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Title: Holidays in Albania Author: Anonymous Date: 1997 Language: en Topics: 1990s, Albania, Black Flag (U.K.), Alpha Source: Retrieved on 18th February 2021 from https://libcom.org/library/holidays-in-albania-part-1][libcom.org]] and [[https://libcom.org/library/holidays-in-albania-part-2 Notes: This is the first of two articles written by two collaborators of "Alpha", a weekly Greek anarchist paper and published in issue 89, 7 April 1997
Albanian south in rebellion: Kalashnikov/ happy and angry faces/ âbessaâ
(straight forwardness, keeping oneâs word)/ bursts of gunfire /
roadblocks/ Mercedes cars/ hashish/ passports/ our money back/ off with
Berishaâs head.
Fragments of words, images, sensations from a journey to an
inconceivable rebellion, where analysis, assessments, political
conclusions crash onto the roadblock of the peopleâs impetus.
Kalashnikov
Kalashnikov: the first thing we see as soon as we step in Albanian
ground. It would be the last too, a few days later. By the edge of the
plank, which connects the ship that brought us here from Igoumenitsa to
the harbour of Saranda, some armed Albanians are just standing and
watching. There is no document control. Some wounded people are waiting
for their turn to embark with destination Corfu.
The situation in Kakavia, when we return, will be about the same, with
ambulances waiting by the Greek guardhouse to take the wounded, most of
them shot by mistake. The revolvers of the Albanians who had escorted us
(they had left their kalashnikovs in the car) were just a few
centimetres and some iron bars away from Sky TV stationâs microphones.
One step and a passport check between the visible casual possibility of
death and the certainty of a life where we may die everyday. Of course
thereâs no Albanian guardhouse in Kakavia (to be accurate there is one
but itâs completely empty), while at the Greek one, Greek nationalist
soldiers are so self-confident that they donât check us when we pass. At
a moment when armed Albanians in Saranda have nothing to lose, armed
Greeks in Kakavia are quite self-confident. They canât shoot their
officers, whom they hate, but they claim theyâre willing to go âin
thereâ and shoot the âpeasantsâ.
âIf only they asked who volunteers to go to Albania, theyâd seeâ, says a
smiling special unit soldier. A few hours later, another soldier in
Igoumenitsa is grumbling because heâs in duty and he canât go to that
bar where Albanian women work. âHave you been sent by a newspaper?â he
asks.
âIâm from a newspaper, too. âGolden Dawnâ (neonazi paper)â, he adds
smiling.
In the whole southern region of Albania, there is no police, no army, no
jails, no courts, not a sign of state or governing authority. The power
of weapons is prevailing everywhere. Everyone is armed, driving around
in cars with the kalashnikovs at hand, walking in the streets carrying
automatic weapons, revolvers, Chinese TT (always at least two of them
and ready to use) in their belts or inside their jackets. Itâs
impossible to estimate the accurate number of these weapons. Some say
they are over four million.
What we know for sure is that all police stations, all army storehouses,
all factories where weapons were constructed or assembled have been
looted (one of these factories, a kalashnikov construction unit in
Polytsa, was one of the first). The question that immediately comes to
mind, how people got hold of all these guns, is a bit complicated to
answer. It is a fact that there have been no massive attacks or well
organised violent acts. A characteristic example of what happened is the
case of the police station in Saranda. In the afternoon of May 1, a few
people started throwing stones against the police station, inside which
there were about one hundred well armed policemen. Their commander
repeatedly called the minister, in Tirana, for instructions. The answer
was âweâll let you knowâ. The instructions never came, so the police
force abandoned the station, leaving behind most of their arsenal. The
about fifty members of the secret police â SHIK â had left much earlier.
About the same thing happened with the navy station in Saranda. The
commander called Tirana as soon as he learnt of the attack and was told
that âyouâll receive ordersâ. The orders were never given and as a
result almost all the weapons were abandoned and carried to a place in
the open, where anyone could go and pick up anything he liked to. A navy
map of Albania, labelled âtop secretâ, was found a few days later by two
French reporters who happened to pass by the area. A notebook with
records of army equipment circulation, was found torn amidst looted army
tracks with flat tires inside a destroyed and looted army camp in
Dropolis.
The gun, at least in the south of Albania, dominates everyday life, in
fact it IS everyday life. An ordinary person sees, hears, touches, uses
a gun â i.e. it occupies oneâs senses â as often as the cigarette would
in another society. It is the centre of life; itâs an amusing toy for
the kids (schoolâs out, anyway) and, very often, a sport for the adults.
