Albanian Premier’s Hometown Reflects National Unrest
GJIROKASTER, Albania — Here in the hometown of Albania’s new prime minister, armed men had been having a field day emptying the central bank of its money--the salaries of hospital employees, teachers and state workers--and shooting into the air to ward off the curious.
On Thursday, police finally stationed an armored van in front of the ransacked building, ending--at least temporarily--the looting that had gone on the three previous days.
In slate-roof homes on the medieval streets that wind up from the bank, residents huddled around living room tables, avoided going out at night and shared the latest stories of dire happenings.
“Criminals,†a religious worker said as gunfire popped all around. “The criminal fraternity is in charge here.â€
Gjirokaster, about 90 miles south of Tirana, the capital, was the last city in southern Albania to be swept up in a chaotic national insurrection that is part political, part lawlessness.
The city remains tense and shows that the conflict in southern Albania, and in much of the country, is far from settled.
That picture contrasts with efforts by the new multi-party government to demonstrate that normalcy is returning to Tirana.
On Thursday, the country’s main airport, closed since last week because of the turmoil, was reopened. State television showed an Albanian Airlines flight taking off for Sofia, Bulgaria.
But the new prime minister, Bashkim Fino of the opposition Socialist Party, abruptly canceled plans to make a peacekeeping visit to Gjirokaster and other southern cities in rebellion, possibly out of security concerns.
“It’s true, the situation is out of control,†said Ermir Asllani, 50, a Gjirokaster teacher. “The city is in the hands of criminals and bandits. The people do not care. They’re afraid to go out. They’re only thinking about saving their property, their houses, themselves.â€
The city became engulfed in unrest March 8. President Sali Berisha dispatched an army helicopter to subdue the area, but townspeople attacked the aircraft and chased the soldiers who were aboard it into the surrounding hills.
On Thursday, politicians from Fino’s new government met in Gjirokaster for more than three hours with leaders of the insurgents who have seized control of the south, attempting to coax a more peaceful approach from them.
All are in agreement in their opposition to Berisha, who was forced last week to name the new government, which includes opposition political parties, and to call elections for June.
But the southern insurgents are demanding that the president resign before they surrender their weapons, most of which were stolen from military arsenals during looting earlier this month.
Berisha so far has refused to step down.
“We know there cannot be fair elections with guns,†one of the resistance leaders, Agim Gozhica, said in an interview after the meeting. “We want the [Fino] government to lead the country and not be a puppet to Berisha like the [previous] government.â€
Gozhica, who was a general in the Albanian army until a year ago and then worked in a bank, previously imposed a deadline on Berisha’s resignation. On Thursday, however, he struck a conciliatory note, emphasizing the need for political rather than military solutions.
But some of his cohorts still talked a tough game.
“If Berisha will not respond to the will of the people, we will not go to Tirana to fight,†boomed Gjolek Malaj, a hulking, self-styled rebel leader dressed in sweats, a black leather coat, fake-fur vest and green ski mask. “We will send 50 people to Tirana to put Berisha under arrest. . . . If he will not resign we will bombard him.â€
The hyperbole was met with a certain amount of disbelief. But Malaj and the men around him have guns.
During the meeting, Malaj’s men stood guard in the entryway and chatted with reporters.
As several twirled their AK-47 automatic rifles like batons, they said they blamed Berisha for the revolt and accused him of deliberately emptying area prisons to fill the streets with convicted murderers and crooks as part of a plan to sow lawlessness.
It is those bandits, they claimed, who this week were looting the bank in Gjirokaster, day after day.
“Berisha is trying to provoke Albanians against each other,†said Ilirjan Cibuku, 28, who also wore a green ski mask and balanced his rifle on his shoulder. “This is not like the war in Bosnia, where there are real distinctions--Serbs, Muslims. All Albania is one, we are all brothers.â€
Another man proclaimed that no Albanian will name his child “Sali†for the next century. And another proudly told of instructing his wife and 8-year-old daughter in the fine art of marksmanship with a Kalashnikov.
Malaj and his men later roared off in a two-vehicle convoy made up of a shiny black Land Rover and a red Mercedes, guns pointed in the air.
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