arbnori, Kolec Topalli, Ali Spahia, Tomor Dosli, etc., etc., have «visited» Shkodër Yesterday in Shkodër: an attempt at a state crime. CLEAREST PROOF THAT A POLITICAL-POLICE STATE HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED IN ALBANIA IN THE SERVICE OF THE DP AND BERISHA a new April 2 - obstruct the normal and lawful activity of a party - ... a second tragedy for Shkodër. Thus, p[o]dalia did nothing else with its elements but remove them from the rally and the illegal counter-rally, nor from the shops and...

into a dangerous situation to cover up the failures of its own policy STATEMENT At the invitation of members and supporters of the SP in Shkodër, SP Chairman Fatos Nano, Deputy Speaker of the People’s Assembly Shaqir Vukaj, chairman of the SP parliamentary group Namik Dokle, and MPs Kastriot Islami, Maqo Lakrori, Ndre Legisi, Alfred Paloka and Musa Ulqini set out for Shkodër on June 18, where a meeting was to be held at 10:00 in the hall of the «Republika» Cinema. The meeting had been notified to the law-enforcement authorities in advance and had been authorized. Written invitations to attend had been distributed to all participants by the Steering Committee of the SP in the Shkodër district. About an hour and a half before the meeting, people who had not been invited began gathering in the square in front of the cinema, carrying slogans insulting the Socialist Party, its leaders and its MPs. Using violence, they prevented the invited SP supporters from entering the cinema. As the meeting time approached, they began shouting insults and thus organized an illegal rally. Among other things, the slogan «The Socialist Party is outside the law!» could be heard in their chants. Despite all these violations of the law, the law-enforcement authorities took no action, but cleared the way for the illegal rally to obstruct a lawful and peaceful meeting. It is clear to everyone that calm, democratic meetings cannot be held in this situation of Nazi-like thugs, while the law-enforcement authorities look on as paid spectators. This ugly incident did not express the will of democratic Shkodër, nor that of its wonderful and cultured people. The political force that inspired it and the hand that organized it are evident. It had already shown itself two days earlier in the fascist call made by RD. It is absolutely no coincidence that only one day before, and on the day of the meeting, Shkodër was visited by Presidential Secretary Kolec Topalli; Speaker of the People’s Assembly Pjetër Arbnori; DP chairman and deputy chairman Eduard Selami and Ali Spahia; that party’s secretary Tomor Dosti; ministers of the anti-democratic government, etc. The role of those in power in organizing these people is clearly shown by the presence among them, from beginning to end, of the district council chairman, Mr. Ali Kazazi, and the council secretary, Spiro Lito, who spent the entire time doing everything possible to incite the crowd. They are the same people who threatened the population of those areas that voted for the SP on March 22 and July 26, saying they would turn them into ghettos surrounded by barbed wire if they did not give them any assistance. They are the same people who tried to unleash police violence at the rallies in Dibër and Kukovë, and even in the parliamentary hall. We denounce the police state that is being set up in Albania, in the absence of a democratic constitution and while those in power seek to retain power at any cost. Why did this incident happen precisely at this time? MPs and senior SP leaders, as well as its chairman Fatos Nano himself, have visited Shkodër and the villages of this district dozens of times. The people of Shkodër have always welcomed them in keeping with their excellent tradition. But this illegal rally was organized only a few days after the mass rallies the SP held in Tirana, Kolonjë, Kukovë, Vlorë, Berat, Fushë-Krujë, Peshkopi, Bulqizë, Gramsh, Korçë and Pogradec, where the people expressed their protest against the DP’s empty promises, against unemployment and rising prices, and against the policy and government that are driving the country toward the abyss. This illegal rally was organized because we have opposed and will continue to oppose the rule of political, regional and clan factions; galloping enrichment of those in power at the expense of the impoverished people; partitioning of Albania at a time when national solidarity is needed more than ever. The illegal rally in Shkodër is another organized attempt at a state crime. The clan of revanchists in power now seeks to cover up the failures of its policy by leading the country into dangerous situations, to the brink of civil war in Albania. For all these reasons, we protest strongly and declare that, with the responsibility of representatives of the people, we will continue our democratic struggle until the people cast out their right-wing revanchist rulers, the descendants of those who collaborated with fascism and want to bring it back into our homes. Presidency of the Socialist Party SP Parliamentary Group Tirana, June 18, 1993 THIS STATEMENT WAS DELIVERED TO PRESIDENT BERISHA LAST NIGHT AT 21:00

Yesterday the Steering Committee of the SP in

One thing is now clear. In Albania, and among its people in power, there are those who want tension, provocations, confrontations, disorder. Why not, even more killings. That is why they staged the gatherings of several groups of hooligans in the city of Shkodër on the morning of June 18. But was what was broadcast in the two identical television reports unexpected?!... Were the illegal gatherings of those people, at whom the police turned a blind eye, accidental?! And finally, was Edi Pala’s ominous article in the June 17 issue of RD accidental?.. Let us say from the outset what everyone understands very well. Everything had been prepared in advance. But surely the malice of the RD scion Palokë was not going to stop there, he who speaks as if he had uncracked hazelnuts in his mouth. No, he and those hiding behind him want another April 2, on a larger scale. Because the April 2 of 1991 did not satisfy them; because the UDBA is not content with little. But this time, the plan remained in their hands, so that all the advance investment went to waste; this included the slogans carefully written in the style of RD, from which they had also been copied, as well as the film crews sent specially from Tirana—as never before—to the activities of the Socialist Party. Of course, they had prepared to film much more; they had prepared to rub their hands with delight at what they had imagined, but, to their misfortune and to the greater good of the people of Shkodër and democracy in Albania, it remained only a dream of a few bare-headed minds, with numb brains, twisted faces, and a vampire’s thirst. That is all. Because honest Shkodrans and the Socialists have grown accustomed to the [unclear] of thugs and criminals, whose minds think of nothing else but crimes, nothing but blood. It is no coincidence that Bis…i, overwhelmed by the fatal head injury, shows his own fury.

Yesterday, the Steering Committee of the SP in Shkodër had planned to organize a working meeting with members and supporters of the Socialist Party at the «Republika» Cinema. MPs Fatos Nano, Namik Dokle, Shaqir Vukaj, Maqo Lakrori, Kastriot Islami, Alfred Paloka, Musa Ulqini and Ndre Legisi had also been invited to attend. Interest in the meeting was extraordinary. This was why the organizers were faced with pressure for more invitations, as the cinema hall was packed. The law-enforcement authorities had been informed in advance; they had guaranteed that the meeting could be held at the «Migjeni» Theatre, but assured the organizers that they would take all necessary measures to ensure everything went normally at the «Republika» Cinema. But that is not what happened. Yesterday, beginning at 8:30, a group of 100–150 people gathered at the cinema doors, demanding that the meeting with the Socialists not be allowed to take place. Despite the organizers’ efforts to get this group to leave, that did not happen. On the contrary, they became even more aggressive and appeared with several banners bearing slogans against the Socialist Party. The illegal gathering had also been organized in one of the city’s neighborhoods; the organizers had insisted on the police being present, since it is their legal duty to ensure the normal conduct of lawful assemblies. The police appeared in front of the «Republika» Cinema only in the first half of the meeting, which was due to begin at 8:30, when the tension had already reached ... those attending the meeting ... the unlawful ... to proceed ... dangerously. ... It was ... the way the police reacted. The heavy blows against the van from the city street by the cinema were answered by its noise. They broke the glass and got inside the cinema; the police tried to disperse them with tear gas, but then...» could burst at any moment. They were all the mindsets that brought about a situation involving all the socialists. In the square in front of the “Republika” cinema, at 10:00, people gathered in large numbers, most of them socialists and supporters, who were being prevented from entering the cinema by a small group of irresponsible people. The footage broadcast on television showed that this was indeed the case. Of the people gathered in front of the cinema, only at 11:00 did [they] demonstrate against the organizers’ plans for the socialists’ meeting. They had somewhat more organization preventing people from entering the hall. The only way to get into the hall was to engage in a physical fight with the group in question. This was what the organizers of the illegal counter-rally wanted. But the members and supporters of the Socialist Party, although insulted and struck with various objects, avoided physical confrontation. It should be emphasized that, as the law-enforcement authorities also confirmed, none of the people in the crowd at the rally were carrying unlicensed firearms. In this connection, people were being prevented the group in question. At around 0:30, Nikolla Fama, the chief of police in Shkodër, was called. He made contact with the group Mr. Ali Kazazi, chairman of the district council, was with them. The particular ferocity of Mr. Spiro Lito, secretary of the district council, made a strong impression; he did everything he could to incite the already agitated crowd. These facts alone are enough to prove who organized this illegal counter-rally and to understand why the police did not intervene in the slightest. (Continued on page 3)