You can see groups of people going for target practice, some were
shooting at the cross of the Saranda church in the middle of the day,
joking at each other, some other â a dozen of well dressed Albanians â
had set up a roadblock with Mercedes and jeeps in the highland road
between Vouno and Cheimara, and did target practice, not having in mind
that some car might appear from the side of the road they were shooting
at. Those less involved in guns just use them for self defence. They
donât show them off and most of them keep them at home, just in case of
a robbery. However, the Albanians were armed and well acquainted to guns
in the past, too. The revolt just gave them the opportunity to replace
their guns with more modern ones.
During daytime, the kalashnikov shots are rather scarce. They shoot from
the paved with stones Saranda coastal road towards the sea, they shoot
from the hills around, they shoot from the slope of Gjirokaster, from
the small hill at the side of the Greek consulate, from the port of
Vlore, here and there all the way to Fieri.
After 6 -7 p.m. every night, it looks like Greek Easter [when
traditionally thereâs a lot of fireworks]. The bursts of gunfire light
the sea, they get more frequent or stop without apparent reason,
sometimes some passer by gets shot or a hotel glass is broken. We are
sitting inside the âluxuryâ hotel by the seaside of Vlore staring at the
spectacle of shots and flashes which is rather a festival of joy to the
participants in it.
Itâs really hard to believe that the fear and terror inflicted by the
gun which means death at the hands of an âofficialâ of some
âestablishedâ authority has become an ordinary and inseparable element
of âlifeâ in the Albanian communities, that the gun has become fun and
source of an absurd pleasure.
Going from another country to Albania, and especially Albania after the
revolt, or from an Albanian town to another looks rather like travelling
in time than in space. It is hard for someone whoâs grown up in the
modern world to believe what he sees, images that would rather belong to
the â20s along with familiar ones from modern western Europe: a Land
Rover and an ox and a plough side by side, a Mercedes stops for a cow to
cross the road, the kitsch modern hotel near a social realism-style
apartment building, a cabrio Mercedes passing in front of a half empty
âgroceryâ shed, the egg-like pill-boxes, remains of the Hoxha period,
lined up in the midst of the plain of Dropolis, which no one cultivates,
a traditionally dressed old woman under a palm-tree with a mobile phone
in her hands, an MP writing in his portable p.c. inside a room built of
stones and decorated with icons and pieces of traditional embroidery,
some people digging trying to make a field to cultivate in a stone-dry
slope in the middle of nowhere, someone has written âAC/DCâ on the wall
in Gjirokaster, elaborate arches made of stone near the blown up bridge
outside Saranda, tanks, army tracks and anti-tank weaponry left in the
middle of the road to Vlore, and everywhere, in every road, there are
Mercedes and less frequently jeeps, speeding like hell in narrow roads
full of turns and potholes. Everywhere, contradiction and absurdity in
their extreme: Lusnia, Tepelen, Fieri, Vlore. Very often itâs difficult
to distinguish between what was destroyed, looted and half-ruined during
the insurgence and what had always been like that. If someone didnât
show the visitor the bank that was destroyed by the rebels, he wouldnât
realise it, simply because the next building looked exactly the same. A
totally ruined landscape, Hoxhaâs rusty oil-wells, abandoned ruins of
factories that once produced food, clothes, paints, whole blocks of
derelict brick buildings, gas stations belonging to the state oil
company Adi Petrol (directly involved with the pyramid schemes) that
look as if they had been bombed, electricity power stations in the midst
of residential areas, recently laid cement foundations with the
characteristic cloth dummy on the roof, to protect inhabitants of the
âevil eyeâ, Kokkalisâ telephones in the phone companyâs building in
Vlore, which is beyond description.
And in the midst of all these, the roadblocks. Despite many people
saying that they are less now and things are relatively quiet, the
roadblocks are identified in a travellerâs mind with the unknown, the
danger and the inconceivable. The people blocking the road could be
anything, despite looking more or less the same. It could be rebels from
Saranda who check who enters the town, grim faces and kalashnikov in
hand â but burst into laughers and hog the Albanian who escorts us, a
celebrity of Greek TV broadcasts â but let you go without paying any
attention to you. It could be an armed group who stop you in the middle
of a âroughâ route at the side of the Adriatic, at a highland isolated
spot outside Cheimara, and just want to rob you. When they recognise our
escorts, they greet them warmly, talk loudly making gestures and give
the impression that they have agreed on something and weâll all be going
together. But then they get in their jeeps and Mercedes and leave the
other way. The answer to our questions is typical: âWhat are you asking
for? You keep on asking all the time. Itâs none of your businessâ. Some
time later, we were told those were the toughest âMafiosiâ of Vlore.
