ARTUR Rustemi's open coffin was laid out on the floor of the small apartment living room, relatives pressed with their backs against the walls and his young wife kneeling next to his body.
"Why did they kill you," she sobbed again and again, leaning forward to kiss his ashen face and rearrange some plastic roses draped around his corpse inside the red and black casket.
Mr Rustemi (33), died of bullet wounds after clashes with police in this southern Albanian town on Monday in a demonstration over the failure of pyramid investment schemes that have stirred weeks of violent unrest across the small Balkan nation.
Around 30,000 people turned out for his funeral yesterday, clapping as his coffin was hoisted out of the crumbling apartment block where he had lived and into the street.
"Artur will never be forgotten," one section of the crowd shouted. "We will take our revenge," others screamed back.
Minutes later, flames engulfed the nearby headquarters of President Sali Berisha's ruling right-wing Democratic Party. It was not immediately clear what had caused the fire.
Seeing the black smoke belching from the whitewashed building, a huge cheer went up and Mr Rustemi's open coffin was carried high alongside the blaze.
"Berisha you clown, don't mess with our town," the crowd chanted as it inched forward down the main palm-lined boulevard, three men carrying Albanian flags leading the way.
Many people in this Adriatic port accuse Mr Bensha's right-wing government of stealing money they placed in a local pyramid fund - which went broke last week owing the estimated equivalent of $500 million.
Mr Perparim Rustemi, a cousin of Artur Rustemi, said his family had no understanding of politics.
"We don't have the education for that. And I don't care about politicians. But I know that they can't steal our wealth and push us onto our knees," he said.
His dead cousin ran a fruit and vegetable store and had invested $7,000 in the failed scheme. He and his wife Donika (24) had two sons aged under five.
Marchers carried pictures of the dead man while others wore black headbands and waved red plastic flowers in the air.
Men took turns carrying the coffin as the procession moved past the bar where Mr Rustemi was shot and into the square where Albania declared independence in 1912.
Families leaned out from balconies and boys climbed up the square's monumental statue to catch a glimpse of the coffin.
Some of the crowd broke into a national song - a patriotic call to arms. "0 wretched Albania, sons of Albania take up your arms against the death of freedom," they sang in chorus.
Security forces stayed away and the local police station, scene of violent clashes for the past two days, was virtually deserted.
In Tirana, parliament debated a proposal by the Prime Minister, Mr Aleksander Meksi, to declare a state of emergency in Vlore.
But no one in the crowd expected the government would go as far as sending in the army to quash the protests.