BY GEORGES MEHRABIAN AND NATASHA TERLEXIS
ATHENS, Greece - Most of the 7,000 Italian and other foreign troops occupying Albania since April 15 left the Balkan country by mid-August. The Italian, Greek, and Turkish governments, however, are maintaining small detachments of "advisers" and other troops to monitor the situation and report home if reinforcements are needed. Rome announced recently it plans to send back 600 troops by the end of August under the pretext of training Albania's police and army, which were largely dissolved during the working- class revolt against the former procapitalist regime of Sali Berisha that erupted at the beginning of this year.

Meanwhile, the new Albanian government, headed by prime minister Fatos Nano of the Socialist Party (SP), has sent Interior Ministry troops to the southern cities of Vlore, Tepelene, Sarande, and Gjirokaster, the main centers of the rebellion. Nano's regime is trying to restore government authority throughout the country, rebuild the armed forces and the police, and disarm the population.

On August 14, the government announced that newly reconstituted police units had taken control of the southern port of Vlore, the hotbed of the revolt, after neutralizing the forces of Lefter Zani, an alleged "gang leader." Interior Minister Neritan Ceka had stated the day after he was sworn in, "We shall restore order very soon, within weeks we shall restore security on the national roads and within a few months all around the country, in the towns, everywhere." Ceka subsequently said that some agents of the secret police, SHIK, who are loyal to Berisha, are working with Democratic Party officials in trying to form armed committees and refusing to yield to the government control of Shkoder, the main city in northern Albania 75 miles north of the capital Tirana.

Berisha's Democratic Party was soundly defeated in elections held June 29 and July 6 under the supervision of the Italian-led occupying forces. The Socialist Party won 101 seats in the 155-member parliament and the Democratic Party 27 seats. After a fruitless three-week effort to hold on to power, the hated Berisha resigned July 23. The next day, parliament elected Rexhep Mejdani as president, a 53- year-old physicist and SP general secretary.

The elections were called by a coalition government of the SP and Democratic Party, which Berisha hastily put together in March when the armed uprising threatened to sweep him from power through revolutionary means. The SP was instrumental, in collaboration with the former president, in inviting imperialist troops to intervene and help authorities to quell the rebellion. The leaders of both of these parties come from the former ruling Communist Party and represent rival layers of the bureaucratic caste that has been in power in this workers state for nearly half century. The SP presents itself as a social democratic party, while Berisha's group has espoused openly right-wing views and calls for the speedy restoration of capitalism and imperialist domination of Albania.

Working people took to the streets in January after pyramid schemes, fraudulent investment funds promoted by the government, collapsed and more than 500,000 people in a population of 3.2 million lost their life savings. Workers and peasants, who were also protesting the disastrous effects of Berisha's "market reforms," took up arms at the end of February as the government responded with a state of emergency, police repression, and press censorship.

According to the August 18 Greek daily Eleftherotypía, the government in Tirana has ordered that all heavy weaponry seized from the armories since March be returned by August 30. Light weapons are to be turned in by September 30.

Meanwhile, using the pretext of armed attacks across the Greek-Albanian border by Albanian "gangs," the government of Greece has announced new military measures to provide a "protective umbrella" at the border. Greek border patrols have been reinforced by helicopter units and special forces from the Greek army. In late July, Athens expelled 3,500 Albanian immigrants who crossed the border allegedly without proper documentation.

On August 5 Greek foreign minister Theódoros Pángalos led a delegation of his government to Tirana that included the Greek minister of public order. The two governments announced subsequently agreements on military and financial cooperation and on employing Albanian workers in Greece on a seasonal basis.

Athens will maintain an unspecified number of troops in Albania to help reorganize Tirana's army and police. The announcement deepened a row between the Italian and Greek governments over which will wield more influence in Albania and elsewhere in the Balkans. Rome, which led the invasion force and then said it will send back its own troops also to "retrain" the Albanian military, complained that it was not consulted.

Natasha Terlexis is a member of the Foreign Airlines Workers Union in Athens, Greece.  
 
 
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