Below is an article published by MINA :

By a joint declaration, representatives of the minorities in Albania announced officially Thursday that they do not recognize the census' results, MIA correspondent reported from Tirana.

The census was marred by numerous manipulations, abuses and lacked the necessary transparency, reads the declaration. Hence, the minorities considers the process as completely unsuccessful, it adds.

"Most of minority representatives embraced our call for boycotting the census. The census law had a single goal - to not determine the exact number of minorities, but to statistically falsify it, which means that the totalitarian regime's discriminatory policy is still into effect," says the declaration read out by Vasilis Bolanos, president of the Greek minority organization 'Omonia'.

The minorities called on the government in Tirana to set up a sincere dialogue with them on amending the legislation on minority rights in line with international conventions and European standards.

Before the start of this statistical operation, Macedonians, Greeks Vlachs, Roma, Serbs, Montenegrins and Egyptians signed a joint declaration, calling on the minorities to boycott the census in protest against the discriminatory census law, which stipulates a fine of US$ 1.000 for everybody who declares an ethnic origin different from the one notified in the official documents (ex: passport).