ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 14, 1997 TAG: 9703140055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: TIRANA, ALBANIA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
At least 12 people are dead as the final vestiges of order vanish. Neighboring countries fear a flood of refugees.
U.S. troops flew into Tirana to evacuate Americans trapped in chaos as, one by one, Albania's few remaining tranquil towns descended into anarchy Thursday. Gangs ransacked armories, civilians navigated tanks, and children played with assault rifles.
Helpless army commanders asked for Western military involvement after the unrest that has engulfed southern Albania for days spread north, east and west, destroying the last semblance of order and leaving at least 12 people dead and 50 others injured.
The president's son and daughter and five other family members were among those who fled Albania, arriving in the port of Bari, Italy, aboard an Italian ferry, an Italian coast guard officer said.
Earlier in the day, four U.S. military helicopters based on warships in the Ionian Sea began evacuating Americans. Up to 2,000 U.S. citizens are in the country, and State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the flights could continue for days.
Burns told reporters in Washington that U.S. Ambassador Marina Lino and 17 core embassy staff would remain in the capital for the time being. Italian helicopters also airlifted 400 people from Tirana, and Britain and other embassies hurried with plans to get their nationals out.
The unrest threatens to swamp neighboring countries, particularly Italy and Greece, with another flood of refugees. Because there are sizable ethnic Albanian populations in Serbia's Kosovo province and in Macedonia, those chronically unstable areas also are at risk.
Macedonian border guards said they fired on seven armed Albanians trying to cross the mountainous frontier Thursday, repulsing the group and causing it to flee.
In Tirana, guards deserted the central prison, allowing 600 inmates, including ex-President Ramiz Alia and another prominent leader of the former Communists to get away. Then the guards returned to loot the prison.
Pressure was building on President Sali Berisha to leave office - the one move that might help restore order.
``Berisha accepted that he has no institutional control,'' Skender Gjinushi of the opposition Social Democrats reported after meeting with the president. ``He has no army, no police, Tirana is in total anarchy.''
The new eruption of violence left virtually no community of any size untouched. The weeks-long uprising was sparked by the collapse of high-risk investment schemes, draining the savings of thousands of Albanians; it has grown into anti-government protests.
At least 12 people were reported killed throughout the country, many of them by random gunfire. Citizens increasingly have been taking arms from looted armories, more for protection than out of political protest.
``We don't know who is armed and who is not,'' Gjinushi said.
His Social Democrats and the Forum for Democracy, a loose umbrella organization of opposition groups, have called on Berisha to quit.
NATO, meanwhile, met in emergency session in Brussels, Belgium, while in New York, Albania and neighboring Italy both asked for a special U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss the crisis. The problem appeared increasingly to be a total collapse of order rather than one in which opposing forces could be separated.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB