THE TROUBLES IN ALBANIAOne of the smallest Nations in all of Europe, Albania is bound by both the Adriatic Sea in the west, Yugoslavia to the north Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south. Albania was proclaimed a major republic on January 11th, 1946, and in 1955 was admitted into The United Nations. The principal ethnic majorities are the Albanians who account for 98% of the population and are divided into two major groups, the Ghegs and the Tosks each holding their own dialects. Other ethnic minorities include Greeks, Macedonians, Vlachs, Bulgarians, Gypsies and Serbs. The population is divided into three religious followings the largest being Muslim the others being Orthodox and Roman Catholic.
Today The Republic of Albania is suffering as the people are in major turmoil. The Albanian people are governed by a system called The Unitary Multiparty Republic, a government that many Albanians have been protesting against during the last few months. It all began with a number of corrupt investment schemes. In North America these types of schemes are referred to as pyramid schemes, which are now illegal in many states and provinces. These pyramids are very high-risk investments, but can easily entice people. It is reported that nearly every family in Albanian (nearly 3,622,400 people) lost their life savings in the scheme.
Since the failure of these schemes more than a month ago the Albanian people have been protesting against the government who they blame for not warning them of the danger and regulating the investments. President Sali Berisha went on state-run television last Saturday ( Nov., -- 1997) top say that his administration would step down and be replaced with leaders acceptable to the opposition party. Sali Berisha has succumb only after the political riots have become deadly.
In the capital city of Tirana and the southern city of Vlore, over 6,00 demonstrators fought with riot police, in Vlore the protests turned deadly. At least four people were killed a number of others wounded when anti-government protesters fought with police. The death toll is climbing as massive gangs have taken over the south of Albania forcing the government troops out. Recent reports from the city of Vlora says that these gangs control at least three cities, and are hoping of gaining even more control as the weeks go on. Protesters in the south are reported to have found barracks full of weapons and ammunition in a number of areas, and are currently in control of a naval patrol boat.
Although the government of Albania admits that it has lost control of the southern part of the country, it is now taking action to regain these parts. The government has imposed martial law and says it will crush what it calls a communist uprising. Wanting to deal with its problems internally, Albania has banned any reporters, and cautioned foreign nationals to flee the south of Albania.
At this moment more than 5,000 Albanian refugees are taking shelter in various temporary shelters throughout Italy, this number is only half of the Albanian refugees who fled to Italy only weeks ago. The Italian government gave the Albanian refugees till the end of November to return to Albania, but as the deadline past most remained. At this point the Italian government refused to take physical action against these illegal immigrants, which led a number of countries to call for action calling them 'spineless'. Recently due to pressure the Italian government has resorted to 'hard line' tactics, breaking into a number of refugee shelters and dragging Albanians out. The refugees were then transported to the army airport and sent home. The remaining Albanians who currently occupy Italian shelters have been asked to leave and should take the incident as a warning. Those who voluntarily left Italy earlier this month were promised preferential treatment by the Italian government if they should set up Albanian work camps in Italy. Those who were forced out have been forced to sign documents declaring they were expelled from Italy making them ineligible for priority treatment. 'Could the Democrats' be returning to parliament?' Azem Hajdari leader of the DP said, "The DP will enter the parliament very soon, because it is the people's parliament". Throughout this entire situation the SP or Socialist Party have been at war with the DP or Democratic Party. There have been attempted murders within the government between the two parties, which leads to a very unstable situation in Albania.
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