It could also be a âmixedâ roadblock consisting of Albanians in plain
clothes armed with kalashnikovs and some unarmed in police uniforms
outside Vlore, who ask the bus driver something and thatâs all, or a
roadblock of armed policemen â who didnât flee after the rebellion â in
a town very close to Vlore, Fieri. It could be a roadblock outside
Kakavia who want to rob you but donât shoot if you donât stop, they
might want something specific, like a spare tire on the way to Vouno, or
a group of people armed with kalashnikovs who â all of a sudden â
decided to check the road to Tepelen or Lousnia. On the way from Saranda
to Vlore, through Lousnia, Tepelen and Fieri, there are many abandoned
roadblocks with tanks, anti-tank weapons and logs at the side of the
road. At Emalie, the tank was parked in the midst of the road, while on
the roads to the Greek minority villages of Dropolis, there are tanks
placed by the villagers who patrol the area in groups and inform the
others when they see anyone in Mercedes coming.
This is the phrase most rebels keep on repeating, a phrase which could
be the answer to any question.
This peculiar âwarâ consists not of clashes and battles, but of life
routines and attitudes accustomed to an every day life of general
inaction and ceaseless dealings.
At the squares and the main streets of the towns in the revolted South,
you can see people hanging around, chatting in small groups in the
corners of Saranda, playing cards under the trees of Flabouri square in
Vlore, strolling in front of the stalls with shoes, clothes, cigarettes
and some food that constitute some sort of marketplace along the way to
Fieri, exchanging money (dollars, marks, drachmas to lek) by the port of
Vlore.
Everyone is broke, everyone had invested in the pyramids and lost their
money.
Xzaferi, Vefa, Galitsa, Kamberi... names you hear all the time in
Albania. Pyramid schemes â in fact, private banks- where about two
billion dollars were lost, the savings of Albanians and Greek minority
who sold their houses, their herds, who invested the money their
children sent them from Greece and Italy, attracted by the bait of
interest as high as 35 to 100% per month. The Greek who had a âquarryâ
lost 25.000.000 drs [270 drs = 1dollar], the old woman in Dervitsani
lost 2 to 3.000.000, the Albanian with the sweet shop lost 10.000.000,
another one who used to work in Crete lost 5.000.000...
Berisha won the fraud elections of 1996, with the slogan: âVote for
Democratic Party and you will profitâ. Of course, the Greek secret
service, journalists and diplomats, just before the outbreak of the
rebellion, still considered the Albanians as obeisants and incapable of
reacting. âWe want our money back. Out with Berishaâ, this is all most
people have to do with politics in revolted Albania.
However, it seems that everybody makes it, each in his own way. Of
course, almost nobody has a ânormalâ job, since services, factories and
shops are closed down, but on the other hand, naturally you can find all
sorts of businesses which usually thrive in similar situations. A hotel
room cost as much as 50.000 drs during the period of the âjournalistic
boomâ, and a drive that used to cost 5.000 drs went up to 45.000. We
didnât encounter any miserable and starving people -at least in the
sense of western societies. Perhaps there is shortage of basic goods in
some remote villages and most hospitals still functioning can hardly
deal with emergency cases. It is a fact though that strong family bonds
âimposeâ mutual aid that makes for example an Albanian who meets a
distant cousin in a bus to give him his money.
Itâs no coincidence that nobody asked us for anything, we could nowhere
see a sign of beggary. The only thing they kept on asking â and this
only after having got to knowing us for some time â was if we could help
them get a passport. It is difficult for someone who sees the paranoid
grey jail-like apartment buildings built during Hoxha regime, the dumps
surrounding them and the sheds where people live, to realise how truly
hospitable, friendly and warm-hearted most of their inhabitants are.
Some of the Mercedes drivers opened the doors for us to get in, not out
of servility but of sheer gentleness, some others offered us from coffee
and whisky to hashish, unselfishly â and insistently. Two women in
Saranda -two of the most miserable figures â led us to a shed-cafe,
ordered two caps of coffee for us, paid and left. An Albanian friend
often talked about âbessaâ (credibility, keeping oneâs word), kept on
saying that we shouldnât worry because now we were his âsistersâ. This
man seemed to have good relationship with everyone, protested strongly
in a restaurant in Gjirokaster when he thought that we had been
overcharged 2.000 drs, he had done six years in jail during Hoxha regime
for he had been caught while trying to cross the border, he was afraid
for his life, he got around everywhere, he suggested that we did some
âbusinessâ with oil at the border, he used to be a track driver in the
army, he wanted to visit Volos (town in central Greece) again and drink
âtsipouroâ (local liquor), he was a rebel.
