Antenna: News in English (AM), 97-03-16

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

News in English, 16/03/97

TITLES

• Albania continues its slide into chaos.
• The prime minister defends his economic policies.
• And, carnival goes out with a bang.

ALBANIA REVIEW

Rebels in southern Ablania began the week rejecting president Sali Berisha's offer of elections in two months and an amnesty in exchanger for the rebels turning in the automatic rifles, machine guns, tanks, and aircraft they'd seized from military base as order collapsed in the south.

They said Berisha has got to resign before they give up arms.

Rebels told Antenna's Argyris Dinopoulos near the rebel city of Saranta, "We see no future, we want jobs and homes, and a system where people don't step all over each other".

The rebels' complaints were the same as they have been since the uprising started: Berisha is undemocratic and corrupt, and his government is responsible for thousands of Albanians losing their money in a banking scandal two months ago.

By Tuesday, the rebels controlled a quarter of the country. Organised in committees, they imposed order, for the most part, but there were acts of looting. One man was reportedly shot to death after being held up by marauders.

In an attempt to mollify the rebels, Berisha set up an all-party government, naming Baskim Fino, popular in the south, prime minister, to bridge the gulf between the state and the rebels.

Yet the situation deteriorated.

War fever seemed to be spreading. On Wednesday, bands of people raided a weapons store at the army cadets academy in Tirane. Cadets, like the police and many members of the military, bailed out, heading for their home towns or to join the rebels in the south.

On Wednesday night, no one in the capital slept, as people fired their weapons into the air.

Pro-Berisha forces were mobilised not only to defend the northern part of the country, but to defend government buildings in Tirana. On Thursday and Friday, members of the presidential guard and government tanks patrolled the streets. One civilian was shot dead when he refused to drop his weapon. And there were a number of other deaths in gunfights of an unspecified nature.

And there was worse. By mid-week, people in Berisha's northern strongholds of Koukesi and Byram Tsouri, near Kossovo, Yugoslavia - with its restive and separatist Albanian majority - had begun raiding military and police installations, arming themselves. Some said for war against the south, others said to SUPPORT the south.

Whatever the case, the situation in Tirane and the north was different from that in the south in one vital respect: there was no political organisation as there was in the south.

One policeman in Tirane summed up the confusion Thursday, saying "Everyone's armed. Some to fight Berisha, some to defend him....some to defend themselves against an enemy they don't know yet.

Alarmed by the events, many foreign nations began evacuating their nationals Friday. Italy and the US used helicopters to airlift their people out of Tirane, from a stadium.

Greece evacuated some 38 of its nationals and a handful of foreigners out of Tirane. A bus took the evacuess to the western port of Durres Friday. There, frogmen waiting for them, boarded them into samll boats, and took them to Greek naval vessels offshore.

For scores of Albanian rebels gathered at the port, though, there was no way out. Many rebels offered the Greek seamen there Kalashnikov rifles in exchange for a pack of cigarettes.

It was a poignant example of the desperate situation the Albanian people find themselves in, hemmed in on all sides by poverty, a government they don't want, and the prospect of civil war.

ALBANIA DIPLOMACY REVIEW

Greek leaders insisted that the best solution for Albania would come from within Albania, without foreign intervention. All sides in Albania, they said, should do their best to find a peaceful settlement.

Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos said after a meeting of the countries foreign policy and defence staffs under the aegis of prime minister Kostas Simitis, that Albania needs a government everyone can accept.

Throughout the week, Greece struck a cautious note, saying that a solution from within Albania was preferable to a solution imposed on Albania from without.

The United States agreed. A state department spokesman said no international force could impose order on all of Albania in a few days.

Greek deputy defence minister Iannos Kranidiotis met with rebel leaders and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Albania mediator on Friday.

Afterwards, OSCE mediator Franz Vranitsky said he recommends an international military force be sent in.

The Greek government spokesman said Greece would only participate in such a force if such intervention became necessary, and under the clearest guidelines as to the aims of such an intervention.

Pangalos, expressed Greek concern that the unrest could unleash a wave of illegal immigrants on Greece. Greece was also worried about the Greek minority in southern Albania, and is concerned about the need for food and medicine in the rebel areas.

There was also the worry that Albania could turn into a Balkan powder keg. Greek leaders fear fighting in Albania could spread to Albanian separatist areas in Kossovo, which is part of New Yugoslavia, and Tetovo, in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

There was also fear of deja vu in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Hundreds of people protested in the city of Monastiri. 30 thousand people have lost millions of German marks in a banking scandal similar to the one that started the protests in Albania over two months ago. The director of the bank at the centre of the storm was arrested, but that didn't assuage the anger of people who pointed out that the director was a member of the ruling party. And the opposition party VMRO warned that if the government didn't resign, Fyrom could turn into Albania.

While president Berisha and Albania's opposition parties tried to engineer some sort of political settlement against an increasingly chaotic background, Greece's prime minister said that Greece wants to help Albania, but will not interfere in its affairs.

A ship carrying 20 tonnes of food and medical aid from Greece arrived in Saranta this week.

The Greek consul general from nearby Argyrokastro, the two leaders of the rebels, and a number of armed insurgents were on hand to guarantee that the ship was not raided, and that distribution was carried out calmly and fairly.

SIMITIS REVIEW

Kostas Simitis fielded questions on Greek-Turkish relations and the economy.

CLEAN MONDAY REVIEW

Many people left Athens for the long weekend. Many more didn't, but that didn't stop them from enjoying Clean Monday in the traditional rural fashion.

CARNIVAL REVIEW

© ANT1 Radio 1997

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