CET ON-LINE* 29-May-96

Wendesday, May 29, 1996 Volume 1, Issue 357

Albanian riot police stormed opposition party leaders at a demonstration in

central Tirana on Tuesday, beating them with batons and fists before

hauling them off to police stations. Lines of uniformed officers and plain

clothes police surrounded the headquarters of the main opposition Socialist

Party near the main Skanderbeg Square, sealing off roads to the building

where some 200 chanting supporters had sought shelter. Most of the senior

opposition figures, including some student leaders who led the popular

protests that toppled the communist dictatorship in December 1990, were

later released from police cells, but Socialist deputy leader Servet

Pellumbi remains in detention. Albanian and

foreign journalists were among those beaten by police, including a foreign

cameraman and a photographer from Spain's El Mundo paper. Police smashed both

their cameras and confiscated film from other photographers. Most of Albania's

opposition parties, representing 52 of the 56 opposition deputies in the last

parliament, pulled out midway through Sunday's election after accusing the

ruling Democratic Party of President Sali Berisha of rigging the vote. The

Central Electoral Commission has yet to make an official announcement on

the election result. But, an observer from a key West European state, who

was part of an international election monitoring team in Albania, said

observers were pulling out before the second round of voting due this

coming Sunday, because "it's obvious our job is over."