But what about women? Women are almost non-existent in revolted southern
Albania. Only a few walk in the streets, some work in the shacks-grocery
stores, a few work in the fields while some others â young ones â serve
at the cafes, smileless and unapproachable. However, the well known
gross, hungry or even exploratory look is non-existent, though this
changes as one goes north. Many Albanians laugh at the rumour about
women kidnapped and taken to Italy. Considering the strong family bonds
and the wide family circle, itâs rather ridiculous to think that itâs so
easy to kidnap wives, daughters and sisters.
police
The only mafia that ever existed in Albania, with the meaning of
organised crime with its own hierarchy and a specific action plan, was
the state. It was Berishaâs regime supported the private banks, the
para-banks â money laundry schemes-, it was Berishaâs regime intimidated
the whole population of the country with the aid of SHIK (secret police)
agents, it was Berishaâs regime dismissed its own officers -even the
minister of Defense â and imprisoned some of the bank owners when he
realised things were getting out of hand, it was Berishaâs regime that
brutally beat, tortured, imprisoned or murdered people demanding their
money back, students on hunger strike inside Gjirokaster university, the
unscrupulous and paranoid Berisha himself probably ordered the army,
police and SHIK to withdraw from all cities of the south. The
overwhelming majority of politicians, Albanian and Greek minority
altogether, was more or less accomplices to this mafia state. Almost
everyone talks about mayors, councillors, chairmen, Omonia and Human
Rights Party (organisation and political party respectively,
representing Greek minority) officials who made money selling from guns
and heroin to visas and passports. The Greek embassy and consulate were
also involved.
The idea of the âAlbanian mafiosoâ sounds simplistic and ridiculous in
the insurgent Albanian south and is most of the times identified with
that of the âAlbanian insurgentâ. Are those who threatened a cafĂ© owner
(brother of a SHIK agent), told him to leave and blast his shop with
grenades when the guards he had hired in the meantime started shooting,
âAlbanian Mafiosiâ?
Are those who shot a woman for not giving them her passport and money at
a roadblock on the way from Kakavia to Mouzitsa âAlbanian Mafiosiâ? Are
those who unload contraband cigarettes at the port of Saranda âAlbanian
Mafiosiâ?
Are those who sell protection to cafés and restaurants for 30.000 drs a
month â the toughest, still smiling most of the time â , those who are
involved in heroin contraband, those who keep a note of how much whiskey
they drink and later come back to the owner of the bar with the double
quantity â stolen, of course â , those who would die to protect you if
they have âtaken responsibilityâ for you, âAlbanian Mafiosiâ? Are those
who break into houses whose inhabitants have fled and empty them
âAlbanian Mafiosiâ? Are the hooded gunmen who killed 17 people in Levan
âAlbanian Mafiosiâ -or maybe Berishaâs agents, as everyone says they
are? Is the bar owner who cocks an eye, saying âIf you dig hash or
anything, let me knowâ, an âAlbanian mafiosoâ?
And what about Apostolis the illiterate, one of the toughest and most
stout fellows in the area, who says burning the library was a stupid
thing to do, while drinking coffee with his guns on the table of the
hotel? And he adds smiling, a dialogue that sounds unbelievable but is
very true:
o.k. But shoot him like that...Heâs human after all.
now, he might come back sometime later and shoot me. Canât you see?
What is Apostolis?
When we ask him what a âcommandanteâ is, the answer is: âWhatever you
say you are, thatâs what you are. Isnât this what you say in Greece?â
Tchevat, a middle-aged ex-general and representative of Vefa para-bank
in Saranda -whom some named as âhead of the committees of the insurgent
citiesâ- hangs around the hotels where the journalists stay escorted by
a dozen of armed men. He might ask for a mobile phone and keep it all
night long. He is supposed to be a âtough guyâ who neither himself nor
his men will give up their weapons, unless Berisha is ousted. On the
contrary, his âcolleagueâ in town, Fouat, a hotel owner, former police
head during Hoxha regime and âchief of peopleâs policeâ until ten days
ago, when he quit, says he supported the rebellion of the people, but
cannot tolerate the current âstate of anarchy and crimeâ. He adds that
he supports the new Fino government, that a new police force has to be
formed in order to avoid a bloodshed, and that heâs looking forward for
the arrival of the multinational force. He still gets around with armed
escorts.
Another commandante was Berti Siouti, in Vlore, who seemed to influence
may people at the beginning of the rebellion, but three weeks later he
was supported by about 5.000 pensioners out of a total population of 100
to 120.000. Vlore was the only town where people still gathered every
morning at the central square but attendance was very reduced. In all
other towns of the South there were no âSalvation Committeesâ nor
peopleâs gatherings.
