Thousands of Albanians celebrated the retreat of Moscow's hard-liners Friday by demanding their own ex-Communist president, Ramiz Alia, be put on trial.
About 10,000 supporters of the three main anti-Communist parties cheered speakers at Dinamo Stadium in Tirana who said there could be no full democracy in Albania as long as Alia was in office, a journalist who was present reported."The president before a court!" they shouted. "Oh Ramiz, you dog, we will hang you with a rope!"
Alia succeeded Enver Hoxha, Albania's Stalinist dictator for 41 years, in March 1985. Although he ushered in reform last December when he permitted other political parties, Alia is distrusted by the opposition because of his Communist past.
Shouts also rang out Friday for the trial of Hoxha's widow, Nexhmije, said Arben Manai, a journalist speaking by telephone from the Albanian capital.
Friday's protest represented the largest anti-Communist rally in Albania since a wave of strikes in May forced the ruling Communists in the Party of Labor, now renamed the Socialist Party, to share power despite their election victory in April.
The three anti-Communist parties who organized Friday's rally, the Democratic, Republican and Social Democratic parties, joined the coalition, which has produced no immediate remedy for Albania's devastated economy.
Non-Communists charge the former Communists still control the media and use police to stir up discontent.
Azem Hajdari of the Democratic Party, the largest anti-Communist party, called at Friday's rally for elections in November, instead of next May or July as currently agreed.
Before the Tirana meeting, the three parties issued an appeal for "real democracy" and the purge of Stalinism from security forces, media and diplomacy.
The statement, received in Vienna, also demanded the prosecution of state security officials for allegedly instigating a recent exodus of Albanians across the Adriatic Sea to Italy.