In Gjirokaster people were talking of Akim Gozita, a middle aged ex
Hoxha army officer, and of Fatos Beta, Gozitaâs friend and ex Berishaâs
advisor. The only person that seemed to be of some influence was Gioleka
from Tepelen, an illiterate but energetic and tough young man, who used
to be a thug at a café. Last, people mentioned dervish Pelumb (which
means dove), commandante in Balsi, who was murdered, probably by SHIK
agents. It is difficult to have a clear picture of whatâs happening in
each area, because the situation is unstable and itâs impossible to
gather information from away.
In any case, you could feel that people were tired of the current
situation, still determined not to give up arms unless Berisha is
ousted. The gatherings at the squares had faded away, most of the
commandants had no more power than any leader of a small armed group,
while many people had lost hope and just wanted to flee from the
country. In the Greek minority villages of Dropolis and Cheimara there
were mostly old men who âguarded their housesâ. At the grocery store in
Dervitsani, everyone said they had lost their money and had massively
participated in the demonstrations, while Doules, a deputy of the Human
Rights Party, said that âthere is a total political impasse, as long as
Berisha maintains control of the parliament. The only feasible solution
is the assignment of a European police force in order to restore orderâ.
There have been a few efforts to ârestore orderâ, that is form some sort
of police â like the gathering of a handful of people, mostly
ex-policemen, in Gjirokaster, ten days ago, and in Saranda, too â that
failed completely. Vlore is the only exception. There, you could enter
the police station â which the insurgents had raided in the beginning of
the rebellion but found no one inside â without any check at the
entrance and talk to the new police chief, whose âmodernâ office was
among many empty rooms at the end of the staircase. He used to be a
police chief for eighteen years, before Berisha took on power, and
started with four policemen who had come from Tirana, with the approval
of Finoâs government. He wouldnât disclose the current number of his
police force, but admitted that only 30% of them were armed â you could
see on some posts around town posters asking citizens to hand one of
their weapons to the police â and said their main task was to protect
public services. The chief assured us that the police is respected by
the insurgents and that he often talks to commandante Berti. Three hours
later, five hooded men armed with kalashnikovs stole a Mercedes parked
outside the police station. Three officers chased them and got killed at
a nearby village, Kali Troyes. The following day, at 7 a.m., there were
a dozen men, no hoods and kalashnikov in hand, outside Vloreâs hospital
who let no one in. One of the âhooded onesâ, who had been injured during
last nightâs fight, was inside.
The four young smiling Albanians with the kalashnikovs were changing
cars every half an hour and hanging around town. Some time, they brake
suddenly, the driver pulls down the car window and asks: âEverything all
right?â
âJust fine. How about you? Are you from town? Whatâs your name?â âWhat,
havenât you seen me on T.V.?â. In fact, he was a favourite of Greek T.V.
stations, like the tank driver in Saranda who recalled his dialogue with
the Sky -Greek T.V.- reporter and laughed to tears ( âWhere are you
from?â
âTepelen.â âAnd what about this, Tepelen, too?â âNo, the tank is a
native. I am from Tepelenâ.) Many Saranda inhabitants have many funny
stories to tell us about the âlives and timesâ of the gazetarians, since
Saranda was the easier accessible town and many Greek reporters had
passed from there.
Like how they used to hang out at the corners of the square at 8.30
p.m., â the time the evening news bulletins start-, posed in front of
the cameras and the âspecial envoysâ kalashnikov in hand, fired some
shots at their request and then everyone left the square. Or like the
gazetarian who paid one million drachmas to get that âexclusiveâ
reportage about the âhashish production factoryâ. They talked about
their habits, how brave or chicken they were or how much they were paid.
Of course, everyone watched regularly the Greek news â even in the
poorest houses there was a satellite antenna â and made jokes of âfatâ
Evert and Kostas Karamanlis [Greek politicians]. In the northern and
western areas (like Vlore) they used to watch italian T.V.
The journalists constituted a considerable âsource of incomeâ for
Mercedes drivers and escorts -since they were the only who moved from
town to town-, for hotel and café owners, and in some cases for those
who set up roadblocks.
Most of the insurgents said that the gazetarians âexaggerated and told
lies over the newsâ. For example, the Dutch reporter, who had been
recently shot in Saranda, used to run a tourist agency in town, five
years now. After three weeks of âjournalistic raidsâ, one of the elderly
Albanians sitting at the café asked angrily the reporter who was taking
a photo of him from a distance: âHey, mister, did you ask before taking
a picture?â
Old Aristides has been a taxi driver for twenty years. He accepted to
take us for a drive most others had refused.
in them during the past four years. Marks, dollars, drachmas,
everything.
three days.
I put my money in them, too. I deposited 37 million Albanian money and
2.186.000 Greek money. They took it all and now weâre finished. I donât
know why Iâve been working, why I was born. One thief came after
another, always thieves.
Xzaferi and he stole it all. Thatâs because people trusted Berisha, who
was claiming that the banks will make the world a whole lot better, make
Albania better. You see?
Albania is now as it was 150 to 200 years ago.
has no choice but steal.
-Do they take money for the visas?
along with my driving license.
conditions are squalid.
A couple of days later, some men robbed old Aristides and took his car
and money.
The tape recorder is playing âHotel Californiaâ in full volume. The
kalashnikovs are leaned against the gear lever and the two Albanians,
the toughest in the area, which also means the safest to escort you,
have revolvers in their belts. The Mercedes is speeding like hell.
Contraband. But no more. Now weâll be going from home to work, and
thatâs all.
misery here, now thereâs war.
five years that we have democracy here.
gun).
money, everything...
The armed popular insurrection against the corrupt regime of Sali
Berisha that took Albania by storm during the first three weeks of
March, makes us give it the characterisation of Albanian March. The
insurgents of the South forced the totalitarian regime of the Albanian
president Sali Berisha to enormous retreats and strategic sink.
On Thursday the 13^(th) of March, the Albanian state, identified with
Berishaâs mechanism, has been reduced to a few square metres around the
centre of Tirana and namely the Desmoret avenue. The presidential palace
and the governmental buildings were all there, in both sides of the
avenue. The insurgent areas of the Albanian capital were only four
kilometres away and the most fluid powerâs state that tended to the
limits of a gap lasted nearly twenty hours. The sensation of the
geometrical disruption of the state authority made you speculate its
impending and total collapse. After the delay of the three previous
days, the northern praetorians got organised and armed under the
leadership of the notorious Saban Memia. The SHIK secret services and
its head, Baskim Gazidente, were Berishaâs second source of support. His
protection circle is strengthened by his presidential guard, consisting
of the most close, faithful and related people. The terror in the
northern suburbs of Tirana and the threat of a possible massacre give
the ex-communists an excuse to change their policy, in fear of a popular
wave of insurrection they couldnât control. These critical hours, the
ex-communists, have decided optics and practice.
The organising secretary of the Socialist Party, Dokle â who had
repressed the oppositionâs mobilizations when he was the all powerful
minister of Interior, in Hoxhaâs regime â is very specific declaring
that the Socialists are against violent and armed actions and that they
seek the constitutional legitimacy of their movements. In this way they
choose to compromise with Berisha and to undertake to cover the powerâs
gap with the machinery of the ex-Hoxhaâs Secret Services, Sigourim. It
is very clear that the ex-communists, with the experience and the
tradition of the development of power mechanisms, they exploited the
popular insurrectionâs dynamics, they saved the power system in Albania
and they became the governmental partner of Berishaâs Democratic Party.
Thatâs how a complex balance setting is formed: a multiform power
struggle and the South decided to satisfy its demands.
After the elections of March 1992 and Berishaâs accession to power, a
new dominating group was formed, mainly from the northern areas of the
country and Berishaâs native region, that became the new cadres
potential of the new Albanian power. It was a machinery of praetorians,
suzerains in Tirana, with two parts: the members of the Democratic Party
and the state machinery and the SHIK Secret Services. A machinery of
massive terrorism. The Albanians believed in the new age that supposedly
started with the political change in â92, but soon they saw their
dreams, not only betrayed, but also dispersed in one night. A whole
generation (majority of the Albanian people) that was raised during
Hoxhaâs regime, believed in the false dream of the capitalistic
democracy. On the contrary, they suffered from misery, poverty,
emigration, racism abroad and police state in the interior. The
piramidical para-banking forms, where they invested not only their
dreams but also their economies looked as the only way out. Instead of
better days, they watched the âcountry of eaglesâ being transformed into
a âcountry of vulturesâ.
The great inequality and the interweaving interests between government
officials and mafiozos, transformed Albania to a huge arena of arms and
drugs contraband (with the participation of police and military forces),
as well as fuel and cigarettes contraband (with the participation of
cadres of the Democratic Party and the government -e.g. Skiponia
company) and a washing tank of dirty money. At the opposite side, there
were the masses, the agrarian population and the proletarians.
Things started to become clear after the elections of fraud and
violence, of the 26^(th) of May 1996 and the first signs that outlined
the interweaving interests and the prospect of the impending end of the
pyramids. The beginning of the end is marked by the report of the
International Monetary Fund that pointed out the risk of collapse and
threatened the government with a financial rupture between the I.M.F.
and Albania. In December, the first para-bank, âShoudiaâ, goes bankrupt
and in January, two more, âJaferiâ and âPopulitâ, close down. The first
manifestations took part in Vlore, on January 16, with the participation
of simple men, immigrants and middle class.
The Albanians, who shared up their money for a better future with such a
hard work, when they realised that they had been robbed by a caste of
people and, since they had nothing to lose any more, they transformed
their desperation and bitterness to rage against the corrupted and
interweaving power of Berishaâs regime. The more extensively they felt
the exploitation, the more massively and dynamically they rose up
against Berishaâs totalitarian regime that they considered as the
exclusive responsible of the fraud against the whole of the Albanian
people. At the debris of such a country, one cannot protest neither with
marches, nor with whistles.
Kalashnikov becomes the symbol of the Albanian people who, without any
ideological base or political formation, took the lead in their life and
made an evident popular insurrection threatening directly the regime.
Their intentions were manifestly expressed in an event that took place
in Loushnia, on January 25^(th), when enraged habitants attacked the
president of the Democratic Party, and vice-president of the government,
Tritan Sehou, and pilloried him to public with a leek in his mouth and a
second one in his ass. Clashes between policemen and demonstrators took
place in Tirana. On January the 30^(th), the oppositionâs parties formed
the âForum for Democracyâ, that is the party umbrella of the protest. On
February the 6^(th), began the citizenâs attacks to police stations In
Vlore, but the insurrection culminated during the night of the 28^(th)
of February to the 1^(st) of March, with the massive conflicts between
citizens and governmental forces and the first entry in the army camp,
in Vlore.
On the 2^(nd) of March, Berisha imposes contingency plans and declares
that he doesnât have to confront a simple protest, but whole areas of
the country that are hostile. The party opposition â that participated
with few forces in the two-month mobilizations â demanded a caretaker
government composed by technocrats, that would lead to a holding
elections. The situation reminds Latin-American regimes. The public
gatherings of over four persons are forbidden, the circulation between
8:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. is prohibited, police is free to fire and the
press is restricted: the two government newspapers that are being
published and the governmental T.V. are the only sources of information.
Tirana are being terrorised by the police and many areas of the south
are no more under the control of the military and police forces. The
imposition of the contingency plans is undertaken by a mixed repressive
force: the armed units of the Ministry of the Interior, the SHIK Secret
Services and the ZABIST police anti-riot squads, under the leadership of
Baskim Gazidede, an ex-mathematician and president of the Muslim
Intellectualsâ Association, who was promoted to a general.
On Wednesday, the 5^(th) of March, the government recognised the problem
that there was in Saranda, , Vlore, Delvin and Fieri, and blamed the
unitsâ commanders as well as the General Chief of the Army Force, Seme
Kosova, whom it sends away. This day is quite important as the
governmental forces seemed unable to control the south.
The governmental military operations in Delvin â aiming to interrupt the
communication between Saranda and Gjirokaster â failed completely and
so, the insurgent areas could easily be unified. The uncontrolled and
confused situation is the first thing that threatens the Albanian power
as well as its several western supports. On the same day, the voice of
the American capital, the Washingtonâs newspaper âWall Street Journalâ,
compares the situation in Albania with the riot in Los Angeles and tries
to present the insurgents as instigated by the ex-communists and the
mafia. But, unfortunately for them, this is not the truth. Itâs a whole
world that took the arms, not to play, but to level them at Berishaâs
regime. The lack of political formations of this popular insurrection
influenced its formation and allowed the opposition party to make the
first step towards an agreement with the Albanian president, on the
6^(th) of March.
The determination of the insurgents leads them to form the popular
salvation committees, where they demand specific requests: all their
financial reimbursements, the formation of a caretaker multi-party
government, the holding of new elections and the voting of a new
Constitution and a new electoral law. At the same time they try to form
some procedures for the provisioning and the defence of their insurgent
areas. On the 8^(th) of March, Berisha receives a severe blight as he is
unable to control Gjirokaster, where the military units are dispersed.
On Sunday the 9^(th) of March, as Berisha is incapable to control the
situation in the south and to maintain the control of the north, he
proceeds to an extreme retreat and agrees to the formation of a
caretaker government with the participation of all parties that will
hold the new elections in three months (June). He also demands the
surrender of the arms. Nothing for the money of the people who reject
the agreement, since the problem of the return of their money is not
solved and the person that symbolises their lost â that is Berisha â
remains.
The insurgents accuse the politicians and the parties that signed the
agreement with Berisha that they are âinterested only in their power and
not in the people who are the losersâ (Committee of Vlore) and denounce
them as traitors. Thatâs why it is not strange that he wave of the
insurrection becomes an avalanche that spreads with the massive
disobedience of the military and the police forces. Sali Berisha,
panicked and startled, seems to beg the opposition for help, as the ring
tightens up around Tirana. So, he offers the prime-ministry to the
Socialists, something incredible until then.
When the insurgents, first in the city of Vlore, made clear that they
would not accept any agreement that would not include the commitment for
their money and the removal of Berisha. At the same time , from
Gjirokaster, the insurgent areas emit the invitation for the formation
of citizensâ councils in every town and village that will undertake the
management of their defence and declare their political presence as a
third pole.
On Tuesday the 11^(th) of March, the front of the left governmental
forces and the insurgents, form an arc from Blishan to Balshi, Klitsova
and South Erbashan, 90 km from Tirana. Berisha, when he realises that
nothing can stop the extension â spreading (and not development) of the
insurrections and the threat for the Albanian capital and his own life,
he puts into practice the plan of preparedness for armed conflict with
the employment of terror by the Secret Services and the members of the
Democratic Party -mainly from the North. The same night, as tracks with
armed Berishians agitate Tirana, everyone can understand whatâs going to
happen next.
On Thursday the 13^(th) of March, the insurrections approach the
Albanian capital. Around Tirana and on the road to the airport and
Durres, you can hear all day long shootings while there is complete
inexistence of all government, military and police forces. The tension
of the day was so high, that we felt, moment by moment, the wave that
was approaching. At noon, we witnessed the entry of thousands of
citizens to the camps at the fringes of Tirana.
Everyone â but everyone â included in one phrase, all their demands:
âOur money and the head of Berishaâ. It is Characteristic that I heard
many people saying that âtonight we will play football with his headâ.
We could see clearly the abolition of every governmental, military and
police power and it was a matter of hours to watch the popular
insurrection arrive in the centre of Tirana. We had the feeling that
that night would be the most critical. Who could stop this momentum? The
praetorians of Berishaâs regime undertake the defence, through the
practice of terrorisation at the suburbs of Tirana, where they are
organised in gangs of armed murderers of a blood thirsty master.
Around the presidential building, where Berisha is being guarded, and
the Desmoret avenue, where all the governmental buildings are, the
shootings are continuous and the tanks are deafening. At these moments,
socialistsâ politics lead to the compromise with Berisha, from which
they donât demand to resign but they âearnâ the participation in the
government, the constitutional legality and the official pardon to their
imprisoned socialist leader, Fatos Nano, who had escaped in the
meanwhile. The former Sigiourim undertakes the task of covering the
power gap and the new government of Baskim Fino decides, on Friday the
14^(th), the formation of a new police force and invites ex and actual
cadres as well as new persons to participate. The target of the plan is
the reformation of an elementary machinery of control. The attempts of
the new government aim the formation of new institutional procedures,
new power mechanisms and new state and governmental functions. The
ex-opposition and now government is clearly dissociated of the
insurgents and threatens them with violent repression if the effort to
incorporate the salvation committees into local management structures
fails (that is to regional power centres) Meanwhile, all the prisons
open and the prisoners pour out. In the prison where Fatos Nano had been
held when he was in danger â because of the Berishians â there were the
penal prisoners that defended him, under the leadership of Nehat Koula.
After three days, it seems that the balance between the opponent forces
is being stabilised, but also that a multiform power struggle is being
expressed. The situation is very fluid, with more variables than
constants.
On one side, the Socialists and the members of the Democratic Party
express different opinions and on the other, the new government confirms
its dissension with the south. Berisha, who has confined with his
presidential guard, seems to want to intervene in the new government.
Thatâs why some people start to say that Berisha is back. The measures
for the restoration of the order and the public functions are
materialized with difficulty and Bashkim Fino declares that he doesnât
accept ultimatum for the satisfaction of the demands. Many people
support that the new government doesnât worth a thing without the south
and the start to stammer out a few words about mistakes, omissions and
slow paces that permitted Berisha not only to consolidate his position,
but also to proceed to a display of power.
On Thursday the 20^(th) of March, he commits a blight upon Finoâs
government, by rejecting from the parliament â which is under control of
the Democratic Party â the governmental proposals for the lifting of the
press restraints and the transmission of the state-TV and Radioâs
supervision from the Parliament to the new government
On the 28^(th) of March, delegations from the 18 insurgent areas and the
salvation committees, vefilate the insurgentsâ manifesto:
instigated by foreign centres â they donât accept the parliament as
representative legislative body and demand the formation of a new
organisation that will express the free will of the people
Berishaâs ousting.
Salvation committee, in order to form the public management and the
executive power
conference table of the political parties (a kind of informal council of
political leaders)
The epilogue has not been written yet. However, history has recorded
that people rose up by arms against a totalitarian and corrupted regime
of exploitation and power. Every Berishaâs step of retreat constitutes a
victorious action for the insurgents.
In Albania nothing is definitely decided. Hard times are just beginning,
now that the momentum that could sweep away everything â even if nothing
has been planned â is inhibited. What matters now is the resistance to
time, the determination and the capabilities of each side.